BEWARE OF AUTOWALAS
“Auto Rickshaws” are the widely used means for transportation in most of the major cities and towns in India. The word “Rickshaw” is derived initially from the two wheeled pulling carts which are manually pulled by the operator in the early 19th century. These rickshaws then turned into 3 wheelers which were operated as tricycles. Auto rickshaws can be found in many of the Asian developing countries and are quickly replacing the traditional manually operated rickshaws. The word “Auto” in “Auto Rickshaw” can be thought to be derived from the automation of the three wheeled cart which is run on a motor instead of manually pulling or cycling the cart. They are popularly called “Autos” in India. Auto Rickshaws are small three-wheeled motor run carts operated by a single individual with a passenger capacity cabin of three who are required to sit behind the operator or driver. There are enhanced versions of Auto Rickshaws which have increased capacity with more wheels (4-6 wheels) which support more passengers to travel on them.
The auto drivers are sometimes called as “Auto-walas”
Some of the Advantages of using Auto Rickshaws are discussed below.
- Autos are one of the cheapest means of transport in towns and cities since these vehicles give a very good mileage on use.
- Autos are designed with very well in dimensions to suit Indian roads. They are small and yet good to support a comfortable journey for three passengers apart from the driver. Autos also have space for some baggage to be placed behind where the passengers sit.
- Autos are best fit vehicles to use for both transportation of passengers or goods in very ancient areas of the many cities in India. Many of the Indian cities which are very old ranging from 100 to 2000 years would obviously not support broad road infrastructure like the newer areas that are being developed in the cities these days.
There are basically two ways to hire an auto for transportation. The first way is to hire the auto completely from intended source to destination of travel at a fixed price or on metered price. Metered prices could vary from city to city based on the cost of living of the city.
The second way is to hire autos that run on shared basis where in the source to destination is a fixed price and the auto driver can invite passengers into the auto till it reaches its capacity limits. Shared auto concept is cost effective for passengers who don’t have to hire an entire auto for transportation.
Like in most of the cases, there is a darker side to the usage of Auto Rickshaws. It is not very unusual to find tampered meters on Auto Rickshaws. The meter rates are fixed in most of the cities and governments have been working on trying to reduce the ability of autowalas to tamper the meters to cheat common man. Non electronic meters are easier to tamper with when compared with electronic meters. Unfortunately both the versions can be tampered. The meter readings in most of the autos have the following parameters. “Distance” that has been traveled in Kilometers and the corresponding “Charges” in Rupees for the distance traveled. These two parameters can be tampered to show wrong data.
The autowalas who operate on these good looking three wheelers are the cause of concern. They are not afraid to cheat the public by using tampered meters and opting for wrong directions to earn a larger sum of money when passengers are using metered service.
By my experience I found autowalas in Hyderabad to be very notorious. I want to share one instance which happened a couple of weeks back and is fresh in my mind. I am a resident of Hyderabad for over five years and I am well aware of the appropriate distances between places. I happened to go to my home town with my family (my husband and kid), to spend some time with my parents. After returning back, we reached railway station around 5:30 AM. Knowing very well about autowalas we preferred to take the auto from the auto stand which is supervised by a traffic police. Before boarding into the auto itself I made it a point to ask the police if the meter rate was normal since between 10PM and 5AM autowalas charge 50% extra on the meter. What was ridiculous was the autowala told me it is 1.5 times the meter rate in front of the police and after I spoke rules he agreed to come at a normal meter rate and asked for Rs 20 extra over the meter to which I agreed. Since I stay over 15 KMs from the station I seemed to be a good customer early in the morning for the autowala (more the distance, more the money).
The approximate distance from railway station to our house is 17Kms from the 10th platform of Secunderabad Railway Station where we boarded the auto. This auto had a electronic meter and for residents in Hyderabad it should be known that the meter charge averages to close to Rs 7 per kilometer.
Right from the time we boarded the auto, the meter distance was showing up in excess. The meter on this particular auto was showing approximately double the traveled distance right from the beginning. On observing this, we immediately informed the autowala saying there is something wrong. The autowala was trying to defend the meter saying it was right but once he noticed that we are not new to the city, he realized that he was caught. I just mentioned to him to stop by, at any police station if he disagreed with me and he kept numb for rest of the travel. I just mentioned to him that I would pay him for 17kms and also the extra Rs 20 that we decided before boarding the auto. He dint respond to what I told him and kept quite. We reached our destination and as expected the distance showed by as 32 kilometers which was exactly double the original distance. He became very violent in the manner he spoke when I gave him Rs 140 (Rs 7* 17 +Rs20 = 139). He agreed that the meter was tampered but started to talk about all the apartments in my area saying all people living the area too have cheated someone else to buy an apartment. I dint want to proceed on the conversation and just asked him to come to near by police station if he wanted to further talk with me.
So friends, I thought I should make you aware of how to deal with autowalas in cities. You have to “Beware of Autowalas” whether or not you are new to the city. The following are few suggestions to avoid being a victim of using auto rickshaws.
