To see an Indian origin female bus driver in Auckland’s public transport buses is not a common expectation for many in the community and beyond.
Such is the level of surprise and bewilderment within the community that it turns many heads around every time one come across an Indian-origin female bus driver.
In fact, this is not unnoticed even among the people who manage Auckland’s vast fleets of public transport buses and struggles every day like any other prospective employer to hire the best available talents suited for the bus driving job.
Darek Koper, Regional Operations Manager for NZ Bus, a private operator of Auckland Transport buses affirmed, “NZ Bus employs 1090 bus drivers in Auckland from diverse ethnic groups and 11.7 per cent of them are females.
“The female gender is not as well represented in numbers and is not as ethnically diverse as that of their male counterparts.”
It is important to note that every culture has their struggles with sexism in accepting bus driving as a regular, safe, and dignified career choice for women.
It is only that some societies are bit delayed than others in accepting female bus drivers.
The boundaries of tolerance and acceptability have always been pushed by some courageous individuals who choose to defy the prevalent norms of their times in their respective societies.
In New Zealand, where women were known to have driven buses since the 1930s, it was not before 1974 when Carole Slater, 21, of Island Bay became the first female bus driver in Wellington.
It was closely followed in Christchurch on January 8, 1979, when another female bus driver drove on the streets of Christchurch.
The concept of women drivers in public transport buses has largely remained a taboo for the societies of Indian-subcontinent, including India, for obvious reasons of social conservatism.
That conservative attitude and cultural attributes are understandably carried across the Kiwi-Indian community in New Zealand, thus making bus driving a challenging career choice for women in the community.
As Mr Koper of NZ Bus further opines, “Indian females, in particular, may still be reluctant to choose bus driving as a career, or their cultural background may be impacting their choices.”
However, it is important to the point that winds of change in cultural mindset in India—a place that many people identify as their original home—is already underway in full swing.
Way back in 1993, M. Vasanthakumari became India’s—and often reported in local media as Asia’s—first female driver of public transport buses when she was employed by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation in Chennai.
Recently, in April 2015, Delhi Transport Corporation, in the state of Delhi, a state infamous for its conservative attitude towards women, appointed Venkadarath Saritha as the first female bus driver.
While the winds of change are blowing everywhere to facilitate more and more Indian origin female bus drivers we bring here real stories of three courageous women who defy traditional cultural mindset every day and drive public transport buses on the Auckland streets.
New Indian women drivers in NZ Bus fleet
In 2016, NZ Bus has employed three female bus drivers of Indian origin.
Baljit Kaur was earliest to start in February whereas Navjot Kaur and Parminder Kaur Baghiana started late in October and November last year respectively.
Baljit Kaur (Photo: Indian Weekender)
In fact, Parminder Baghiana was supposed to be on her first day behind the wheels of the buses when Indian Weekender met these women drivers.
All three drivers have been in the country for at least five to six years before breaking norms and starting a career as a public transport bus driver.
Essentially, this is a story of their individual courage and passion for challenging age-old conventions seemingly gripping community's mindset.
Expectedly, Baljit Kaur, one with longest experience in the profession among the three drivers did most of talking with Navjot Kaur and Parminder Baghiana adding their passionate inputs intermittently.
What brings you to this career?
Like everywhere else in life, their individual passions for pursuing a bus-driver career had different underlying motivations.
“I chose this career because of inspiration from my family as my father owns a transport business back in India,” Navjot Kaur says.
Parminder Kaur Baghiana also drew inspiration from overseas, but across the Tasman Sea in Australia, rather than from India for her choice of becoming a bus driver.
“I had seen an Australian video showing a turban-clad Sikh woman driving public transport buses in Australia.
Since then this idea of driving a bus has stuck in my mind,” Ms Baghiana says.
Baljit Kaur who also comes from a family owning transport business back in India had probably set her heart on a driving career for the longest time.
“I had previously wanted to jump into courier-driving and truck-driving jobs but chose not to pursue them for reasons such as long working hours and heavy lifting required,” Baljit Kaur says.
Towards these goals, she had also completed her New Zealand Class 2 driving license demonstrating her passion towards pursuing a driving career.
“However it was my husband who inspired me finally to consider a bus-driving career as an option,” Baljit further affirmed.
Navjot Kaur (Photo: Indian Weekender)
Defying cultural mindset
Pursuing unconventional career choices especially those defying cultural mindset often requires mental strength and perseverance.
All three felt emboldened by socio-cultural mindset and opportunities available for girls in New Zealand to pursue a bus-driving career.
"The main thing is that how my husband and family feel about our job and luckily they are very supportive.
“Who cares about what others think about our job," says Baljit Kaur, a sentiment resonated by the other two.
Watch the full interview here:
Experience on Auckland roads
The most important part of this job, which is also a key factor in perpetuating age-old traditional mindset around this job, is the exposure to public on city roads without any visible support.
To the surprise of many, these three new age Indian-origin women drivers have an alternate view of the nature of their jobs.
They see it as a mark of their independence in any work environment.
"You are your boss when you are driving, and there is no one around you to tell you what to do and what not to do," Baljit Kaur says.
Despite this independence at the workplace, these women drivers also felt that this job offers a safe and well-supported work environment.
"You are always with passengers and not everyone is simultaneously bad in a given situation.
Therefore, for every difficult passenger, there are many helpful and considerate travellers in the bus who promptly comes to your help.
“Plus emergency support is just a phone call away."
Armed with confidence that this job offers enough freedom and safety, these female drivers have a myriad of experiences on Auckland roads like their male co-workers.
"I enjoy meeting different people from diverse background every day.
“Many people take me for a school-going girl driving their public transport bus and often appear sceptical about my ability to drive them safely to their destination.
“Once reaching safely they often thank and encourage me for my work," Navjot Kaur said gushingly.
Parminder Kaur Baghiana (Photo: Indian Weekender)
Managing everyday conflict at the job
Often driving job in a public transport bus comes with a fear of facing conflict on a day to day basis.
Surprisingly, these girls appeared calm and confident to embrace conflicts like in any other work situation demonstrating their emotional maturity suited for this seemingly high-stress job.
Once again, Baljit Kaur who had more real life situation in handling conflict situations purely because of the length of her tenure in the role had more to share.
“My first experience with managing conflict was when a passenger was eating food on the bus to the distaste of another fellow passenger who chose to raise her voice seeking my intervention to resolve the situation.
“My initial gut feeling was to pretend to have not heard it and avoid conflict.
“However, on being persisted, I responded politely but assertively to the passenger eating food which by then had decided to cooperate and stop eating on the bus.
“This was a good learning curve for me in managing conflict at the workplace,” Ms Kaur said.
Advice to other Indian girls on a bus-driving career
There is an unmistakable sense of joy, pride and purpose among these women in their respective career choices of being a bus driver.
This was adequately reflected in their prompt response of “yes, it’s an excellent career choice.”
The girls collectively identified three main decisive factors for bus-driving job “freedom at the workplace, safety, and well paid,” which gives them an opportunity to lead their lives in a dignified manner.