Pedal on! Cycling school teaches garment workers

A cycling school, founded in 2015, conducts classes in Cubbon Park and Begur

Bengaluru Cycling School is supporting a Greenpeace initiative to empower women garment workers in the city. The school will help the workers to learn riding the cycles given by Greenpeace. “One-third of the crowd did not know how to ride a cycle. That is when we decided to take it up on ourselves to teach them,” says Dr Ali Poonawala, a volunteer with the school.

The school began in 2015 and is run by volunteers. The volunteer pool consists of 15 people, and they conduct classes in Cubbon Park and Begur. So far, they have taught cycling to approximately 60 women garment workers from scratch and have helped around 100 others who know how to balance but aren’t “road-ready” yet.

“The ladies have been very enthusiastic to learn,” he adds. More than 3.5 lakh workers are employed in over 780 garment factories in Bengaluru, according to Garment and Textile Workers Union, and over 80% of them, are women.

Many women have started cycling to work already. Usha R, 30, is among the garment workers who recently learnt how to cycle. The skill has made her feel more independent, she tells Metrolife.

“I feel happy travelling to work by cycle. They taught really well and it took around eight days to completely learn it,” says Savitha, 32, another garment worker.

Deepashree S, 36, who has been working in the garment industry for the past 15 years, says transport is a major issue for most of the working women.

“We have to travel to Peenya every day and most of us stay at least 10 km away. Bus fares are too high and so is the fee for transportation organised by the factory. So cycling helps as its cost effective and time-saving, she believes.