Shanti Devi who was born in the town of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh is India’s first and only woman truck mechanic. She is the mother of eight kids and is 50 years of age. She moved to Delhi when she was 5 years old and since then she has been living in outskirts of Delhi. She tells about her family saying, she comes from a poor family; her mother did odd jobs and went through many hardships to bring them up. She managed to save up for her wedding and got married and moved out.
She and her husband, Ram Bahadur started up a small tea stall which was opposite the depot and later the depot was built in a repair shop. She started working in the repair shop as an apprentice. The idea was to help generate more income for her family. Over the years with hard work and dedication she learned all the technical mechanic work under the guidance of a mistri.
She tells that her fellow men mechanics are quite happy to work with her and see her doing the same kind of work as they do especially when her name is mentioned all over the press, all of them feel proud to work with her. To her, it is very surprising when people react differently towards her when she changes tyres or does the work that men supposedly do, to her there are no gender rules when it comes to work. She says she follows her heart.
