From Migrant to Taxi Driver: Navigating the Intersection of Formal and Informal Practices

In paper, I am looking the flexible non-codified informal rules within the preview of taxi occupation, which help migrants to get (comparatively) easily access to the occupation. The taxi occupation in Mumbai has historically been the occupation of migrants, with the faces of drivers evolving over time as different waves of migrants, from Chillias (migrants from the state of Gujarat) to Bhaiyas (migrants from the state of Uttar Pradesh), have taken up the trade. Currently, drivers from Uttar Pradesh hold a monopoly in this occupation. The state government has consistently increased control over the industry, introducing more regulations periodically to formalize the occupation. As part of these formalization efforts, potential drivers are required to avail certain prerequisites and for that they need to have 15-years domicile and a working knowledge of the Marathi language, among other conditions. The implementation of such stringent policies has compelled potential drivers, particularly those migrating from other states, to resort to informal means to meet the necessary requirements for driving and to circumvent these restrictions. Therefore, in this paper I tried to understand how the informality has proven to be a boon for migrants seeking entry into the taxi occupation. In order to achieve primary objective, I used qualitative methodology. Approaching migrant taxi drivers for the conventional interviews were practically and ethically not possible. For the conventional interview method, the researcher and participants need to sit at assigned time and space. However, participants of this research do not have the luxury of time and space to give interviews at one sitting. Ethically also it was awkward for researcher to approach the participants at the time of their earnings. Thus, the researcher relied on the method of 'interviewing on move' with migrant taxi drivers across the city. The method comes within the framework of ethnographic methodology.