Mobility in the Margins - Berghahn Journals

Mobility in the Margins

Hand-pulled Rickshaws in Kolkata Gopa Samanta, The University of Burdwan Sumita Roy, Independent Scholar Abstract This article examines the marginal mobilities of hand-pulled rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers in Kolkata, India. It traces the politics of rickshaw mobilities, showing how debates about modernity and the informal economy frequently overshadow the experience of the marginalized community of hand-rickshaw pullers. It shows how the hand-pulled rickshaw rarely becomes the focus of research or debate because of its marginal status—technologically (being more primitive than the cycle rickshaw); geographically (operating only in Kolkata city); and in terms of the social status of the operators (the majority being Bihari migrants in Kolkata). Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative research, this study focuses on the backgrounds of the rickshaw-pullers, their strategies for earning livelihoods, the role of social networks in their life and work, and their perceptions of the profession—including their views of the state government’s policy of seeking to abolish hand-pulled rickshaws. The article concludes by addressing the question of subalternity.

Keywords livelihoods, marginal mobility, modernity, rickshaw-pullers, subaltern

Introduction I came to Kolkata in 1966 along with my neighbors in search of a job, and finally landed up with a job pulling a hand-pulled rickshaw. I stay in the courtyard of a rich family in central Kolkata and send regular remittances to my home in the Gaya district of Bihar. I bought three acres of land in my village with savings from my income. This land is being farmed by my two sons. Although I do not need to earn now, I still continue my profession in spite of its high demands of energy, which sometimes becomes difficult for a man of my age. I do not see this profession as inhuman. Rather, I feel proud of my profession, and I honor it as it has been the only source of my “rozi roti” (daily wages and food) and helped me run my family throughout my life. (Balo Yadav, age 70, Handrickshaw puller in Kolkata city, India)

Transfers 3(3), Winter 2013: 62–78 doi: 10.3167/TRANS.2013.030305

ISSN 2045-4813 (Print) ISSN 2045-4821 (Online)


The rickshaw represents an inevitable component of urban “streetscapes”1 or the “urban public sphere”2 in India. It is hard to find a city in India where there are no rickshaws plying the streets. It thus serves as an indispensible mode of informal mobility as well as contributing enormously to the informal economy and poor people’s livelihoods. There are three major forms of rickshaws in Indian cities—hand-pulled, cycle and auto rickshaws—with the hand-pulled rickshaw being the poorest cousin, found only in Kolkata and facing the threat of extinction. Planners, policy makers, and the globalized urban elite/middle class3 often see rickshaws as a nuisance, seeking either to control their numbers or ban them from the streets altogether. In the process of planning, two major arguments are often put forward. The first argument is that the rickshaws are slow, delaying traffic and creating congestion. The second argument is that the rickshaw is an uncivilized form of mobility that does not belong in “smart,” modern, “global” cities. Indeed, the mobilities of the rickshaw are intricately related to the changing concept of modernity in the Asian context. In the early twentieth century, the rickshaw was characterized as a decent form of mobility for the urban middle class. Today, however, rickshaws are seen as things of the past, completely unnecessary for metropolitan cosmopolitanism, and antithetical to a modern, Euro-centric, globalized, cardriven India.4 Despite its obvious utility (economic, social, and environmental), the rickshaw is portrayed as an embarrassment for a world-class city in the making.5 However, even after the extensive efforts of the city government, the rickshaw—suspended between “legality” and “illegality”—persists as a subversive form of mobility in Asian cities, maintaining a significant presence in debates over sustainable urban transport6 and urban informal economies in India. According to a study conducted by Anil K. Rajvanshi in 2000,7 close to 2 million cycle rickshaws ply India’s streets, travelling about 6–8 billion passenger-kilometres/year. Although recent estimates vary widely, conservative estimates suggest that there may be around 8 million cycle rickshaws nationwide.8 Of course, this does not represent the actual number of people whose livelihoods depend on the sector, as each rickshaw puller may be the sole earning member of a family of four to six people. City-level empirical researches in India9 have shown that the number of cycle rickshaws continues to grow rapidly, and there is a wide gap between the number of registered rickshaws (with licenses from the city government) and the actual number of rickshaws operating in the city. This discrepancy reflects the long-standing invisibility of the informal economy, as well as indicating why official policies and laws have tried to eliminate rickshaws from Indian streets.10 The city of Kolkata in West Bengal is the only city in the world where highly mechanized and modern modes of transport such as the metro rail coexist alongside such a primitive form of human-powered vehicle as the hand-

