In Bangladesh, one of the most common professions is pulling rickshaws. I do not have any statistics and I could not find it either but in the capital city, Dhaka, there are thousands of rickshaw pullers. Even very conservative estimates do not put the figure lower than 100,000. According to Banglapedia, Dhaka “had at least 280,000 rickshaws in 2000. Estimates based on the figures that each rickshaw is operated by two pullers in morning and evening shifts and the average number of family members of a rickshaw puller is five, suggest that the rickshaws of Dhaka city alone is a source of income for nearly three million people.”
Wow, rickshaw is helping three million people to survive! So, naturally, I felt interested to write something about the rickshaw pullers. My photographer, Animesh Chandra Bain took some pictures of rickshaw pullers in Dhaka and interviewed some of them. Pulling a rickshaw is a tough ask. It requires too much physical effort and the sad part is that many rickshaw pullers do not have good food. Many of them have to send money to their families living in the village areas. Bangladesh government is trying to gradually make all the major roads of Dhaka city rickshaw free as rickshaws often cause terrible traffic jam. However, since rickshaws are the source of income for so many people, the authority has to go slow about this matter.
The best side of rickshaw is that it is pollution free. In the next entry, I am going to talk about the life of some rickshaw pullers.
.jpg)
Comment Preview