Mangaluru: An educational event for the empowerment of the autorickshaw drivers was conducted by the Kudla Sauharda Sahakari Niyamitha on 23 September in Mannagudda Samaaja Bhavan in the evening. The main theme of the seminar was to acknowledge the drivers about the importance of use of GPS and LED advertisement boards.
Prathap Hegde, Chief of ‘Telematix 4 You’ a Bengaluru based information technology firm had taken the initiative of educating the drivers under this move, Autorickshaw Community Empowerment (ACE).
Ashok Konchady, one of the founding members of the Kudla Sowharda Sahakaara Niyamitha which has taken the lead in conducting this event said that Mangaluru rickshaw drivers have chosen to ride autorikshaws due to the lack of job opportunities in the city. “More than 6000 autorickshaws running within the city has made it a competitive career. More facilities given to the drivers and their families can ease up their lives which are hard. We are working on providing such facilities to them in the coming days”, he added.
Prathap Hegde explained to the gathering about how the GPS device and advertisement board can help them in day to day life. “Mangaluru is the first city to be benefitted by the ACE move and the trend spread across three bigger cities. The present scenario show a rise in passengers travelling in Ola and Uber, autorickshaws must be equipped with GPS so that the passengers can trust and rely on them”, he said.
“The socio-economic empowerment of the drivers is very important. Call centers for the city rickshaw drivers will be introduced soon; Indian Space Research Organisation has come forward with their own satellite with NAVIK Technology to enhance the positioning of the autorickshaw”, he added.
“The LED advertisement board is also one of a kind all over the world. The board will be placed on the back of the vehicle and it works in such a way that it is connected to the on board GPS device. This will enable the advertisers to track where the vehicle is going and how many people have seen the advertisement on an average. This will fetch an extra income to the drivers as the advertisers can see how many hits their advertisement got”, he said about the advertisement boards.
Around 50 rickshaw drivers from the city participated in the event. M Devdas from Lion’s Club Mangaladevi, Vidya Dinakar a Mangalorean civil rights activist, Merlin Martis the head of Development Education Service and Alphonse D’Souza the Rickshaw Drivers’ Association President were also present at the event.