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Gopa Samanta and Sumita Roy

pulled rickshaw. Despite being a megacity dominated by high-speed vehicles, all three types of rickshaw—hand-pulled, cycle, and auto (motorized)—are very popular on Kolkata’s streets. For shorter distances and in smaller lanes and by-lanes, the rickshaw has emerged as a significant and popular mode of informal mobility. Among the three forms of rickshaw, the hand-pulled rickshaw has been the subject of highly contentious debates over the last two decades. The politics of mobility has occupied centre stage in this debate, involving political parties, the urban elite, middle classes, and businessmen, as well as city officials and police. The most interesting phenomenon is a clear division between the middle class and urban elites, based on their identity as Bengali babus or non-Bengali business people. The Bengali middle class in Kolkata, dominated by the Marxist Communist Party, saw hand-pulled rickshaws as exploitative, uncivilized, and inhuman, and thus they supported the West Bengal government’s drive to evict hand-pulled rickshaws from the city. On the other hand, the middle-class non-Bengali business groups provided tacit support to the hand-rickshaw pullers, mainly because of their nonBengali identity. In 2005, the debates became even more heated when the government re-imposed a ban on hand-pulled rickshaws after several attempts in the 1980s and 1990s, calling this profession inhuman, not cost-effective and not in alignment with the image of a modern society. In spite of their slow and non cost-effective nature, they are still highly popular as modes of transport and there are still around 18,000 hand-pulled rickshaws in the city. Up to now, mainstream debates have focused on the voices of the social, political, and economic elites. Very little research exists on the subaltern perspectives of hand-rickshaw pullers (i.e. on how they view and experience their own profession), which is very important in understanding the politics of mobility. Existing debates around the hand-pulled rickshaw have demonstrated neither an understanding of the history and context of their growth in Kolkata city, nor an understanding of rickshaw-pullers’ experiences of their profession and the potential livelihood crisis if hand-pulled rickshaws are banned. It is in this context that Balo Yadav’s story (at the beginning of this article) becomes extremely important for including subaltern perspectives in mainstream research and policy on mobility. Yadav’s experiences also resonate with those of many other hand-rickshaw pullers in Kolkata, giving us insights into alternate perspectives on mobility. There are many components to this story, which reveal the multiplicity of mobilities present—the mobility of the poor labor force into the rickshaw sector; the rickshaw itself as a form of mobility; the mobility of money as remittances; and the mobility associated with livelihoods. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to explore the marginal mobilities (marginalized or purportedly “irrational” movements)11 and politics of mobility (the ways in which mobility is controlled by the social relations of power)12 around the hand-pulled rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers in Kolkata. 64 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013


The article engages with the new mobilities paradigm, focusing on the act of movement, its meanings and practices,13 rather than seeing the rickshaw simply as a mode of transport. The article also tries to develop a trans-disciplinary perspective on rickshaws, and it argues for the incorporation of the marginal voices of hand-rickshaw pullers in mainstream debates and policy dialogues for deciding the future of mobility in Indian cities.

The Rickshaw in New Mobility Studies The rickshaw is an essential component of day-to-day mobility in Asia. It has always attracted the attention of researchers on transport history14 and transport planning studies.15 The existing scholarship is dominated by Western scholars who most likely found it to be a rather exotic subject of research. Scholars of transport history are often interested in why the rickshaw flourished in Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, whereas transport planners tend to examine how this form of transport is being contested in Asian cities. The role of the rickshaw in the context of rapidly modernizing Asian cities16 and the politics of mobility around the rickshaw are still unexplored. Very often, Asian scholars studying the rickshaw are more interested in rickshaw pullers.17 Such studies tend to focus on the livelihoods of rickshawpullers and their struggle for existence; the conflicts between rickshawpullers and policy makers; and the chronic poverty and unsustainable livelihoods of rickshaw-pullers. This article reveals how the rickshaw can usefully be approached through the new mobility studies, with each aspect of mobility—physical movement, representation, and the embodied practice—being rooted in the production of power and relations of domination. The article explores the physical movement of rickshaw pullers in migrating from remote villages to the metropolis, and in moving on the streets of Kolkata; tracing narratives of physical movement as well as their experiences in and perspectives on this form of mobility. Moreover, building upon the aims of this journal to rethink mobility,18 this article adopts a trans-disciplinary approach, engaging with debates in transport studies, migration studies, livelihood studies, and city planning.

Research Methodology This study has emerged from a broader project on rickshaws in West Bengal, for which research was carried out in cities of different sizes, from the metropolis of Kolkata to smaller cities with populations of less than 100,000. This article is based on empirical research conducted in Kolkata city, the only place where hand-pulled rickshaws still survive in India. The field research Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 65


looked at thirty hand-rickshaw pullers who live and work in or around the College Street, Sealdah and Amherst Street areas of central Kolkata. Our empirical research draws upon both quantitative and qualitative methods. The social worlds of the hand-rickshaw pullers were unfamiliar to us, even though we had carried out research earlier on cycle rickshaw drivers in other cities. As outsiders, securing access to the personal details of hand-rickshaw pullers was not a straightforward or easy process. A small semi-structured questionnaire was employed to gather a brief profile of these people and to get their personal contacts, which helped us convince others to participate in the more time consuming qualitative methods of ethnographic research we used in our study. We used their free time (mostly during the noon break and in the evening) to have informal discussions, often in groups and sometimes individually. We examined the background to their entry into the profession, the conditions under which they moved to Kolkata, their strategies for earning a livelihood and for ensuring that their stay in the city is feasible, the role of social networks and relations in their lives and work, and their perception about their work and government attempts to abolish hand-pulled rickshaws from the city. During the first two weeks of research we walked along the different streets making casual conversation with those who had the time to spare. Then we started a questionnaire survey to get a deeper insight into their lives. Later on, more time was spent understanding the migration process, the complexities of their daily lives, money management and their struggles in this profession and the city. The studies were largely qualitative in nature. Following Limb and Dwyer,19 we relied on interviews, discussions, and participant observation to gain an understanding and knowledge of the rickshaw pullers. We have not followed a strict sampling method, and have instead allowed the subjects to be self-selecting, as well as relying on a process of snow-balling. We participated in and observed the everyday lives of individuals and took account of the stories they recollected. In listening to the narratives of an individual’s experiences it was often necessary to seek clarification about specific facts. Notes were compiled subsequent to field work. Besides individual interviews, we also conducted informal group discussions with six or seven participants, often taking advantage of roadside verandas and the shade of big trees to access passers-by, who would join the ongoing discussion, depending on their interest in the subject. The narratives used in this article are translated from the original either in Bengali or in Hindi. The names of all of the rickshawpullers have been changed to preserve anonymity.

