Driving empowerment through a collective

Recognising the major challenge of low female labour force participation (FLP) in India — 31% of working-age women participating in the labour force, compared to 54% in other major economies — there is growing policy and programmatic emphasis on women-led development.

- Lalita Panicker

Navigating systemic discrimination and invisibility is nothing new for many women in the workplace.

It is particularly sharp in a male-dominated profession like auto-driving. The Tamil-language documentary Auto Queens is an eyeopener. Set in Chennai, where only 0.5% of women are auto drivers, the film tells the story of two women drivers, Mohana, the visionary president of Tamil Nadu’s first women-led auto rickshaw collective and her friend and confidante Leela Rani. Mohana is gentle and believes in quietly challenging the patriarchy, while Leela Rani is a fiery personality undaunted by the slings and arrows of the male system they work in.