This week saw one of the smallest, but perhaps among the most influential strike actions under the Narendra Modi government. Truck drivers protesting against what they see as draconian provisions under the new criminal codes brought by the government for hit-and-run accidents, went on a three-day strike.
Just as the strike had started disrupting not just regular but even necessary freight movement, the Union government assured the protestors that the new codes had not been implemented yet and promised the protestors that their concerns would be taken into account while implementing them. To be sure, it would be premature to assume that the government has really blinked. What the current actions seem to be is the proverbial act of kicking the can down the road, perhaps until the Lok Sabha elections.
What have truck driver strikes or hit-and-run accidents got to do with the political economy? Anybody who has travelled on roads, highways or otherwise, in India would agree that bad driving is more a behavioural problem than one of political economy. While some people may find it provocative, a majority of Indian drivers, especially among the underclass, display a very high degree of what can only be described as fatalism, which shows in their blatant disregard for rules and safety norms. An HT analysis of the ministry of road transport and highways data on road accidents, which shows that two-wheelers are the biggest offenders and victims in road accidents, supports this line of argument.
To be sure, there can be another way to look at this problem. Rogue drivers and vehicles on Indian roads are basically a result of two factors: poor regulation and cost-cutting.
The first is a failure on both ex-ante and ex-post basis. A lot of people were and still are issued a driver’s licence without proper tests. There is very little effort to track such offenders on our roads.
The second is obvious if you look at the roads. Over-loaded, poorly maintained, inappropriate and unsafe — all kinds of vehicles are used in India to ferry goods and passengers on the roads. While poor regulation is definitely to blame here, indulging in such practices also helps owners or operators cut costs and, in many cases, keep the business viable. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to argue that almost all last-mile road connectivity in India, both for passengers and goods, works on the principle of, safety be damned but let us cut costs.
Now, even if the government were to successfully address regulation failure, one must accept the fact that compliance with such regulations will lead to a huge increase in the cost of road transport in the country. Vehicles will have to be more expensive (think of iron rods or glass being transported while half of the consignment is protruding out of the vehicle or overcrowded school vans ferrying children), properly vetted drivers will demand a higher premium and last but not least, fares and freight charges will have to increase.
Disregarding safety concerns to cut costs is not just about greedy businesses trying to maximise their profits. What is equally important here is the fact that a safety compliance-led increase in costs could make such services as good as unaffordable for a large part of the consumers in both the passenger and freight markets. If such increases are pushed, this will eventually reflect an increase in the cost of goods and services which have a passenger (all labour migration) or freight travel-related cost component.
To be sure, roads are not the only area where the government is pushing for better compliance or improvement in services in the transport sector.
But roads, unlike rail or air traffic, are the most difficult when it comes to segregating high-cost and low-cost consumers from using transport. To give an example, a passenger travelling in Vande Bharat would not face the inconvenience or safety hazards of travelling in an unreserved compartment but it is very difficult to ensure a similar experience for an expensive and cheap unsafe vehicle using the same road. Having said this, discontent over the fall in the supply of low-cost rail travel has been making more and more news in the recent past.
At a larger level, this is nothing but a manifestation of the economic dualism in the Indian economy. A small but numerically significant share of the economy can pay for top-notch services including in the transport economy but an overwhelming share of the population is still forced to prioritise cost-cutting above all concerns including safety. In many sectors such as road transport, both these sections must use the same public good.
Any policy which seeks to impose a compliance burden on this large section of the have-nots is bound to trigger a democratic backlash. The truck drivers' strike is neither the first nor will it be the last precipitation on this front.
Questions like these are not about the ideology of a particular ruling regime. These are contradictions which a lower-middle income economy like India, but one which is also going to be the third biggest in the world, will have to confront in its trajectory of economic transformation. The only way to successfully resolve these tensions is to ensure that economic growth is broad-based so that even the underclass can afford to pay for physical safety without worrying about an economic accident while paying for its costs. Smart politics should draw this larger inference rather than take blanket positions on individual protests.
Every Friday, HT’s data and political economy editor, Roshan Kishore, combines his commitment to data and passion for qualitative analysis in a column for HT Premium, Terms of Trade. With a focus on one big number and one big issue, he will go behind the headlines to ask a question and address political economy issues and social puzzles facing contemporary India.
The views expressed are personal
Roshan Kishore is the Data and Political Economy Editor at Hindustan Times. His weekly column for HT Premium Terms of Trade appears every Friday. ...view detail
What truck strikes and overcrowded trains have to do with Indian politics
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0
04.01.2024
This week saw one of the smallest, but perhaps among the most influential strike actions under the Narendra Modi government. Truck drivers protesting against what they see as draconian provisions under the new criminal codes brought by the government for hit-and-run accidents, went on a three-day strike.
Just as the strike had started disrupting not just regular but even necessary freight movement, the Union government assured the protestors that the new codes had not been implemented yet and promised the protestors that their concerns would be taken into account while implementing them. To be sure, it would be premature to assume that the government has really blinked. What the current actions seem to be is the proverbial act of kicking the can down the road, perhaps until the Lok Sabha elections.
What have truck driver strikes or hit-and-run accidents got to do with the political economy? Anybody who has travelled on roads, highways or otherwise, in India would agree that bad driving is more a behavioural problem than one of political economy. While some people may find it provocative, a majority of Indian drivers, especially among the underclass, display a very high degree of what can only be described as fatalism, which shows in their blatant disregard for rules and safety norms. An HT analysis of the ministry of road transport and highways data on road accidents, which shows that two-wheelers are the biggest offenders and victims in road accidents, supports this line of argument.
To be sure,........
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