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Laws, Liberty and Livelihood (Part Two)Challenging Government’s Warfare against Citizen Friendly,

Eco-Friendly Cycle Rickshaws

MANUSHI SANGATHANE-mail: mail@manushi-india.org

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• Cycle rickshaw provides an instant means of livelihood for poor rural migrants. Within a few hours of arriving in the city, a rickshaw puller is able to not only earn enough to buy food the day but also to save something for sending home.

• Savings from rickshaw pulling are sent home and help sustain their families in the village.

• Farming would be even more crisis ridden and more destitute people will flood the cities without these urban remittances

Important Source of livelihood for the Poor

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User Friendly and Cost Efficient

It provides doorstep service and is willing to take you from point to point at all odd hours.

It is the most efficient vehicle for plying in the narrow lanes and by lanes of the old city.

Rickshaws are the most user friendly and inexpensive mode of transport for short distance travel. A rickshaw

charges Rs 5 for a commute that would cost Rs 20-25 in an auto.

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Poor Man’s Taxi

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With car parking becoming a major problem, even those with cars prefer taking cycle rickshaws for local marketing. It will wait for the housewife as she goes from shop to shop for her purchases and carry the goods to her doorstep.

Convenient for Local Shopping

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Safe Transport for Local Schools

Pullers provide safe, personalized doorstep transport service for school children. People use it for sending children to

neighbourhood schools even in elite colonies.

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Rickshaws queued outside a Metro station in Delhi

They provide the most efficient feeder service for metro rail and the city’s bus service which run on main routes.

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First Point in Garbage Collection

Low cost mode of garbage collection.

Carrying garbage in motorized transport will add to pollution and increase costs.

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Sabzi trolly

Used extensively by street vendors to carry daily necessities in the neighbourhood consumers.

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Inexpensive and convenient mode of carrying goods over short distances

11Used for carrying goods to and from whole sale markets.

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A Tourist Attraction

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A Home and Rest Place Away from Home

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Linkages with Small Scale Industry

Generates employment in small-scale industry that produces rickshaw parts as well as a source of livelihood for lakhs of

mechanics all over India who assemble and repair this vehicle.

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Govt. Policy Against Market Demand

If rickshaws have carved out a distinct space for themselves alongside

motorized vehicles, despite sarkari bans, use of brute police force and

vicious controls on granting licenses, does it

not prove that even in metropolitan cities people

need and vote for this vehicle every day by

paying for its service?

What right does the Government have to ban or restrict Rickshaws ?

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Municipal officials have enacted draconian policies against cycle rickshaws by playing on the prejudice amongst the elite sections of society that this vehicle is a sign and symbol of India’s backwardness and pre modern past.

Facts tell a different tale:

Is the Continuation of Cycle rickshaws a Sign of Backwardness?

• The number of cycle rickshaws has kept increasing despite the rapid proliferation of fancy cars and other modern means of transport, including the metro.

• Till about three decades ago rickshaws were found plying mainly in the walled city area and lower middle class colonies of Delhi. Today, one sees them plying in virtually all elite colonies.

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License-Quota-Raid- Raj for Cycle Rickshaws

There are no limits on the numbers of cars or trucks that can ply in the city though they cause air pollution.

But

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has fixed a quota of 99,000 rickshaw licenses for the entire city of Delhi.

Actual number of licenses issued: 89, 429.

Has this kept down the number of rickshaws?

As per MCD’s own estimates there are nearly 600,000cycle rickshaws in Delhi alone, including trollley rickshaws

for carrying goods and garbage.

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A person who owns a truck or bus or taxi may hire whoever he/she may like to ply that vehicle BUT in the case of cycle rickshaws owner must himself be a puller.Punishment for letting another person, including your own brother ply your rickshaw? Confiscation and destruction of the vehiclePunishment for plying a rickshaw that you do not own yourself? Confiscation and destruction of the vehicle! Punishment for plying an unlicensed rickshaw? Confiscation and destruction of vehicle!

Web of Illegality

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Web of Illegality…

Does this mean the unlicensed six out of seven rickshaws are illegal?

In actual fact, the vast majority of even the licensed rickshaws are illegal due to several other absurd

regulations that govern this trade.

A person can own hundreds of trucks, buses and even jet planes BUT owning more than one cycle rickshaw is illegal. Punishment for owning more than one cycle rickshaw?

Confiscation and destruction of the vehicle by the Municipal Corporation

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Web of Illegality

But almost all cycle rickshaws are owned by entrepreneurs who rent them out at Rs 20 to 35 per

day.Thus even the 89,429 odd licensed rickshaws are in

effect “illegal”.

