Relic on wheels
ANTARA DAS
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Originally known as Jin Riki Sha, the rickshaw was first introduced in Simla in 1880.
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Rickshaws were considered a cheap, pollution free and convenient mode of transport.
PHOTO: ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY
LAST RIDES: The rickshaw will soon be a thing of the past.
With the West Bengal Government deciding to abolish the use of hand pulled rickshaw, the old order on Kolkata streets will soon give way to the new. This archaic mode of transport will fade away, and with it the memories associated with the kind of experience it had to offer.
Hand pulled rickshaws, originally known as Jin Riki Sha (literally man powered vehicle) in Japan where it was invented in 1870, were introduced in Simla in 1880. It took another 20 years for it to appear in Calcutta where its presence lingered on till the present day.
Though a relic of another age, the rickshaw was very much in vogue and was not dying a slow death. A survey conducted by two city-based non-governmental organisations estimates that there are about 18,000 rickshaw pullers in the city. The official figures, based on the number of license holders, however, pegs the number of rickshaw pullers at 5,937.
Inhuman?
Rickshaws, considered a cheap, pollution free and convenient mode of transport, mainly relied on the unskilled labour that came from the economically weak strata of society in the neighbouring states. In fact, it is estimated that only nine per cent of the rickshaw pullers were from rural Bengal while the majority (around 80 per cent) had left hearth and home in the neighbouring state of Bihar.
Rickshaws had been at the receiving end for quite some time now. Earlier, they had been accused of causing traffic congestion because of their slow movement and were subsequently asked to operate away from the heavy traffic zones. Violation of this rule would lead to imposition of heavy fines on the rickshaw pullers. On December 4, 2006, with the passage of the Calcutta Hackney Carriage (Amendment) Bill 2006 in the Legislative Assembly, the death knell was sounded.
The system of one man pulling the burden of another was being increasingly considered as inhuman, given the heightened awareness about human rights. Though this was cited as one of the main reasons for its abolition, the rickshaw pullers themselves felt that thier work was no less undignified or their lot more exploited than those carrying loads or toiling away in mines or factories.
As of now, the Government has promised that they would either provide alternative employment or compensation to the rickshaw pullers who are mostly the sole breadwinners. Be that as it may be, for those accustomed to hailing the sturdy rickshaw-wallah to navigate a waterlogged street, it is going to be a lonely monsoon.
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Interesting details
According to the Wikipedia, the rickshaws in Kolkata were initially used by the Chinese traders to transport goods. In 1914, the Chinese applied for permission to use rickshaws to transport passengers. Soon after, rickshaws appeared in many big cities in Southeast Asia; pulling a rickshaw was often the first job for peasants migrating to cities.
Several major streets in Kolkata have been closed to rickshaw traffic since 1972, and in 1982 the city seized over 12,000 rickshaws and destroyed them.
The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling tells the story of a young Englishman who has a romance aboard a ship bound for India. There he marries another woman and his original love dies of a broken heart. After that, on excursions around Simla, he sees the ghost of the dead woman driving around in her yellow-panelled rickshaw.
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