Urban Economic Activities and Livelihood: A Case of Autowalas

The basic needs like food, shelter, cloth, and other secured necessities are the gross root level requirements of every human being. And even it drives to do economic activities for their livelihood. In India, urbanization characterized by employment argument, and it deals with different sectarian economic activities like infrastructure, service, hospital, education, industries, and transportation. In an urban transportation system, the auto has a centric position because of its coverage network in cities. So the present study attempts to investigate the centric transportation system in urban areas, i.e., auto-rickshaw service, by analyzing the socio-economic lifestyle of auto drivers and economics of auto wallas. The main objective of the study is to explore the socio-economic condition of auto wallas. The study also highlights the educational qualification, marital status, residence, and type of family, savings, borrowings, and economic position of auto wallas in Davangere city.


Introduction
Entrepreneurship, self-employment, employment, and economic activities are the product attributes that contribute to economic growth and there by play a crucial role in the development process. Entrepreneurship has been described as the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks to make a profit. The importance of entrepreneurship in India has intensified in recent times, particularly with the rise in knowledge, initiative services. New entrepreneurs who do not belong to traditional business communities have begun to emerge in large members. Entrepreneurship has grown rapidly because of creating wealth and generating employment. Entrepreneurial decision proceeds consist of deciding to become an entrepreneur by leading event or activity. In this context, the study attempts to address different entrepreneurs or entrepreneur business start-ups in this society, i.e., autowala. An Auto-rickshaw is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver used by a single passenger or small group of passengers. Auto-rickshaws are an essential part of urban transport. It acts like an intermediate that files the gap between private transport and format public transport in the city. An Auto-rickshaw conveys passengers between locations of their choice. The study aimed at developing a profile of Auto-rickshaw drivers. The citizens of Davangere are little dependent on Auto-rickshaw to go to their daily activities. Most of the passengers' optioned about auto wallas for safe survey rather than another vehicle. The auto-rickshaw driver is a more responded bit, and night level concentration and alertness are keeping their routine work.

Review of Literature
(Aparna Bhat 2012) Auto rickshaws are an essential part of urban transport and an important mode of transportation as well as a source of livelihood for a large number of people. This paper examines the political economy is a regular market, and this is purely based on the road transportation issues, rules, and regulations by the regional transport office as well as intermediate public transport.
(Emmashalaer, Akshaymani, 2013) The study mainly focused about the Mumbai Region, which is located in the wed coast of India, where they discussed about the auto wallas, income then lively wood and their grown, density, slums, sex ratio, socio, economic ratio, traffic and train portion and mode share and also they focussed more about the profile of the Auto rickshaw sector.
(Palani S. Subendiran 2014) This sector is plagued with several problems like financing of autorickshaws, policies, and corruption in providing permits, setting acceptable fares, parking problems, overcharging, misconduct, and many more. Though autos are an indispensable mode for urban mobility, its ecosystem, unorganized and independently-run, is a muddle.

(Anitha Ramachander & et al. 2015)
Auto drivers play an important role in towns and cities in India. They complement the public transportation facilities to a very great extent. Many people get into this profession with the hope of earning a decent income for the benefit of themselves and their families. However, the life of auto drivers is one of the financial struggles with low earnings and savings.
(Lisa Elango, & et al. 2018) An auto is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, which is used by a single passenger or small group of passengers. An auto conveys passengers between locations of their choice. This differs from the other modes of public transport where the pick-up and the drop-off locations are determined by the passenger; auto is the cheapest form of taxi.
(Dr. R. Rangarajan) auto-rickshaws are the most populous and cheapest mode of transport in providing the last mile connectivity to a greater set of population. This sector is experiencing various problems like financing of auto-rickshaws, hectic traffic rules and regulations, corruption in providing permits, setting acceptable fares, parking problems, overcharging, misconduct, and many more issues.
Objectives of the Study 1. To study and analyze the socio-economic condition of Auto-rickshaw drivers. 2. To study the operational aspects of Autorickshaw drivers.

Methodology
The research is based on secondary & primary data; it's exploratory & descriptive. The secondary data is collected from the review of past researches & other reports.
Primary data: is the specific information collected by the person who is doing the research. The primary data has been collected from a personal interview with a structured questionnaire from the respondents.
Secondary data: has been collected from published reports the Internet, newspapers, different magazine, and from various websites, etc. The sample size taken for the survey is 30 respondents.

Scope and Limitations of the Study
This study identifies the socio-economic aspects such as education, size of family, age, income, savings, and borrowings of auto drivers in Davanagere city. The information collected and interviewed 30 auto-rickshaw drivers, and the study has the following limitations.
The sample size (only 30) was not substantial enough to capture the complete scenario of the autorickshaw drivers and their problems.
Most of the auto-rickshaw drivers were usually hard-pressed for a time during the survey. They could not talk at great length about their problems.

Need for the Study
Today every one as facing so many problems from the environment because humans as polluted the environment for their purposes, their environmental problems, and more impact in the present and future on human day to day life activities. So the Auto Rickshaw being an informal sector, operators from economically weaker sections of the society. The purpose of this study is to undertake to know the socio-economics chase criticize as well as income and expenditure maintain by auto-rickshaw in Davangere city.

Scope for Future Research
The study group focussed on certain problems while conducting the survey, furthermore due to the limitation of time and resources, this report is based on a small survey study. Therefore, findings on the socio-economic condition and income Autowalas are very intuitive. To provide more definite evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, a further extended study is needed, which is based on the extend survey. However, more research is needed to gain insight into the socio-economic condition of Auto rickshaw drivers.

Hours of Operating Auto:
The table depicts the operating hours of the auto. 47% are operating auto 8-12 hours per day, followed by 37% of are 5-8 hours, and 16% are 5 hours operating an auto per day. So most of them operating daily 8-12 hours. Operating Auto's depend upon the season, and they are all very young and energetic also, very much enthusiastic in their work.

Night Shift:
A per survey 50% of are opinioned that they are never doing night shift, but only 3% are doing the night shift. It is indicated that half of the respondents share their opinion that they don't like to work in the night shift, but some time in an emergency or their requirement, they are all providing night service also.
Average km of Operation Per Day: 30% of the respondents' average kilometer operation per day is 0-30 km, 47% of respondents' auto per day is 30-50, and 23% of respondents operating auto per day is 50-100. It is indicated that most of the respondents operating per day, the auto is 30-50 km. It is a minimum operating of auto per day in Stavanger city because of competition by four-wheeler 2 wheeler vehicles.
The Income Per Day on a Busy Day: Table shows that 70% of respondents earn money in busy day Rs,500-800, 20% of respondents are earning money in busy day Rs.800-1000,7% of respondents earn money in a busy day less than 500. 3% of respondents earn money in busy day Rs.1000 and above. So it clears that most of the respondents earn money in busy days Rs.500-800, and this is maximum earnings to auto wallas in busy days. Rs. 500-800 5. Most of the drivers having BPL card 6. The majority of the drivers depend on an autorickshaw. 7. Private busses are major competitors with Auto drivers 8. Most of the auto drivers choosing this job for their employment.

Conclusion
A self employee searches for change, responds to it, and exploits opportunities, invent a specific tool to his activity. Hence an effective self employee converts a source into a resource. The way forward for the auto-rickshaw sector in Devanagari is to conduct further research into and implement the measures for regulation. Each of these measures has its pitfalls', which also require due consideration. However, this proves the issues created due to the regulation in the economy, and thus necessitates further research into the measures. The contribution of this study is the present socio-economic characteristics of the autorickshaw drivers were studied; their work pattern and pressure were understood and suggested to do alternative business to gain more profit for future days.