The provincial governments of Pakistan have taken various initiatives to empower women in society to help them reclaim control of their lives, especially in public spaces. To that end, the government of Sindh has received a tremendous response from female college students who are interested in learning how to ride a motorbike. The motorbike learning lessons for college students will make them more independent, feel empowered and safe by riding on their motorcycles and scooters
Motorbike Learning Lessons For Female Students
Most women know how to ride a bicycle but very few learn to ride a motorbike. You may have encountered some women travelling on their scooters and motorbike. Now, you will get to see even more women on wheels in the near future because there may be different schemes to enable women to afford themselves a low-cost two-wheel ride.
The initiative to launch a training programme for female college students to learn how to ride a motorbike is a collaboration of the Women Development Department, Women on Wheels (WOW) and Sindh Traffic Police. The initiative will be specifically for state-run women’s colleges from where the College Education Department Sindh has received a response of thousands of students willing to take lessons. The initiative shall help in resolving the woes of college-going students who often have to wait in long queues for public transport or spend a fortune on private transport.
The need of such a training programme is not only for students but all women who are dependent on male family members for pick and drop or public or private transport. The response received from the colleges also recorded a high number of female teachers and other staffers who are also interested in taking learning lessons to ride a motorbike.
The Deputy Director of the Directorate General Colleges Sindh, Dr Qasim Rajpar said that the regional directors of colleges have been asked to provide the names of students interested in taking the training. However, prior consent of parents for students to learn motorbike riding will be mandatory.
The DG Colleges Sindh has also asked all the women colleges in the province to involve their students in getting the training. “The positive side of this initiative is that the training would be conducted under the supervision of three provincial departments while the longstanding issue of daily commuting being faced by girls would be resolved or at least the girls would be able to drive motorcycles and scooters for attending the colleges.”
Process, Benefits & Way Forward
The College Education Department Sindh has already asked women’s colleges to provide the data of students willing to take the lessons. After the data is gathered, the DG Colleges will provide it to the secretary colleges for selection. Once the selection process is completed, training sessions will be held in those colleges which have playgrounds.
There are six regional directorates of colleges in Sindh; Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad. The Director College of Shaheed Benazirabad alone has submitted applications of 300 female students, 50 female teachers and 30 other staff members. The total response from all six directorates can be expected to be overwhelming.
After the completion of the training programme, the Sindh Government or College Education Department Sindh may provide interest-free loans to the trainees to buy a two-wheeler transport. There is no restriction for teachers and other staffers so they will also be able to apply and benefit from the scheme.
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