Licensed tourist guides hit badly, many take up odd jobs
MUMBAI: At times when India’s unemployment level has further increased due to the second wave of Covid-19, India’s 3,500 licensed tour guides are among the worst hit with many forced to take odd jobs over the past year and a half.
With next to nil footfall of domestic and international tourists in the past year, guides like Nutan Kanade have seen a major drop in their earnings, and the situation is nowhere close to improving.
The Mulund-based 45-yearold has been a guide for 17 years, introducing travellers to the wonders of Mumbai and its surrounding islands, including the centuries-old Elephanta Caves as well as weekend destinations like Nashik. Before the pandemic, her earnings would be Rs 50,000 on an average. After the lockdown was announced last year, Kanade began to take online classes, but the earnings are severely affected.
“I am a postgraduate in German, and I have started taking online classes to teach the German language. However, I am not even earning 10% of my original salary,” Kanade said.
Few state governments have come forward to help guides. Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir extended financial support; Uttarakhand government announced a relief package of Rs 29 crore for the tourism sector, which included Rs 10,000 aid to registered tour and rafting guides.
However, in Maharashtra – which saw 5,528,704 international tourists in 2019, for instance – guides have seen little respite.
Jerroo Bharrucha, president of Tourist Guide Association of
Mumbai said that a majority of the income comes from international travellers.
“It is important to note that all tourists do not hire guides and for us no foreign tourists mean zero income. We work approximately four to six months and on an average earn Rs 4 to 6 lakh annually depending on the tours we do.”
There are 120 regional level guides (RLG) in Mumbai, 35 in Aurangabad and eight in Pune, Barucha said.
Regional level guides are tourist guides licensed by the ministry of tourism.
There are five regions: North, South, East, West and Central. West and Central include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
“While tour operators bring first business, their rolling business is thanks to us, RLGS, who spend maximum time with the tourists.
“We have paid our colleagues’ rents and even small sum of medical bills. Many of our guides have died throughout India due to the pandemic. With no work and money, we are going through a lot of stress,” she said.
“A majority of the guides are facing severe financial crisis situations consequent to cancellation of all the tours and visits to the monuments,” Sanjay Sharma, president of Tourist Guides’ Federation of India (TGFI), said. “The $28 billion industry has been brought to a grinding halt at the peak of the tourist season. And we have been the worst hit, with no financial backing as we, the government of India approved licensed Guides, are neither paid employees by the Ministry of Tourism nor given any insurance cover or provident fund support to tide over such situations,” he said.
TGFI, the national apex body of regional level guides approved and licensed by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, with a combined strength of guides across India says that guides in their federation are historians, research scholars, trekkers, mountaineers, ornithologists, botanists, archaeologists and astronomers.
“People don’t even know that the guide community exists. Moreover, we are a forgotten lot for the authorities,” Mogan Rodrigues, who has been working as licensed tour guide since 2004, said. Apart from the historical sites in the city, Rodrigues also hosted heritage walks, Bollywood tours and walkthroughs of the city’s temples, mosques and churches.
“Our licenses are valid throughout western India including in Goa, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. With no regular income coming in, one has cut down on expenses drastically. I am forced to survive on savings which are depleting. There is a complete indifference on the part of the government. We also do not have provident fund or any medical insurance facilities. Things are extremely tough for us and I have absolutely no idea when things would return to normal.”
Rodrigues now makes East Indian food that he home delivers. “We are a family of four and my wife runs a salon, but due to the pandemic neither I am able to earn from my profession, nor is she. Thankfully for me, the word spread through social media, and it has proved to be fruitful. Today, I am earning around 25% of what I used to earn being a guide.”
“The situation has been grim from the start of the pandemic. I had to sell off one of my properties to meet my daily needs. Currently, I am yet to pay my kids school fees from the amount, but I am worried as the situation for tourism and especially for the guides community is not expected for at least a year. I have a cancer patient in the family, and I have to take care of those expenses too. Our community needs the government’s immediate help,” Ajay Paliwal, a Delhi-based RLG said.