Contrary to the official version that the rickshaw trade is controlled by mafia dons, most rickshaw owners started their lives as pullers or mechanics

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In Delhi alone the terror unleashed by the License-Quota-Raid-Raj on rickshaw-owners leads to loss of income through bribes and confiscation of goods worth

Rs. 10 croresPer month

Rs. 120 croresper year

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Increasing market demand despite attempts to kill it?

Eco friendly vehicle:

Cycle Rickshaws are the most eco-friendly vehicles; they do not consume fuels, do not cause atmospheric pollution.

Each rickshaw covers a distance of 20-25 kms. per dayamounting to a total of 120-150 lakh kms for city’s 600,000 rickshaws.

If rickshaws removed from Delhi, it would involve an additional petrol expense of nearly 500,000 litres per day at the cost of Rs. 1.25 crores.

This totals an yearly expense of Rs 450 crores for Delhi alone.

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Earning Potential of Rickshaw Trade

The cycle rickshaw represents the most efficient use of capital and labour both for the puller as well as for the vehicle owner.

An Owner:• Invests Rs 4500 in a new new cycle rickshaw;• Earns a rent of Rs 22 to 35 per day, depending on the state of

the vehicle and the area in which it is plying. • Spends on an average Rs 300 per month on repairs and

maintenance of the vehicle, bribes to the police andmunicipality, and losses due to fines and confiscation of thevehicle.

• Thus at an average of Rs 15 per day per vehicle an owner getsan income of Rs 450 per month with an investment of Rs 4500. This means he recovers the cost of his vehicle within tenmonths.

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Earning Potential of Rickshaw Trade

A puller:

• Gives Rs 22 to 30 per day rent for the vehicle;• Earns between Rs 75 and 200 per day depending on the

number of hours and distances he pulls the rickshaw as well as the area in which he plies.

• Thus a rickshaw puller earns at least 5 to 8 times of what he pays by by way of rent.

• By contrast, a man who hires a three-wheeler auto rickshaw pays Rs 250 per day towards the rental for the vehicle and earns on an average Rs 300 per day. Thus he earns not much more than what he gives by way of rent. So also a man who plies a hired taxi world pay at least Rs 350 by way of rent and earn about 400 Rs per day.

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Contribution to village economy

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The Drama of Raids and Confiscation Drives

Both licensed and unlicensed rickshaws are confiscated under the guise of cracking down on “unauthorized”rickshaws and decongesting roads.Rickshaw owners then run after municipal officials and try to strike a bargain so that they can get the vehicle released before it is entered in the record book. Once the vehicle is entered in the record book, the minimum fine for its release is Rs 325 if the owner manages to get it released within a day by bringing in the required documents to “prove” that the owner was actually pulling it. Each day it stays in municipal yard, the owner pays a store charge of Rs. 25 per day plus expenses on paper work all of which amount to no less than Rs 600.After 15 days the vehicle cannot be released. It is meant to be crushed and sold as junk.

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28MCD’s economic war against owners

29MCD Junk Yard under Safdarjang Flyover

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Only the very poor opt to ply rickshaws because the work is back breaking. They rarely have the means to invest for a new or even second hand vehicle. Pullers stay in the city for some months, save money and go home for some days or weeks. They have no way to keep their vehicles safe during their absence from the city.Even when they are in the city, most sleep on pavements or share smalljhuggis with fellow migrants. They have no place to park their vehicle safely at night.

If they rent out or even let a family member drive their vehicle when they go to village, it will be confiscated.

MCD policy says “Owner must be Puller” but most rickshaws are infact rented by seasonal migrants from entrepreneurs who own a 5 to

500 rickshaws.

Why Pullers Find it Impossible to be Owners

31Why owning rickshaw is high risk venture

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Licenses Heavily ControlledGetting a rickshaw license almost impossible for a poor man because unlike registration for cars, trucks and buses rickshaw registration is not open all year round.

Pullers can neither afford the time required in getting a license nor the risks involved in owning a rickshaw.

Licenses don’t come without heavy bribes and cumbersome legal procedures.

Even licensed rickshaws are not spared confiscation. If they lose their vehicle in a municipal raid they do not have the resources to put together bribe money and legal formalities for getting the vehicle released.

They find it convenient to rent from fleet owners. But the very existence of rickshaw owners is illegal. Therefore, almost all the 89,429 licensed rickshaws are also illegal.

