government’s warfare against cycle rickshaws

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Laws, Liberty and Livelihood

Manushi Sangathan, Phone: 011-23916437

Email: [email protected]

Government’s Warfare againstCitizen Friendly, Eco-Friendly Cycle Rickshaws

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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 day amounting to a total of 120-150 lakh kms for city’s 600,000 rickshaws.

If rickshaws are 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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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

An Important Source of Livelihood

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Contribution to Village Economy

Click to play the video clip

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Rickshaws are the most user friendly and inexpensive mode of transport for short distance travel. A cycle rickshaw charges Rs 5-10 for a commute that would cost Rs 20-30 in an auto.

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.

User Friendly and Cost Efficient

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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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Pullers provide safe, personalized doorstep transport service for school children even in

middle class colonies.

Cheap Transport for Local Schools

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Efficient feeder service for metro rail and the city’s bus service which run on main routes.

Rickshaws queued outside Metro stations in Delhi

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Rickshaws provide a low cost mode of garbage collection. Carrying garbage in motorized transport will add to pollution and increase costs.

Multi-Purpose Vehicle

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The most cost efficient method for carrying goods over short distances and extensively

used by street vendors.

Multi-Purpose Vehicle

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A Home and Rest Place Away from Home

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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.

Linkages with Small Scale Industry

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If rickshaws have carved out a distinct space for themselves alongside motorized vehicles-- despite bans, use of police danda 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?

Govt. Policy Against Market Demand

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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 many middle and upper class colonies.

• As per MCD’s own estimates there are nearly 600,000 cycle rickshaws in Delhi alone, including trolley rickshaws for carrying goods and garbage.

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Discriminatory Policies for 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 that has been reportedly further reduced to 52,000

Actual number of licenses issued up to 2007: 89, 429.

This has failed to keep down the number of rickshaws because of growing public

demand for their services.

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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 vehicle!

Punishment 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, even the licensed rickshaws are trapped in illegality due to several 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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Since 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

Trapped in a Web of Illegality

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Implications of “Owner MUST be Puller” Policy

Airplanes are not confiscated if the owner is not piloting all or any of his planes;

Trucks, buses and taxis are not confiscated if the owners hire others to drive them.

By enacting a law that prohibits a person from owning more than one rickshaw and by insisting that “owner must also be puller” the government has in fact legislated that: A person who begins his life as a puller, must

die as a puller; The poor must remain manual laborers all

their lives; The poor are not allowed to become even

petty entrepreneurs.

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Example of Losses Due to Fines and Confiscation

As per MCD’s own admission before the Supreme Court, 60,000 rickshaws were destroyed in 2007 alone. This happens every year.

Today, with each new rickshaw costing over Rs 6000 this means a capital loss of Rs 360,000,000.

For every rickshaw destroyed, at least 10 are caught and released after fines and bribes.

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An Owner: Invests Rs 4000-6000 in a new new cycle rickshaw; Earns a rent of Rs 25 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 and municipality, and losses due to fines and confiscation of the vehicle.

Thus at an average of Rs 20 per day per vehicle an owner gets an income of Rs 400 to 600 per month. This means he recovers the cost of his vehicle within ten months.

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.

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Earning Potential of Rickshaw Trade…

Puller Pays Rs 25 to 35 per day rent for the vehicle;

Earns between Rs 125 to 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.

If renting taxis does not make a person a mafia don, how does he become a mafia by renting the humble rickshaw?

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The Drama of Raids and Confiscation Drives

Both licensed and unlicensed rickshaws are confiscated under the guise of checking licenses. Licensed rickshaws are special targets.

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 the same 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 400.

After 15 days the vehicle cannot be released. It is meant to be crushed and sold as junk. This limit has now been reduced to 7 days.

Even licensed rickshaws are frequently impounded on the ground that they are causing road congestion. By contrast, cars or buses are never impounded simply because there is a traffic jam on the road.

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Drama of Checking Licenses

Click on photo for video clip

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Hundreds of rickshaws confiscated daily and dumped in municipal yards on the plea that they

cause road congestion


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Confiscated Rickshaws Rickshaws in MCD Yard

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MCD Junk Yard under Safdarjang Flyover


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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 6000 Rs. Even if you own 100 rickshaws, it represents a total capital of no more than Rs 600, 000. By contrast a truck costs no less than Rs 10 lakhs. Thus a person owning 100 trucks or buses owns a capital of no less than 10 crores.

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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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 small jhuggis 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 in fact rented by seasonal migrants from

entrepreneurs who own a 5 to 500 rickshaws.

Why Pullers Find it Impossible to be Owners

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Why Owning a Rickshaw is a High Risk Venture


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Licenses not Available to Pullers

Getting 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. It is open and shut arbitrarily as and when MCD pleases.

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.

Since 2007, MCD has altogether stopped issuing or renewing puller licenses.

To avoid risk of losing the vehicle, pullers therefore find it convenient to rent from fleet owners. That makes their existence also illegal.