Hand-pulled Rickshaws and Rickshaw-pullers in Kolkata The rickshaw, invented in Japan in the late nineteenth century (1870s20) as the modern replacement of the once modern sedan, was exported to China, 66 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013


where it was appropriated first as a symbol of modernization.21 This model of techno-industrial modernity contained all the positive aspects of the technological revolution. The rickshaw survived as it retained an extremely profitable ratio between investment in technology and surplus profit.22 In India, rickshaws were first seen in Shimla in around 1880. About twenty years later, at the turn of the century, they were introduced in Kolkata. Rickshaw-pulling gained popularity in Indian towns and cities after the Second World War,23 and especially after independence, mainly in the form of the cycle rickshaw. Cycle rickshaws became more popular than hand-pulled rickshaws because of their improved technology and relatively faster speeds. This useful mode of non-motorized transport, although a colonial import, flourished as it was quite cheap, comfortable in the tropical climate, and flexible enough to go anywhere. The increasing number of rickshaws in Asian cities is not simply related to the increasing demand for mobility. Rather, it is also related to the increasing arrival of the uneducated rural poor in the urban labor market. For them, rickshaw pulling was and is one of the easiest options for establishing a livelihood in cities, due to its ease of entry. Rural unemployment is, therefore, one of the reasons for the flourishing rickshaw profession in the cities of India.24 In the twentieth century, hand-pulled rickshaws flourished on the streets of Kolkata, as many areas of the city did not have any public transport, and the middle and poorer classes depended on rickshaws for transporting both people and goods over shorter distances. The culture of human-powered vehicles in Kolkata started with palanquins used by Bangali babus (Bengali urban middle-class gentlemen) and zamindars (landed gentry with huge landholdings in surrounding rural areas) in nineteenth-century colonial Bengal and was replaced by the rickshaw in the twentieth century. Although the palanquin was used by the rich in Bengal, the rickshaw became a mode of transport that catered to the needs of all classes in the city.25 Hand-pulled rickshaws were flexible, available at the doorstep, and met the needs of areas outside the reach of motorized vehicles. With the increasing demand for intra-urban mobility, the number of rickshaws increased, as greater numbers of poor people from Bihar and present-day Jharkhand (which was a part of Bihar until November 15, 2000, after which it was deemed a separate state) migrated to become rickshaw pullers (a job easily available in Kolkata). Hand-pulled rickshaws are governed by The Calcutta Hackney Carriage Act of 1919, which controls the registration and movement of hackney-carriages, horse-drawn carriages, palanquins, rickshaws, and stage-carriages in Kolkata city. Since the 1980s, moves have been made by the state government to ban unlicensed hand-pulled rickshaws from the streets of Kolkata and to prevent new licenses being issued. The state declared these rickshaws illegal because they provided a powerful symbol and reminder of a feudal past.26 In the name of “traffic planning” and “city modernization,” the then Left Front government wanted to remove all hand-pulled rickshaws from the city of KolTransfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 67


kata. The Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, stated, “We have taken a policy decision to take the hand-drawn rickshaw off the roads of Kolkata on humanitarian grounds. Nowhere else in the world does this practice exist and we think it should also cease to exist in Kolkata.”27 Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty also said that “the poor must suffer a little for the good of the larger community.”28 Simultaneously, various modernization drives targeting the rickshaw-pullers were launched. The Calcutta government of the 1980s replaced thousands of hand-pulled rickshaws with auto rickshaws without consulting the rickshaw-pullers, replacing the poor migrant workers in the informal transport sector with local unemployed youth.29 As a result of this process of replacing hand-pulled rickshaws with motorized ones, the level of pollution in the city has increased considerably. According to Badami, nonmotorized transport could contribute significantly to help improve the poor air quality in Indian cities. The level of suspended particulate matter in the air in Kolkata has reached dangerous levels; breaching the acceptable levels set by the World Health Organization many years ago.30 Since the 1990s and changes to government regulations, the number of hand-pulled rickshaws in Kolkata has started to decline. In the 1980s, there were 50,000–60,000 hand-pulled rickshaws in Kolkata, of which only 6,000 were licensed or registered. Although there are still 18,000 hand-pulled rickshaws on Kolkata’s streets, the majority are illegal, with only 5,945 rickshawpullers having licenses. The unlicensed pullers are somewhat invisible, as well as being susceptible to ill-treatment.31 In fact, it was much easier for the government to marginalize the poor rickshaw-pullers as they were migrants, the poorest of the poor, mostly illiterate, and poorly organized. They remained invisible, having neither a home nor any recognized identity in the city; rendering them non-citizens, outsiders and, therefore, as extremely vulnerable to government decisions. Unlike cycle rickshaw pullers in Delhi, who were supported by NGOs and civil society groups such as Manushi, Lokayan and others, there was little support for the hand-pulled rickshaws of Kolkata, except by the NGO Kolkata Samaritan, as hand-pulled rickshaws were unwanted by Kolkata’s Bengali middle class as well. As already discussed earlier, the politics of class identity played a big role in this silence of Kolkata’s Bengali middle class on the issue of banning hand-pulled rickshaws in the city. In Kolkata, Bihari migrants figure prominently among the hand-rickshaw pullers. There are also some poor migrants from Jharkhand, as well as the neighboring country of Bangladesh, but the majority of them are Hindi-speaking people from Bihar. According to a report compiled by the Kolkata Samaritan, 66 percent of the rickshaw-pullers migrated from Bihar, 17 percent from Jharkhand, and another 17 percent from rural West Bengal and Bangladesh. More than 90 percent of rickshaw-pullers are in the age group of 26 to 60 years and 39 percent live on the streets. These rickshaw-pullers took to this livelihood because they are poor and often illiterate with few other options. About 68 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013