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When a Poor Man Tries to Own a Rickshaw

Story of Deepak Suri

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Police Terror

Large parts of the city have been arbitrarily declared as NO ENTRY Zones for rickshaws.Result? Daily bribes and beatings!

If the police confiscate a rickshaw to “decongest” the road, minimum fine a person has to pay to get a vehicle released after a traffic violation is Rs 75 plus Rs 25 per day of store charges for subsequent days.If the vehicle is confiscated and sent to the municipal store, even if it is a licensed rickshaw being driven by its rightful owner, the minimum fine required to get it released is Rs 325, if done within a day. Normally it takes about 7 days and fines, bribes and other expenses worth Rs 600 to get a vehicle released.

36Police Terror

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Real Reason for Denying Licenses to Actual Pullers

As seasonal migrants pullers; come and go as their situation demands. Even while in city they are constantly on the move. Therefore, it is very difficult for municipal staff and the police to collect daily bribes from lakhs of floating population of pullers in the city.It is far easier for them to collect bribes from rickshaw fleet owners who have set places and workshops where their vehicles are parked and repaired. It is also easy for them to keep a count of the vehicles owned by each fleet operator and collect monthly payments as well as be feasted liquor and food every now and then.

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Bribes, Beatings and Blackmail

In Delhi alone rickshaw trade loses at least 10crore rupees per month in bribes, payoffs, loss of income due to confiscation etc.As per its admission in the High Court, the MCD destroys and junks at least 60, 000 rickshaws every year involving a loss of Rs 2,25 000,00 because it costs nearly Rs 4500 to replace the vehicle. Rickshaw pullers put up with endless beatings and human rights abuses.

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“Rickshaw to the Puller” policy is justified on the grounds that the rickshaw owners represent an anti social group who exploit the poor rickshaw pullers by owning large fleets which they give out on daily rent thus allegedly siphoning off a good part of the puller’s daily income.

The illegal existence of rickshaw owners is used as a powerful tool to defame and exploit them. Those who take bribes from them call them the rickshaw mafia. Even the High Court misguided by MCD officials into describing rickshaw owners in the same pejorative terms.

Such negative stereotyping enables MCD staff to unleash terror and exploit them brutally.

Adding Insult to Injury

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Malafide and Devious Defamation

When the owner of an airline acquires an additional fleet of planes, or a truck owner manages to expand his fleet to several hundred vehicles, he is celebrated as a successful entrepreneur. BUT when a person comes to acquire a few dozen or a few hundred rickshaws he gets to be stigmatized as a mafia don.

A new rickshaw costs about 4000 Rs. Even if you own 500 rickshaws, it represents a total capital of no more than Rs 200, 000. By contrast a truck costs no less than Rs 7 lakhs. Thus a person owning 500 trucks or buses owns a capital of no less than 3.5crores.

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Who is the real mafia? Story of Sundar’s losses

Many rickshaw owners started their lives as pullers and slowly built a fleet. Why is upward mobility and entrepreneurial spirit treated as a virtual

crime for those among the poor who manage to rise higher in life?

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43Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Poor Crushed by Government

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Choli Daman ka SaathRickshaw owners are defamed as dalals and mafia dons. In actual fact, rickshaw pullers need the service of fleet owners as much as the owners need them to keep their vehicles moving.Rickshaw operators rent them the vehicle without any surety or security. Within a few hours they are able to not only earn enough to buy food the day but also to save something for sending home.Since most pullers cannot afford proper shelter, they find greater safety in sleeping with other pullers in the rickshaw yards managed by the owners.Fleet owners act as informal banks for pullers.Owners help them in emergencies specially if relations are good and long standing.Some basic services like water and rest points and social life provided in the yard.Some protection from harassment and arrest by the policeIf a rented vehicle is confiscated, puller runs no risk. He is back to work within hours by renting out another rickshaw.

45Rickshaw Yard: Home away from Home

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The bans and restrictions on the numbers of rickshaws in the city and bans on its entry in several parts of the city are justified on the ground that rickshaws cause traffic congestion and obstruct the smooth flow of traffic. Facts tell the very opposite story:

Are Cycle Rickshaws the Cause of Road Congestion?

The primary cause of road congestion is the increasing number of cars and other motorized vehicles in the city.

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Every day thousands of new motorized vehicles are being added to Delhi roads leading not only to traffic jams but also dangerous levels of vehicular pollution

Traffic jams are occurring even in areas where there are no cycle rickshaws, including on top of flyovers. When a car is made to go slow due to traffic snarls it emits greater amounts of pollution and also damages the engine. A rickshaw is intrinsically slow moving and therefore moves more easily in areas of congestion.