- It is very important for commuters to know either the distance of travel to ensure they are not cheated on meter rates. One can verify the distance in kilometers to check if it matches the given distance. It is even better to know the rate charged per kilometer on auto rickshaws in the given city. These rates would vary from city to city. If you are aware of the approximate distance in kilometer and meter charged per kilometer, you have arrived at the meter rate of the auto by multiplying the two.
- Don’t be afraid to ask all the details of charges before boarding onto an auto even if you are boarding an auto at the police booth in railway stations or bus stands.
- Be assertive during travel to ensure the autowala is taking you through the right directions you know (if you are not new to the city). If you are new to the city, ensure you have done some research on the city you are visiting and don’t expose your newness to the autowala when in conversation with him.
I may be getting too harsh on the entire autowala community but that happens in a society like ours when most of them belong to the wrong category. I would like to end by conveying my best regards to all those autowalas who do not tamper meters and cheat their customers. Let us all ensure we don’t cheat anyone and we don’t get cheated by anyone to see a brighter India in the future.
Saving money is an important practise to ensure a financially well off future. The simple habit of regularly keeping aside a small amount of money from our income becomes useful in future whenever we have some credit need such as for bussiness, health, educations, social ceremonies etc to name a few. Saving regularly might mean that one has to cut down the unnecessary expenditure. It will also require one to be be very disciplined.
Saving can be done either at home, banks or some other financial institutions. However, one tends to be lenient when we save individually as we know that it is our personal money and can skip saving if one doesn't feel like. We can also use up the entire savings before it turns into a significant amount. But if the saving is done in groups, one tends to be more disciplined and regular in savings because of the pressure from others. So, many people do tend to save in groups because of these reasons.
In Manipur, particularly in the Imphal district, people practise saving and taking credit in groups which is known as 'Marups'. 'Marup' means friends in the local language. It is an informal saving system in which a group of people would contribute money regularly for a limited time period. It is almost similar to the ROSCA (Rotating Saving and Credit Associations) which is practised in many parts of the world- Cambodia, Indonesia, Carribean etc.
How the system works;
In every marup, there would be an agent who would be responsible for the collections of the money and delivering of the goods. Depending on the interest of the potential members, the agent would decide upon the amount of the contribution and the period of the cycle. Most of the members are her acquaintances- family members,relatives ,friends etc. Some members may have more than a share in each marup. The contribution from each share are equal. Each month one of the members would take the total contribution. The turns of the members are decided either by consent at the beginning of the cycle or by lottery each day the contributions are collected.
Type of 'marup';
In most of the marup, the contribution is done either weekly or monthly. There are also 'marup' where the contributions is done on a daily basis; but it is mostly restricted to the bussiness people-shopkeepers, vendors, hotelliers etc who earns income on daily basis.
'Marup' is done either for cash or for goods ranging from the costly traditional dress, utensils, furniture, gold, crockery items and even 'basic dowry collections' etc. In this case, the goods are usually distributed to every members at the beginning of the cycle and the credit collected in installments. The total amount that would be collected would usually be a little more amount than the market price of that thing.
If it is a cash 'marup', one of the members would take the whole contributions, but from the next month onwards till the end of the cycle, she would pay an interest along with her contributions. That interest would be paid to the next members receiving the contributions.
For instance, if 25 members make a monthly contribution of Rs 1000/- each and the one of the members'A' take the total contribution of Rs 25000/- on the first month then from the next month onwards she pays an additional amount agreed upon, which let us say is Rs 100/- in addition to her regular contributions. So, when the next member 'B' receives the amount, it is Rs 25,100/-. She too would start paying an additional Rs 100/- from the next month onwards so that the third member, 'C' receives Rs 25,200/- in her turn and so on. So that the last member would receive a total contribution of Rs 27400/-. The interest amount serves as an incentives for those members who take the contributions later on.
There is another type of 'marup' which is popularly known as 'tender marup'. This is more similar to the chit fund practised in south indian states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu. Bidding is done for the total contributions and the member who bids the lowest takes away the quoted amount. The remaining amount is shared by the other members.
'Singlen Marup' is a special kind of marup. Every household in the locality is a member. Those living in rent are excluded from the membership. A contribution of Rs 5/- or Rs 10/- is collected every month. And when there is a death in the family, the localities would provide some financial assistance from this fund.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
Apart from being a hassle free and door step delivery service, what attracts people to such type of services is that the agent, who is responsible for the service delivery , is their acquaintance and hence tends to be more reliable. Everything is tranparent and except in the lottery type 'marup' ,each members knows her turn to get the contributions so can plan accordingly.
However, there is a drawback too. Since, it is based on mutual trust it involves a lot of risk for both the agent and the members if one is careless not to check the credibility of the person. Being an agent, even if some members do not contribute in time she has to ensure that the member whose turn it is to receive the contribution receive the due amount in the stipulated time. She has to give the amount from her personal money. It is also likely that the agent might turn out to be a fraud.
