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Why do daladala operators hate innocent children?
2007-04-14 09:15:27
By Peter Msungu
Yes, most daladala drivers and their assistants do not value school children as proper human beings who are entitled to all rights like the grownups.
They are treated as trash which can just be thrown out of the bus without mercy or consideration.
The mere presence of school children at a given bus terminal, threatens the drivers and their arrogant conductors to an extent that they do not stop at that particular terminal.
They will normally speed their buses past the terminal so that the poor children remain stranded there for hours.
The going has been bad and it is time corrective measures were taken to contain the situation.
These children of ours are a neglected lot for a simple reason that they pay only 50/- per trip. Where does this reluctance of drivers not to carry school children come from?
The harassment of school children by bus operators in the cosmopolitan city of Dar es Salaam is a serious social problem of the day and has been a threat towards the success of the human capital formation process.
Children have been subjected to hardships and mistreatment which have affected them emotionally and many of us can testify that. We have every reason to believe that our social values are being eroded.
Indeed, we note with appreciation the several steps and actions which have been taken by concerned authorities to address the problem, notably the former firebrand Mwaibula and Yusufu Makamba, albeit without much success.
The reluctance of bus operators to carry school children will come to an end, if and only if, the fares charged are not seen as a burden on their business enterprises- we mean the bus operators.
It is hereby strongly suggested that the levels of fares for all passengers must be developed on the basis of the costs involved in providing the transport services.
The modality of charging the said fares, can be worked out using various options, be it that of direct or indirect payments.
This therefore calls for a need of a dialogue among the key stakeholders, namely the government(local government), parents and the bus operators/owners to come to terms in resolving the matter to logical conclusion.
The issue of serious concern here is, ``are the bus operators recovering their cost of operations, and if not, are we surprised with their behaviour of harassing school children?``
It should be noted that most school children travel during peak periods, hence denying bus operators the opportunity to maximise revenue during these peak periods.
Like any other business, the bus operator can only continue to offer transport services so long as one can recover the operating costs, let alone make a bit of profit, if one is to grow businesswise.
If this were the case there would be no justification what so ever for a bus operator to discriminate against school children, if the fares paid would afford the operator to recover the operating costs.
It remains a fact that whether we like it or not, transport remains to be an essential service, if not a basic need, especially for those who live and work in Dar es Salaam, the commercial city of Tanzania.
But for such service to continue being available without hardships, it is inevitable that transport service providers must recover their operational costs, so as to make profit for expansion and modernization.
Below we append some suggestions, which we believe if critically looked at, will help solve the problem of harassment of school children:
(a) Adults(parents of course) to pay for the full fare(economic fares). This system exists in most private schools in Dar es Salaam which hire or have their own buses for their pupils.
(b)Parents be encouraged to send their children to schools within walking distances. Those who choose distant schools be prepared to pay the full fare.
(c) New primary and secondary schools should be located in the peri-urban centres and not in the city centre and lastly but not least,
Subsidy consideration of which one way would be for the adults to pay more, so as to subsidize the children or the local government to evolve a system of subsidy to operators.
It is never late, let`s put it on trial. Let these children who are the future leaders of this country have an early enjoyable moments.
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