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Paper Title: Sustainable Transportation: A way forward for Rickshaw Pullers with
‘SammaaN Foundation’
Track Title: 5b
Names of Authors: Bhawna Anjaly & Arun Sahay
Contact details of Main Authors:
Affiliation of Main Author:
Birla Institute of Management Technology
Track 5b: Sustainable Transport: Innovation and Integration Authors: Bhawna Anjaly & Arun Sahay Designation & Contact details
Bhawna Anjaly, Assistant Professor, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Plot No. 5, Knowledge Park 2, Greater Noida, NCR India [email protected] 919971980904 Arun Sahay Research Dean, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Plot No. 5, Knowledge Park 2, Greater Noida, NCR India [email protected] 919971980904
Title of the Paper - Sustainable Transportation: A way forward for
Rickshaw Pullers with ‘SammaaN Foundation’
Preferred form of presentation - oral
Sustainable Transportation: A way forward for Rickshaw Pullers
with ‘SammaaN Foundation’
In India, cycle rickshaw is a prevalent method of transportation in urban & semi urban areas. It
is estimated that close to 2 million cycle rickshaws ply on the Indian roads carrying about 6-8
billion passenger-kms/year (Rajvanshi, 2002). This human powered tricycle is used for small
distance transportation. This non-motorized machine is environmentally friendly and may help
in reducing pollution. However this century old vehicle has its own problems. This requires
extreme physical labour from the rickshaw pullers (RPs). In the long run this is not sustainable
for RPs because of the poverty and malnutrition.
The efforts have been done to reduce the weight of the rickshaw. Over the years some
improvement has happened in the rickshaw but the problems persist. These problems relate to
technical, social and economical facets.
The technical problem relates majorly to the average weight of rickshaw which is around 140kg.
The rickshaw also has some common points of breakages.
The social problems relates to their migrants’ status. Majority of the RPs migrate from rural
areas. They leave their home in the search of better livelihood. Thus, contributing to the pool of
around 67 millions urban poor (Kurosaki et al, 2007). These migrants have very little education
and skills so rickshaw pulling provides an easy job opportunity and an escape from the rural
poverty. The social security for RPs is almost non-existent. They are vulnerable to systematic
health risks (Begum and Sen, 2004). These create economic problems for them. The economic
side of this issue is also a matter of concern. This informal transportation sector provides very
less average earning. Most of the rickshaws are owned by someone other than the RPs. Thus,
RPs end up giving significant part of their earning to the owner or contractor.
These issues need a focused attention. Although there are many studies done on the informal
economic activities in developing countries including India but the research on rickshaw pullers
is almost non-existent (Mitra 2002).
This study intends to highlight these facets with the help of case-study of SammaaN
Foundation.
SammaaN Foundation
SammaaN Foundation is the largest organization working towards organizing the rickshaw-
pulling sector. The goal of the foundation is to bring the socio-economically downtrodden to
the main stream of progress. They believe that by training, capacity building, education and
financial support, they can improve the condition of the socially neglected section of rickshaw
pullers.
To achieve this goal, Irfan Alam, the founder and chairman, SammaaN Foundation came out
with an innovative idea related to rickshaw and transformed it into a business model. The
rickshaws have been specially designed to keep space for advertising (on the side, front and
back panels). For this advertising space, the companies are charged Rs. 10-15 per day. SammaN
foundation also sells things like mobile recharge coupons to mineral water bottles through
these rickshaws.
They have also tied-up with the Banks to open savings account for rickshaw pullers.
Objective
The foundation wants to see if their operation has helped in addressing all the major issues
related to lifestyle of rickshaw pullers. Thus the objective of the study is to identify the main
factors affecting the lifestyle of rickshaw-pullers and observe the issues addressed by
SammaaN.
Methodology
The factors have been identified with the help of literature review and an exploratory study.
Based on these factors a questionnaire has been prepared. This questionnaire was
administered on rickshaw pullers working with SammaaN Foundation and a control group of
rickshaw pullers outside the foundation. The responses will be analyzed using SPSS. Then the
results will be compared to identify the impact created by SammaaN.
Expected contribution
The study intends to present the case of SammaaN Foundation as an example of social
entrepreneurship. This study also wants to analyze the response to identify the factors which
improve this informal transportation sector.
References
Mitra, Siddhartha (2002). "Lessons in Regulating the Informal Sector: The Case of Rickshaw Pullers'
Sector in Delhi," Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 45(2), pp.387-94
Kurosaki, T. Sawada, Y. Banerji, A. and Mishra, S.N. (2007). “Rural-Urban Migration and Urban Poverty:
Socio-Economic Profiles of Rickshaw Pullers and Owner-Contractors in North-East Delhi”, retrieved from
http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/~kurosaki/rick0702.pdf on 1st February 2012
Begum, S. and Sen,B. (2004). “Unsustainable Livelihoods, Health Shocks and Urban Chronic
Poverty: Rickshaw Pullers as a Case Study”
Rajvanshi, A. K. (2002). “Electric and improved cycle rickshaw as a sustainable transport system
for India”, CURRENT SCIENCE, Vol. 83, NO. 6