First woman pilot from Gondia jobless; blames backward caste

She has the distinction of being Maharashtra’s first commercial pilot from Naxal heartland, Gondia district, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But Captain Swati Ladre’s dreams are yet to take off.
The 28-year-old pilot, who belongs to the Dom caste, a listed category of safai karmacharis or sanitary workers, has been jobless for more than two years after obtaining her commercial pilot licence (CPL), a full 200-hours of flying quota from the National Flying Training Institute, Gondia later. This, despite several achievements to her credit, including being the first woman pilot from Gondia. “It is disappointing. They (the government) talk of educating the girl child and uplifting backward groups, but where are the opportunities? All I wished was to break away from my family’s social past. It doesn’t look like that’s about to happen,” she says in a telephonic interview. Ladre’s grandparents were sanitary workers with the local municipality council which made discrimination a reality since she was little. “As a child, she (Swati) lost friends because of our caste. The family was ostracised, people wouldn’t eat with us, some suddenly stopped calling us home. But she was determined to make a mark,” says her father, Rajesh Ladre.
09/08/15 Sharad Vyas/Mid Day