80 percent of them have entered the occupation in their fathers’ steps.32 About 90 percent are landless in their home region and homeless in Kolkata. Though the rickshaw-pullers are not economically strong, by pulling rickshaws they can earn enough money to survive in the city and remit moneys to their families as well. Most of the pullers do not own their rickshaws and have to pay a regular rent to the rickshaw thikadars (contractors who own rickshaws and earn from giving those on daily rent).33

A Brief Socio-economic Proﬁle of Surveyed Hand-rickshaw Pullers This section presents a brief background about the hand-rickshaw pullers in Kolkata city, examining their survival strategies in the face of strong government initiatives to evict them. Although the sample size is very small (only thirty in number) in comparison to the total number of people involved in this profession, this section gives an idea about their community identity. Twothirds of the hand-rickshaw pullers surveyed are from the Hindu community and the remaining one-third belongs to the Muslim community. Almost all of them are located in the central Kolkata area. Our observations indicate that the highest proportion of rickshaw-pullers were in the 41–60 year age group, while the second highest proportion were over 60. The proportional representation of elderly people is relatively high among the surveyed hand-rickshaw pullers, largely because the State Government has stopped issuing new licenses and young people do not feel this would provide a secure livelihood, due to the vulnerable and uncertain future of the occupation. Most of the elderly rickshaw pullers continue with the job as they have become habituated to this occupation over a long time and do not want to take the risk of changing their livelihood. In reply to our question about what other activities they could see as providing possible livelihood options, we found that many do not feel that they can do anything else. The hand-rickshaw pullers are either illiterate or have only a basic (can read and sign only) and primary education. Only a small proportion—belonging to the younger age group—had achieved a secondary level of education. Being poorly educated, these people do not feel confident and are very reluctant to join other livelihoods. Poor reading and writing skills also make it difficult for them to deal with both municipal officials and with the traffic police. Many aged rickshaw-pullers stated that although they had enough money to buy instead of rent their own rickshaw, they chose to rent because they could not deal with the municipal officials who issue licenses. The rickshaw-pullers often suffer from poverty because they have only one or two earners in their family, supporting several other members who do not earn, and surviving on only a meager income. According to our field survey, Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 69


about one-third of the rickshaw-pullers have five to six members in the family who are dependent on their income. Another one-third has three earning members in a family of nine to ten. Thus, the ratio between earning and dependent members is about 1:3. We observed only one case where the number of earning members in the family was greater than the dependent members. These figures point to the fact that the livelihood crisis of hand-rickshaw pullers not only affects them but also affects a much larger family community.

Migration Poverty-induced migration from Bihar has been extensively researched in migration studies.34 These studies have shown that the state of Bihar has a long history of outmigration dating back to the nineteenth century. Around this time, Bihar was the primary source-region of a large number of indentured laborers who were sent overseas to British colonies such as Fiji and the West Indies, as well as to other parts of the country such as the jute mills of West Bengal and the tea plantations of Assam. This corroborates Akbar’s observation that the Biharis have been India’s foremost “economic refugees” for many generations.35 This trend is still continuing, even after six decades of Indian independence and planned development. Thus, the high percentage of Bihari migrants in the hand-pulled rickshaw sector is indicative of the poor socioeconomic condition of that state, and the relatively good economic opportunities in West Bengal, especially in the city of Kolkata. Among the Bihari migrant rickshaw-pullers, a large number hail from the Gaya and Nawada districts of Bihar, which are relatively poor and undeveloped regions. In Kolkata, the hand-rickshaw pullers generally reside in groups to reduce the cost of their stay and none of them rent rooms in the city. According to the Kolkata Samaritan’s report of 2010, around 49 percent of them live on footpaths and 46 percent live in deras (shared living arrangements with many people together in a small room).36 Those who cannot afford to pay for deras spend the night on footpaths. They usually keep their belongings in a small bag and keep these bags together in fixed places on footpaths or on open roadside verandas during the daytime. There are also some rickshaw pullers (5 percent of the total who participated in our study) who have managed to spend the night in rich people’s courtyards or on the inner veranda of a house in exchange for providing informal help to a family (for example, by picking up their children from school or grocery shopping). As Brahm Yadav (age 51), one of our study participants, explains: The babu who is the owner of the house is very kind. He does not demand any rent from me, instead I have to do some work for them like calling taxi, shopping daily needs, helping to shift furniture in the house, etc.

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Two of our research participants told us that they spend the night in shops. In this social contract, they benefit from a free place to stay at night, while the owner gets night security for free. These social contracts have developed through long-term social relations cultivated between poor rickshaw-pullers and the local land-owning business class. Such rickshaw-pullers are often second-generation migrants and they utilize the long-term relationships built by their parents with local people.

