Last time I was in Delhi (about 5 years ago) there were still elevator operators. Not only completely useless to me as a user, but also taking up space preventing people getting in when it’s busy.

People in India just need jobs. It’s not even functional in many cases though the presence of a person feels nice in a lot of these places.

You can pay someone to do something that’s not needed, and maybe it gives them a sense of purpose based on a Victorian/puritanical view of the world (rather than just giving the money regardless)

However to me it’s like doormen and bellboys at US hotels or people behind a counter at a shop, it’s unnecessary human contact (which is horrendous), and it reduces functionality (reducing capacity of fixed infrastructre)

A better solution would be to employ people in more productive enterprises.