Taxi Drivers Provoked

23 year old Indian born Taxi driver is stabbed multiple times and remains on the roadside in cold conditions for two-and-a-half hours before two men find him. He continues to be in “critical condition” in Royal Mebourne Hospital where heis declared out of danger after two days.

What follows has never been witnessed before. Drivers from the Indian community block the busy intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets in Melbourne for 22 hours. Pandemonium follows.

Gippy Brar is the one of the biggest taxi multi operators in Adelaide and has a fleet of 60 taxis. He came to Australia two years ago from Chandigarh and has managed a very successful enterprise in a short time.

Majority of his drivers are Indian students. He is very straight forward about the whole episode. “Whatever happened in Melbourne is not good. The reality is, if you are dealing with a Sharabi (drunken person),then one has to bear such incidents. Majority of such acts are because of booze and not racism. Racism content is there but it very rare. A lot also depends on the mood swings of the driver and the passengers which causes them to behave erratically.” Adds Gippy, “I have been thoughvarious discussions with the transport authorities and fellow cabbies. Initially Greeks came in, then Italians, then Chinese and now Indians are facing these problems. This phase will pass in 2 to 3 years by which time Indians will be more accepted as taxi drivers. Booze is the problem and police need to take taxi drivers more seriously.”

“Fares should be paid upfront assome of the passengers run away  and when drivers lose their money they get upset. In a few cases after they reach home, the passengers tell the driver they will go inside their homes and fetch the money and never return. When the drivers call the police, the police knocks on the doors and leave after some time. They say they have no powers to get inside the house. In some cases passengers just fall off to sleep as soon as they enter their home. What can we do?” laments Gippy.

Gippy adds, “It is also a reality that some of Indian students come into this industry with no customer service training. Some of the passengers take this seriously and these reasons sometimes find expression in such acts. Taxi driving is one ofthe lowest jobs in this country and is an easy source of living for new migrants.” Out of around 1000 taxis in Adelaide, around 150 are in the hands of Indian community and majority are still Greek drivers.”

After the death of Melbourne based Taxi driver Rajneesh Joga,who died of head and chest injuries a few hours after his cab was commandeered by a man running from police in August 2006, the Victorian Taxi drivers association was founded.

Ashok Kundu, is the Treasurer of Victorian Taxi drivers association and a taxi operator with 16 cabs in Adelaide and another 2 in Melbourne. He is disillusioned with the treatment of taxi drivers and insists on having a safety security screen and a recording camera inside taxis which records both video and voice. “There should also be upfront payment after 6 pm”, he demands.

Arun Badgujar, is the President of the Victorian Taxi drivers association and says, “I have seen this drama since the last 2 years. We now have in-principle approval for safety screens which will have 50% government subsidy and 50% will be paid by the owner. We are looking forward to its implementation here. We are also looking for 24 hour protection.

“Minister has also announced that there will be prepaid system in operation from 10 pm to 5 am which will be introduced during Christmas.” Arun explained, “We are also having talks with the Asst Director of Transport Union to overcome these issues and are also following up on the promises which the Minister has made. Lot needs to be done with police attitudes to drivers in general as the response of police to their problems is not good. A lot of drivers are facing more trouble than before. It is uncalled for and we are facing 2 to 3 serious cases of assaults, punches and kicks. This is too much to bear. Not all incidents get reported or followed up.”

“Students hesitate to come out in media or pursue it. One of the 1300Cabs driver was assaulted on 26th March when he was driving a Maxi-Van when a passenger tried to strangle him with his seat belt. The driver has marks around his neck and police did not take his complaint seriously. He came from Haryana in India and has been driving cabs since the last one year.” Adds Arun, “It is good to see Indian community getting together after this incident. These are early days and we need the community to commit support for longer period.” In 2006 about 43% drivers were from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“It is a pain that the taxi industry is not organised. We have been assured that the Victorian Taxi Directorate will cover the medical fees for critically injured stabbing victim Jalvinder Singh.” Baghwant Singh, another taxi operator in Melbourne and owner of Ideal Way Taxi has been in this industry since the last 15 years and owns 40 taxis. He has also been a driver for around 10 years. He adds,”Such incidents have been happening in the past but they were not as serious as the Jalvinder case. We had runners and non paying customers being reported by drivers operating in West Melbourne. This incident has happened in South Melbourne. Such incidents can happen anywhere in the city.”

Art Dreimanis, Vice President of Adelaide Cab Drivers Association is a man of wisdom and was a member of Taxi Task force. He spoke at length on this issue. “We are exploiting Indian immigrants by not having them properly trained and we treat them as 2nd class citizens. Everybody expects customer service from drivers and these young drivers don’t have any customer service skills. Because of extremely low levels of payments and worse working hours we have got students into this industry as a last resort.They get frustrated and public get frustrated as well. Some of the Indian drivers as individuals are some of the best taxi drivers in this country. It is sad that people pick on the same drivers whom they use for cheap labour. Most of them don’t smoke, commit no crime and most of them are Sikhs whose religion doesn’t allow them to do such things.”

Recalling an incident Art says, “In one of the incidents one Indian student driving a cab had a passenger who ran away without paying the fare but in the process dropped his mastercard in the taxi. When the driver took the master card to the police station,they took the details and lodged a lost property case for the credit card, without helping the driver. In another incident, a passenger gave his drivers license to the driver and walked away without paying his fare. The driver got into trouble for bringing the license to the police station as he was told that he had no authority to take anyone’s license and got reprimanded.People are being discriminated. If we as a society don’t educate them, its not their fault when they make wrong decisions.” Adds Art, “I once saw alady standing in a shopping centre when a cab driven by an 20-21 year old Indian driver pulled over and told the passenger politely that she had ordered a taxi and he had come to pick her up. She refused and said you are Indian and I don’t like Indians. I felt so ashamed. He was judged on his culture. The society is suffering from cultural prejudices at the moment.”

Cautions Art, “There is also a degree of prejudgment from drivers from certain parts of the world where women don’t have much freedom. We should help them understand our social cultures and attitudes. If a women wears less clothes here that does not mean she is easily available. We need to educate the drivers.”

Manoj (name changed) a Sydney based Taxi driver says, “What the mainstream society needs to understand is that a most of harassment and sexual assaults on passengers have come from people from Middle Eastern background and non Indian drivers from the Indian sub continent. But the offenders think that the drivers are Indians and cause trouble.”

Prakash Singh, a taxi driver who came to Australia a few years back prefers driving taxi than doing anyother office job says, “Some of our best drivers in Australia are from Punjab and Haryana. They understand the  mainstream culture and some of them have the most clean cars and cleaner attitudes.”

Jalwinder’s family living in Karnal in Haryana has demanded that the Australian government must punish the attackers and said that they want Jalvinder to comeback to India. “We had sent him to study to Australia, not realising he was unsafe,” the family informed TimesNow TV in India.

Anita Nayyar, Indian Consul General in Melbourne explained to THE INDIAN, “In Melbourne we are interacting with all concerned,including the Victorian Taxi Drivers Association and the Victorian Minister for Transport, to follow up on the assurances given by the Victorian government. We are also liaising with Mr. Jalvinder Singh’s family and friends,and with the hospital authorities to monitor his recovery. The latest update received from the hospital is that his condition is now stable and that he was discharged from the ICU and moved into a general ward.”

Similar Posts:

• Will Student Bashing be accepted as a Way of Life in Australia?
• Will Gurshan Singh’s tragic death show us the way?
• Its a Joke
• Back to Future for Australia and India
• Interview with Frank Menneli. Assistant Commissioner of Police, South Western Metro Region