The lingering saga of the Kolkata rickshaw

There is a scene from a famous black and white movie – ‘Doh Beegha Zameen’ (1953) directed by Bimal Roy , adapted from Tagore’s poem ‘Dui Bigha Jomi’ , which narrates the sad story of a family of migrants in a bustling City -Kolkata. The scene, which predictably ends in human tragedy for its lead protagonist Shambhu, once a farmer , now a hapless rickshaw puller , is often recalled as the way the rickshaw pullers of the City have always suffered, and yet survived.

The film went onto become a cult classic of the Indian film industry, being accoladed at home and abroad for its rendering of the misery of the human struggle for survival but its association with the plight of the rickshaw pullers has also never weakened.

Today by approximate estimates, there are about 14,000 to 18000 rickshaws plying in Kolkata according to reports in 2019- and the sheer numbers point to one major factor for their continued existence. The perennial quest for a better economic deal in a big city has ensured a steady influx of migrants into Kolkata, to take up this occupation that extracts much more than it gives.

But the rickshaw has unarguably been a symbol associated with the City, a strange oxymoron if you placed it right next to the lavishness of the Victoria Memorial or the extravagance of an Eden Gardens stadium.

It symbolizes the struggle for survival, built on hope and sheer grit- two traits found in abundance in the countless who migrate to metropolises like Kolkata for a better life.

The ‘taana‘ or hand pulled rickshaw is a derivative of its Sino -Japanese counterparts and is almost a 150 years old as a transport innovation. Interestingly, this creation was called Jini riki sha – or the human powered vehicle. The rickshaw, like the Railways, was brought into India during her colonial period, and as a consequence of the Sino -British trade that operated within her borders. The immigrants from China brought this mode of transport with them and soon it became a popular and convenient mode of travel – much less suffocating than the indigenous palki or palanquin.

From that era to 2021, the rickshaw continues to ply the streets, lanes and bylanes of the City, in rain and shine, adding more meaning to the Star Trek motto – of venturing where no man has ever gone before! There isn’t a narrow lane in the City that cannot be navigated on the wheels of this contraption.

The rickshaw puller who awaits his next customer at the corner of the road in your locality is a man who has seen better and worse days. He struggles on a daily basis to fend for his family and has unknowingly added himself as an inextricable element of the City for eons.

Strike up a conversation with him and he will shyly tell you where he is from – usually naming the district headquarters of his little unknown hard-to-find-on-the-map village in Bihar from where the majority of the pullers originate from. He will haggle with you over the fee while wiping the unending stream of perspiration from his face , but will navigate you safely to whichever house or corner you wish to get off at. Rickshaws have been ferrying noisy batches of children to schools, grumbling housewives with arthritic knees to markets , pieces of loose furniture during house-shifting from one location to another or even idols during the festive season.

Come monsoons, when the City often comes to an absolute standstill with water logged roads, and no Ubers or Olas are sighted, it is the friendly neighbourhood rickshaw- wala wading the waters taking people wherever they need to be.

But any discussion about the rickshaw cannot be concluded without questioning how inhuman this occupation can be, which exploits misery into this form of slavery. The rickshaw is often criticized as regressive , and there have been active measures implemented to phase it out from the City, citing it as a form of slavery. Poor nutrition, along with nominal incomes, high rates of debts, poor living conditions as well as the bad condition of roads in some stretches, makes this a very poor choice that is often made under great duress. But no rehabilitation can be successful without adequate and timely support. Therefore incomplete vision can only mean a stagnation in any scope for development and upliftment of these workers.

Whatever it may be, it definitely is the hard labour of an honest day’s work. earned as the cliche goes , ‘by the sweat of one’s brows.’ There is no rose -tinted glass view we can offer of this occupation- it is what it is- an occupation that feeds families. And it has always been part of the milieu of Kolkata, much like she is – a package of disparate things – happy, sad or discomforting.

The rickshaw is part of our logo at Calcutta Walks and for us it epitomizes the humility of knowing a City through its streets and those who live by them. We respect the labour, the dignity of the individual whose knotted veins protrude from weathered hands and feet, pulling the burden of his life and living, we empathize with his misery but we also salute the unadulterated courage to be a just a rickshaw-wala.