Ved Kumari drives the UP roadways bus on the Kaushambi-Ghaziabad to Budaun route and her husband works as a conductor on the same bus. She is a postgraduate in Sanskrit.

Uttar Pradesh News: An inspiring tale of determination and the will to succeed despite societal norms has emerged from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr where a mother-of-two took up a job as a bus driver for the state’s roadways while her husband showed his support for her endeavour by working as a conductor on the same bus.

Ved Kumari, who holds a Master’s degree in Sanskrit, was preparing for a job with the Delhi Police when she came across an opening for a bus driver in the Uttar Pradesh Roadways. Kumari applied for the driver’s post and underwent heavy vehicle driving training from the Model Driving Training and Research Institute in Kanpur in 2021 under the Skill Development Mission of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC).

Later, she completed a 10-month training course at the Kaushambi depot and in April 2023, Kumari became the first woman driver on the Kaushambi-Ghaziabad to Budaun route for the UP Roadways.

Meanwhile her husband, Mukesh Prajapati, also took up a job at the UP Roadways as a bus conductors and the couple were assigned on the same bus.

बस चलाती इस महिला की कहानी बेहद ही दिलचस्प है।
दरअसल, बुलंदशहर में यूपी रोडवेज की इस बस में यह महिला ड्राइवर है। वहीं पति बस में कंडक्टर हैं।
बस चलाने वाली महिला का नाम वेद कुमारी है, जो कभी पुलिस में भर्ती होना चाहती थी। ख़ैर इनका यह सपना सपना ही रह गया।
आज ये संविदा पर यूपी… pic.twitter.com/xzIP8PYVXm

— Priya singh (@priyarajputlive) November 6, 2023

Who is Ved Kumari?

Ved Kumari is a mother-of-two– a teenage son studying Class 10 and toddler daughter who is enrolled in a pre-school– was aspiring for a job with the Delhi Police but ultimately ended up working as a bus driver for the UP roadways after she found the vacancy via a newspaper advertisement.

Kumari drives the UP roadways bus on the Kaushambi-Ghaziabad to Budaun route and her husband works as a conductor on the same bus. She is a postgraduate in Sanskrit.

An MA in Sanskrit, Kumari said she was preparing for a job with the Delhi Police when she came across the advertisement for the driver’s job. As the Bulandshahr couple remain busy with their jobs, their older child takes care of his toddler sister while his parents tread the roads,  breaking new grounds.

Ved Kumari’s story is inspiring other women to break traditional gender roles and take up jobs which societal rules say they cannot do.

“No work is too difficult for women. They can do anything they set their minds to,” Ved Kumari says as she urged women to break the mold and not be afraid of working jobs which are considered “taboo” for women.

Ved Kumari is currently employed as a contractual bus driver with the UP roadways.