Empowerment through Employment: A Study among the Women Auto-Rickshaw Drivers

Gender equality and the process of women empowerment is widely discussing in the academic arena today. Many projects and programs are now prevailing in our country focusing for the empowerment of women. Gender mainstreaming is the way to gender equality. Mainstreaming gender in the transport sector is an innovative idea put forward by the global agencies like World Bank, International Labor Organization, many conventions on women etc. and the national agencies like the central and state government. Auto-rickshaw is the part of public transport system in India. Women auto-rickshaw drivers in Ernakulam district in Kerala is the respondents of the present paper. Various dimensions of empowerment of women and how these dimensions are applicable to the respondents of the study are discussed in the paper.