The International Herald Tribune
Calcutta aims to ban the 'barbaric' rickshaw By Amelia Gentleman International Herald Tribune FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2005
CALCUTTA As they drag their passengers through thick traffic, the rickshaw pullers of Calcutta pose a philosophical dilemma: Are they the victims of oppression, or are they earning an honest living and providing a valued service to the city?
The mayor describes the job as "despicable"; the chief minister of the state of West Bengal, a Marxist, says it is "barbaric." City officials point out that hand-pulled rickshaws are a colonial anachronism that have been outlawed almost everywhere else in the world and argue that it is an "abuse of human rights" to allow these "human horses" to continue working.
If the government has its way, a ban on rickshaws will go into effect in a matter of weeks and Calcutta's approximately 18,000 rickshaw men will be out of work. The image of one man pulling another through the streets has no place in the new, shining India, officials say.
Calcutta is a city in transition. At its core it is cloaked with heavy pollution, its shabby, colonial architecture blackened by smog; during the rush hour, the traffic becomes so congested that the rickshaw drivers in the side streets are the only ones who can make any progress.
On the outskirts, the city's future is perfectly visible. There are the clean, glass structures of the new software and information technology parks, and brand new residential developments with names like Ideàl Villàs - the peculiar accents intended to mirror the Spanish architectural style.
Gated enclaves with avenues of young palm trees await the arrival of new, and rich, residents. Massive shopping malls display façades covered in advertisements for Western products.
Most rickshaw drivers are confused by the attack on their livelihood. They have been offered no alternative jobs and no compensation package has been arranged. Their families face starvation, they say, so the city's collective conscience can be salved.
No one argues that rickshaw pulling is a desirable job, but many pullers are skeptical about what the Communist government here is trying to protect - the workers or the city's image - as officials court foreign investors.
"I don't feel any indignity," said Mohammed Nasim, a 45-year-old father of nine. "If I wasn't pulling a rickshaw, then I'd have to work in a hotel, or start collecting up rubbish. I think rickshaw pulling is a better job." The All Bengal Rickshaw Union agrees. It argues that "a man pulling a man is by no means more inhuman than a man laboring in the fields or the coal mine."
The ban was announced on Aug. 15 by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of West Bengal, who said that rickshaws would be outlawed within three to four months. Instead of being grateful for this promise of liberation, the rickshaw community responded by burning effigies of the minister.
This is not the first time Calcutta has tried to rid the streets of rickshaws. An effort in the mid-1990s was abandoned after a public outcry. But the city's mayor, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, said this time the ban would be enforced.
"No civilized country in the world today permits the pulling of rickshaws by hand," he said. "It is very damaging to the image of Calcutta to see one human being pulling another human being. This is a question of human rights. I despise this system."
He acknowledged that the "nitty gritty" of a compensation package had not yet been finalized, but said the rickshaw pullers would be given alternative employment to help them survive. "The government is thinking about what these alternatives may be," he said. "Once these alternatives are decided, then these rickshaws will be taken off the streets."
The chief minister, known here as Buddha, is laboring to promote the city's commerce. He hopes to recast Calcutta as a hub of information technology, shaking off international perceptions of the city as a pit of poverty and suffering. The rickshaws, he says, are an embarrassing reminder of how much remains to be done.
Sabir Ahamed, a worker with the Calcutta Samaritans, a charity that runs a program to protect rickshaw pullers, said the government was more interested in giving the city a face-lift than in protecting the rights of the rickshaw men. "The chief minister is desperately trying to get foreign companies to invest here," he said, adding that he was going about the makeover the wrong way. "He's trying to improve the city's appearance by removing these uncomfortable images."
Ahamed added, "They are not upgrading the drainage system or improving the roads - they are simply targeting the poor, the slum dwellers and the rickshaw pullers."
More than 80 percent of the rickshaw pullers are migrants from impoverished rural areas. Like the slum dwellers, they have no right to vote in West Bengal and therefore have no political power.
Ahamed said he did not expect an adequate compensation plan to materialize. "The government is determined to go ahead with the program," he said, "but they have offered no rehabilitation program and no alternative employment."
Outside the mayor's office, Isma Mundo was climbing into a rickshaw with her shopping bags. She said she uses a rickshaw about 10 times a month with no ethical qualms. "It's a convenient way of traveling short distances," she said. "What's wrong with being pulled by another person? As long as he's earning some money it's O.K., isn't it?"
One driver, Kedar Jadav, who was waiting for passengers, was unmoved by the moral debate: His rickshaw provides him with a meager but essential livelihood. He begins his working day at 6:30 a.m. but by noon this day had had only one job and had earned eight rupees, or 17 U.S. cents. He needed 15 times that amount, he said, to ensure his family's survival.
He runs barefoot through the city because cheap plastic flip-flops trip him up and leather shoes are far too expensive. "I was very worried when I heard that the rickshaws were going to be banned," he said. "I've no idea why the government wants to do this. How will I get my food?" Jadav lives on the pavement near the rickshaw stand. Across the street, at the entrance to a city college, a banner reads: "Socialism is our way of life." Fading hammer-and-sickle logos decorate the walls throughout the city.
A report recently published by the Calcutta Samaritans was unequivocal in its conclusions. The abolition of rickshaws "would have an immediate and catastrophic effect on the well-being of thousands of people already struggling on the economic fringe."
-- What a country! Part Silicon Valley, Part Stone Age. - Steve Hamm on India in his book 'Bangalore Tiger'