amra Mehreen Khan can’t wait for the day she’ll get behind the wheel. She is part of a pioneering group of 35 women who trained recently as rickshaw drivers at the Manawan Police Training School.

Khan is set to be the face of the project, called Female Rickshaw Project, which is an initiative of researchers from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, and funded by Oxford and MIT, in collaboration with leading microfinance institutions of the country.

Khan eagerly awaits the delivery of her subsidised and interest-free rickshaw, courtesy of a microfinance institution. The programme is expected to roll out in December.

Formerly a school teacher in Bhabhra on Ferozepur Road, Khan says she came to know about the FRP from her principal, and instantly applied for a position. With four daughters to support, her teaching job and after-school tuitions did not generate sufficient income, forcing her to look for a more lucrative option.

“I chose rickshaw driving because it promises a decent daily earning,” she tells TNS. Though, she admits that it’s “quite challenging for a woman driver.”

The brainchild of Dr Kashif Zaheer Malik, an associate professor at LUMS, and his fellow researchers, the FRP aims to address the financial needs of women like Khan. The pilot phase is set to commence in December this year, with 35 rickshaws hitting the streets of Lahore.

This collaboration between LUMS, the University of Oxford and key microfinance institutions such as the NRSP, Akhuwat, and the RCDP, will disburse funding in the form of subsidised, interest-free rickshaws to trained women drivers. Funding for the project is provided by the GEA initiative of the Abdul-Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Women face significant challenges while using public transport because of concerns over safety, harassment and worries about their social reputation. That was the starting point for the project,” says Dr Malik. “Besides, women feel unsafe getting to bus stops and having to wait. They often have to take light traffic vehicles, such as rickshaws and qingqis, which are driven mostly by men.”

The concept paper for the project quotes from a survey of 1,000 households conducted in Lahore by the CERP: “Only 5 percent women passengers of qingqi and 10 percent of rickshaw feel safe using these means of transport. There is an urgent need for smartly designed, feasible transport interventions that can help improve women’s mobility and ability to travel safely.”

To quote ASP Shehrbano Naqvi, the key person behind coordination among the Police Department, the City Traffic Police and the LUMS team for a successful training of female drivers, “The most important objective of the project is to increase women’s mobility through women-driven rickshaws.”

“The project ensures that trained women drivers are provided with rickshaws through an equity-based microfinance contract which will allow them to repay in a flexible way that is linked to their income,” says Dr Kashif Zafar Malik, associate professor at LUMS.

“In a way, the pilot project is multi-purpose,” adds Dr Kashif. “It allows for income generation and economic empowerment of women, besides offering a safe, sustainable, and environment-friendly means of transport for women and children.”

She reveals that Careem, a ride-sharing platform, has also collaborated with the LUMS team for the project.

Amna Barkat, a resident of Chungi Amar Sadhu, who is enrolled in the programme, says that for a good four weeks she’d travel from Chungi Amar Sadhu to MAO College switching between the Metro bus and Orange Line Metro Train to reach the Manawan Police Training School.

“For women, using public transport isn’t easy,” she says. “But I endured it to secure a better future. I hope to provide a safe travel experience to women riders once I start driving [the rickshaw].”

“The Female Rickshaw Project will enable female entrepreneurs to enter a non-traditional sector,” Dr Malik adds. “We’ve coordinated with a credible rickshaw manufacturer to produce a stable and safe vehicle for women, preferably fitted with security cameras. The pilot project ensures that trained women drivers are provided with rickshaws through an equity-based microfinance contract which will allow them to repay in a flexible way that is linked to their income.”

According to the project’s concept paper, the impact of intervention will be assessed by implementing an exploratory field experiment using a randomised controlled trial. Detailed baseline and follow-up surveys will be conducted, and high-frequency sales data generated by an app, along with administrative data from their microfinance institutional partner, will be used to investigate the success of the intervention and its impact on various business and household outcomes for the female entrepreneurs.

Mustansar Feroze, a CTP officer, deployed four women officials to train the batch and provide them with driving licences free of cost.

He says that the traffic police executed the training project in accordance with the directives of IGP Dr Usman Anwar. “We are committed to doing whatever is necessary to empower women and support the vulnerable segments of society.”

He expresses the hope that the FRP will increase women’s visibility in public spaces, and help them overcome societal taboos.

The writer is a media veteran interested in politics, consumer rights and entrepreneurship