The curious case of Autos in suburban Bengal

A Bengali by birth, (home: Kolkata) an expat through marriage and choice in the Western part of India for over a decade now. However for some strange personal reason I am spending a long time in Kolkata, India for almost three months now. What strikes me is the Unified payment interface getting whole hearted traction in almost every roadside shops but a severe lack of it in means of public commutation like auto rickshaws and syndicate of electric rickshaws.

As an average Indian we use smartphones more than most countries including rural areas. In my next story I would give more numerical picture of the same. (1) And as much as grocery delivery apps are a must in urban India currently like bigbasket, blinkit, zepto and instamart, riding apps for conveniently booking a ride on public communication including renting uber, ola, electric cars have an equal leverage for the urban Indian smartphone user. (2)

During one of those ride booking services, I downloaded an application called Rapido which is an unified platform to find cars, autos, rickshaws under the aegis of a single app function. I was surprised that my locality where every minute an auto is more common during peak time than anything else, the app had provision yet no auto enlisted with it.

This, could be attributed to two causes, one: the grip of local political forces vis a vis the corporate structure of apps (this particular app is pan India).

two, the reluctance of drivers to enlist under the app to avoid a shift in the rather autocratic self declared work culture.

The second reason in fact has higher plausibility given that:

1. Enlisting under a national app would require strict adherence to national emission/vehicle/accepting rides norms.
2. It would also need a web of drivers having the unified payment interface linked to their bank accounts which in turn has to be declared under the app's verified list. Although few rickshaw owners did have their individual UPI acceptability.

Both the sub reasons have their own chances of being correct, am sure there is no research on this at present. However, given the cultural temperament of most auto drivers aligned with the political process, there is every chance that the political stance of being loggerheads with Center might just be a strong reason. Yet my counter argument and the mismatch puzzle piece is the rampant use of UPI in roadside vendors and almost vanishing of cash transactions for small daily amounts. Given the syndicate of commutation means (autos and rickshaws) being tied with liquor consumption and/or independence of setting work time, an UPI feature is seen unnecessary and cumbersome. Cash would mean in most cases easy money, bursts of spending and ability to indulge in activities where digital money is irrelevant, an activity like gambling or shady actions. Or even the fact that the ownership and driving rights might be separate for these cases.

This brings me to wonder what might be the relationship of crime rate and criminal profiles in a given area and how this might give us leads regarding the type of criminal activity in pockets of a small sub region.

In the next story let me find some data to back this speculation and run this as a curious project!