Sudesh Bhosle | NT
Vasco
With his father who operates a cab from Dabolim airport left jobless, 18-year-old Rahil Shaikh from Mundvel-Vasco has joined hands with his father Riyaz to eke out a living by
selling fish.
Riyaz operates a yellow black taxi cab at Dabolim airport but with international flights suspended, the family found it difficult to even make ends meet and so the father-son duo sells fish near the KTCL bus stand at Mundvel in Vasco.
“My father Riyaz Shaikh is operating yellow black taxi cab at Dabolim airport for the last several years but due to COVID-19 pandemic, the taxi business has come to a grinding halt. During the last about six months since March 2020, the taxi operators at Dabolim airport have no business due to the suspension of airlines. Domestic as well as international flights were suspended for couple of months. Although, domestic flight operations have commenced, there is hardly any passenger to ferry from the Dabolim airport,” said Rahil.
“We park our yellow black taxi by the roadside and sell variety of fish brought from the wholesale fish market. Fish selling is not our ancestral business but we had no option,” added Rahil who has cleared SSC examination.
“With 350-odd yellow black taxis operating from the airport, we get passengers hardly once or twice in a week, which is not adequate for our survival. We have to pay house rent as we all stay in rented premises. Apart from house rent, we have monthly premiums of taxi, maintenance work, road tax, insurance, fuel prices and others to pay for which is unbearable,” informed Rahil.
He advised people not to shy away from taking up other works to eke out a living in the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we have to live with COVID-19 pandemic, it is the duty of the every individual to take challenges head-on and overcome them,” said Rahil.