Work and Livelihood Experiences Since it was pioneered by Robert Chambers in 1989,37 the idea of “livelihoods” has been conceived in various ways. Besides economic well-being, relatively more importance is placed upon the non-economic dimensions of processes involved in ensuring survival.38 Others such as Ellis39 have chosen to see it as a broad amalgamation of various elements—the assets (natural, physical, human, financial, and social capital); the activities (strategies of use); and the access to these (mediated by institution and social relations) that together determine the living gained by the individual or household. Although frameworks for livelihood analysis differ in their detail, the basic elements consider resources (what people have), strategies (what people do), and outcomes (the goals people pursue). A number of studies in the literature focus upon the role migration can play in the livelihoods of poor rural households.40 It is now generally recognized that migration is part of the normal livelihood strategies of the poor. Seasonal migrations from poverty-stricken to better-off rural areas, or from villages to urban areas, are now well-recorded in economically underdeveloped parts of developing countries.41 The study of hand-rickshaw pullers in Kolkata also chimes with earlier studies which found that migration was a common strategy for poor people trying to earn sustainable livelihoods. The urban informal sectors of Indian cities are very often dominated by poor people, and the majority of them are newly arrived rural-to-urban migrants.42 These poor migrant people are mostly engaged in casual and self-employed informal work,43 among which rickshawpulling is notable because of its ease of entry.44 In addition, this work does not require any capital investment. Nearly one-third of our research participants have been living and working in Kolkata for over forty years. The number of newcomers is low because of the uncertain future of hand-pulled rickshaws in the city. On responding to the question of why they had joined the profession, approximately 20 percent of the pullers stated that they were motivated by their fathers to join this occupation, as their fathers were also rickshawpullers. The other 80 percent joined through their informal social networks of friends, kin, relatives, and village-men. This network of contacts can be con-

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sidered to form the social capital of poor migrants in a metropolitan city. The people who are long habituated to this profession do not want to change to a different job. Bijay Yadav (age 49) stated: “Do I have other options at this age and for illiterate people like me? Even if I am rehabilitated with a cycle rickshaw, I cannot pull cycle rickshaw with other vehicles on road. I can meet with an accident as I am not habituated to driving a cycle rickshaw.” Mobility of livelihoods is very common among the hand-rickshaw pullers of Kolkata. Only one-third of our research participants had been in this profession from the very beginning, while the remaining two-thirds had changed their livelihoods. Among those for whom rickshaw-pulling is their second occupation, 63 percent were industrial or agricultural laborers, 13 percent were mutiya (who carry goods on their head), and the remaining 24 percent lost farmlands during floods and river-bank erosion. There are many other reasons for switching to this profession cited by our research participants. One example is given by Parameswar Shaw (age 55): “I had a grocery shop in the village, but it was running on loss, which I finally sold off and came here to join this profession through my friends.” Another type of mobility is also common among rickshaw-pullers. They are often engaged in this profession for specific seasons such as poor harvests in their villages. Most rickshaw-pullers ply rickshaws for nine to eleven months of the year. They generally spend the remaining time visiting family members in their village once or twice a year. Some rickshaw-pullers go back to their villages and spend the busy agricultural season either cultivating their own land or as laborers on others’ land. The majority of the pullers (approximately two-thirds) ply rickshaws for eight to ten hours a day. The level of energy required is very high, and has been explained by Dominique Lapierre in The City of Joy thus: “It takes the strength of a buffalo! And once it’s moving, it’s even worse. With passengers on board, you might be pulling a good three hundred pounds.”45 Because of this high energy demand, only one fifth (who are mostly young) pull the rickshaw every day; the majority pull rickshaws five to six days per week. The monsoon season plays a significant role in the lives of hand-rickshaw pullers in this city. The pullers who live in deras welcome the heavy rains and water-logging of the streets, because other vehicles become defunct in such situations, and hand-pulled rickshaws are the sole operational mode of transport, attracting more customers. At the same time, a substantial mobility of livelihoods is seen in this season as many people who do not have proper shelter in the city return to their villages. The people who spend the night on footpaths or on open roadside verandas see the rain as a curse. Bijay Yadav (age 49) recollects some bad memories: Last year we had a very bad rainy season in this city and sometimes the rain continued for three to four days. We did not have any place to sleep. We used to cover ourselves with polythene sheets and sat throughout the nights, sleep72 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013


less, to escape from the rain. The rain in the night is always like a nightmare for those who live on the footpath.

Sitting through the entire night in the rain affects their health considerably and they have to spend a lot of money on treatment and medicines. Thus, the rainy season comes as a blessing to those who have shelter in the city, and a curse to others who live on footpaths. However, the rickshaw-pullers somehow try to survive and enhance their levels of tolerance to cope with the distress caused by heavy rains.

