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Workers@iitk Amidst the COVID Lockdown
Hamara Manch Update 5: August 29, 2020
It is now five months since the disruptions due to lockdowns and related closure of various activities in the campus. In all these months there has been little conversation on the workers and the consequences of lockdown on their lives. As students, regular staff, faculty and administration have been busy coping with contingencies in their own respective domain, we have almost forgotten about those who make the campus habitable every day for us. Many of those workers have continued to serve us amidst the pandemic. Hamara Manch has been trying to keep in touch with various kinds of workers amidst all the disruptions in their lives and has been attempting to put together their stories and updates in these uncertain times. While the first two updates reported on mess workers, the next two focused on canteen workers (all reports are available here: https://sites.google.com/site/iitkcfdevelopment/).
Drivers of Taxi Operators at IITK during the COVID-19 Crisis
IIT Kanpur holds a large number of national - international gatherings and round the year there is flow from and to IIT Kanpur for national and international travel; this mobility is supported not only by funds but also by human labour. Drivers become the essential workforce which support the institute`s transportation and logistical demands. This update tries to bring forward the appalling state of drivers (in terms of wages and working hours, which has only worsened during the pandemic) who solely depend on the IIT Kanpur community for their livelihood in exchange of their services.
We spoke to 8 drivers, out which 6 worked with the transport agencies in the campus and 2 of them worked as on-demand drivers. All these drivers on an average have been working in the campus for 10-20 years.
There are about 70 drivers who work for IITK community, majority of them are employed by transport contractors who own around 70-80 cars. Besides local transport, these drivers regularly go on long-distance trips, not only to Lucknow and Delhi, but they have driven as far as Kedarnath, Ladakh, Mumbai and Kolkata as a part of their work. The transport contractors are registered with IITK and they have their office space near the NH-91 gate.
Pre-COVID work situation for drivers
The drivers can be categorised into two, firstly people who are employed by transport contractors (65-67) and secondly drivers who are called on-demand (3-5). The on-demand drivers drive personal cars of IITK community residents or replace the first category of drivers if need be.
There is no holiday or off day for a driver. They have to be available 24x7 everyday of the year. There is no notion of shift work in this line of work. A driver earns Rs 6,000 per month. If he takes any leave, the day's wage is cut from his salary. The daily rate of an on demand driver is Rs 600 for a 12 hour workday or Rs 70/hr (for example if you take a city trip for 3 hours, you pay him Rs 210 but if you hire him for 12 hours, you have to pay Rs 600). An on demand driver manages 15-20 days of work a month. Apart from wages a driver earns Rs 250 for night-shift (if he is driving past 10 pm). Some of the passengers even give them tips for their services. The monthly earnings of a driver varies from Rs 8,000- Rs 10,000, depending on the fluctuating demand (for example during Antaragni the demand soars). This earning sustains a family of 5-7 people and most of these drivers are sole earners of their family. Furthermore the drivers have no medical insurance, EPF or ESI registration which only adds to their vulnerability. Since they have to be available round the clock, even those who are from city have to take a room on rent in neighbouring areas, adding to their expenses.
During the Lockdown and in the Un-Lock period
On 28th March, the drivers were told by the operators that all transport business was going to be stalled and they did not have to come for work from the next day. From 28thMarch onwards, none of the drivers that we talked to have been able to find work. The salary of March was paid in the 1st week of April. As the wages soon got over, the drivers depended on taking loans from the local moneylenders at 10% per month interest. One of the workers reported,
Pehle humne Rs 4000 udhar liye, 10% byaaz pe; dusre dafa jab gaye udhar lene, hume udhar nahi mila, kyunki pehla wala hi hum nahi chukka paye the.
(I took a Rs 4,000 loan at 10% interest, but when I went for the second time, I was denied as I had not returned the 1st loan.)
Other than taking loans, the drivers tried to buy groceries and cereals on credit from local shops. But in Nankari and Barasirohi, shopkeepers have stopped giving goods on credit. During the lockdown the survival of the drivers depended on the PDS system (3kg rice + 2kg wheat per person per month) or on the community kitchens that were running in their area. Although procuring essentials such as oil, soap, salt and vegetables remained a herculean task given their meagre resources. Some of them had to discontinue their children's schooling as the drivers couldn't pay the school fees when the school asked for it.
Post May when the lockdown was called off, the drivers tried their best to find alternate work opportunities. Some of them went to Kalyanpur labour market to get daily wage work in the construction sector. They failed as the number of workers was huge and the demand for labour was dismal. Next they visited Dadanagar Industrial Area to find work in factories, but they were turned away as the factories were being run below capacity as there was no demand for goods and hence no opportunity for work either.
Some benevolent faculty members and operators have helped individual drivers with some money or some ration, but that is not enough, as this is not an individual driver’s problem but a crisis that has befallen on the entire working population. Furthermore, the charitable endeavours are erratic and provide no consistent means of support; as the handouts get over, the fear borne out of hunger and poverty creeps back. It is relevant to mention that the taxi operators themselves are highly indebted, as they have taken loans to buy cars, and they have to pay the monthly installment, which has been a reason given by the operators as to why they are failing to support their drivers. They also continue to pay rent and electricity charges to IIT for the offices they hold even when their operations are closed.
To summarise, we probably need to ask a question, who have these drivers been providing their service to? We strongly believe that it is not enough to pass the buck by stating they are contractor`s drivers. At the end of the day, they provide service to the IITK community. As a driver said:
Har raat mein phone apne takiye ke niche rakh ke sota hoon, ki kabhi bhi bulawa aa sakta hai IIT se.
(Every night I sleep with phone below my pillow, in hope that a call from IIT can come anytime).
Attachment: HM update 5.pdf
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