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Click on photo for interview of a puller

Making it Impossible for Pullers to Own Rickshaws

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Impossibility of Pullers Getting Licenses

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When a Poor Man Tries to Own a Rickshaw

Deepak Suri’s Story:

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Devious Procedures for Issuing Licenses

Testimony of Rickshaw Owner Darshan Singh Popli:

Click on photo for video

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Code Words on rickshaws to

indicate the “deal” made with MCD staff

for unlicensed rickshaws

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Why Licensed Rickshaws are Special Targets of Confiscation

Testimony of Rickshaw Owner, Shashi Kant Bhushan:


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Daily Unprovoked Beatings by Police

Large parts of the city have

been arbitrarily declared as NO Entry Zones for rickshaws

Result? Daily bribes and beatings

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 3-4 days of running around and fines, bribes and other expenses worth Rs 400-600 to get a vehicle released.

The traffic police routinely confiscate rickshaws to “decongest” roads.


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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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Loss of Income

Rickshaw owners lose at least Rs 12 crores per month in bribes, at Rs 200 per vehicle for payoffs.

In addition, there is regular loss of income due to confiscation and fines.

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 360,000,000 per year because today it costs over Rs 6000 to replace a lost vehicle.

Add to it the bribes collected by the police from each puller on account of arbitrary Entry bans on rickshaws almost everywhere.

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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 rickshaws worth

Rs. 200 crores

per year

In Delhi alone the terror unleashed by the License-Quota-

Raid-Raj on rickshaw-owners

and pullers leads to loss of income

through bribes and confiscation of

rickshaws worth

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Many rickshaw owners started their lives as pullers and slowly built a fleet.


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

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Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Poor Crushed by Government

The Tribulations of Amarjeet Singh


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Rickshaw owners are defamed as 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, rest points and social life provided in the yard.

Owners provide some protection from harassment and arrest by the police

If a rented vehicle is confiscated, puller runs no risk. He is back to work within hours by renting out another rickshaw.

Choli Daman ka Saath

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Rickshaw Yard: Home away from Home


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In the case of Hemraj Vs. C.P. Delhi (2006), The Delhi High Court made an order that implied the complete ban of cycle rickshaws from the Chandni Chowk area, from Red Fort to Fatehpuri Chowk to avoid traffic congestion and ensure its smooth flow.

In the same order cycle rickshaws have been prohibited on the arterial roads of Delhi.

The reason provided by the High Court was that these roads are meant for motorized transport and the plying of rickshaws would slow down the traffic, resulting in congestion.

Hemraj Vs. Delhi Commissioner of Police

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In 2008 The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), under Byelaw 3(1) and “in pursuance of Delhi High Court Orders (Hemraj and Others vs. CP and Others, 2006) issued an Order (Resolution No. 613) providing for forcible seizure of unlicensed cycle rickshaws and rickshaws plying on arterial roads in MCD areas and consequent scrapping and dismantling of the same within 7 days of being impounded.

Considering that, under the current flawed Cycle-Rickshaw bye-laws, almost every rickshaw in this city is techincally “illegal” or unlicenced, this Resolution is impractical, unsustainable, and absurd.

The provisions of the new policy arbitrarily and illegally discriminates against the cycle rickshaw pullers and cycle rickshaws in favor of other modes of transportation.

Resolution 613: An Unjust Order

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In 2008 The All Delhi Cycle Rickshaw Operators’ Union, with the full support of Manushi Sangathan, filed a petition against the MCD, stating that Resolution No. 613 is loaded with gross illegality and unconstitutionality, whereby rendering absolutely unsustainable in law.

The petition also requested that the Court order the MCD to provide stands and parking for the safe keeping of rickshaws, affordable service stations and that seized licensed rickshaws be immediately released without penalty.

The new policy laid out in Resolution No. 613 denies the right of cycle pullers and owners in Delhi to live with dignity and without fear.

All Delhi Rickshaw Operators’ Union vs. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi

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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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Delhi already has over 56 lakh motorized vehicles with thousands being added every month.

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.

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 10-12 feet space between one motorized vehicle and another for

safe driving.

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Rickshaws: The Most Efficient Use of Road Space

A car is an object of convenience for just the person or family that 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 to 40 persons a day and is constantly on the move. Therefore, it represents optimum utilization of road space.

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.

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Less than 15% citizens in Delhi own private motorized vehicles 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. However, 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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A Typical “Unauthorized” Rickshaw Stand with temporary shelter for pullers

—a safe place for sleeping, eating and socializing.

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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. Rickshaws can be confiscated and made to pay heavy fines for venturing into “no entry zones” for their vehicles. This means more bribes.

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Rational Policy Demands

Treat it as an integral part of transport system and recognize it as a legitimate trade

Provide year round open licensing system. Scrap the “owner must be puller” policy. End 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.

56Rickshaws in Hanoi

Rickshaw Technology is Far Better in Countries where Pullers are Treated as

a Necessary Part of Urban Transport.

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A Tourist Attraction Rickshaws in

Singapore

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Art on Wheels Rickshaws in Dhaka

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Dignity of Labour The 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

93% of workforce is in the self-organised, informal sector,

which is untouched by economic reforms.

They remain poor because they are among the worst victims of sarkari tyranny and needless bureaucratic

controls.

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The Government spends crores of rupees on “poverty alleviation” and “Employment Guarantee Schemes” 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 created by needless bureaucratic controls, just as export oriented corporate sector has become globally competitive with a mild dose of liberalization.

Need for Bottom-Up Agenda of Reforms

government’s warfare against cycle rickshaws

Education