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Jain Digest. Winter 2007
Bhairavi Desai
JAIN WOMAN
By Shayna Parekh Imagine a leader so respected, thousands convene to join his/her army. Imagine a leader so fearless, he/she walks the streets of the poorest parts of New York night after night to recruit more to his/her cause. Imagine a leader so feared, the mayor of New York must create a contingency plan to deal with the aftermath of his/her actions. And imagine a leader so successful. his/her vision has earned what many consider the highest praise offered in modern American
American history- a mention on the legendary sitcom, Seinfeld. What is the image your mind has conjured? A white, ivy-league educated man? A large brute with a booming voice? Meet Bhairavi Desai. Described as demurely pretty, soft-spoken, gentle, bashful and the-girl-next-door, Desai is leading one of America's most revolutionary worker's rights movements. At 35, Desai is the founder and director of the close-to 10,000 strong New York Taxi Workers Alliance, an advocacy group championing the rights of New York's taxi cab drivers Classified as independent contractors, New York's 45,000 yellow cab drivers are unable to unionize. They lack health insurance, pensions and retirement benefits. And according to a 1996 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report, taxi driving is the most life-threatening job in America, with drivers having the highest risk of workplace homicides of any occupational group, nearly forty times the national average. Critical of the city's imposition of technological advancements that would place the brunt of the burden - but few benefits - on the shoulders of the drivers, Desai organized a two-day taxi strike in New York in Seprember 2007. The media's coverage of the strike varied. The New York Times described the strike as creating "widespread confusion," "frustrating waits on corners and "long lines at the airports," while the Daily News reported "only minimal delays." Similarly, while Desai described the walkout as a "resounding success" with at least 90% of the taxis striking, the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, reported that 75% of cabs were on the road.
The success of the strike may have been disputed but at least one thing is clear: Desai has become an unlikely New York power player. In addition to forcing the Mayor to hold news conferences and create contingency plans to deal with the consequence of her vision, Desai has created a worker's army: Almost 25% of the city's yellow cab drivers - who provide 30% of the city's public transportation - have now joined her cause. Desai's ultimate vision is for taxi drivers in New York to work pursuant to an established contract, one that will include industryfunded health and retirement benefits and a compensation fund. She hopes that this worker's movement will inspire a nationwide - and perhaps even worldwide - federation of taxi driver organizations that will champion drivers' rights. In a few weeks, I will turn 27. By this age, back in 1999, Desai had already created the Alliance; the Alliance had already grown to over 1000 members: Desai had already organized her first wildly successful taxicab strike in New York: New York Magazine had already described her as the force behind the most impressive show of cabbie solidarity in the city's history." When I met Desai a few weeks ago at a talk she delivered at the Yale Law School, though, what struck me most was not the fact that she was a pioneering young, Gujarati woman - single, childless, a nondoctor/lawyer/engineer. What struck me most was the way in which every sentence, every thought, was anchored by conviction. "There is only victory through unity," she calmly remarked. Describing how her opponents have used physical threats and labels such as the Hindu whore to deter her, she does not lose the forest among the trees: "Entrenched interests are threatened by workers'unity; when workers unite, they have a chance to raise the floor and knock out the ceiling. Perhaps Desai's drive is not so surprising when you delve further into her history. Born in India and raised in New Jersey by working-class parents, Desai recalls the racist attacks she endured: "I remember being chased down the street," she says. “I remember the hostility, and that politicized me." And how did Desai come to work for the cause of the drivers? "No one in my family has ever driven professionally, I've never driven a taxi cab, but I come from a line of union members and union supporters," she once told a journalist. "My mom was a union member; she worked in a factory. Both of my parents are socially conscious. They raised us to hate poverty and to love the poor. We were poor," she says. By fighting for better working conditions and living wages; through unifying warring taxi cab drivers from 100 different nations for a common cause; in fearlessly enduring physical threats and verbal lashings in pursuit of her vision: by creating a voice for poor city workers barcling with billionaire city administrators, Bhairavi Desai is an average human being living the precepts of ahimsa (non-violence) and anekaantvada (multiplicity of viewpoints). In this issue, we celebrate the power of unity and so we celebrate Bhairavi Desai. Shaw Parekh is a third war student at Yah Luw School specializing corporate tunaand animal nobis. She con le rached or shry.parekla
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