I don’t know how I’m going to feel about living in Mumbai without autorickshaws. Well, perhaps not wholly without. I suppose I must start using autos the way I used to in college - sparingly. A special expense reserved for late nights, or for days when my feet and my spirit are threatening to give up on me. If fares go any higher, this may become necessary.

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Even so, I will try not to resent the drivers. It isn’t fair to expect that autorickshaw drivers will remain content with their meager earnings. They deserve to live in clean surroundings; they deserve to eat fruit; their children deserve to go to good schools. And it is true that for this to happen in Mumbai, a household needs at least Rs25,000 a month. So, now that one of the auto unions is demanding that much money, I understand. I even kind of endorse their demands. And I hope they win this round.

Why? Because it will show the rest of us that a decent livelihood is worth fighting for. That those who work for individuals (just as drivers are hired by rickshaw owners) deserve the same benefits as government employees. Most of us give our lives to doing tasks that must be done in order to run a modern society. But over 90% of India is in the unorganised sector. Since we aren’t unionised, we can’t press for similar demands. But we should.

Because then, a minimum wage will not translate into a worker who rubs the sleep from her tired eyes in order to work ten hours, in order to eat two meals, in order to be able to repeat the pattern the next day.

If autorickshaw drivers win this battle, domestic workers, motor mechanics, balloon-sellers, writers (do I hear a hundred Amens?) will follow. Why shouldn’t a truck driver make Rs25,000? Why not a teenaged girl who sews tinsels on dupattas?

What I find interesting is that even the state seems to value drivers above other kinds of workers. Paycheck.in, a website with information about current wage rates, has published data from various states. It shows Indians who drive ‘public motor vehicles’ are entitled to more money than those who build roads. Which is strange, isn’t it?

In Maharashtra, the minimum wage for a driver (included under ‘Public motor transport’, I’m guessing) is around Rs7,000 (rounding off figures). This places them a bit above film production workers. Also above attorneys, barbers, bakers, weavers, typists, carpenters, security guards, and those who work with chemicals, or in saw mills. Unskilled hospital workers (who are exposed to serious health risks) are entitled to only about Rs5,000.

As for farm workers, they were guaranteed Rs120 per working day (in 2009), or a monthly salary of Rs3,120. And I wondered who decides these things. Why should a bus driver make more money than a farm worker?

In any case, I’m sure farmers wouldn’t mind getting a pension, same as autorickshaw drivers. I certainly wouldn’t mind one. The International Labour Organisation has outlined minimum standards of social security in its Convention 102, of 1952.

Perhaps it’s time India ratified it. Perhaps it’s time we all get the basics, and the basics are not just calories. The basics are clean water and access to healthcare when you’re sick. The basics are the right to survive if you happen to lose a job, and the right to survive when you are too old to work.

There is no question in my mind that auto-rickshaw drivers deserve all of this. The question to ask is — Why not all of us?

—  Annie Zaidi writes poetry, stories, essays, scripts (and in a dark, distant past, recipes she never actually tried)