ISE Presentation: Rickshaw Pullers

Arun |Hari
 ProfileP
• Currently, there are around 8 million rickshaw pullers
in India.
• 95 percent of these rickshaw pullers are victims of
high daily rental fees .
• It is nearly impossible to earn enough income to ever
own a rickshaw in their lifetime.
 Costs
• Rural migrants in search of work can hire a rickshaw
within hours of reaching the city and start earning
money almost instantly.
• Hiring of vehicles from small or big contractors in
Delhi on a daily charge ranging from Rs 18 to 22.
• New rickshaw cost: Rs 6000
• Second-hand rickshaw cost: Rs 800 to Rs 2,000.
 Costs contd..
• The Rs 600 hire charge represents nearly one
tenth the cost of a new vehicle or half the
price of a second-hand vehicle.
• Reason : The corporation laws make owning
and hiring a rickshaw a very high risk venture
• This routinely inflicts heavy losses on the
owners for operating in this sector.
 Costs contd…

• Like other rental services, they have to bear the cost

of any accidental damage to the vehicle on which
there is no insurance option.
• Unable to bear the cost of a large damage, the puller
is subject to harassment
• He has no choice but to flee the locality.
 Regulatory framework: Delhi
• Only one out of 14 rickshaws in Delhi is licensed, as
MCD hasn’t issued enough licenses.
• Article 3(1) of the Cycle Rickshaw Bye-laws of 1960,
Section 481 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act
of 1957:
"No person shall keep or ply or hire a cycle-rickshaw
in Delhi unless he himself is the owner thereof and
holds a license granted in that behalf by the
Commissioner on payment of the fee that may from
time to time”
 Regulatory framework: Delhi contd…
• All 'illegal' rickshaws would be confiscated and destroyed(1998
law).
• Until 1997, the MCD charged a penalty of Rs 100 plus store
charges at Rs 3 per day as long as the rickshaw stayed in the
municipality yard.
• In 1998, the MCD raised the fine to a minimum of Rs 300 plus Rs
25 per day as store charges for the number of days that the vehicle
stay confiscated in the MCD yard.
• MCD employees deliberately delay release of seized rickshaws
• Maximum number of rickshaws are seized on Friday and not
released before next Tuesday, thus inflicting store charges of Rs.
125, in addition to Rs 300 as penalty.
 Regulatory framework:Delhi contd..
• On an average, it costs Rs 500 to get the seized
vehicle back
• Municipal licensing authority invites applications only
for two months in a year.
• Notifications to this effect are issued in newspapers
but since most pullers are illiterate or barely literate,
they rarely find out about it.
 Rickshaw pullers in Jamshedpur
• Average family size of 6 with just 2 people
earning money on an average.
• Major occupations of other family members
-housemaids, rickshaw pullers and contract
labour.
• Children of most of the rickshaw pullers do go
to school ,but most drop outafter middle
school.
 Social Profile

1% 1%

30%
<18
SC/ST 18 t0 30
OBC 3% 30 to 55
Muslims 55+
60%
10% 5%
 Available Resources
• In Jamshedpur ,most of the Rickshaw pullers
live in Bistupur area around Tata Steel and
Shakti Hotel.
• Kachha houses , which are very small.
• Most do own Television sets and radios but
that’s pretty much all material assets they
have.
 Faciltating/hindering factors
• Most of the income is used for food.
• Regular drinking was a big drain on their
incomes.
• The increasing prices are a big worry for them.
• They want their children to study so that they can
take them out of poverty
• Reasons pointed :Bad infrastructure and lack of
interest shown by teachers in government
schools.
 Faciltating/hindering factors
• Savings are very low around 5% and that also gets
depleted in the girls marriage.
• Not many have bank accounts but they said that
financial inclusion is increasing.
• Earlier in Jamshedpur , only two persons owned
all the rickshaws
• Now, with the advent of financial inclusion,
almost everyone owns their own rickshaws.
• This started changing around 4 years ago.
 Facilitating/hindering factors
• The most common hardship faced is rude
customers, some pay less than the fair price
while some even bad mouth them.
• Policemen also take a small cut from their
daily earnings.
• Their main hope and aspiration is to get out of
poverty and see their children become
successful.
 Few Initiatives in the field
• The main initiatives for rickshaw pullers have
been taken by CRD(Center for rural
development).
• The first initiative was the idea of running a
Rickshaw Bank in 2004.
• The central idea is the issue of an asset-based
loan to the rickshaw puller .
• Installments are repayable on a daily repayment
plan with one-year duration.
 Initiatives contd…i
• Solecshaw is a rickshshaw which chan be
driven by both paddles and solar batteries.
• This makes it easier for the rickshaw pullers.

Thank you