Carrying on its women welfare initiatives, U.S.-based ride-hailing app Uber has now announced a partnership with Singapore-based iCare, to train and employ 50,000 women in India for the job of a driver. This is Uber’s second similar announcement in a week, the other being its tie-up with UN Women to provide jobs to 1 million women globally by 2020.
Uber’s latest partnership is with iCare Life, a Singapore based social enterprise to train and certify women in India for the job of a driver. The company is also planning to partner with many more such enterprises to empower the skill set and knowledge of women to provide safe and high quality service.
Mrs. Revathi Roy, Sr. Associate Vice President of iCare, said,
We are so thrilled to partner with Uber on this initiative, because we believe in creating sustainable economic and employment opportunities for women from resource-poor communities in India. This goes a long way in motivating and empowering more women to receive training so they can embark on a rewarding career and become financially independent.
Ms. Deval Delivala, India Safety Lead for Uber, said,
Uber’s program will help empower and bring unrivalled economic opportunities and entrepreneurship to women from socially excluded backgrounds and communities. This pilot initiative with iCare Life is an important part of our mission to achieve equality and economic viability for tens of thousands of women in India.
iCare Life will provide content and training material. The content is deployed locally across 6-Indian languages through individual tablet computers that allows each trainee to learn at their own pace, passing various assessment levels and finally attaining certification.
Uber has been taking a huge lot of India-specific measures lately, all of them being unarguably justifiable. When a region is your second largest market, and you’ve had a rough patch, you’ve got to make sure that you re-assure people of better and safer services.
Other important women specific safety measures, undertaken by the ride-hailing app, include its recent introduction of the in-app SOS and “Share your journey” feature. Both the features have been rolled out first in India, and are expected to come gradually to other countries.
