Not my idea — my contribution
The Pink Cab initiative originated in West Bengal and Kolkata, well before I was involved. My contribution was helping support its extension into Kharagpur, after the local District Magistrate approached the Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Kharagpur for help operationalising it there. I volunteered, and personally met with the District Magistrate to understand what was actually required.
Connecting the pieces
From there, the work was mostly about connecting people who needed to be connected: local taxi and cab operators around Kharagpur and IIT Kharagpur, and the process of bringing women drivers into the initiative. It wasn't about making a single introduction — it was understanding how several stakeholders had to move together for any of it to work: Government → E-Cell → Taxi operators → Women drivers → Community.
The moment that stayed with me
Sometime after the initiative had been operationalised, I saw a woman driving a Pink Cab on campus. She recognised me. She told me that I had introduced her to the taxi operator, and that she was now driving a Pink Cab herself. She explained that the income was helping support her children's education and household needs.
That moment stayed with me longer than almost anything else from that year.
What I learned
This was one of the first times I experienced the difference between "I worked on a project" and "something I helped enable actually changed someone's life." It taught me the value of taking initiative, coordinating across stakeholders who don't naturally talk to each other, listening for what people actually need rather than what seems obvious, connecting the right people, and following through after the introduction is made.
To be clear: I didn't create the Pink Cab programme. I contributed to connecting the stakeholders and supporting its implementation in Kharagpur. That distinction matters to me — the credit for the idea belongs elsewhere. What I take from it is smaller and more specific: that a well-placed introduction, followed through properly, can matter more than it looks like it will at the time.