Yedalapally Adilaxmi of Telangana woman has broken over the gender barrier to enter a male-dominated sector. The 31-year-old from Bhadradri Kothagudem village has shown that with determination, hard effort, and willpower, women can succeed in any field.
She fixes flat tyres on motorcycles, vehicles, tractors, and even trucks in a small garage in Sujatha Nagar near Kothagudem town. The mother of two kids her husband Bhadram in running the auto repair shop and has gained expertise in mending punctures and replacing tyres over the previous five years.
According to Adilaxmi, “I always felt helpless and disappointed when customers used to come to the shop in his absence as I was unable to repair the punctures. I used to feel depressed by not attending to the jobs coming to our doorstep as we were losing income.”
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She decided to give it an attempt despite the widespread perception that women couldn’t do this type of work. She feels that there is no job that women are incapable of performing. “I started thinking why can’t I do it. I made a beginning with small things like filling air in the tyres and as my interest grew and I gained confidence, there was no looking back.”
She added, “This only needs positive thinking and courage. One should take this up as a challenge. I feel that other women can do much better than me,” She further said, “I don’t want my children to go through what I had to undergo. I want to give them a good education and make them police officers.”
She said, “My parents had no land and my husband too has no land. I remember as a child we were happy even if we got idli vada to eat,” Adilaxmi, the second of four daughters, had only had a fourth-grade education. She recounted how the family lived on a shoestring budget.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) politician and legislator K. Kavitha was impressed with Adilaxmi’s work and offered to assist her. Kavitha, the daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, invited her to Hyderabad last year and praised her for her tenacity and the amount of effort she has put in to assist her family. She was also given a tyre changing machine by Kavitha.
