When thoughts were going around on expanding the car-wash unit started by her husband K. Pradeep Kumar eight years ago at Technopark, Radhika Pradeep and her two friends jumped at the opportunity to start a philanthropic wing, which would benefit the employees — all of whom are women — themselves.
Started a year and a half ago, the second unit, called ‘We Care’ carwash, has taken a completely different approach. Apart from financially assisting the employees of both the units, We Care, registered as a charitable society, reaches out to cancer patients and students from financially backward families.
Despite the day-long fasting during Ramzan, on Friday, A. Nabeesath was seen putting all her effort to turn a dusty car to look spotlessly clean. There is hard work, but there is good salary, flexible timings, and, most importantly, her family is no more in the perils of poverty, she says.
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“We make sure that they have a healthy working atmosphere and their children get a good education and free books. They are like family and are free to approach us with their problems,” Ms. Radhika says of her staff.
And for the women, who get into the field every morning, encouragement pours in. They are perhaps the most hardworking people in the park, says a security guard at the parking area. Each woman here cleans 25 to 30 cars, even on a rainy day. Having perfected their working style, these women take hardly 10 minutes to give that shiny gloss to a car.
“There is shampoo, sponge, and washing cloth”, Nabeesath shows her cleaning tools. They may not be capable of differentiating a sedan from a hatchback, but with their years of experience, they know exactly how to deal with the toughest of stains on the cars. And experienced seniors themselves walk the newcomers through the job, after they undergo a 10-day training.
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“We have to wash a minimum of 11 cars a day. Then the incentives depend on how many cars we sign up on a daily basis,” points out Sindhu, a senior employee. She says she cannot imagine how some of her customers manage to work late in the evenings and, sometimes, even seven days a week. And for such customers, the car wash service is proving to be a blessing.