Ray of hope for rickshaw pullers

Hand-pulled rickshaws are patronised by the people for cheap and short-term mode of transport

It is probably unique to Kolkata and one of the colonial vestiges of eastern metropolis--the hand-pulled rickshaw. Most may criticise it as a burden to the puller, but a vast majority still love to see rickshaw pullers on the roads as they have given an identity to Kolkata. With the   previous Left Front Government banning it, many thought that the “City of Joy” would  not be able to see the ubiquitous rickshaw puller on the crowded streets of Kolkata.

But now, there seems to be a ray of hope for them as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is mulling over the idea of issuing photo identity cards to the 6,000-odd rickshaw pullers of the city. “We are planning to issue photo identity cards to the rickshaw pullers of the city so that they don’t face any harassment. We
expect that by January next year they will get their identity cards,” city Mayor Sovon Chattopadhyay told Deccan Herald.    

Call it one upmanship or the penchant for reversing the decisions of the previous government. But the proposal has brought back smiles on the faces of families of rickshawpullers. Many consider this a cheap mode of transport to be inhuman but to a cross section of  society this hand-pulled carriage system bears the tradition of the city and should be preserved as part of history and cultural sanctity of the city.

Hand-pulled rickshaw which is seen sporadically operating in different pockets of the city like Burrabazar, the central business district of the city, fashionable areas like Ballygunje, Park-Circus, Mullickbazar and city rail terminus like Sealdah, has its roots in colonial India when the British rulers made them a cheap mode of transport, eventually turning them into a symbol of the city. In fact, the word rickshaw comes from the Japanese word ‘jinrikisha’, which means human-powered vehicle.

Though the Japanese are credited with inventing the vehicle but history says that the Chinese merchants launched rickshaws in Kolkata. These merchants for their convenience introduced rickshaws in the late 19th century mainly to carry goods.

According to city historian Parmeshwaran Thankappan Nair, hand-pulled rickshaws are patronised by the people for cheap and short term mode of transport. For nearly two centuries,  these hand-pulled rickshaws were part of and parcel of the city’s life until the Left Front government, terming it inhuman, banned it on August 15, 2005, leaving the lives of 20,000-odd people in  limbo. The West Bengal government through the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage (Amendment) Bill, 2006, heralded the departure of the rickshaws from the city amid shrill calls of disapproval and remonstration. Though the bill has been challenged and the Calcutta High Court has stayed the legislation, the authorities had refused to renew the licences of the rickshaw pullers, extending their uncertain future. “The previous government banned hand-pulled rickshaws without rehabilitating so many people who earned their livelihood through this means,” Chattopadhyay said.

“If the state government really wants to ban rickshaws they will have to think of the rehabilitation of so many people whose lives hang in a balance. It is ridiculous to ban hand-pulled rickshaws without making proper alternative arrangement for so many people” All Bengal Rickshaw Association (ABU) President Mukhtar Ali told Deccan Herald.

Welcoming the move to issue photo identity card to the rickshaw pullers, Ali said: “It is a welcome move. Since the ban was announced we have been
living in uncertainty. Although the court has stayed the ban, our licences were not renewed. We gave a memorandum to Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and
perhaps this is a result of that,” Ali added.

Tough for many it is regressive to see a person pulling other people, but it is true that hand-pulled rickshaw is not only a means of transport but it has
become a part of the city life-style and cultural heritage. These hand-pulled rickshaws became the central character in different films and literature. “Hand-pulled rickshaws not only give bread to many people but also, like trams,  one of the identities of the city. We cannot ruin the tradition of Kolkata,” Chattopadhyay added.

Calcutta Samaritans, an NGO, which has been working for the rehabilitation of the rickshaw pullers, welcomed the move. Reshmi Ganguly of the NGO said “The identity cards are not a surety that their licences will be renewed and they will not be
harassed by the police”.  “It has occasionally been said that rickshaws are responsible for traffic jam and other city hazards but this is not so. The rickshaws can be modernised, decorated and can become an object of attraction. Only it needs the goodwill of the government.”

Social activist Anuradha Talwar has also welcomed the move though she said the benefit would go only to those who are registered by the various unions while a large chunk of the pullers were unregistered.    “It is not known if the unregistered pullers will be handed over the cards. Of the 25,000-odd pullers,  about 6,000 are recognised by the unions and are registered. So if the benefit doesn't reach all, it will be an injustice,” she said.

“It is true that pulling rickshaws through the Kolkata roads on a hot and humid day is not a happy sight but we cannot also ignore the fact that there are many families mostly migrated from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who earn their living through this,” said a noted sociologist. “There are many professions which are regressive and pitiable but that doesn’t mean that the government can eliminate them from the
society. If the government is serious enough then they will have to arrange for an alternative economic model for them,” she said.

However a large section of  society is not happy with the government’s decision to revive rickshaws on the streets of Kolkata.  Acclaimed author Sirshendu Mukhpadhayay was critical about the government step and said that hand-pulled rickshaws should be banned.

“It is real pity to see a barefooted man carrying another. It is inhuman and barbaric. The government must provide them some other livelihood,” he said. “I never board a hand-pulled rickshaw. I just cannot stand watching another man pulling and I am sitting comfortably. It makes me feel that I have moved to the primitive age when slaves used to pull the carriage,” another Bengali author Samaresh Majumdar said.

“The government should make an alternative arrangement and then lift the hand-pulled rickshaws from the streets of Kolkata and place them in the
museum. That is their appropriate place,” Majumdar added.