Women’s Day 2016: Female bike clubs, rallies, an all-girl motosport team and more

In the automobile quarters, knee-downs and drifting cars are often associated with testosterone-charged tough guys, as a set of wheels and women have traditionally been held almost mutually exclusive in India. In this day and age, however, when women are fast vaporising all gender inequalities, their presence can be felt in the automotive domains too. And on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Tuesday, we celebrate the progress that females are making in India across biking, racing, creating awareness about motorsport and more.

Women’s Day rides. Indian ladies go global.

Breaking clichés in the country, India’s first all-female motorcycle association, The Bikerni is ushering in Women’s Day by conducting a bike rally in Bengaluru. Founder and bike tester Urvashi Patole said, “The Bengaluru chapter of our club has organised a rally on Tuesday to thank all the people who have been strong pillars of support for us and our choices, including riding. All the clubs of Bengaluru will be riding with us during this event.”

Since its inception in the year 2011, The Bikerni has come a long way in eradicating social stigmas related to women on the roads. And now, they have more heartening plans on a global level.

“With chapters not only in all major Indian cities but several small towns too, we are now planning to spread across Asia. We have been getting inquiries from several countries like Pakistan, Qatar, Bangladesh, Nepal etc and a larger strategy will be in place soon.”

Future female riders get proper guidance

Apart from imparting courage and confidence to drive, some endeavours are going one step further to cultivate a breed of female racers in the country. As a result, the recently organised Honda 1 Make Race witnessed participation from around 15 female racers.

Chief trainer at the Honda 10Ten Racing Academy, Ramji Govindrajan said, “We had around 50 inquiries from female racers this time, compared to almost nothing last year. And it was all the more encouraging with teenagers showing up in large numbers.”

Registrations are going on for the next edition of the academy that will kick off on March 9, and several girls have made their interest known by signing up.

“The idea is to make the girls race-worthy. Some of them are already at par with the men and we are looking forward to pitting them all against each other next year,” he added.

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An all-girls racing team!

The female ambassador of motorsport in India, Alisha Abdullah, who also grabbed a podium finish during the MMSC FMSCI National racing championship over the weekend, is also ramping up efforts to promote motorsport in India.

“I am building an all-girls racing team for the National Bike Racing Championship to be held in April. I’m visiting various colleges to create awareness about it and will be doing the same on Women’s Day too,” said Alisha.

A two-day training programme on the track will decide the final list of names that will make it to Alisha’s racing team.

“The highlight of my all-girls team would be a new racer. She could possibly be the youngest ever female to race in India,” she said further.

Equality needed in culture

The news among the females of Indian biking and motorsport speaks of exciting times ahead; however the empowerment of women on roads needs to be carried out on the grassroots level, feels actress and politician Gul Panag, who is the face of India’s female celebs promoting biking.

“The number of women who can be seen driving or riding has certainly gone up over the years, but the basic mind-set of the society still remains regressive. We thus need to empower girls by inculcating driving as an ordinary life skill while growing up,” said Gul.

She also suggested solutions to end this gender stereotyping by collective efforts.

“Aggressive intervention is the need of the hours. One very easy way out, according to me, is reserving a certain per cent of seats in a fleet of drivers for females. And if ever I employ more drivers for my cars, I will try to set an example by hiring a female for the job,” she said.