Delhi ‘clean up’ hits small businesses

25th June 2009

Simon Harding

Delhi’s taxi drivers are to be given a lesson in manners in a scheme run by the Indian Tourist Board in collaboration with the Indian government, writes Andrew Buncombe in the Independent. The Indian capital’s taxi fleet is a major presence on the streets and, unlike many European capitals, flagging on down quickly is never a problem. However, the cleanliness of the vehicles is often questionable, the standard of driving frequently hair-raising and the driver often abrupt and abrasive. The scheme aims to teach the ‘taxiwallahs’, most of whom earn very low wages, common courtesies and basic English. They are also encouraged to deal honestly with foreign customers by charging reasonable fairs rather than the common practice of claiming a ‘broken meter’ in order to overcharge visitors.

The drive to improve the image of the dishevelled Indian taxi driver is part of a wider effort by the Delhi authorities to clean up the streets ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in the city.  Central to this drive is the desire to present to the world’s media and global investors a clean, modern city, which reflects the startling economic growth enjoyed by the country in the last two decades.

So teams of government-paid cow catchers are already at work rounding up the cattle which wander freely around Delhi’s streets, railways lines and flyovers. Once lassoed, they are driven many miles to the edge of the city from where they await collected by their owners, who face a long, hot walk. Owned by urban small-holders, these animals provide milk for struggling urban families who lack sufficient land to construct proper enclosures. Street vendors and food stalls are also coming under increasing pressure from the authorities, who envisage cleaner, less cluttered streets with fewer more formal, licensed stalls.

Despite impressive GDP growth, vast inequalities persist. Huge swathes of India’s 1.1 billion strong population remain untouched by the successes in the ICT and technology sectors, which benefit a growing but still comparatively small middle class. Rather than submit taxi drivers, urban smallholder, stallholder, street vendors and other small-scale urban entrepreneurs to increasingly restrictive regulations and PR campaigns as part of a drive to portray a  clean, uncluttered, modern city, the Delhi authorities should show that the city’s commitment to business friendliness begins at the bottom: with the small scale entrepreneur.

A switch from interference in small scale businesses to actually promoting and encouraging entrepreneurialism on the capital’s streets would not only displays a pro-business attitude which would appeal to global investors, but would also acknowledge the unequal nature of India’s economic growth and the pressing needs of the majority of its people.
 
See also:
‘Delhi drivers to get lessons in manners’, A. Buncombe, Independent, 10/6/09.
‘Holy Cow! It’s Delhi’s urban cowboys’, A. Buncombe, Independent, 8/6/09.