Meter Down: The Auto Rickshaw Drivers’ Agony

March 31, 2010

A passenger sits in an auto rickshaw at 6 pm. After moving a little further, he stops at a medical shop, gets medicine, and sits in the rickshaw again. He then goes to the laundry, comes back and then again, a little further, stops at a bakery and reaches home at 7. For 15 minutes of travel, the passenger takes 1 hour.

Another passenger sits in a rickshaw and says some apartment name. When it stops near the apartment, the passenger says ‘I will be back in few minutes’ and walks off. The rickshaw driver waits, and later goes and asks the watchman. The Watchman scolds him “go from here! Nobody came here. Don’t create a nuisance here!”. The rickshaw driver starts the rickshaw and goes back.

At night, a passenger sits in a rickshaw fully boozed. He tells a location. The driver takes him there. He gets down and walks away. Rickshaw driver goes to ask his dues only to receive abusive language from the passenger who walks away without giving money.

You may be thinking I am explaining about some film scenes here. You might have seen this in film / television also. It is fine when you do so just for fun but when it comes to reality its very harsh on the rickshaw drivers. And its happening everyday, which is going unnoticed.

I recently spoke to a person asking his opinion about rickshaw drivers. He said they should never be given any sympathy, because once when he wanted a rickshaw to take his wife to a hospital, due to bad roads, the rickshaw drivers were passing the buck and asking him to go to the next richshaw guy. He got angry and before he could do anything a fellow rickshaw man, who knew this guy gave the lift till the hospital. His question to me was 'If the rickshaw in the rickshaw stand doesn’t go to the place where we ask then why it is there?'. I couldn’t pass the judgment against the rickshaw drivers.

But that question was there in my mind so I thought I'll collect the answers from the horse’s mouth. But when I went to the rickshaw stand where I usually go, only the board of rickshaw stand was visible and not the rickshaws! I learned from the people around there that it has been shifted due to the ongoing construction of roads, so I realized that they are in some trouble for sure.

rickshaw1

Recently with construction of new roads, lot of traffic problems have aroused in Mangalore. Many sectors of roadies are in trouble including bikers, cars, buses and rickshaws but majorly the problems are faced by buses and rickshaw’s because their business is getting affected.

So I went near a rickshaw stand near Kankanady. I approached them and enquired of their problems. One of them said - the under construction roads are a 10 year old dream. Earlier, it was tar road with one rain guarantee, with potholes everywhere. We had to travel carefully as if there are landmines on the road and if the tyre falls in pothole kaboom!, so now it’s good for the Rickshaws with other vehicles.

We welcome the road construction whole heartedly but for a 10 meter road, they are taking more than 3 months to complete! Kankanady to Nandigudda is already running with a record timing of 6 months, and it has still not finished and I personally feel it by the time it finishes, it might be eligible for a world record.

Our problem starts as soon as we start this business, we borrow money for loan and pay the amount as DD to the Bajaj Company. We get the rickshaw after one year. Who will pay the interest?

The rickshaw gets 13 rupees as rent for facing all the difficulties like avoiding the pot holes and facing road inconsistencies. If we say we will not go, passengers say they will complaint to RTO. On the other hand RTO says you are given the permit to go anywhere and when the passengers ask you cannot say no, and we are slapped with a fine of Rs 500.

Anyone can file a case against the rickshaw stating this reason and the ones who file complaints are not summoned to the court for proceedings. Only the rickshaw driver has to be present for the proceedings and hearing.

Further, if the passenger goes away without paying the rent there is no law to file a case against him demanding the payment. The passenger has no legal restrictions, whereas we have.

rickshaw3

Besides, there are no authorized garages of Bajaj to repair the rickshaw. Only in the showrooms do we have servicing centers and lots of malpractices are noticed by the rickshaw drivers. If you give the rickshaw today for servicing the entire day is wasted. The owner of rickshaw can’t stay in servicing center. He has to come when he gets a call from the center usually next day. The day’s earnings are gone.

The rates of goods and services are increasing day by day. 6 months back the tyre rates were Rs 630 per tyre but now it has shot up to Rs. 830. For authorized gas filling it was Rs. 220 but presently it is Rs.360. All the hotels have raised their prices. Even the buses have done so. But when we ask for a hike in rent, why does everyone get wild? We need permission, conduct strikes, and do all sorts of circus to raise one rupee. We are not allowed to raise the price, although it is necessary, but others do so without permission and nobody says anything.

We have got to shell out lot of money. Meter servicing amounts to Rs. 100, the rickshaw has to be inspected once in a year and for that a challan of Rs.200 has to be paid. It has to be passed by the officer or else, there will be legal problems. To change the small seal in the meter, we have to pay Rs.100.

We are the only self employed people who do business after paying 5 years of tax in advance. We pay tax, we buy rickshaw from our money, we run it with all the risk but still we are blamed.

I don’t say all the rickshaw drivers are very good people. There are incidents, there are bad people, but as one driver puts it, ‘people taught us how to deal with them. We are just practicing what we learnt from them’.

I personally feel we have to understand before passing any judgment, because nobody in this whole world wants to be identified as bad person. All want their respect, rights and love. If we think about this life would be much better place for all of us to live.

More From Arron Menezes:

Arron

* The Story of GMR and Mangalorean Fishermen

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