Impact of Lockdown on the Socio-Economic Condition of Taxi Drivers: A Study of GOA

Abstract

The taxidrivers are mostly from weak economic background, migrants and/or does not have enough educational qualifications to get jobs in formal sectors. With the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures by the government, their economic condition of the taxidrivers have worsened and also increases their financial burden as their daily earnings completely disappeared. The study aims to analyse the socio-economic characteristics of taxidrivers and the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures on the auto- rickshaw drivers of Goa city. It also attempt to get insight into the means of sustenance of the taxidrivers during lockdown period. In this paper, we have also made an attempt to check whether there is any association between the possession of bank account by the taxi drivers and their levels of monthly earnings using Chi-square analysis. Based on our result we conclude that there is an association between possession of bank account by the taxidrivers and their income levels. It has also been verified that lockdowns lead to the significant reduction in the monthly expenditure of the drivers. The study also provide an evidence that owning of land by the auto rickshaw drivers has a significant impact on the compulsion and decision of theirs to borrow money to sustain their livelihoods. However there is hardly any impact of owning of land on the decision of the drivers to work in the others sectors during lockdown. The majority of the taxidrivers or their families availed government benefits of some form but it was not enough to sustain their livelihoods in the lockdown period and compel many to work in other sectors.