Women's Day special: An auto driver, an NGO owner & an entreprenuer from Chennai share their stories

CHENNAI: Despite being born into a well-off family, a woman auto driver walked out of her house to pursue her love, starting her life from tile one. A retired woman commences a business in her 60s, providing employment and livelihood to many homemakers. Another woman, in her early 70s, runs Penn, a social organisation, striving hard to build an equal and empowered society, under women’s leadership. Aligning with 2025’s International Women’s Day theme, For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment, DT Next sheds light on the inspiring stories of Raji Ashok, Kokila and Narmatha, who are still striving hard to unlock equal rights, power, and opportunities for all women and girls, with a focus on empowering the next generation.

Shifting gears, pushing boundaries

Born in a well-off family, due to caste differences I left my home to pursue love, in fear of honour killing. I was living in Coimbatore with my husband Ashok for a brief period of time till the 1998 bomb blasts. Then we shifted to Chennai and that’s when my life started falling in place. The starvation, hardships and plights were countless to run my family as I lived a comfortable lifestyle before. Vaazhkaila pasi kathukudukurathu yaaraalaiyum kaththu kudukka mudiyathu (Hunger teaches deep life lessons that no one could ever teach). That’s how I ended up becoming an auto driver. I was taken away by the sense of freedom I enjoy while driving an auto. Even today, there is a prejudice in society about women in this profession. People assume that something has gone wrong in the family or in her personal life and that’s why women drive auto. It is disheartening to see that even women undermine this profession. This khaki uniform is my pride and it helped me to not only support my family but also many homeless. I have been driving an auto for 25 years now. During the pandemic in 2020, I started Inaiyum Kaigal to help the needy. I provide healthy eats to cancer-affected children at the government hospital in Egmore. So far, we have adopted 13 children in the Erode and Sathyamangalam regions and are looking after their livelihood, including school fees. Education is crucial for every girl child to live a life independently. Even today, my life is not a bed of roses. I still have my debts. Instead of settling our lives first and then providing a helping hand for others, we should start the very moment as life is unpredictable. Having started from scratch to becoming an inspiration to many in Chennai, I am moving to Kerala as an ambulance driver to provide free service to people. Talking about celebrating women, we are capable of breaking free from the clutches of the patriarchal society. On the other hand, there are numerous fields where women have not made a mark. They should choose such fields without worrying about their social image.

— Raji Ashok, 52, auto driver

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Unretiring spirit to be a beacon of hope for women

It was during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, that I started WoodBee Toys, a family-operated business when I was 60 years old. My husband passed away due to illness when I was 42. My savings were exhausted for his medical expenses and I was utterly clueless on how to educate my three sons. I decided to take up my husband’s job of pest control in industries but stopped midway thinking about the unhealthy consequences. As a reward for our goodwill, those industry owners placed orders for wooden boxes. My eldest son runs a wood industry and I also joined him. During the pandemic, all the businesses hit the lowest and that’s when my focus shifted towards wooden toys. When I looked out for teethers for my grandchild, all I could find were made out of plastic. Being in the wood industry, why not manufacture the same with neem as base? Around 30 to 35 women from the nearby villages work for me, everyone in their 30s. Predominantly, they come to run the family as most of their lives are affected by the impact of liquor consumption. When I started working closely with them, I understood their longing to break free of the suppression and their passion for working in machinery, which in other places is mostly handled by men. They feel the gethu after discovering their potential and their confidence in supporting the family and educating their children. This stimulates me to swiftly move forward and never stop. Age was never a challenge and according to me, rest is always dangerous. My advice for all elderly women is to follow the brain’s instructions, engage in something productive and not feel weak, both mentally and physically. To achieve the Women’s Day theme, equality and empowerment can be attained only through financial independence, which will also boost society. I am content in being an inspiration for my fellow women to educate their children and provide them with numerous opportunities. Such awareness comes to them, only when they step out of their comfort zone and face the world.

— Kokila, 64, founder, WoodBee Toys

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A phoenix weathering the storm against odds

A rebellious kid since my childhood, I entered the marital life when I was 17. That is when I had the first-hand experience of male chauvinism and it took me 15 years to break from the ordeals of marriage. It was not a cakewalk and I took the responsibility of my daughter and son. I worked as a freelance writer for quite some time and started writing opinion columns and shared my thoughts with the readers. Till now, I have published 10 books that have a compilation of all my poems. I was introduced to FaceBook in 2016 and started sharing my thoughts on the platform. However, the social reformer in me was not happy with what I was doing. In 2019, I started Penn, an organisation for, by and of women. We began with 25 women and now there are around 2000 members in our collective, across Tamil Nadu, from different backgrounds and professions including medicine and law. The political scene is dominated by men and we envision a politics led by women, with less violation and more development and solution-driven environment. The current era is a golden age for women to reach heights and we have to build a society with equality as a foundation and not dominance from either gender. Yes, there is empowerment but it is not equally distributed to both urban and rural areas. Significantly, women should understand what equality means. It is not doing what men are doing. It is rather creating equal opportunities and co-existing without any fear. The self-centric approach and misconception about feminism will lead to destruction. It’s happy to see how many men understand the massive role of women in building a better future and trying to improve the same. It’s we the women, who should choose the ambitious path and not get distracted by short-term joys. A whole generation empowered women and it’s time to teach men how to live with an empowered woman. We need a huge revolution in our education system to bridge this imbalance in thoughts. According to me, real feminism is redefining, supporting and inspiring women. Blaming men for what was wrong in the past is ignorance as they are also trying to understand the evolving situation. As there is politics everywhere, women should build a political system and a well-informed society where the parents nurture their child to be independent and not force her into marriage.

— Narmatha, 73, founder, Penn