Ford, Uber Take up Initiatives to Empower Women

Two US-based MNCs working in two different fields have now taken up two separate initiatives with the same ultimate goal of empowering the women in India. While continuing its efforts towards empowering women and their role in the society, Ford Motors donated a New Ford Figo and New Ford Aspire to help Neeva Foundation in their efforts to provide training and employment to women as drivers, Uber, has firmed up a partnership with MOWO Social Initiatives Foundation to enable women to gain skills in order to register as Uber Eats delivery partners and earn a livelihood.

Founded in 2016, Neeva Foundation has been engaged in empowering women from underprivileged communities to be trained as professional drivers and employed in part or full-time driving career with TaxShe – A Driver-on-Call & Cab Service Exclusively for Women and Kids. Currently operational in Delhi and Bangalore, TaxShe employs trained women drivers from Neeva Foundation to offer transportation services exclusively for school children and women workers.

Vandana Suri, Founder & Director, Neeva Foundation and TaxShe said that they are committed to bringing safety for women and kids through a pool of professional women drivers, whether as chauffeurs, cabbies or trainers and proud to have Ford India support them in their efforts.

Anurag Mehrotra, President & Managing Director, Ford India said that at the heart of Ford’s commitment to India are people and communities. It is therefore immensely satisfying to contribute two of their world-class vehicles to Neeva Foundation for a cause that is sure to take people forward and make a positive impact on the society.

The efforts from Ford fall in line with the company’s commitment to facilitate a safe and empowering environment for women at the workplace as well as society at large.

The vehicle handover ceremony took place at Ford’s Sanand Plant where Anil Patel (Site plant Manager) along with Kalyan Murugan (Plant Manager), Mehul Trivedi (NMP Chief Engineer) and S. Girish (Area Manager-Paint Shop) were present to hand over the vehicles. Present on the occasion from Neeva foundation, NGO associated with TaxShe were Sushil Shroff (COO TaxShe), Ms Aarti Singh (HOD Neeva Mobilization, Delhi NCR), Ms Monika (HOD Neeva Training, Delhi NCR).

The partnership between Uber and MOWO Social Initiatives Foundation, on its parts, is part of UberBhavishya, a nationwide initiative to create entrepreneurship opportunities for women and trans persons. The partnership will see driver-training being imparted to 150 women and transgender persons from non-urban cities in the initial phase. The company will also provide a customized Uber Eats kit to each delivery partner which will include a sleeveless apron, a delivery bag, a raincoat, a bike mounted mobile holder, pepper spray and a mobile pouch, for their utilization.

Jai Bharathi A, MOWO Social Initiatives Foundation said that MOWO’s mission is to create a safe and reliable commute option ‘For and By Women’ and in doing so, empower women to become self-reliant and confident. MOWO was founded to empower women to be independent by helping them acquire driving skills, which can be used for travel, commute or employment. They strongly believe in Uber Eats' policies of inclusivity and equal opportunity.

Hence, they take immense pleasure in partnering with them in onboarding female delivery partners. They look forward to working with UberEats in making the workforce more gender-balanced by bringing in more female delivery partners over the coming months.

Deepak Reddy, Head of Central Operation - Uber Eats, India, said that Uber Eats is committed towards fostering a culture of inclusiveness and diversity and enabling livelihood opportunities across the country. They are honored to partner with MOWO Social Initiatives to enable women from non-urban areas to acquire the required skills and earn a livelihood by using the Uber Eats App. They hope that these women will inspire and empower communities, he said.

Uber continues to build upon such initiatives that have been instituted with the aim of creating entrepreneurship opportunities for women from across marginalized sections of society by skilling them and providing them with various avenues to help them earn a sustainable livelihood.

Uber Eats started in 2014 as a small delivery pilot in Los Angeles and launched as a separate application in Toronto in December 2015. Since then, it has grown incredibly fast, and is now a stand-alone app available in 500+ cities around the globe. In India, Uber Eats was first launched in Mumbai in May 2017 and is currently present in 38 cities across the country.