Calcutta to ban hand-pulled rickshaws.

Mandsaur

From BBC News:

Calcutta's famous hand-pulled rickshaws will soon be banned, according to the chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal. The rickshaws had long been considered "inhuman" and did not exist anywhere else, Buddhadev Bhattacharya said.

The rickshaw will be phased out in four to five months.

Full story here.

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passingby

it's a good decision, but yet I hope that the government will help those workers to find other jobs.

Nick-H

They'll just invent a leg-adapting mechanism that will employ a 2-stroke engine.

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sadhuji

from news available on a local bangla news channel (of kolkata that is available here in nasik!) , it will take 3 to 4 months to implement the decision. yes, the chief minister does propose to provide alternate source of income for the affected - probably grant permission to ply cycle rickshaws.

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amyl

i am just eager to see how this decision of Government goes with the public. at times in India some decisions taken for the benefit/safety of the public has gone haywire because of some controversial points on the same e.g Compulsion of Helmets, Ban on Dance Bars, etc....so lets see how this goes around.

machadinha

I thought they were in the process of banning them already when I visited in 1994... That they don't exist anywhere else is just untrue to my knowledge, they were still around in some other places back then, but may have been banned since.

I think it's City of Joy or some such book which quite aptly describes the lenghts people have to go through to be eligible for a rickshaw license, let alone a cycle rickshaw or even an auto rickshaw. This matches some conversations I've had with rickshaw wallahs. So the concerns about their future job security would seem to be very real to me ("18,000 with more than 1,800 joining the pool every year" according to the article). An inhuman job it is however, to quote the article again: '"When we have to wade in chest-deep water during rains, no other transport works but you can still find the hand-pulled rickshaws taking people from one place to another," says Dipali Nath, a housewife in north Calcutta.' Not a word about the rickshaw wallah's wading of course.

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lonelyaztec

Yeah..i think it is high time they banned rickshaws pulled by men.
Also, i wonder how the local people, can use a rickshaw pulled by a man. Is it not cruel.

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machadinha

Yes that was my and many a tourist's idea when I was there so we didn't use them. It also meant they weren't getting our business however, which could have meant a few rupees more than they would otherwise get. It's one of those dilemmas I guess.

lotus blossom

it seems inhumane and cruel to me. i would not feel right getting a lift from someone who is having to pull me through the streets. heck, i don't even like to see animals being used in this way.

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machadinha

OK but then the same would go for cycle rickshaws, not to mention the tongas or horse carriages with often awfully malnourished horses. With the cycle rickshaws I know I was often happy that the guy didn't drop dead then and there; with the horses I actually saw one keel over and getting thrashed for his efforts. It's just difficult to say; in the bright city of Amsterdam people have taken to bicycling people around in little taxis and it seems to make for a good tourist attraction, and a means of living for the drivers I presume. (Although a discussion about the recession and people taking to desperate albeit creative measures would seem to be far from out of order.) It looks like awfully hard work with all them bridges too.

Mandsaur

Yes, I agree it's double edged. Like the dance bar ban, it's a decree based on moral/ethical grounds and, also like that ban, the impact on those who make their survival through the work seems secondary to the "good of society" issues. It's also unclear whether the rickshaw wallahs themselves support this initiative. (I'd wager most don't)

I guess the test will be if the gov't truly manages to find alternative work for the 18,000 men who will lose their livelihoods...

Nick-H

Heck Yes! Let the Women do it for a change!




...errr, just joking

mahmud

Very good decision. It should be taken earlier.

oldhippie

>> rickshaws had long been considered "inhuman" and did not exist anywhere else<<

These rickshaws did exist elsewhere. We had them in Hong Kong at the Star Ferry terminals. All the guys pulling these were in their 60's and the only people that used these were tourists (mostly Brits). The HK Chinese gov banned these after they ejected the Brits in 97.

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gs_uppal

Can't be done so soon and in this way.
Bengal Govt has not yet spoken to the Rickshaw puller's union in Bengal on this and they were unaware till the Chief Minister anounced in on Independence Day.
Over 100,000 peoples lives are directly dependent on pulling rickshaws in bengal, and implementing this isnt as easy as banning Bar girls in Dance Bars of Mumbai.