An Economy of Agents & Genders

I visited the RTO yesterday for the momentous ‘cancellation of hypothecation’ of my car … In English, my car’s EMI cycle is complete and the bank has expressed its no objection for the car to become completely mine… blah blah!!.

So I set off, pretty clearly with a bit of trepidation, just like all us private sector types when we are about to visit a Govt. run department that has the power to allow or disallow your candidacy for citizenship or some such critical ‘proof of existence’.

A smattering of rows of buildings, mostly dilapidated, sprawling & unkempt vacant spaces being used for parking vehicles of all sizes. As usual Govt. owned premises being the most privileged and inundated with length(s) of acres. I was hit by the teeming nos., and immediately a wave of helplessness. First, the sea of men - I was the only woman in the visible vicinity (and perhaps the only human with a trace of a deodorant on me!!), amidst the sea of Agents teeming around to push papers for various ‘vehicle-owners’.

Second, the visual chaos of RTO officials spread across building blocks A, B, C, D; accessible to lesser mortals across dusty windows - discernible only by imaginary nos. ‘How am I ever going to get across to anyone?’- was the dominant panic reflex to this sight.

But the day had something else in store for me. I went to approx. 15 different officials, twice or thrice to the same guy in some instances. Each time to my wonderment politely guided, almost pedantically directed to the right window, at times papers voluntarily put in order, rearranged and stapled for processing, average waiting time of maximum 2 mins. at each official’s desk. Every time aided, guided, treated with fair dignity, at times even the several Agents pointing out to the right window, of their own volition.

I was done in little over an hour which, I believe, is a fairly reasonable duration considering I had to access at least 10 different attestations from the Head Clerk to the Section Officer to the Deputy RTO.

Then it hit me!

At a place where the educated vehicle buyers find it commonly convenient to get all papers processed through Agents, a woman’s presence is a thing of the ‘uncommon’. What is more unique is that the woman hasn’t taken recourse to an Agent and hasn’t tried to escape this rigmarole of a visit to the RTO, and hence, I reckon might be a matter of sympathy for all concerned. That’s about my pleasantly surprising experience.

As for the economy bit, I realized this existence of a parallel economy of Agents who’ve come to stay - thriving, efficient, almost professional and businesslike triggered by our more familiar world of vehicle buyers & aspiring car owners (who need their driver’s license) who’re mostly too busy or unwilling to go through this experience, as long as they can pay the odd 100- 200 bucks to the Agent to get it done. For the Agent, it’s a child’s game – being on first-name basis with most of the officials, getting 8 to 10 papers processed at one time across several batches, and all this in a full day’s work. A livelihood for most of them. No wonder there was a huge method despite the visible madness.

No wonder then that Raju kept telling me tales about how (even) he hires an agent every time he needs a renewal of his license, indicating his puzzlement over why someone like me would not do the same. ‘Agent ko sau - dosau rupaiah dedo to karva deta hai’. Not able to overcome his dilemma, he has offered to go pick up the new RC book thinking why a person like me should go back there just to pick it up. And I’ll let him do that, content having done it once, happy in this new awareness and amused that my madness keeps me bumping into new insights and gender awakenings!!