Chennai Corporation Partners with Azad Foundation to Train Women Drivers

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Saturday, 10 October 2026

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Azad Foundation to train women in commercial driving, opening up new livelihood opportunities and supporting women’s economic independence. The agreement, signed at Ripon Building in Chennai, aims to help women, particularly those from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds, enter professional driving and transport-related jobs.

The program will include training for both 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers, giving women the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a professional driver/ rider. In addition to skill-building, it aims to tackle the issues that affect women's participation in the transport industry and increase access to safe, dignified jobs.

Key Highlights

• Chennai Corporation partners with Azad Foundation to train women commercial drivers
• Training covers two-wheelers and four-wheelers for professional employment opportunities
• Partnership aims to strengthen women’s financial independence and safer mobility

The agreement brings together the Corporation’s Gender and Policy Lab and Azad Foundation to expand women’s access to non-traditional professions. It also places emphasis on improving women’s participation in Chennai’s mobility ecosystem, including addressing concerns around safety, access to work and gender-related barriers in public and commercial transport.

GCC Commissioner Dr G. S. Sameeran, Azad Foundation executives Dolon Ganguly and Malini Krishnan, and Dr Legis, head of the Corporation’s Gender and Policy Lab, attended the signing event.

For women with restricted formal employment opportunities, the choice of a professional driving career can be an alternative means to earn a living. The entry into the transport sector, however, may be associated with certain problems like stereotypes, lack of supporting systems, safety concerns at work and lack of suitable employment opportunities.

To overcome these challenges, GCC-Azad Foundation has taken up a partnership to provide women with opportunities to develop driving skills and employment opportunities in professional driving. Vocational training can offer economically disadvantaged women increased job opportunities and can increase their control over income.

The initiative also connects women’s economic participation with the wider question of urban mobility. Increasing the number of trained women drivers and riders can create more employment options while supporting efforts to make transport systems more responsive to women’s needs.

Azad Foundation has been involved in the empowerment of women of the poor to enter into professions traditionally occupied by men. Through its Women With Wheels program it offers professional driving training, personal development and other practical skills, enabling women to make a career as chauffeurs and riders.

The program includes technical driving skills and communication, professional behaviour and an understanding of gender and self defence training. It also helps the participants to acquire driving licenses and transport-related employment. Consulting Wings, its strategic partner, to connect trained women with professional driving opportunities.

The Azad Foundation has reported over 4,500 women have been able to develop a professional driving and riding career as a result of its Women With Wheels program in India. The organisation's work emphasises the importance of vocational training, employment support and social barriers reduction for women to reach sustainable livelihoods.

The new agreement with the Greater Chennai Corporation takes this more expansive view further, by engaging local government and civil society to increase opportunities for women in Chennai.

The partnership reflects a broader effort to link women’s skill development with employment, financial independence and safer urban mobility. This will be determined by the effectiveness of training leading to jobs and safe working conditions, as well as long-term opportunities for women interested in the professions.

The initiative aims to increase the availability of commercial driving training courses and provide more women with the chance to become self-employed and find a role in a sector where women's involvement is still low. It also emphasises the need for public institutions and community organisations to make employment opportunities more accessible for women from marginalised groups.