She breaks free of gender stereotypes

Deepa, 34, works as a trailer truck driver, transporting goods from Germany to France.

- Debarshi Dasgupta

When she was a child watching other children race around the neighbourhood on their bicycles with carefree abandon, Ms Deepa longed to do the same but was denied this simple joy.

"I was told I am a girl," said the now 34-year-old, who comes from a conservative, lower-middle-class family in Delhi.

"No one at home permitted me to ride a bicycle," added Ms Deepa, who uses only one name. "I was told that I should not be going out, that I should not be talking to strangers, and that I should watch my manners."

Made to stay at home most of the time, she decided when she was around 20 that she would learn "something different" and escape the shackles of old gender stereotypes.

That breakthrough came in 2012, when she heard about Azad Foundation. The Delhi-based non-profit specialises in training women from less privileged backgrounds to take on non-traditional livelihoods, and to empower themselves both financially and socially.

Despite opposition from her family, she enrolled in a training programme and, in 2014, became a commercial cab driver for Sakha Consulting Wings.