Kolkata’s rickshaw-pullers wait for the CM to keep his promise

As per a 2005 survey, there are 18,000 rickshaw-pullers in Kolkata and on an average there are 5,987 rickshaws on the road on any given day. The select committee of the West Bengal State Assembly on the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage Amendment Bill, 2006, headed by the Chief Minister himself, had unanimously agreed on a rehabilitation package for the rickshaw-pullers as a follow-up action to his proclamation of ridding the city of this human bondage. The Bill was passed on December 4, 2006. It had also got the Governor’s consent. However, at the time of gazette notification — that is mandatory for any Act to become effective and legally binding — the All Bengal Rickshaw Union got a stay order on it from the Calcutta High Court by Justice Soumitra Pal. Not much has changed since then.

In the past three years, there have been numerous experiments on rehabilitation packages for rickshaw-pullers and on redesigning the hand-pulled rickshaws with the involvement of many agencies. One scheme that the state Government had worked out involved the city’s car parking lots under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) where the rickshaw-pullers could be engaged after forming self-help groups. After the hand-pulled rickshaws cease to exist, the affected pullers could opt for this engagement, the plan had proposed.

According to initial planning, 20 parking lots were to be identified to rehabilitate 2,000 rickshaw-pullers. The state Government had asked the KMC to facilitate the process by ensuring that the self-help groups formed by the rickshaw-pullers were given priority in getting the license and the license fee could also be waived. But it did not progress further.

The state Government also proposed to pay Rs 100,000 per rickshaw. Going by the 2005 estimates, this would require nearly Rs 60 crore to pay them off. “Most of the rickshaw pullers are illiterate and 80 per cent of them don’t even have shelter. How can they form self-help groups and submit tenders to get contracts of the parking lots,” said Syed Ahsan Ali, assistant general secretary of All Bengal Rickshaw Union.

The KMC then was asked to devise a rehabilitation plan for the rickshaw-pullers. Their suggestions included mushroom cultivation. However, none of these recommendations were acceptable to the union. The KMC did not renew licenses for hand-pulled rickshaws after 2006. “I am not sure to what extent the rehabilitation package has been worked out,” noted Syed Ul Hussain, Joint Municipal Commissioner (development).

NGOs like Action Aid and Kolkata Samaritans were also approached. “We had suggested that since all the rickshaw-pullers were unskilled labourers, they could be employed as daily wage-earners for government constructions or employed as sweepers in the various malls and ATMs in the city,” said Sabir Ahmed of the Kolkata Samaritans. He added that the principal reason why the plan was never executed was that the Government never took the rehabilitation efforts seriously.

Several technical solutions have also been offered to substitute the traditional model of the rickshaw. One of these is Dipvahan, designed by an IIT-Guwahati scientist. It is made of jute composite, is rustproof and costs Rs 12,000. It has ample luggage and leg space. It also allows the seats to be arranged in such a way that a long bed is created that allows the rickshaw-puller to sleep properly in the rickshaw itself.

Giving Dipvahan tough competition is Parthasarathy, designed by scientists of the Occupational Health Research Centre, Kolkata. Made with steel pipes, it costs Rs 7,000 and, instead of one chain as in the existing cycle rickshaws, it has three chains, making it easier to drive.

“The KMC and Kolkata Police had brought some of these rickshaws and showed them to us. We had asked the state Government to substitute all the hand-pulled rickshaws by Dipvahan. Nothing happened after that,” said Mukhtar Ali, general secretary of All Bengal Rickshaw Union. The union alleged that in spite of repeated appeals to the Chief Minister, pleading for a finalisation of their rehabilitation package, no progress has been made since their last discussion in November 2006.

The debate, however, is not only about the rehabilitation package. The police has reservations about allowing cycle rickshaws within city limits. Opposition leaders allege that the debate runs deeper and the crux of the matter is the Government’s complete apathy towards implementing any kind of rehabilitation package. “With the elections round the corner, there is no chance of implementation. Further, there is no clear consensus on the exact numbers of licensed rickshaws,” commented Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay.