Right to road
MADHU GURUNG
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Do cars have a greater claim on roads than rickshaws? The Municipal Corporation of Delhi seems to think so.
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Photo: Madhu Gurung.
The right to a livelihood: On the streets of Delhi.
THE rickshaw is Shakur Ali's world. He has been plying it ever since he came to Delhi as a boy, fleeing the floods in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He says he is 50 and grins, revealing gutka-stained teeth. The gutka keeps his mouth from drying up, he says, when he pedals in the merciless sun. "I came to Delhi when Indira Gandhi won. Now she has been dead for over 20 years and this rickshaw is still not mine." The rickshaw belongs to his "maalik", one of the many cartel owners whose mark, "Jabber", embossed on the sides of the rickshaw, is recognised by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Delhi's first Human Development Report, recently completed after two years of research with the help of the United Nations Development Program, shows the capital is India's urban magnet. Every day, 665 persons migrate to Delhi — a number that far exceeds migration in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad put together.
Quick employment
Those who weave their way into Delhi's walled city get a reference from relatives or friends from their villages who are already plying rickshaws, to be able to hire one. It is the quickest way to get employment.
Raju sits under the shade of a peepal tree and watches mechanics tinker with a rusted rickshaw chain. He owns 50 rickshaws and has been hiring rickshaws for the past 18 years. "Those who work the rickshaws are between 15-40 years. Some come for seasonal work, make money and go back, others stay on. Rickshaws can never stop, how else will people reach Sitaram Bazaar, Chowri Bazaar, or any other galli in Old Delhi?"
However, Delhi's urban planners are trying to come up with a new plan for Old Delhi, and one of the first bans imposed is on rickshaws. They are being banned from plying on some congested roads. Plans are afoot to bring in battery operated and CNG buses to Old Delhi and phase out rickshaws.
Gone are the days of colourful rickshaws with myriad-hued rainbows, swans in placid lakes and buxom women painted on rickshaw hoods. Today's dilapidated grey rickshaws are shorn of any coquetry and romance. They have taken on the face of their pullers for whom life is a harsh subsistence. "If the rickshaw gets banned, I and my family will die," says Shakur Ali, whose right eye has a thin film of grey. "I don't work for a day, we cannot eat."
Shakur Ali is a nameless face in the government estimate of six lakh rickshaw pullers in Delhi. NGOs like Lokayan and The Institute for Democracy and Sustainability, peg the figure much lower at 3-3.5 lakhs.
Each rickshaw puller's income supports a family of six to seven members. Further, an estimated 20,000 mechanics service the rickshaws and thousands of small-scale units manufacture rickshaw parts. Altogether, there are roughly 50-60 lakh people dependent on rickshaws for a living. This figure does not include the people who use their services.
As Delhi garbs itself in new designer clothes, changing the urban landscape with sweeping flyovers in imitation of the West, little thought is being given to the oldest and cheapest mode of transport on which so many people are dependent. The very first marginalisation is seen in the planning of roads. There are few pedestrian footpaths or cycle and rickshaw lanes. This forces rickshaws to jostle for space with the pedestrians and pedal alongside motorised traffic, weaving in and out like medieval tortoises. An environment friendly, non-polluting form of transport that saves millions of dollars worth of foreign currency expenditure on oil is being marginalised.
The busy arterial road from Bhajanpura to Shastri Park is a telling example of how cyclists and rickshaws are being pushed to the periphery in the name of development. A few years ago when the road was constructed, the urban planners made a cycle and rickshaw lane here, lining it with yellow markers. It was a reluctant acceptance by Delhi's town planners that India's urban landscape consists not just of motorised traffic, but rickshaws as well. Ironically, even before the first rickshaw has begun plying on this path, the concrete is being broken down and reinforced to make way for yet another highway.
A kilometre away, at Gandhinagar, people mill on the road, desperate voices raised in protest, pleading as the police get passengers to dismount and seize the rickshaws. Nearly 70 rickshaws are tied together as an untidy train. Over 300 are seized in the vicinity on that day. It is their way of making sure the rickshaws do not congest the roads. In the MCD yard the rickshaws will be kept for 15 days. On the 16th day, if the "dues" are not paid up, they will be destroyed by a bulldozer and thrown into a graveyard of twisted wrecks, no longer roadworthy or usable, rendering the rickshaw puller without any livelihood.
"The Delhi government has decided to issue 99,000 licenses, which is the upper limit, but in actual fact only 74,000 licenses have been given so far. This means that the rest of the rickshaws plying are illegal. State statistics vary according to months. Around March when the MCD seizes rickshaws, keeping their financial year target, they inflate the number of rickshaws to six lakhs. In June/ July when licenses are being given, they dip it to 1-1.5 lakhs," says Rajendra Ravi, convenor of Lokayan. Ravi is a leading member of the Campaign for "Equal Road Right", which advocates the cause of the rickshaws.
Discriminatory rules
There are no quotas to limit the number of cars a person can buy, but rickshaw ownership is governed by quota. The licensing ensures a whole chain of bribery and exploitation. Legally, one person cannot own more than one rickshaw, except for widows and the handicapped, who can own up to five. A puller has to also ply the rickshaw himself. If he is ill or visiting his village, no one else can ply it for him.
But the rickshaw owners have as many as 50-300 rickshaws, obtaining licenses under bogus names. They pay a bribe of Rs. 300-600 as "protection tax". Every year when the licenses are to be renewed at a fee of just Rs. 25, they have to pay between Rs. 150 -200 per rickshaw, reinforcing a vast illegal extortion network. The regular bribe givers have signages painted on their rickshaws, recognised by the MCD. Individual rickshaw-walas have no such protection.
Over the babble of voices, Virendra Pal, 28, stands silent, his eyes desolate. A year ago, he came to Delhi from Sujanpura, Uttar Pradesh. With the money he received from selling a one-acre plot, he bought himself a brand new rickshaw for Rs. 4200, which has now been seized. "I sold my field so that I could earn for my sister's marriage. I have just sent money home, how do I pay for the rickshaw? I have to pay Rs. 325 for the first day, and each day I have to pay Rs. 25 as storage charges, till I get my rickshaw out. I will have to take a loan for this entire amount." His rickshaw was a means of climbing out of debt and difficulty. Getting into debt to get his rickshaw released is like revisiting a never-ending nightmare.
His friend Sanjay, 30, spits a volley of red brown gutka and adds, "When a car is seized the driver pays only Rs. 100 as fine, but when our rickshaw is seized we have to pay 325 plus another Rs. 375 for 15 days' storage. If we cannot pay up, our only means of livelihood is destroyed. Why? Because we congest the roads and the car does not? Is this true? Is this justice?"
Friends in a cause
This exploitation has moved people like Rajendra Ravi and Manushi journal editor Madhu Kishwar to campaign actively for rickshaws. Kishwar has made a film on the issue and even lobbied the Prime Minister's Office for a policy to protect rickshaw pullers and vendors eking out a livelihood in the city. But so far, the Delhi government is not budging.
Says Ravi, "We have launched an "Equal Road Rights Campaign" so that the rickshaw-wala's rights are protected. The Constitution gives all citizens the right to life, right to mobility and right to livelihood. However, our roads are not made for equal mobility. They are only made for motorised traffic. This should be challenged."
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