‘One needs to have courage to do something in life’

Asia’s first motor woman, famously known as India’s first female loco pilot, and recently mentioned by Prime Minister Modi in his podcast “Mann ki Baat”, Surekha Yadav has an independent understanding of life. She says, “In order to do something in life, one needs to have courage. Other people are not going to give you that courage.” She continues, “Courage is yours and only then, the encouragement will come from others.”
After completing diploma in electrical engineering in 1986, Yadav, a resident of Satara in Maharashtra, was in search of a job. It was during this time, she recalls, when companies or industries would not prefer women for jobs. “Women in the job market were called liabilities at that time,” she said.
Yadav said, “Then I saw an advertisement about vacancies in railways. They needed assistant loco pilot and to be eligible for the job, diploma in any field was required. Three officers took my interview. At that time, I was 23. I got selected. And when I received my appointment letter in 1989, I had to leave my college where I was doing my bachelor’s, because I had to attend to my training regularly.”
Yadav calls herself lucky as she not only saw cooperation from her family members, but also received support from her colleagues which she believes had encouraged her all through her journey. “I am very thankful to the Ministry of Railways. The way they cooperated and gave me the platform to work when there was no female working for them. My in-laws, my father and mother and husband, everybody cooperated and everybody encouraged me,” she said.
Yadav has piloted suburban trains (local trains) for almost 10 years. And she had made history in 2000 when she led the train from Mumbai to Borivali. She said, “It was so good to hear when Modi ji said in Man Ki Baat that when we introduced our own train, we did not get any foreigner to pilot it. People of our own country ran it. That was such a happy moment of my life.”
Yadav has been determined all her life to overcome all the difficulties and manage all the uncertainties. She said, “I was determined that I have to do it, and when we are determined to do something, our attention does not get too much deviated from troubles. We just do what we want to do.”
She further talked about continuous changing work schedule. “Time is not fixed. Plus our destinations keep changing and loco pilots change; so we have to adjust with them. And then not to overstep red light when we are piloting the train and ferrying passengers. We must follow rules and then also take rest. So that we can work with concentration. We carry passengers and we have to do it with responsibility.”
Yadav send out a message that no profession is male dominated, “When the world started, there was no specific place given to men and women. The one who is capable of doing it does it. Whichever abilities the person has, he should try to put himself in that specific field. We have to keep calm and know what our potential is to establish our role in society. And one must have confidence to do that. We must come forward and people will support,”
she said.