Be ready to work under your driver!

NEW DELHI: Don’t be rude to the cabbie. You might be working for his travel agency tomorrow. And while you are at it, you might as well take management classes on the side from your maid.

Welcome to the new world of the invisibles. Here is a taxi driver who has a business plan to tap the ’10 Commonwealth Games, a multilingual auto driver talking his way into ‘hospitality and tourism’ sector and a domestic help who sweeps extra floors to train as a makeup artist.

The drivers, peons –– people usually on the wrong side of the great Indian middle class –– are now applying traditional management ideas to their ‘profession’ to breach the economic divide. The informal sector that provides about 45% of the Indian GDP and forms about 65% of the total workforce in metro India is moving towards a more organised and entrepreneurial existence.

Economists from NCAER and Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi agree to the trend, saying it is a derivative of increased ‘awareness’ levels. BR Bhopal, a 30-something auto rickshaw driver and a wannabe tycoon, says its ‘economic liberalisation.’

Bhopal looks no different than the numerous others who ply the ‘three-wheelers’ in the city. Till he opens his mouth to speak fluent English, French and Italian, apart from Hindi and his native Bhojpuri. “I can understand German and Spanish,” says the Champaran native who holds a masters degree in political science.

“I have a friend in the same trade who is studying to become a CA and he advises me on ways to save money which my brother and I are investing in setting up a Rs 500,000 dhaba in Champaran. We also plan to purchase two more auto rickshaws in the next two years because it’s a good way to make money fast,” he says.

Raj Yadav, who drives a taxi attached to the International Airport in New Delhi, agrees. “The ’10 Commonwealth game will change the structure of the taxi trade in Delhi. Most existing cabs don’t match the emission norms and will be phased out.

There will be high demand for AC cabs that will ply from Delhi to other tourist destinations. They will need good drivers who can provide a complete service and that is where I come in,” he says. The suave cabbie has already gathered enough resources to place the order for three additional vehicles that will be part of his new taxi service.

He, like Bhopal, has a group of friends in the same trade who think like him. Both men are confident of achieving their goals and have a long-term perspective in mind. As is Seema, the domestic help who sweeps the floors of six houses in the morning and pays to train as a ‘makeup artist’ at a posh south Delhi Parlour in the evenings.

“Another 10-15 years down the line, I plan to have my independent practice,” says the jean-clad teenager. All three are symbols of the change in the informal sector, which is affecting the lives of thousands who plan similar entrepreneurial activities to cross the economic divide.

“Though there is not much movement from informal to formal sector in urban India. But the increased awareness levels are helping the informal sector to get more organized,” says a researcher from NCAER.