Raveena Chand, who is studying in the first year of graduation, says, ”I want to change the thinking that public transport drivers drop out in the middle and don't study.”
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A young woman is seen driving a bolero jeep that goes through the valleys and mountains in the twists and turns of the Far West. She is 20-year-old Ravina Chand from Pancheswar Rural Municipality-4 Ninglad, which is considered remote in Baitadi.
Raveena is the only female driver driving public transport in the 7 hilly districts of Far West. She drives about 500 km from Baitadi to Mahendranagar in Kanchanpur two days a week. Raveena, who is studying in the first year of graduation, started riding the balero. 7 months have passed.
His father Double Bahadur, who runs a grocery store in the village, bought the Bolero 7 years ago. But some of the drivers assigned to drive the vehicles left within a short period of time and some were negligent, so it became a problem to run the public vehicles regularly. When the driver started having problems, Raveena decided to become a driver herself.
'After buying a jeep, we had to hear problems like the driver leaving the car in the middle of the road, sometimes leaving without knowing. Because of that, when I got older, I started thinking whether I should drive a car myself,' she said.
"I dreamed of becoming a driver to solve my father's problems and take responsibility, now it has come true," she said. Raveena wants to continue her driving career and studies together. She says, 'I want to disprove the comment that public transport drivers drop out and don't study.'
Raveena is called 'Ravi Guru Don' by her friends. At first he was embarrassed to be called Guru. As the driver is called Guru, now Raveena has started taking it for granted. She has been providing facilities to passengers from Baitadi to Dhangadhi, the provincial capital of Far West, and Mahendranagar in Kanchanpur by driving a Balero number M1J registered with the Mahakali Transport Professionals Committee. She is taking the passengers from Baitadi's Pancheshwar, Shivnath and Melauli to Terai by crossing the unpaved road.
'Earlier, the passengers sitting in the car used to ask if the driver was lost. I couldn't believe it. Some used to say that they will go to another car. The girl was probably afraid that she would not be able to take her safely on such a long way,' Ravina remembers. Do not believe the license and look at it again and again. Some of the traffic policemen used to take photos and keep them.' She said that since she travels between the plains and the mountains twice a week, the traffic police have started to recognize her and are behaving well. In the
family, Raveena has 6 sisters and she has one brother. Elder sister Manju is in Dubai for foreign employment. "With my father's encouragement and support, I first learned to drive in the village, then I went to Mahendranagar and learned for 15 days at the training center, I passed the trial in the first attempt and got my license," she said.
