KLANG: While working as a customer service officer at the KL Monorail’s ticketing department, R. Umadevi would admire the monorail and light rail transit (LRT) drivers she met in the line of duty.

       Known as “captains”, their jobs were “the most glamorous” in the monorail and LRT transportation sector, she thought.

       And after 11 years in her job, Umadevi said she felt that she needed a drastic change and thus opted to become an LRT train captain.

       That was six years ago and today, she is the sole Indian-Malaysian woman in her company’s growing platoon of female LRT captains.

       “I used to admire LRT captains and now I am one of them. This job allows me to earn a good income,” said the 42-year-old, adding that she gets to make more through overtime work, too.

       The mother of two credited her husband Kreetheran U. Rajoo, 47, with giving her the support and encouragement to pursue the job.

       “When I told my husband about my wish to be an LRT captain, he said he would support me all the way if I promised to persevere even if the going got tough,” she said.

       Feeling energised by her husband’s encouragement, Umadevi then approached her departmental head about her intention for change.

       “Initially, he did not want to let me go but relented when I persisted,” she said, adding that she then applied and got into the training programme to become an LRT train captain.

       The challenges did come – not in her job specifically, but to her role as a mother to Vaagishwari, 12, and Sanjaneshwari, eight.

       Umadevi revealed that she almost quit her job when schools and daycare centres were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and there was no one to take care of the children at their home in Puchong, Selangor, as well as guide her elder child in her online classes.

       “My husband and I had a long discussion and I told him that I could not leave my job after all that I had gone through to secure it, and asked him if he could be the one taking care of our children.

       “After thinking about it for a while, he agreed, quit his job and started a business which he manages from his home office so that he can take care of our children,” she said.

       Umadevi said she hopes more women will venture into jobs that are traditionally handled by men.

       “Times have changed as women are just as capable as their male counterparts in occupations that were not made available to them before,” she added.