Harischandra Bind, 33, is a busy man these days, as dozens of traditional boatmen daily visit his office at the Maa Ganga Nishadraj Seva Samiti at Dashashwamedh ghat to discuss their future amid the surge of tourists arriving in Varanasi.
“The boatmen’s income has been not increasing according to rising inflation. Amid this, the Varanasi Municipal Corporation has initiated plans to bring water taxis to ferry between the ghats. The tender for water taxis is again being opened this week, and boatmen worried about their future come to meet us asking for its implications,” said Mr. Bind, secretary of the Samiti, an organisation representing the boatmen community in Varanasi.
Unequal benefits
With over 70 million people visiting the city in 2022, the government is looking for new ways to cater to the needs of the tourism sector, leading to apprehensions among the 5,000-odd traditional boatmen in Varanasi. Most of them hail from the Nishad, Kewat, and Manjhi castes — all of which are Other Backward Classes or Scheduled Castes — who have traditionally been employed in ferrying visitors at Ganga ghats. Though they have earned their livelihoods in this way for ages, they have not benefited much from the recent tourist boom.
A survey conducted by two researchers from the economics department of Varanasi’s DAV PG college found that taxi and boat drivers have only seen a 20% hike in their income in recent years, even as the hotel industry saw a 40% to 65% spike in income, due to rapidly developing religious tourism facilities along the Kashi Vishwanath corridor which connects the iconic temple to the ghats along the river. These boatmen operate roughly 1,300 boats — of which 864 use CNG, or compressed natural gas — for religious and spiritual tourism purposes across the 84 ghats of Varanasi.
Cruise ship ‘betrayal’
Their rising apprehension about the water taxis stems from what they term “betrayal” when cruise ships were introduced five years ago. “If tourism is increasing, we should be beneficiaries not big companies. They are bringing water taxis. Five years back, a cruise ship was brought in Varanasi. When we protested, the administration asked for three months’ time and promised to operate it outside the city limits, but broke the assurance. Now four cruises are ferrying on Varanasi ghats, carrying passengers and hurting our business,” said Pramod Manjhi, a boatman who heads the Maa Ganga Nishadraj Seva Nyas, another group for the community.
He added that a cruise ship ride costs roughly four times the boat ride. “The fixed rate is ₹345 between Assi and Namo ghat for a boat ride, while the cruise charges more than ₹1,000. These figures tell who is benefiting from tourists,” he said.
The anxiety started when 10 water taxis, which can carry 80 to 100 passengers each and can complete ten rounds a day, were brought in June. The Varanasi municipal corporation fixed four stations for their operations, which includes the route fro, Harishchandra ghat to Manikarnika ghat, Assi ghat to Namo ghat, and Kashi Vishwanath corridor to Assi ghat. The administration aims to start operations soon after completing tender formalities.
Promises of ‘co-existence’
In July, the boatman protested against the decision to ply water taxis in the river Ganga, after which the administration promised to address their grievances before going ahead, reiterating that the taxis were being brought for co-existence and not to create disturbances.
“We held multiple rounds of meetings with the boatmen community and took them into confidence that the proposed project is not aimed at harming their livelihood, it will co-exist with them; moreover even these taxis would be operated by them only,” Varanasi Municipal Commissioner Sipu Giri told The Hindu.
Asked how many taxis would be operated between the ghats, he replied, “The project is being conceptualised, it is in trial stage. We are looking at avenues how it could be operated amid increase in number of tourists. The water taxi idea is one among the few ideas we are looking at, like solar boats.”
