Single Women Behind the Wheel

By Kamala Gautam

KATHMANDU, NEPAL -- It's a common cliché that one must be well educated in order to earn good money. But that old adage has been proved wrong by the single women in Kathmandu who have become successful tempo drivers. A tempo is a three-wheeled public transportation vehicle that is run by LPG gas.

"If we stand on other's foot, there is a high possibility the person can make you fall down. So it is important for women to stand on her own feet. This is the lesson that I learned from my own life," says Bimala Rimal, a 30-year-old single woman and tempo driver.

Rimal drives her tempo in Kathmandu on the route from Maharajgunj to New Road, a central street of Kathmandu. She earns about 4,000 rupees per month, about $57 USD, which is enough to sustain her two children and herself.

According to the coordinator of the Nepal Transportation Labor Association, Bishnu Lama, about 300 women have licenses to drive tempos in Kathmandu. But only 85 of those women are currently working as tempo drivers, says the Secretary of the Nepal Clean Transportation Association, Anita Kandel. Kandel says there are about 600 tempos plying the roads of Kathmandu Valley in total. Until recently, driving a tempo was considered a man's job and some customers say they would rather ride in a tempo driven by a man.

Rimal became a tempo driver three years ago, after she was abandoned by her husband. She says "My husband already had a girlfriend and he married me under the pressure of his family. I was unaware of it and when I came to know about it, he did not return home." While talking, her voice wavered as tears filled her eyes. "If I would have been alone I could have done anything, but I now I have the responsibility of my children," she says.

After working for a short time at an orphanage in Kathmandu, Rimal was not making enough money. When she saw women drivers behind the wheels of the city's tempos, she enquired about the income, which can be as much as 10,000 rupees, or $142 USD, per month for experienced drivers. Soon she started to drive a tempo too.

Mashini Ghishing's, 30, story is similar to Rimal's. Ghishing also ended up as a single woman four years ago after her husband left her for other woman. Now she is driving a tempo too. Because of the income she recieves as a tempo driver she is able to educate her children at private school. Ghishing, who earns about. 8,000 rupees a month, says she is satisfied with her work. "One should work hard then everything becomes good. After I started this work my family is surviving pretty well," said Ghishing. As she drove away her tempo was full of passengers.

The first female tempo drive of Nepal, Laxmi Sharma is also a single woman. Sharma says after her husband left her, she wanted to become independent and so she started to drive tempo. She drove a tempo from 1980 until 1989. Sharma says, "One should not take being a single woman as a burden. The woman should take it as a challenge. Many single women in the world have been successful."

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