The presence of the hand-pulled rickshaw eventoday in Kolkata perhaps encapsulates the exis-tential crisis that de�nes the city. It is a metrop-olis that still perpetuates its colonial legacy in itsdistinctive architecture, struggles to keep pace

with the rest of the country and is marked by disruption andchaos. The rickshaw, therefore, is symbolic of the city striv-ing to come to terms with the pressing concerns of a mod-ern society.

E�orts have been on to give the metro’s streets a morecontemporary visual appeal since 2005. It was in that yearthat the erstwhile Left Front government decided to banhand-pulled rickshaws, declaring the system to be a travestyof human dignity. Amid protests, the government paved theway for the death of the hand-pulled rickshaw by tabling theCalcutta Hackney-Carriage (Amendment) Bill, 2006 in thestate legislative assembly.

However, what the then government had not thoughtnecessary to ponder on while trying to usher in change wasthe need to provide an alternative source of livelihood to theimpoverished rickshaw pullers. The Bill was challenged andthe Calcutta High Court decreed a stay on the legislation.However, the Kolkata Municipality hasn’t issued any freshlicences since 2005.

The current government has modi�ed the ban: it hasdecided to replace the hand-pulled rickshaws with some-thing more modern that would not tell on the dignity ofthe rickshaw puller. It was the TrinamoolCongress, then the Opposition, that hadvehemently vetoed the phase-outin 2006. In fact, its legislators hadboycotted the Assembly sitting thatdiscussed the amendment in the law.When the party won the KolkataMunicipality elections in 2010, the may-or, Sovan Chatterjee, announced the civicbody would issue photo ID cards to therickshaw pullers.

With municipal elections scheduled forthis year and assembly elections in 2016, thegovernment’s decision to introduce a new vari-ant of the rickshaw, clearly aimed at garneringpopular support, may not yield high dividends when theSaradha scam has cast a permanent shadow on the cred-ibility of the government. And how the new measurewould a�ect the rickshaw pullers and their families is fortime to tell.

Man power to battery power?It is not yet clear what will be the replacement. MuktarAli, vice-president of the All Bengal Rickshaw Union, saysthat a two-seat, battery-operated carrier will be the proba-ble replacement and hopes it will ensure better business.“Earlier the pullers earned ~100-150 per day on average,”says Muktar Ali. “Now they may earn ~300 because thesubstitute would run faster. A new, faster model wouldmean more passengers per day.”

Strangely, there isn’t much cheer in thepuller community. Mansoor Ali is a septuage-narian and has been plying the streets foralmost 50 years after he came from Bihar andmade a slum near Mullick Bazar his home.“Gaon mein log bolte thay, Calcutta bada seherhain, wahan kuch na kuch kaam mil jayega(People back home used to say that Calcuttawas a big city where you could get some job orthe other).” He did not have the money to buyhis own rickshaw, so he rented one to earn a living. Isn’the relieved that he will no longer have the back-breakingtask of pulling his customers through narrow lanes? “Doyou think it is possible for a 70-year-old man at the end ofhis life to get trained to drive a battery-operated vehicle?”he counters, at once underlining the enormity of the taskat hand for the government.

Hari Yadav, who has worked on Ripon Street and New

Market for 30 years now, has his own anxieties.“Jinke pass licence hain, unko hi naya rickshawmilega. Humare pass to licence nahin hai (Onlythose who hold a valid licence will be given anew vehicle. I do not have a licence),” he says.Indeed, many who have migrated from cities inneighbouring Bangladesh do not have validdocuments to prove their citizenship. Most ofthem will probably be rendered penniless.These unlicensed pullers are a big problem.

However, Muktar Ali declares, “The rehabilitation pro-gramme will include both the licensed and unlicensed rick-shaw pullers. Our information is that 20-25 per cent of therickshaw pullers do not hold licences.”

Anachronistic symbol Kolkata’s emblematic two-wheeled contraption has been along-standing symbol of oppression and has often been

used to depict wretchedness, as inBimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen , a �lm

that dealt with the disturbing state ofpoverty in new, independent India.

The 1992 Om Puri starrer, City OfJoy , too recalled the travails of arickshaw puller’s life. But despite

the negative portrayal in �lmsand literature, even as the city has

changed its skyline, the rickshawhas continued to trundle along the lanes.

“There were about 6,000 hand-pulled rick-shaws in Kolkata,” says Alapan Bandoyopadhyay, prin-

cipal secretary in the transport department. “At lastcount, we found around 2,000 still plying on the streets.”

He says that the government has recently held talks withrepresentatives of the rickshaw pullers’ union and hassought a detailed report on the individuals who would ben-e�t from the government’s new scheme. “In the recentlyconcluded Bengal Global Business Summit, we held dis-cussions with a company named Kinetic on new rickshawmodels, and it looks interested. It has asked us to suggestviable models. We are looking at interesting ones,” he says.

Though the rickshaws have symbolised the worst inhuman oppression, the pullers insist that people havealways considered them the preferred mode of conveyance,especially during emergencies and for the older people. Instreets that are perennially crammed with heavy tra�c,these contraptions prove a godsend during medical emer-gencies. “Yesterday, I ferried an 80-year-old woman whowas running very high fever to her daughter’s residence,”says Yadav.

There’s also the infamous chaos of Kolkata streets dur-ing the rainy season. With most of the arterial roads in

knee-deep water, even people opposed to this outdatedmode of travel are forced to rely on them when cars areunable to cope with the deluge.

With the government’s proposal to phase out the man-ual rickshaw, a part of the city's history, rather a part of itscolonial vestige, will be deleted forever. Yet for a city thatis desperately trying to grab on to the idea of a better,new world, it would have to take human developmentinto account. However, while there is no denying theinhuman nature of a rickshaw puller’s job, the men needto be assured of a livelihood once their current means isdenied to them. And that is the challenge for MamataBanerjee’s government.

The West Bengal government wants toreplace hand-pulled rickshaws withbattery-operated ones. But therickshaw pullers are apprehensive that they will lose their livelihood,writes Kamalika Ghosh

The hand-pulledrickshaw is likelyto be replaced by atwo-seat, battery-operated carrier,which will ensurebetter business

A humane future for Kolkata’s rickshaw pullers?PHOTOS: SUBRATA MAJUMDER

Though the rickshaws have symbolised the worst in humanoppression, the rickshaw pullers insist that some peoplehave always considered them the preferred mode of conveyance

SOURCE: http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-a�airs/a-humane-future-for-kolkata-s-rickshaw-pullers-115011700662_1.html

18-01-2015, PAGE 8