Good day.
30,300 km of travel as a truck cleaner across multiple trips since 2010.
Five books: 10,000 KM on Indian Highways (2011); Naked Banana (2012); An Affair With Indian Highways (2013); Drivernama (2022); and Desh Chalak (2023).
The travel aim was to gain first-hand knowledge of the challenges long-haul truck drivers face on Indian highways as they transport everything from raw materials to finished products.
The Republic of India is actually the United States of India. Every state has its own set of transport policies, as transport is on the Concurrent List of the Constitution. It means the rollout of the policy is largely in the hands of the 29 state governments, along with the handful of Union Territories.
It was the pre-GST era, and interstate movement required multiple checkpoints, leading to a higher incidence of corruption.
Did my writing have any impact on the target groups? By the by, who are/were my target groups?
No media outlets covered the truck drivers’ predicament, despite their yeoman role in building India. Truck drivers were in the limelight only when there was a road mishap and a heavy toll. Otherwise, there was total silence.
Even the niche trade magazines were PR sheets for commercial vehicle makers and other suppliers of tyres, batteries, lubricants, and oil marketing companies. Drivers were never on their horizon. Drivers were never the source of advertising revenue. Sing and dance about those who gave advertisements. Nothing unusual. For the mainline dailies, the focus always remained on politics.
That’s when I was trucking to observe truck drivers’ lives and times, and spending time with their families in remote villages of India to understand how they coped with life when their breadwinners were away for long stretches.
So, my target group was not drivers. They are not my readers because they come from an underprivileged society and lack educational gravitas. Yet they suffered at the hands of various stakeholders. They were not organised, and hence they had no voice, but they needed one. I stepped into that vacuum.
Then, who was my target group? The stakeholders—the educated lot, directly or indirectly associated with the economy. We all have a “relationship” with the trucking community. Remove transport for a second if you are ready to re-enter the cave age. As individuals, we were dependent on others for food, shelter, medicine, etc.
Yet, we care not for truck drivers.
One fine February 2013 morning, over breakfast, my family asked a pertinent question:
Did your writing impact the target group? Has it changed society’s attitude towards truck drivers?
I had no answer, because my silence was the testament to our attitude. Pure neglect.
Get into mission mode, the family advised.
The result: KRK Foundation.
It is a registered Trust.
Its mission: To improve the working and living conditions of truck drivers and their families living in remote villages of India.
Ramesh Kumar
Founder - KRK Foundation
krkfoundation2013@gmail.com
+91 97115 44181