Income and Remittances “Remittances” play a big role in the livelihoods of poor people in developing countries wherever outmigration is dominant. The livelihoods of hand-rickshaw pullers in Kolkata do not show any deviation from this trend. The flow of remittances constitutes a significant component of the mobilities associated with hand-pulled rickshaws. The earnings of rickshaw-pullers are frequently sent to Bihar where their families sometimes entirely depend on this money to survive. In economic analyses, remittances have been shown to be important for the economic growth of a country as well as for reducing poverty. Although there is little agreement on the role of remittances in enhancing the economic growth of a country or a region, scholars generally agree that it helps to reduce poverty.46 Our field research shows that the average earning of hand-rickshaw pullers is between INR100–150 per day, thus varying between INR3,000–4,000 per month. Out of this daily income they have to pay INR20–35 per day to hire a rickshaw. The level of income varies depending on a number of factors—the number of days a week the rickshaw is pulled, the hours of work per day, the season (high summer or rains), and the age of the rickshaw puller. Their age not only affects their capacity/ability to pull rickshaws efficiently but also influences customers’ perceptions, which eventually affect their earnings. Many customers do not want to hire rickshaws with aged pullers as they think that such old pullers would be very slow moving, and consequently, customers often avoid them. As Ramdev Yadav (age 70) stated: “As I am quite aged, only a few people ride on my rickshaw. They think that I shall not be able to pull heavy weights and the speed of my rickshaw will be slower in respect to other young pullers.” There is also a tremendous mobility of income for the hand-rickshaw pullers. To be able to send more money to their families, they have to spend less on their living expenses. The majority of our research participants spend an average of INR60–80 per day on themselves. Very few of them can afford more than INR80 for their daily needs in the city. Out of this total expenditure, they not only pay for food and shelter but also for bidi (hand-rolled country cigarettes), alcohol, and visits to the cinema. On average, they spend INR200–300 per month on such things. Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 73


Around one-third of the rickshaw-pullers send INR750–1,500 to their families. Another one-third send INR1,501–2,250 per month. Only the younger pullers, who earn more, can send more than INR2,250 per month to their family. A detailed analysis of the diversified household livelihoods in their villages shows that the remittances constitute a major proportion of their family income and these are also used for building assets whenever possible, after fulfilling their consumption needs.

Conclusion The main arguments for the abolition of hand-pulled rickshaws are based on its inhuman and uncivilized nature, and as a profession which is not aligned with international concepts of modernity. The findings from this study indicate that although largely invisible within official discourses, there are many people who make their living in Kolkata city by pulling hand-rickshaws. The total number of pullers (around 18,000) might seem to be an insignificant proportion of the total number of urban informal sector workers, but they still play an important role in the overall mobility of the city. The government’s deliberate strategy of pushing those people to the margins (by not issuing or renewing licenses) has created a crisis in the lives of these poor migrant people. At the same time, the government’s policy is little contested by civil-society groups on the grounds of modernity. A 2003 study published in National Geographic found that “rickshaw pullers are near the bottom of Kolkata occupations in income, doing better than only the ragpickers and the beggars. For someone without land or education, that still beats trying to make a living in Bihar.”47 However, through our research we have observed that although the hand-rickshaw pullers are not in a very strong economic condition, they are habituated, feel comfortable in this profession, and do not want to change it. Their point of view has been articulated by Somen Mitra, the secretary of the Kolkata Rickshaw Pullers Union, who states that “Running a rickshaw is no more inhumane than working in the mines or in the fields.”48 According to Begum and Sen, the rickshaw-pulling profession is “an exit route from poverty” and the pullers who are in this occupation for several years can attain “a degree of modest upward mobility.” If we stop this avenue, then we shall limit their capacity for upward social mobility.49 Thus this article argues that the government should give priority to rickshaws, not only because the rickshaw-pullers have a right to be in the city to earn a livelihood, but also because of the flexibility of movement in congested areas that this mode of transport provides.50 The state government has stated that it will rehabilitate the hand-rickshaw pullers by replacing hand-pulled rickshaws with cycle rickshaws. However, this will never help the pullers in 74 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013


any substantive manner, as only 6 percent of pullers hold licenses. The government scheme will not acknowledge the many undocumented pullers who are working in the city. Moreover, licenses are often issued in the name of the owners (who rent out their rickshaws to the pullers on a daily basis) and not the pullers. Though the modern state and many citizens feel that this profession is inhuman, the rickshaw-pullers themselves do not share this view. At the heart of this, then, has been the question of subalternity, which involves “looking from below” through the eyes of people marginalized from mainstream frameworks, especially in evaluating and in framing policy and practice pertaining to the hand-pulled rickshaws in Kolkata. Balo Yadav’s voice illustrates the views of many rickshaw pullers: “I have three acres land and two earning sons in Bihar. I do not need to earn now but I want to continue this job as long as I can and the government cannot take away this job from me, as I also have a right to this city.” This study therefore is an attempt to explore the subversive and subaltern nature of mobility around hand-pulled rickshaws. The poor, migrant, and unorganized identity of rickshaw pullers has made their voices subaltern, which needs to be addressed in the mainstream academic discourse on mobility and transport studies. Gopa Samanta is currently Associate Professor of Geography in The University of Burdwan, India. Her core area of teaching and research is urban and social geography, mobility studies, and the geography of gender. With ﬁnancial assistance from different international funding agencies, Samanta has completed a number of research projects with interdisciplinary methodologies and a collaborative research team. She has published widely in a range of journals and edited volumes. Her co-authored book Dancing with the River: People and Life on the Chars of South Asia was published by Yale University Press in April 2013. Her address: Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan, 713104, India, and E-mail: [email protected]. Sumita Roy is an independent scholar. She lives in Kolkata, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Notes 1. The term is used by Seminar, a journal published in Delhi, which produced a special issue titled Streetscapes: A Symposium on the Future of the Streets in August 2012, where many articles debated the exclusionary policies of subaltern groups of people from urban public spaces, especially the streets. Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 75


2.