Significance in the society:
It is not only the poor who practise saving through ' marup', it is equally popular among the rich people, enterpreneurs, salaried people, bussinessmen etc. The difference lies in the amount of contributions which range from Rs 10/- Rs 30,000/- in a month. It would not be wrong to say that most of the household practise this system. In fact, a person may be a member in two three different 'marup'. Its significance lies in the fact that it is the main source of credit for the social ceremonies such as marriage, birth of a child, death in the locality etc.
Newspapers play a consistant role in our country.The press is the common man's university.The newspapers play a vital role in this society.Public grievances and public opinion are expressed through newspaper.Thanks to the industrial revolution,printing technology was introduced and many people can read news throughout the world.In India,as most of the people are illiterates,only 25% of them read newspapers.But in India,newspapers enjoy absolute freedom.Newspapers contain newsitems,highlight on current issues,sport news,advertistments,literary articles and so on.Those advertistments that they have are superb and attractive.Newspapers are playing a vital role in our Indian society.They are the basic thing for certain people to gather the news occuring all over the world.
'Television is the major preferable thing for the people to know certain things in this society.It has been a very good mass media.Presently,television is used by vast amount of people.Televisions also provide many precious news on education facts.UGC programmes are playing their efficient role in providing lot of students to be clear with their subjects.Advertistments that are shown in the television reaches the people very fast and certain good products and technical news reaches the minds of common people in fast voyage.So that,one could know more things in the world as well as things happening in our country.There are certain Health Programmes are also now mostly telecasting in the television.It is highly useful to the common people.It also creates certain awareness on certain issues.Even there are certain disadvantages in the use of television.It also causes many students to loss their concentration in their studies.
On viewing both the newspaper and television,the television causes the better impact in our country among the people.
The clash between the ideologies of teenagers and parents is a daily sight in most homes. There are many books and articles out there trying to tell what is wrong between their relationship and how to set it right. The main problem occurs in the way in which they think. The segment of life which causes a clash most number of times is the segment of career. Children have a completely different approach to career compared to adults. Teenagers aspire to settle in a job which makes them feel happy and satisfied. They want to work in an environment and in a profession in which they have interest and talent. They try to tell this to their parents but they usually don't succeed. Parents on the other hand want children to practice a profession which is tried and tested. They want them to take the same path that is being taken by all others. The interests of the teenager seem to be immaterial to them and the only thing they think about is about the pay packets that their children would get. It is not a bad thing to want their children to become rich and prosper, but they should also understand their child's interests and try to work out a suitable solution. Parent soften consider the ideology of their kids to be pretty premature and don't even want to listen to what they want to say properly. They only want them to listen to what they say and just join in the said course. They don't want to consider what a burden such a course might be for the student. This has to be one of the chief causes for the high suicide rate in our country. More teenagers in our country are dying of suicide than from diseases. It is high time that parents start thinking of not only the prosperity of the students but also of their interests and capabilities. This might result in a better country where there would be high quality engineers and doctors and artists. It gives rise to a more useful and dependable human resource as the people would be doing what they like best. This would be the real answer to unemployment and job layoffs. Continuing in the same fashion would do no good to the society and would actually degrade it and push us backward in development. Let’s hope parents would start understanding their kids and let them prosper in their own fields.
The village people are constantly moving to the cities, 75% -80% of the Indian population still live in village. If a larger number of people eared living by growing crops there would be more food grown in the country. Our cities would not be so crowded either. Unfortunately the life of a farmer in India is very uncertain. They produce so little food that one bad harvest or a drought can lead to starvation. On average the monsoons fail once every five years, causing drought. At such times the peasants have to borrow money from the local money-lender in order to stay alive until the next harvest. Between 1860 and 1901 there were ten major famines in India which led to the death of about 15 millions people. In 1943 one and half million people died of famine in Bengal.
Besides, the poor farmers cannot afford to buy the necessary seeds, fertilizers and pesticides or arrange for irrigation water. Thus the life of farmers in villagers is very hard. So, people move into towns in the hope of finding work. However, India still remains largely a land of villages.
There are many villages in India which are very small with just a few hundreds of people living in them. Life is very hard in these remote villages. There is no electricity and the water supply is erratic as the surrounding lakes, tanks and rivers often dry up when the monsoons fail, or during summer. Communication is difficult-even buses do not go right up to these villages. Schools and hospital are so far away that they be reached easily. Thus it is easy see why progress is so slow in these a small villages. Can you think of other reasons too?
The larger villages however have more facilities. These have electricity and cement houses for the well-to- do. Pumps are used to tap after. But the poor have a hard life. They live in thatched huts with mud walls which often get washed away in flash floods or heavy rains. The largest villages have shops where some `Luxury’ items such as soap and powder may be sold along with the daily necessities. Shop selling cloth and hardware may be found too.
Houses in Indian villages vary in size, shape and building materials, from one part of the country to another. People also dress differently as you can see in the pictures below.
Children living in villages and cities appear completely different from each other. A rural child may know a great deal a bout the land and animals. An urban child may have more `General knowledge’ about the world.
The main aim of the government’s five years plan is to bring some of the villages’ advantages of town life- schools, hospitals, electrification, sanitation, water- to villages, in order to make rural life better for people and to prevent them moving from the villages to the towns on a large scale.
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