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A car takes at least four times road space as compared to a rickshaw not only because it is bigger in size but also because road safety demands at least 7-8 feet space between one motorized vehicle and another.

A car is an object of convenience for just the person or familythat uses the vehicle. On an average a car provides service to no more than two to four people a day. When a car is parked it blocks road space and makes it dead for other road users. By contrast a rickshaw carries at least 30 –50 persons a day and is constantly on the move. Therefore, it represents optimum utilization of road space.

It is estimated that each cycle rickshaw travels a distance of 20-25 kilometers every day. As per this calculation, the six-lakhrickshaws cover a combined distance of 120 to 150 lakhkilometers a day. If rickshaws were to be banned in Delhi, the city would require an additional 5-lakh litres of petrol involving an expense of nearly Rs 1.25 crore rupees per day. Or amounting to 456 crores per year.

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Yet our government policies encourage the proliferation and increase in the number of cars in the city. Not just private banks but even nationalized banks chase customers to avail of car loans despite the fact that the available road space in our cities cannot possibly accommodate the rate of increase in private cars.

The easiest way to reduce congestion and traffic jams in congested areas is to prohibit the entry of motorized vehicles and encourage eco friendly vehicles like cycle rickshaws.

European cities, which are far more conscious than us about their air quality, have begun to introduce cycle rickshaws on anexperimental basis as a measure to control vehicular pollution in city centers. Today one sees improved models of rickshaws plying in Paris, in Germany, and Oxford. In Singapore cycle rickshaws driven by smart young men they are a tourist attraction.

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Less than 15% citizens in Delhi own private motorizedvehicles while 85% have to rely on public transport of which cycle rickshaws are a very crucial part.

Yet, in utter disregard of the needs of citizens without cars, our civic agencies provide no road space for non-motorized vehicles.

Government spends crores of rupees on building flyovers, six lane motorways and earmarking huge amounts of space for car parks. But nowhere there are no separate tracks for rickshaws and other forms of non-motorized vehicles. Thus rickshaw pullers and cyclists have to compete for road space with trucks buses and cars at great risk to their lives.

No Special Concessions, Just Give the Poor Equal Treatment

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The rickshaw has carved out a space for itself amidst the smartest and fanciest motor vehicles and emerged triumphant due to meeting a growing market demand for its services despite draconian laws to limit its role and erase its existence from the supposedly modern parts of the city.

Commuters want the vehicle; pullers need this instant source of livelihood, and lakhs take huge risks to run this trade. Why try to curb it, especially in this era of liberalization where market demand rather than bureaucratic quotas are meant to determine the fate of any trade or industry?

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Huge amounts of public space for car parks, including provision of multi layered underground parking lots built at huge costs. By contrast, there are no authorized parking spaces for cycle rickshaws despite the fact that people from this trade have approached the High Courts and Supreme Court for allocation of parking spaces. Consequently, pullers and harassed and given the danda treatment by the traffic police no matter where they stand.

The police and municipal authorities have arbitrarily declared large parts of the city as out of bounds for cycle rickshaws without regard to convenience of commuters or the legitimate needs of the rickshaw trade. As per municipal regulations, rickshaw pullers have to pay heavy fines for venturing into “no entry zones” for their vehicles. This usually means:

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Rational Policy Demands

Treat it as an integral part of transport system and recogniseit as a legitimate trade Provide year round open licensing systemEnd to confiscation and destruction of rickshaws.Provide separate tracks for non motorized transport.Fee based regulation of numbers rather than bureaucratic quotas.Provide rickshaw stands as well as yards for safe keeping.Work with the trade to upgrade rickshaw technology.

54Rickshaws in Hanoi

55Rickshaws in Singapore

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Art on WheelsRickshaws in

Dhaka

57The Malaysian Trishaw

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Economic reforms focused on the Corporate and organized sector which provide employment to no more than

3 % of India’s workforce

Another 3-4 % are in government and public sector employment

of workforce is in the self-organised, informal sector,

which is untouched by economic reforms.

93%They remain poor because they are among the worst victims of sarkari tyranny and

needless bureaucratic controls.

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Need for Bottom-Up Agenda of Reforms The Government spends crores of rupees on “poverty alleviation and “EmploymentGuaranteeSchemes” with very little benefit to the poor.

The self employed poor can rapidly move out of poverty if their livelihoods are freed from the web of illegality through needless bureaucratic controls, just as export oriented corporate sector has become globally competitive with mild dose of liberalization.

Poverty Alleviation

Schemes