AUTORICKSHAWS: BANE OR BOON FOR THE CITY?
Indian Women Press Corps, Delhi, April 1, 2010
The session started with screening of the documentary ‘third Wheel’ at 5:00 pm. The documentary sponsored by FNF under Liberal youth South Asia (LYSA) banner was produced by LYSA Member Organization Prabodh in association with Center for Public policy research. Prabodh, the Delhi based NGO has been researching on this issue of Economic Freedom for Auto rickshaw drivers for past three years and had provided research inputs too for the documentary apart from coordinating the production. The duration of the documentary is 27 minutes and is available in Hindi and English. Here, at the IFAAN event, the Hindi version was screened for the benefit of auto rickshaw drivers who were also present to watch the same.
At 5.30, Prashant Narang- the moderator for the evening asked the audience for their feedback and comments about the documentary. There were comments, “We need freedom from private financers”, “the free hand given to private financers is dangerous, earlier auto used to cost rs.15000, now one has to pay half a million rupees to financiers” , “now the daily rent has gone upto Rs. 500 and that is difficult to earn in a day”, “5 lakh ka auto, 1 lakh ki car, ye hai hamari dillli sarkar”.
There were representatives from other NGOs present including Simon Harding from Aman Trust, Amit and Akshay from Center for Sustainable Transport, Anil Sood and Satish Sood from Chetna. Mr. Sood suggested that system prevelant in Mumbai and Pune should be studied where every drivers goes by meter and never says ‘NO’ to the commuter.
Emphasizing on the recent developments i.e. striking down the ceiling on number of cycle rickshaws in Delhi and Submission of Recommendation to remove the cap on auto rickshaw by Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), Prashant requested the panelists- Somnath, President- auto taxi union, Rakesh Agarwal- Secretary, Nyayabhoomi and Barun Mitra from Liberty Institute to express their views on the issue one by one.
Mr. Somnath blamed the politicians for the prevalent corruption and poor image of Auto rickshaw drivers in the society. Mr.Rakesh Agarwal too held the Delhi Government entirely responsible for the menace for it has no policy to increase the fare periodically. The Government has not given any license and badges for past half a year due to ‘software problem’, but on the other hand they issue challans. There are three hundred and twelve auto rickshaw stands in Delhi , most of them exist on paper only. The government argues there is no place for the auto stands in Delhi but this again leads to corruption as they need to give bribe to police for parking. Therefore legalization of this problem is required. He raised an important question, “who causes congestion – 55000 auto rickhshaws or 55 lakhs cars?” An Auto rickshaw carries 25-30 passengers and cars carries 2-3 in a day.
Mr. Barun Mitra gave example of New York where cost of permit is 10-15 times higher than cost of vehicle for the same reason. It is a vicious cycle if there is a limit on permit the cost are sure to rise. In Mumbai and Pune, the meter system is similar to Delhi but there they follow a formula that has inbuilt element of periodical increase in the fare.
There remains a gap between customers and auto drivers, therefore training is important but that should be provided by the cooperatives and not left to Government. There is difference between auto rickshaws and radio cabs - if a customer wants to complaint for a Private radio cab, he may complaint to its owner but in case of auto rickshaw driver, the complaint mechanism is state- dependant.
At around 6:30 pm, Prashant summarized by reiterating the need for following reforms as demanded in the documentary:
- Permit system should be replaced by registration system.
- Market controlled fare than Government decided fare
- Choice of vehicle model
High tea was served at 6.40 pm.
Prabodh ties up with IILM
ICHHA, a student group from IILM invited Prabodh to run an internship program for students with the dual objective of social service as well as exposure to students. With the proposal materialising, 14 students have joined Prabodh as interns and currently working on various activities.
The internship program has three phases, first was the sensitization module where the interns were educated on the idea of economic freedom, free market and good governance. There were presentations, fun-games, working group exercises, researching reality (field research) and documentary screenings. In the second phase, students work on various areas such as internet marketing, resource building and media advocacy. Third module being the shortest is meant for documentation.
The internship program is likely to conclude by 5th March with a certificate ceremony. There will be prizes for best intern and best performing team.
The internship program has three phases, first was the sensitization module where the interns were educated on the idea of economic freedom, free market and good governance. There were presentations, fun-games, working group exercises, researching reality (field research) and documentary screenings. In the second phase, students work on various areas such as internet marketing, resource building and media advocacy. Third module being the shortest is meant for documentation.
The internship program is likely to conclude by 5th March with a certificate ceremony. There will be prizes for best intern and best performing team.
Sessions at IILM, Lodhi Road
1. Sensitization workshop
1. Sensitization workshop
- Initial introduction of Prabodh for all students at IILM.
- Documentary of the 3rd wheel project shown to students
- A brief presentation by Mr. Prashant Narang, regarding the project to be undertaken and about the work being already done by Prabodh.
- A round of group discussion was carried out for a group of 35 students, who were interested to be a part of the ICHHA-Prabodh team.
- A final selection round through personal interviews was carried out.
- 15 students were chosen for the final project.
- The first session included the discussion of the entire project.
- All components of the project were explained.
- Students were asked to set rules for the coming sessions, including rules specifying the number of offs a person can take, etc.
- Problems faced by auto rickshaw drivers and cycle rickshaw drivers were discussed through a documentary.
- Students gave their opinions on how these problems could be dealt with
- Presentation on Economic Freedom for street vendors, and allocation of projects Rickshaw Pullers, Street Vendors, Railway Coolies..
- Feedback collected and discussed
- Presentations on the given topics.
- presentation on economic situation of various countries including india
- Philosophy of liberty- a documentary on liberalism was shown.
- Projects were allotted – Reforms of police, administration, prison.
- Feedback collected and discussed
- Presentation on reforms allotted in previous classes.
- A presentation on RTI- right to information act.
- Details regarding RTI were discussed.
- Documentaries related to RTI were shown. They comprised of work being done by other NGO’s.
- Feedback collected and discussed
- The team was divided into 2 groups .
- Both groups were asked to put in their views regarding the 2 topics –HR/ PR and Resource building/ Financing.
- The teams were given time to put in their views for both the topics.
- Teams were divided into 2- HR/PR and Resource building / Financing.
- The project outline was further discussed which comprised of the input , outcome and output. SMART goals were set.
- Attended only by the HR and PR & communication team.
- Various activities/tasks related to PR were discussed and were assigned to the students.
- A plan of action was chalked out for each of the task.
- Tasks related to PR are: Contact a theatre/fm channel , Database of stakeholders of third wheel project ,Database of media , screening in du colleges , screening for auto rickshaw drivers, internet marketing.
- Attended only by the finance team.
- The various components of resource building were discussed and divided amongst the students.
- Events to be arranged were planed out.
- Students were given deadlines and quotas to be completed before the 1st of march. This included- sponsors to be contacted, educational institutes to be contacted, proposals to be made, corporate and government organizations to be contacted and forthcoming events to be planned.
- The expected fund amount was also calculated.