3.

4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11.

12. 13.

14.

15.

We would like to thank all of the research participants for devoting their time to the research process. We are also thankful to the anonymous referees whose invaluable comments have helped us to improve the article. We are indebted to Peter Merriman whose feedback and editing as a “mentor” has helped us to improve the quality of the article. Finally we would like to thank the chief editor Gijs Mom for commenting on earlier drafts. Amita Baviskar, “Cows, Cars and Cycle-rickshaws: Bourgeois Environmentalists and the Battle for Delhi’s Streets,” in Elites and Everyman: The Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes, ed. Amita Baviskar and Raka Ray (Routledge: New Delhi, 2011), 391. Amita Baviskar and Raka Ray, “Introduction,” in Elites and Everyman: The Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes, ed. Amita Baviskar and Raka Ray (Routledge: New Delhi, 2011), 5. Abhay Kumar Dubey, “The Rickshaw Refuses to Go Away: The Struggle of the Co-traveller of Asian Modernity,” in The Saga of Rickshaw: Identity, Struggle and Claims, ed. Rajendra Ravi (New Delhi: VAK, 2006), 29–65, esp. 34. Amita Baviskar, “Cows, Cars and Cycle-rickshaws: Bourgeois Environmentalists and the Battle for Delhi’s Streets,” 410. Peter Cox, Moving People: Sustainable Transport Development (London and New York: Zed books, 2010). A. K. Rajvanshi, “Cycle Rickshaws as a Sustainable Transport System for Developing Countries,” Human Power 49 (Winter 1999–2000): 15–18, esp. 15. Asima Sud, “The Future of Informal Services? The Cycle Rickshaw Sector as Case Study,” Economic and Political Weekly 47 no. 42 (2012): 95–102, esp. 98. Gopa Samanta and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, “Urban Informal Sector as a Mirror of Rural-urban Interaction: Focus on the Rickshaw Pullers, Burdwan, India,” Oriental Geographer 48 no. 2 (2004): 11–30; Rajendra Ravi, ed., The Saga of Rickshaw: Identity, Struggle and Claims (New Delhi: VAK, 2006); Baenerjee and Kumar, “Cycle Rickshaw Pullers of Delhi: An Untold Story”, Annals 31 no. 2 (2011): 24–39. Sud, “The Future of Informal Services? The Cycle Rickshaw Sector as Case Study,” 98. Tim Cresswell and Peter Merriman, “Introduction,” in Geographies of Mobilities: Practices, Spaces, Subjects, ed. Tim Cresswell and Peter Merriman (U.K.: Ashgate, 2011): 1–15, esp. 4. Tim Cresswell, “Towards A Politics of Mobility,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 no. 1 (2010): 17–31, esp. 21. Cresswell, “Towards A Politics of Mobility,” 19. On the “new mobilities paradigm,” see Mimi Sheller and John Urry, “The New Mobilities Paradigm,” Environment and Planning A 38 no. 2 (2006): 207–226. David Strand, Rickshaw Beijing: City People and Politics in the 1920s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); James Francis Warren, Rickshaw Coolie: A People’s History of Singapore (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003). D. Mohan and G. Tiwari, “Mobility, Environment and Safety in Megacities: Dealing with a Complex Future,” IATSS Research 24 no. 1 (2000): 39–46; G. Tiwari, “Urban Transport Priorities: Meeting the Challenges of Socio-economic Diversity in Cities, A Case Study of Delhi, India,” Cities 19 no. 2 (2002): 95–103; Rob Gallagher, The Rickshaws of Bangladesh (Dhaka: University Press Limited, 1992).

