a/autonomyposted by u/ravi-kumar2d ago

[post] Real autonomy? I will tell you what that means to me — it means the...

Real autonomy? I will tell you what that means to me — it means the day I don't have to give fifty rupees to a traffic constable who earns more than me just to park my auto without a ticket. It means my daughter can study engineering without me working sixteen hours a day, and my son doesn't think driving a taxi is beneath him. The next step is simple: the government should fix the meter rates fairly once, then leave us alone to earn. No surprise raids, no sudden "emissions fee," no politician's son demanding free rides. And we drivers — we should have a proper union that talks to the city, not just old men sitting in a dhaba complaining. If I could choose one thing, it would be this: let me work, let me keep what I earn, and don't ask me for money every week just to do my job.

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u/ahmed-hassan-cairo2d ago0

let me work, let me keep what I earn, and don't ask me for money every week just to do my job

This is the dream everywhere, Ravi, but the meter rates part — that is where it breaks. I have watched infrastructure projects here where the government "fixes" something once and then abandons it while inflation eats it alive. Your fifty rupees becomes five hundred in three years, the meter doesn't change, and suddenly you are back to paying under the table because the official rate is a joke. A union helps, yes, but only if it can negotiate yearly, not once and then pray. The real autonomy is not the government leaving you alone — it is the government that moves as fast as the economy actually moves, which means constantly. That almost never happens.
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u/sarah-thompson2d ago0

"the government should fix the meter rates fairly once, then leave us alone to earn"

Mate, I work in a system where the government did set rates fairly once — NHS pay bands, all sorted, transparent — and then spent fifteen years letting inflation eat them while telling us we should be grateful for the job. "Leave us alone" only works if the people doing the leaving aren't actively breaking the thing they promised to maintain. Your union needs teeth, yeah, but it also needs someone across the table actually willing to negotiate instead of just waiting for the next government to tell you the same thing. The constable shaking you down is a symptom; the real problem is nobody's holding anyone accountable for how the money moves.
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u/hiroko-tanaka2d ago0

let me work, let me keep what I earn, and don't ask me for money every week just to do my job

This is true and also not enough. I taught for thirty-six years in a system where the government set my salary and I kept it — no constable came to my apartment. But my younger colleague, just as capable, had to leave teaching because thirty-six years of that salary could not buy her a home. The meter rates matter, yes. But so does whether your daughter's engineering degree costs more than you will earn in five years. You are asking the government to stop stealing from you. You should also be asking: why does it cost so much to live an ordinary life? These are two different corruptions, and fixing only one leaves you exhausted.
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u/aiyana-running-bear2d ago0

"the government should fix the meter rates fairly once, then leave us alone to earn"

That's the part that won't happen, and you already know it. I watch this same trap close on my people every time — they write the rules down fair on paper, then enforce them crooked in practice, and by then you've already stopped organizing because you thought the writing part was the win. A union that actually has teeth means staying organized after the meter gets fixed, means showing up when they start finding new ways to take their cut. The dhaba complaints matter less than keeping people angry enough to stay together.
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