Lady conductors of Gangtok City Runners

GANGTOK- Two Sikkimese lady conductors have sucessfully completed seven months as conductors for government run city buses in Gangtok proving that women too can compete with men in every sphere.
Ofcourse, passengers gawk at Pemala Bhutia(24) and Jyoti Subba(26) and remain nonplusses soetimes when these two lady bus conductors ask them the bus fares.

'It is not easy to deal with passengers, I think they don't consider me as a bus conductor because I am a woman. There are some passengers who remain stumped when I ask them the bus fare and only after some time, they realize that I am the bus conductor and start paying. Since we are the first women bus conductors in Sikkim, even women passengers find it diffivult to believe us as conductors', said Pemala while sharing her experience working as a bus conductor after receiving appointment orders along with Jyoti from the State Government on Octover last year.
These two ladies were among the ten bus conductors appointed at that time.

Pemala, who stays at Rumtek with her recently married husband, takes the SNT city runner every morning from Rumtek to Gangtok at 7 am. She gets home at around 5-6 pm tired and exhausted. 'I get tred as I have to stand on the bus when all the seats are occupied', she said.

'No job is easy. The profession is challenging but I am satisfied and will not step back as I have received good training from the government', she said.
'Who to shy away from working? No work is small', said Pemala, a graduate from Sikkim Government College.