And if you don't fancy taking a taxi there are exciting alternatives...Two days after a Saudi businessman was murdered in Delhi by a prepaid-taxi driver, Delhi airport is “still unsafe for foreign tourists”, according to the Times of India (TOI).
To check it out, the paper had duly dispatched its own hacks to Indira Gandhi International Airport to see if the authorities had got their act in gear. But what they found was that despite police attempts to make the airport taxi system safer for tourists, by encouraging use of the prepaid-taxi system and discouraging the touts who hang around outside the airport waiting to pounce on sleepy and naïve tourists, many new arrivals to India were still heading straight out into the Indian sunshine without a prepaid taxi voucher. And so despite the crackdown, within 15 minutes the TOI journalists were offered a ride for Rs500 for a journey that would have cost Rs350 under the prepaid-taxi scheme. Tourists they spoke to were surprised to find out that they were being ripped off.
“For foreigners therefore,” the TOI writes, “the idea that a 'visibly government-certified cab' – in this case a black and yellow taxi – may not always be safe, is rather strange.”
Ok, so let’s backtrack for a moment. For those of you who have never used one, a prepaid-taxi is booked and paid for at a desk inside the airport before you are shown to your driver, who should not expect any more cash from you apart from a tip. If you pass the pre-paid taxi counter and decide to take your chances with the touts outside, then it’s up to you to haggle for a ‘good price’.
But the TOI article is unclear. There are clearly dangers here, after all a businessman was murdered by a taxi driver. That is bad, very bad. And reading the headline and intro to the news item, as a regular solo (female) traveller to India, who sometimes lands at Delhi, a moment of visceral panic struck me. But hang on a moment. Wasn’t this poor man murdered by a prepaid-taxi driver? The only reported danger from the taxi touts outside was that tourists could end up being charged an extra couple of hundred rupees.
So in a spot of armchair research I decided to see if there were other reported stories of taxi drivers turning nasty. Yet the results from a quick internet search from stories in the UK seem to indicate that the person more at risk is the driver. Of course the UK isn’t India and so the stories may not be comparable when looking at crime. But the TOI’s article could end up shooting Indian tourism in the foot; because instead of steering tourists away from touts and directing them to prepaid-taxi drivers, it presents both type of drivers as unsafe.
There are strategies for using taxis in India, many of which are written about in all the usual guidebooks, including my own (A girls’ guide to India, a survivor's handbook). But perhaps one very important tip that doesn’t get mentioned, is that whenever a taxi driver asks you if it is your first visit to India, always say "no"! Say you have visited a couple of times, but don’t offer any more information because chances are you won’t be asked to elaborate. The less naïve you seem, the less likely you are to be drawn into a rip-off scam.
Personally, as someone who has survived many a broken conversation on the latest cricket scores with Delhi taxi drivers, I will continue to use pre-paid taxis on arrival to India, and will use taxi touts in the numerous places where no pre-paid taxi counter exists. There is no choice. And as with travelling to any part of the world, I will always trust my gut instinct.
For the full TOI article visit:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi_airport_still_unsafe_for_foreigners/articleshow/3630855.cms
To check it out, the paper had duly dispatched its own hacks to Indira Gandhi International Airport to see if the authorities had got their act in gear. But what they found was that despite police attempts to make the airport taxi system safer for tourists, by encouraging use of the prepaid-taxi system and discouraging the touts who hang around outside the airport waiting to pounce on sleepy and naïve tourists, many new arrivals to India were still heading straight out into the Indian sunshine without a prepaid taxi voucher. And so despite the crackdown, within 15 minutes the TOI journalists were offered a ride for Rs500 for a journey that would have cost Rs350 under the prepaid-taxi scheme. Tourists they spoke to were surprised to find out that they were being ripped off.
“For foreigners therefore,” the TOI writes, “the idea that a 'visibly government-certified cab' – in this case a black and yellow taxi – may not always be safe, is rather strange.”
Ok, so let’s backtrack for a moment. For those of you who have never used one, a prepaid-taxi is booked and paid for at a desk inside the airport before you are shown to your driver, who should not expect any more cash from you apart from a tip. If you pass the pre-paid taxi counter and decide to take your chances with the touts outside, then it’s up to you to haggle for a ‘good price’.
But the TOI article is unclear. There are clearly dangers here, after all a businessman was murdered by a taxi driver. That is bad, very bad. And reading the headline and intro to the news item, as a regular solo (female) traveller to India, who sometimes lands at Delhi, a moment of visceral panic struck me. But hang on a moment. Wasn’t this poor man murdered by a prepaid-taxi driver? The only reported danger from the taxi touts outside was that tourists could end up being charged an extra couple of hundred rupees.
So in a spot of armchair research I decided to see if there were other reported stories of taxi drivers turning nasty. Yet the results from a quick internet search from stories in the UK seem to indicate that the person more at risk is the driver. Of course the UK isn’t India and so the stories may not be comparable when looking at crime. But the TOI’s article could end up shooting Indian tourism in the foot; because instead of steering tourists away from touts and directing them to prepaid-taxi drivers, it presents both type of drivers as unsafe.
There are strategies for using taxis in India, many of which are written about in all the usual guidebooks, including my own (A girls’ guide to India, a survivor's handbook). But perhaps one very important tip that doesn’t get mentioned, is that whenever a taxi driver asks you if it is your first visit to India, always say "no"! Say you have visited a couple of times, but don’t offer any more information because chances are you won’t be asked to elaborate. The less naïve you seem, the less likely you are to be drawn into a rip-off scam.
Personally, as someone who has survived many a broken conversation on the latest cricket scores with Delhi taxi drivers, I will continue to use pre-paid taxis on arrival to India, and will use taxi touts in the numerous places where no pre-paid taxi counter exists. There is no choice. And as with travelling to any part of the world, I will always trust my gut instinct.
For the full TOI article visit:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi_airport_still_unsafe_for_foreigners/articleshow/3630855.cms
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