How Mumbai entrepreneur Amruta Mane is empowering women to take to the roads

Amruta Mane, while navigating the bustling streets of her hometown Mumbai, was struggling to move forward in her gear motorcycle amid the honking cars. 

Although she could ride a non-gear bike, it was her first time riding a geared motorcycle, and she had little to no knowledge about how the gears work. 

“I panicked at first as people started screaming things like ‘girls should not drive’. But after a stranger told me how to change the gears, I could restart the bike, and it was a smooth ride. It was a totally exhilarating experience, and I cannot describe how free I felt,” she tells HerStory.

Mane has not looked back since. From teaching two-wheeler driving to her neighbours to establishing a driving institute—Mane has come a long way.

In 2018, she launched Women on Wheels. “There were hardly any motorcycle training schools when I wanted a proper driving lesson. Moreover, only a few women-specific two-wheeler driving schools exist that have women coaches,” she says.

The all-women driving school provides two-wheeler driving (gear and non-gear bike) coaching to only women in Mumbai. To date, Women on Wheels has trained 3,500 women. 

The idea

With a bold personality driven by a passion for exploration, Mane developed a keen obsession with motorcycles and cars growing up. 

When in class 8, Mane’s cousin taught her the basics of riding a geared motorcycle. “It was a nice experience. It sparked a newfound desire within me to learn and ride a motorcycle more proficiently," she expresses with enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, Mane’s father had bought her mother a Honda Activa, who needed the vehicle for commuting to work. Since Mane knew the basics of motorcycle driving, riding an Activa was a cakewalk, she says. However, her goal was to drive a motorcycle. 

When one of her neighbours offered his spare motorcycle to her—thinking she knew how to ride it—Mane was too excited to deny the offer. “It was my mistake that without knowing how to drive a motorcycle, I took it out on the streets. But it turned out to be a really good experience.”

In the three months before her MBA classes started in 2018, Mane decided she would use this free time to teach two-wheeler driving to her neighbour. Soon, she chanced upon the idea of establishing a two-wheeler driving school, which she initially named Amruta Driving School.

Later, she rebranded it as Women on Wheels, and no sooner did she spread the word around, Mane started getting queries from women and, within two months, good traction. 

Mane recalls a student sharing a discomforting experience from a previous training session, where a male instructor had made her uncomfortable by leaning over her while teaching her to drive a two-wheeler. In contrast, learning from Mane provided her with a more comfortable environment. 

Navi Mumbai-based 22-year-old marketing professional Uzma also shared a similar experience. While learning to ride an Active with a male friend, an oncoming truck caused her to lose control, resulting in a fall.

“Most men think women are not good at driving. Even my friends pass casual remarks or joke about women driving, which I don’t appreciate,” she says.

Post this incident, she avoided riding a two-wheeler for two years and would spend Rs 150 daily for commuting from home to the office. Keen to save money, she took up driving again and felt more comfortable with a female instructor.

“I joined the centre (Women on Wheels) as they had women coaches. Throughout the training, I felt supported and comfortable. Amruta also motivated me a lot to keep going and beat my fear,” she adds.

Such feedback served as a motivating factor for Mane to continue her work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted all operations. Mane had to shut down her office three months after she set it up in December 2019. 

“The idea of losing my old employees whom I had trained scared me, so I wanted to start something that could continue even in the worst of circumstances like the pandemic,” she adds.

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Nonetheless, it opened a new avenue for Mane as people struggled to get things delivered to their homes, and she launched Wow Deliveries. Along with her trainers, she started delivering necessary items like medicines, food, etc., for a year.

Describing her experience, she says it was mentally challenging to work during the pandemic. In 2022, Mane shut the initiative once things got better and went back to her driving school business. 

Mane’s journey has not been a bed of roses. She says initially, many residents voiced concerns to the police, fearing potential accidents, although she conducted her training sessions in silent lanes. 

“This occurred every other day with the police instructing me to cease training. Since I was active on social media, I wrote a message to seek help. Local corporators and other people in the circle helped me speak to police seniors to allow me to do the work,” she recalls.

However, the challenges did not stop there. Societal judgment had a role to play. 

“Women instructors, in particular, encounter inappropriate flirting remarks while on the road, highlighting the need to address and change such attitudes within the profession,” she adds.

Women vroom across Mumbai

Starting from 10 students in a month, Mane now gets nearly 50 students in a month. The centre trains women in driving gear and non-gear two-wheelers, including non-gear bikes and Royal Enfield. 

For non-gear bikes, it provides a 10-day session, where it teaches balancing, speed control, taking turns, and double driving in the first four days. Each session is 40 minutes long and is conducted from Monday to Saturday. 

It conducts 40-minute long sessions for eight days for the Honda City 100 bike, whereas it takes hour-long sessions for ten days for Royal Enfield. It charges Rs 3,750 for non-gear bike sessions and Rs 5,000 for gear bike sessions. Women on Wheels also runs group sessions. 

“Some of the students coming to us to learn driving become coaches after their course,” she explains, adding that the company has a total of 15 women trainers, who earn Rs 15,000 or more in a month.

Mane also offers her training services to students from underprivileged backgrounds, who can either pay their fees or join as a trainer, and Women on Wheels deducts the fees from their salary.

Mane and her father have invested money from their pockets to provide six non-gear and three-gear motorcycles at the training centre. 

So far, Women on Wheels’ operations are limited to Mumbai, but Mane aims to take her business pan-India. “My vision is to make women independent and help them generate employment through our institution while breaking stereotypes,” she says.