The "Make in India" movement has been gathering a lot of momentum off late in our country and rightly so. With its vision of making India, a manufacturing hub for Asia and the world, the make in India should help guide some large scale reforms in our infrastructure and tax structures.

However, before Make in India, our country needs a radical reform in "Move in India". While the Make in India movement has focused on labor for manufacturing, manufacturing setups and incentives and reforms in taxation and to an extent in reforming our roads, highways and rails; there is a lot more which needs to be done for “Move in India".

Before we Make, we need to optimize the Move. Manufacturing essentially relies on Moving or Logistics for raw material movement (Inbound), outbound and distribution and storage of goods at logical points. This movement of material or goods is challenged by various issues which could threaten the entire Make in India initiative. The challenges are to be resolved by all  three forces of our nation, the government, the Industry and the citizens.

Imagine the life of a truck driver, driving a 16 ton truck full of your favorite food item or clothing from one city to the other over a distance of 1000 kms. He would logically be driving for 5-7 days, depending upon the origin and destination. For loading and unloading, he would be typically queue for 20-40 hours at the manufacturing plant or at the company warehouse, many times during which he would not have the basic sanitation facility. On the road, he would occasionally be harassed by the local RTO or check posts and made to wait for various reasons or even be physically abused as he is "only a driver" who can financially exploited. To compound this, imagine the communication issues a driver from Tamil Nadu being questioned at check post in a Punjab or vice versa would face. And to sum it up, a driver is solely responsible for the cargo worth lakhs he ferries and gets paid one of the lowest sums of remuneration in the logistics value chain. For earning what he does, he sacrifices his family life, his self-respect on road (when was the last time we saw toilet facilities for these folks on highways or roads? when was the  last time you abused a truck driver who you thought did not drive as well as you drove your car?) and many a times his life on the road! (Accidents due to road conditions, over loading and lack of basic health facilities in case of emergency).

So how can we dream of Make when we have so many issues when we Move. The onus then shifts on all of us; the government, industry and the citizen to help contribute to  this aspect of moving in India, i.e., help our driver community.

For the government, it’s imperative we transform our RTO and traffic police organizations. Recently Mr. Gadkari too spoke openly about the "Laxmi Darshan" ritual of our RTO and traffic police officials and that the loot by them on the roads was worse than what we saw in Chambal history. The Road Transport and safety Bill proposed by his ministry is a positive step towards curbing this and both the Industry and the citizens should back this vehemently. This bill is currently being opposed by local governments - as many officials proclaim to be ardent “Laxmiji” devotees!

For the Industry, it all starts with the transportation companies and the manufacturing companies who use their services. Restoration of self respect and sanitation for drivers - Swachata of the body and the mind, needs to be adopted at a manic pace. Transport services are at the bottom of the pyramid for many organizations when it comes to budgets, however large organizations with revenues in lakhs of crores need to think - how much money they will save by cutting costs on building toilets and resting facilities for their agents/vendors employees at their warehouse and thereby robbing our drivers of their basic rights. Also funds from Swacch Bharat scheme can be leveraged by transporters and corporations for this deed. We also need to see how we buid rest facilities for our drivers which can be used by them on roads for personal hygiene. In cities like Mumbai, these folks are forced to hold off relieving themselves when they are made to stand by roads during blockages or traffic hours! When signing off transportation contracts, organizations should include KPI's such as maximum driving by a driver in day, 25 days working for the driver and ensuring basic documentation in place which ensures that not only the truck is safe but the driver of the truck has been adequately trained, compensated and protected (basic insurance etc) for. All this - for a 16 ton truck will not cost more than 1% of the freight value and would not result in a cost increase of even 0.01% of their product value transported by the said truck! The only cost which needs to be put in is a conscious effort from the management and empathy from the logistics team. Next time one presents his/her logistics budget, make sure you show a line for additional budgets needed for making your organization a better place to work for – additional budgets for building and maintaining toilets and rest facility for drivers across your locations.

For us citizens, it’s our duty to think and debate such topics openly and push for reforms. The human responsible for bringing your food, necessities and practically everything you consume should be spared a thought. What incentive he has today to ensure that what is delivered to you, is handled with care and basic standards of cleanliness when he himself have to relive himself behind the trees or dustbins. Citizens should demand, that the products delivered to them - have been ferried in human conditions and that no human was exploited - while delivering their products!

I hope that the Move in India attracts similar focus and gathers similar momentum such as Make in India, so that we being our journey towards being the Lion of Asia for manufacturing. The driver, will play an important part in our transformation to this Lion.