Future in my hands

• For 20 years, Shailendra Sharma (pictured above with his family) has been driving autorickshaws on Delhi's roads. His P and L account had no "other income" or exceptional items, but the 42-year-old has managed to bring up three siblings who are now settled in life, build a house for his family of six including his parents and two children and even squirreled away Rs 70,000. But the icing on his contentment comes from something else: The advertisements on his auto.
• Mohammed Rehaan Raza Khan, a 38-year-old who has been on the roads for 10 years now, brings home around Rs 10,000 a month with which he has to support his family of eight and pay the loan installment of Rs 5,500 on his three-wheeler. Hardly able to make ends meet, he now dreams of making his son an engineer.

Shailendra and Raza Khan are among 85,000-odd autorickshaw drivers in Delhi who live for the moment, whose only earnings come from daily micro-battles with commuters. The future? No provident fund, no gratuity, no pension. For a handful like them, all this is changing — and at no extra cost — courtesy a micropension scheme launched by NyayaBhoomi, a Delhi-based nongovernment organisation (NGO), and Invest India Micro Pension Services (IIMPS), a think-tank and a pension solutions provider.

NyayaBhoomi is no stranger to autodrivers in Delhi. For the past four years, it has been helping this much-maligned tribe from within and without by introducing best practices and lobbying with the government to create better conditions for the transport system.

Then, in November last year, NyayaBhoomi and IIMPS began trying out a new scheme, selecting auto drivers who would sport advertisements on their autos in return for a handsome Rs 2,000 a month. Well, there is a "cut"—but this Rs 500 goes straight into a micropension scheme for the driver himself! UTI's Retirement Benefit Pension (UTI RBP) Scheme invests the money and at retirement the driver can opt for either a lumpsum or a monthly pension. Those who don't want to carry advertisements can still enrol for the pension with just Rs 200 a month. The NGO pays the civic tax on the advertisement.

When Shailendra and Raza Khan first heard about the scheme, their reaction was disbelief. Khan consulted at least 10 of his friends and didn't tell his family for the first few days. "Our unions never bothered about the problems we faced from time to time. So when NyayaBhoomi came up with this scheme, I had faith as I had heard about it from others but I still wasn't confident about how beneficial it will be for my family," says Khan.

Jeet Singh Rawat, an auto driver for 28 years, dropped into the NyayaBhoomi office only after speaking to fellow drivers who had signed up. "We eat from what we earn daily. Except for a life insurance policy for my wife and me, I didn't have any savings," says Rawat, who has already borrowed against the policy to get one of his two daughters married off. Now he hopes that the advertisement and pension scheme will help him in educating his son and marrying off his second daughter.

While Jeet Singh Rawat and Raza Khan took time to get convinced, Sharma faced the ridicule of his fellow drivers after he signed up. "When 10 people around you tell you that you are being conned, you tend to get jittery," he recalls. Then he fished out the documents— white and pink slips for pension receipts and the passbook of the bank where NyayaBhoomi deposits the advertisement revenues.

But he still has stabs of fear. "I hope these people to whom I suggested the scheme don't queue up in front of my house if anything goes wrong," says Sharma. After all, in the past, every move to "improve" their lot has come with a cost. Whether it was the switch from petrol to compressed natural gas in 2001, or from mechanical to electronic meters, each time the auto drivers had paid black-market rates.

Some like 45-year-old Rajesh Arora, a former bus conductor who took a three-year loan of Rs 2 lakh at 16 per cent interest rate to buy an autorickshaw in 2008, has been paying a monthly installment of Rs 8,250 to a private money lender. Moreover, drivers claim that auto workers' unions have seldom helped them in procuring finance at cheaper rates or in solving their problems.

But the new savings/pension scheme is changing all this, with the extra income giving a cushion and the pension some peace of mind. For the 200-odd drivers who have enrolled, there is also a pride factor: at traffic lights and fuel stations, other drivers want to know how the advertisement thing works. "There are 100-odd drivers who queue up in our office everyday to enroll for the pension scheme," says Rakesh Agarwal, Secretary of NyayaBhoomi.

The extra income that is credited into their bank account is also creating a savings habit. "I can save money for my daughter's marriage and for my mother's medical expenses," says Shailendra. Life and health cover are not very far away. "We are working on a low-cost health and life cover facility along with IIMPS," says Agarwal. Moreover, NyayaBhoomi also plans a scholarship fund for providing superior education to children of auto drivers and a scheme that will help them get auto finance at reasonable rates.

IIMPS plans to take the concept to other cities also. "The transport sector employs a large number of people who work in an un-organised way…. we are working with auto drivers in Delhi and rickshaw pullers in Rajasthan, but once we achieve critical mass in Delhi, we plan to take it forward to other cities," says Gautam Bhardwaj, Director and one of the co-founders of IIMPS.

Auto drivers are not the only ones availing themselves of the micro-pension scheme. Some 45,000 low-income women of Sewa Bank contribute Rs 50-250 per month towards the same pension scheme. IIMPS and UTI MF, in association with local NGOs, have also brought low income workers in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh under the scheme. In Rajasthan, the state government also contributes up to Rs 1,000 annually for eligibile workers across 20 specified occupations. It has enrolled more than 30,000 members.

So, maybe the next time the auto-rickshaw driver tries to rip you off, you can ask him if he has joined up. The answer would be "no".

HOW THE PENSION SCHEME WORKS

• UTI RBP Fund invests contributions.
• 40 per cent goes into stocks, 60 per cent into debt.
• No withdrawal penalty for small contributors.
• So far, UTI RBP has given 12 per cent average annual compounded return.

HOW DROPS MAKE AN OCEAN

• If an 18-year-old auto driver contributes Rs 500 p.m. starting 2010.
• By 2050 (age 58) he gets Rs 30,262 p.m. as pension, says IIMPS.
• The sum has been calculated on the basis of 10 per cent annual return.