The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In what is seen as groundbreaking development and challenging traditional gender roles, 6 women have taken up driving Bolero vehicles to financially support their families in Thridangbi, Mongar.
These women, who are all relatives from the same village, have shown remarkable resilience and determination in pursuing this unconventional path.
Among them is 43-year-old Tshering Lhamo, a single mother taking care of her 5 children with the help of her mother.
She is the youngest daughter of the 10 siblings in her family.
She said that after her divorce in 2015, she took up all the responsibilities of providing for her family.
She purchased a Bolero in 2014 with the help of a loan from the Bhutan National Bank, which she sold in the following year together with 50% loan she had. She then bought a new Bolero in 2017 with no loan.
She said that it is more feasible to drive a Bolero in her village. It helps in transporting the harvested maize’s, fetch cow feed and collect firewood’s from forest and transport it in their residential areas.She drives the bolero herself, and when she is not driving then she working on the farm fields.
After buying the Bolero and starting her business, her family has had no more worries as they did well. She purchases maize products from farmers in her village and sells them in Thimphu and Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.
She is proud since her son who recently finished grade 12 has secured a scholarship to pursue the teaching profession in Samtse college. She said since the kids know that their mother is struggling for them, they studied hard and the result being all three of them getting full government scholarships to pursue further studies in government colleges.
Her eldest daughter, a Gedu college graduate, went to Australia last year. Her second elder son is in GCIT, Kabesa, Thimphu studying in second year. Of the twins, one is studying in a government college and other one has joined the monastery as a monk after studying till class 5. The youngest son in primary school.
She says, “This business has helped me in covering the expenditure needed for my five children. Sending my daughter to Australia, helping cover expenses of my son studying in college, and supporting my other two sons too was made possible.”
“Sending my eldest daughter abroad has not been easy. However, now she is helping us by sending dollars from Australia. Since she graduated from Gedu, it might not have been hard to get jobs in Bhutan, but studying and earning from abroad is making a huge difference. The salary we get here is just self-sufficient, whereas, she is helping in bigger ways after going down,” she added.
She has also done test for PD license and was thinking of selling the Bolero and purchasing a Taxi. However, she feels Bolero are more beneficial and convenient.
She shared that two of the drivers are her sister’s daughters and one is her aunty’s daughter. One is her brother’s daughter and one her best friend.
Another inspiring woman is Pema, 24-year-old women, who recently went through a divorce, has also joined the ranks of Bolero drivers in the village.
She said that after her divorce, she came to stay with her parents.
Pema said, “Before the divorce, I was a housewife and depended on my husband. After the divorce happened, I took my two kids with me and came back to stay with my parents. My family had been in maize business for few years and we had loans to pay. Together with my brother and sister, we started doing the family business, and we had our own responsibilities. Since I mostly stay with my mother in our shop, sometimes there are need for driver to purchase shop stocks. As my mother doesn’t drive, I then took the initiative to drive and learnt from my brother.”
Similarly, 36-year-old Deki Tshomo, shared her experience of purchasing a Bolero in 2015, highlighting the vehicle’s utility in her daily tasks, such as fectching grass for her cow and acquiring maize seedlings from neighboring dzongkhags.
“I drive the Bolero to fetch grass for my cow, collect firewood’s and mostly visit Khengkhar and Lhuntse dzongkhag to get maize seedlings and sale maize products. This in turn is also cutting expending high transportation chargers to other drivers.” Deki said.
She further added, “Though driving a Bolero is comparatively harder then other vehicles, I feel with determination, any women can drive it, and since in our dzongkhag we have many women drivers including 6 from our chiwog, it is not so hard a job. I carry heavy woods, bags of maize and even do hard physical works in field, sometimes including ploughing fields with heavy machinery such as power tillers.”
She shared that if the government could support and encourage women in such initiatives, by way of subsidies, it would be very helpful.
There are many other such women Bolero drivers in Mongar.
Women in their village are even driving heavy power tillers to plough the farm fields.