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16. Tim Cresswell, in Peter Merriman, Rhys Jones, Tim Cresswell, Colin Divall, Gijs Mom, Mimi Sheller and John Urry, “Mobility: Geographies, Histories, Sociologies” Transfers 3 no. 1 (2013): 147–165, esp. 151. 17. Sharifa Begum and Binayak Sen, Unsustainable Livelihoods, Health Shocks and Urban Chronic Poverty: Rickshaw Pullers as a Case Study (Dhaka: Chronic Poverty Research Centre, 2004); Subir Bandyopadhyay, Calcutta Cycle Rickshaw Pullers: A Sociological Study (Columbia: South Asia Books, 1990); Rajendra Ravi, ed., The Saga of Rickshaw: Identity, Struggle and Claims. 18. Gijs Mom et al., “Hop on The Bus, Gus,” Transfers 1 no. 1 (2011): 1–13. 19. Melanie Limb and Claire Dwyer, Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers (London: Arnold, 2001). 20. Rob Gallagher, The Rickshaws of Bangladesh, 26. 21. Ruth Oldenziel and Adri Albert de la Bruheze, “Cycling in a Global World,” Transfers 2 no. 2 (2012): 22–30, esp. 25; Rob Gallagher, The Rickshaws of Bangladesh. 22. Abhay Kumar Dubey, “The Rickshaw Refuses to Go Away: The Struggle of the Cotraveller of Asian Modernity,” 35. 23. A. Kumar, “Intermediate Transport and Rickshaw-drivers in Urban India: Towards a Policy Framework,” (paper presented in National Seminar on Patterns of Urban Social Change in India, April 6–9, 1989) (Varanasi: Department of Geography, B.H.U.), 24. Gopa Samanta, “Urban Mobilities and The Cycle Rickshaw,” Seminar 636 (August 2012): 57–60, esp. 58; Baenerjee and Kumar, “Cycle Rickshaw Pullers of Delhi: An Untold Story,” 25; Ziaush Shams M.M. Haq and Towhida Rashid, “Rickshawpullers of Dhaka City and Rickshaw Pulling as a Means of Livelihood,” Oriental Geographer 49 no. 1 (2005): 33–46, esp. 36; Sharifa Begum and Binayak Sen, “Unsustainable Livelihoods, Health Shocks and Urban Chronic Poverty: Rickshaw Pullers as a Case Study,” 13. 25. Gopa Samanta and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, “Urban Informal Sector as a Mirror of Rural-urban Interaction: Focus on the Rickshaw Pullers, Burdwan, India,” Oriental Geographer 48 no. 2 (2004): 11–30, esp. 2. 26. Jai Sen, “The Left Front and the Unintended City: Is a Civilized Transition Possible?” Economic and Political Weekly 45 and 46 no. 31 (1996): 2977–2982, esp. 2977. 27. Express India, “Hand-pulled Rickshaws to Go off Kolkata Roads,” Press Trust of India, Aug. 15, 2005, http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid =52774# (accessed Nov. 30, 2011). 28. Sen, “The Left Front and the Unintended City,” 2977. 29. Ibid., 2979. 30. G. Madhav Badami, “Urban Transport Policy as if People and the Environment Mattered: Pedestrian Accessibility the First Step,” Economic and Political Weekly 44 no. 33 (Aug. 15, 2009): 43–51, esp. 44. 31. The Calcutta Samaritans and Action Aid, “A Report On: Hand Rickshaw Pullers of Kolkata,” 2005. 32. The Calcutta Samaritans and Action Aid, “A Draft Report on the Study on Present Socio-economic Status of Hand Rickshaw Pullers of Kolkata and Their Rehabilitation Aspects,” 2010. 33. Ibid. Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013 • 77


34. A. de Haan, “Migration and Livelihoods in Historical Perspective: A Case Study of Bihar, India,” Journal of Development Studies 38 no. 5 (2002): 115–142; G.R. Sahay, “Hierarchy, Difference and the Caste System: A Study of Rural Bihar,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 38 no. 1–2 (2004): 113–136; M.J. Akbar, “Migration and Poverty Go Hand-in-hand in Bihar,” Gulf News (Nov. 24, 2003), http://gulfnews .com/news/gulf/uae/general/m-j-akbar-migration-and-poverty-go-hand-inhand-in-bihar-1,370943 (accessed Dec. 2, 2011). 35. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/m-j-akbar-migration-and-pov erty-go-hand-in-hand-in-bihar-1,370943 (accessed Dec. 2, 2011). 36. The Calcutta Samaritans and Action Aid, “A Draft Report on the Study on Present Socio-economic Status of Hand Rickshaw Pullers of Kolkata and Their Rehabilitation Aspects,” 2010. 37. R. Chambers, “Vulnerability, Coping and Policy,” IDS Bulletin 20 (1989): 1–8. 38. P. Blaikie, T. Cannon, I. Davis, and B. Wisner, At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters (London: Routledge, 1994). 39. F. Ellis, Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 40. A. de Haan, “Migrants, Livelihoods, and Rights: The Relevance of Migration in Development Policies,” Working Paper No. 4 (London: Social Development Department, DFID, 2000); A. de Haan, K. Brock, G. Carswell, N. Coulibaly, H. Seba, and K. Ali Toufique, “Migrants, Livelihoods: Case Studies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali,” Research Report No. 46, (Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, 2000). 41. P. Deshingkar and D. Start, “Seasonal Migration for Livelihoods in India: Coping, Accumulation and Exclusion,” Working Paper No. 220 (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2003). 42. D.P. Singh, “Poverty and Migration: Does Moving Help?” Urban Poverty Report (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009), 50–75. 43. Jeemol Unni, “The Unorganized Sector and Urban Poverty: Issues of Livelihood,” Urban Poverty Report (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009), 76–93. 44. Madhu Purnima Kishwar, “Urban Informal Sector: The Need for a Bottom-up Agenda of Economic Reforms: Case Study of Cycle Rickshaw and Street Vendors in Delhi,” Urban Poverty Report (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009), 309–326. 45. Dominique Lapierre, The City of Joy (New Delhi: Full Circle, 2012), 80. 46. Juthathip Jongwanich, “Workers’ Remittances, Economic Growth and Poverty in Developing Asia and the Pacific Countries,” UNESCAP Working paper WP/07/01, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific, (2007): 1–20, esp. 5 and 7. 47. National Geographic, “India’s Rickshaws,” Oct. 2012, http://ngm.nationalgeograp hic.com/2008/04/kolkata-rickshaws/calvin-trillin-text/4 (accessed Dec. 6, 2011). 48. memestream, “The Rickshaws of Kolkata,” Dec. 31, 2006, http://memestreamblog .wordpress.com/2006/12/31/the-rickshaws-of-kolkata/ (accessed Dec. 6, 2011). 49. Begum and Sen, “Unsustainable Livelihoods, Health Shocks and Urban Chronic Poverty: Rickshaw Pullers as a Case Study,” 23. 50. Kishwar, “Urban Informal Sector: The Need for a Bottom-up Agenda of Economic Reforms: Case Study of Cycle Rickshaw and Street Vendors in Delhi,” 311. 78 • Transfers • Volume 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013