'Live wire' women to work with Maha electricity firm

Now, these "wire or line women" can match their skills with their male counterparts, managing sub-station maintenance, erection and testing of equipment and meeting a situation with an emergency response.

Recruited for the first time for the posts of junior technician and operator, about 150 female employees of MSETCL have just passed out to be deployed at various company centres, after undergoing a rigorous job training at Jejuri in Pune district.

"They can climb a tower to connect insulator strings, report a faulty current and repair and maintain 132 kw capacity transmission lines," said Shashikant Bokre, Executive Engineer in charge of the women's training programme.

Up till now, women in MSETCL were mainly entrusted with table work, sparing them of the arduous and risky jobs of handling and dealing with high voltage transmission wires in the electricity supply network of the state.

"The first batch of these determined trainees has not been found wanting in any respect and the response to the expanding of their horizons has been very encouraging," Bokre told PTI. These "wire-women" with basic ITI training were recruited early this year signaling a shift in MSETCL's  Human Resources policy, doing away with male-female segregation in jobs requiring specific physical endurance.

The upper age limit for these women is 35 and their training is being conducted at six  places in the state, including Akola, Koradi, Babhaleshwar, Kolhapur and Aurganbad.
On completion of their training these "live wire" women will be deployed at about 500 substations of MSETCL spread across seven zones in the stat