Hyderabad: Fuelling their rise in men's domain

Hyderabad: There is a landmark change in employment at gas stations where women empowerment seems to be on a high pedestal.. From a stage of no priority to 60 per cent preference, women are the first choice for hiring at gasoline bunks.

Till last decade, women were considered to be unsuitable for field work as it was thought that they would not be so productive and would require lot of strength to work standing for long hours. But with urbanisation and awareness on women empowerment there has been a pafadigm shift with the fair gender opting to work in all sectors. Today, women have brought a refreshing change at the petrol pumps by taking more jobs than men as operators.

The Indian oil petrol pump at Begumpet in the morning hours witnesses maximum number of women operators re-filling the fuel for vehicles. "With women being as productive as men in the physically straining tough job, the Indian Oil bunks have started hiring women operators in the last five years and the priority for women is growing gradually and we have almost 40-60 per cent of positions for women staff," said Gopal Krishna, Manager, Indian Oil.

"We are not specifically looking for women operators, but we are hiring all of them who applied for the position. We are continuing with hiring of female operators as the production of sales and services is marking above average," he added.

Deepika Raut, 27-year-old, a native of Nagpur is working at Indian oil petrol pump in Begumpet and is supporting her family in Nagpur. She had to fight her family who were opposed her working as fuel operator, but now everyone is happy and are proud of her today, she said.

"We are women and are equal to men and we must keep growing above all the odds and all the myths in the society," she added.

J Ankitha, 20-year-old, started working at the age of 18 as a forecourt supervisor guiding cars to pumps and now she is a fuel operator. She says that she is proud to take up a job which falls in the domain.

"I was worried in the beginning, but, i just kept my chin up when they stopped their vehicle in front of me to refill fuel. I always feel they need my assistance and I don't need theirs," said Ankitha, gasoline operator at Indian oil petrol pump.

"I never thought that I would be working at petrol pump and it feels different and good to work. Unlike all the assumptions, it is also a safe place to work at. All we do is, take money and fill the fuel and we get enough salary to fulfill our needs," said Nirmal Kher, working at Bharath Petrol pump in Himayat Nagar.

Women working in a petrol pump and seeing people get happy is an indication that they are growing bolder and stronger every day to take up jobs which are against gender-stereotype.

Customers are also satisfied with the services of women operators as they feel girls are more trustworthy. "Men are found cheating in filling the fuel, so we prefer women operators," said Rahul Kumar, a customer at a petrol pump in Ameerpet.

" To support women growing further, the management of pumps were providing us a safest shift called morning shift which is from 6 am to 2 pm and there are no women operators in night shifts," said Ranjana Kashyup, women operator at Tirumalagiri petrol pump.