Axis deer/Chital deer or Spotted deer(Chitrol Horin) one of the beautiful animal in Bangladesh

   A Axis deer/Chital deer (Chitral Horin) with velvet antlers


With a strange look two female deer/doe standing in a forest

With a strange look two female deer/hinds standing in the water


A newly born Chital deer/Axis deer or Spotted deer fawn

A female Chital deer/Axis deer or Spotted deer(Chitral Horin)

A Chital deer/Axis deer(Chitral Horin) with velvet antlers taking rest 
  


A group of Chital/Cheetal deer(Chitral deer) on a river bank to drink water


A Axis deer/Chital deer (Chitral Horin) with velvet antlers
 

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Rickshaw and Bangladesh from economic perspective : one for another – why and how

The most common public transport in Bangladesh is Rickshaw. Rickshaws are seen all over the country - in the capital city, big major cities, towns and rural areas and even in the hilly areas. In Bangladesh people hardly need to walk. Once you are outside of your home to a nearby road or a lane, one or more rickshaws will appear within a few minutes, with the little silver bell tinkling to get your attention.

Despite of all critics the communication infrastructure has been developed last 25 years more or less all over Bangladesh. At every corner of Bangladesh, even in a remote area have roads that are paved with bituminous materials, concrete, cement or at least with bricks. Although the conditions of the roads are poor but communication is now much easier to drive a rickshaw on these roads. Not only this but there have also some other reasons that is why rickshaws are popular as a public mode of transport.

In Bangladesh roads are small and narrow in small towns, villages and even in the cities at residential areas. So rickshaws are comfortable transport to go through these roads.

A rickshaw in a village road in Bangladesh

Increasing income level of lower middle class and middle class people has raised the number of rickshaw passengers. Not only this but also people in Bangladesh don’t like to take a long walk carrying with some luggage to go somewhere. Climate of Bangladesh is not extreme. All around the year people can go out with more or less normal clothes. So it is not so difficult for the rickshaw drivers to drive a rickshaw (think about the European winter with snow) or not even for the passengers.

Rickshaw traffic in a narrow road in old Dhaka, Bangladesh

After marketing, easy journey to home by a rickshaw

‘’Rickshaw sector has a great contribution to Bangladesh economy. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, in the year 1985-86 rickshaws contributed 34% of the total value-added by the transport sector in Bangladesh or roughly 984 crore taka or 9840 million BDT. This was more than double the contribution of all motorized road transport, 12 times the contribution of Bangladesh railways and 12,5 times the contribution of Bangladesh Biman, the national air line. Rickshaw accounts for more than half of Dhaka’s vehicles, 70 percent of its passengers and 43 percent of the total passenger mileage.Everyday about 70 lacks or 7 million passenger trips are made in Dhaka by rickshaws over a distance of one crore ten lacks or 11 million passenger miles. This is nearly double the output of London’s underground. Rickshaw provides one of the largest sources of employment in Bangladesh. In Dhaka over 700,000 people make rickshaw related work which is the largest single form of employment. We can count about 23 percent of the city’s workforce. At present more than two million or twenty lacks people all over the country find job in them. The great majority are rickshaw drivers, but there are also mysteries(repairers), owners, makers, shopkeepers(selling rickshaw parts, spear-parts and other materials), tea-stall owners and many others who survive on the basis of the rickshaw. The crud size of the rickshaw sector has important implications for the national economy. If we consider that for every male employed there are at least three dependents, thennationally around six million or sixty lack people depend directly on the rickshaws or 4,5 percent of the total population’’.(Rickshaw and Prejudice by Robert Gallagher,August 1998)

Rickshaws as a means of communication

In fact rickshaws are preferred travel mode or transport by women, children and the older people due to their safety, security and comfort perspective. In this context we can get our answer that why the numbers of rickshaws are increasing day by day. In Bangladesh especially in transport sector government takes no responsibility to build up a communication network. In every city and even in rural areas private sector takes the initiative to operate a somehow communication system. The whole country is overcrowded and traffic system is inadequate. Busses are over loaded although bus fare is cheaper than rickshaw fare but impossible for women, children, old and any physically weak or disabled person to travel by bus. Big or small cities don’t have any underground railway system or tram lines. So rickshaw is the only public mode to go somewhere. Rickshaw, taxi (difficult to go through a narrow road) or CNG baby taxi can offer a door to door service but the fare is much cheaper to hire a rickshaw. The Dhaka Integrated Transport Study report found that the rickshaw fare is more than double in comparison to bus fare for the same distance. But some 19,2 percent passengers use rickshaws while only 9,5 percent travel by bus. In a study the traffic dominance of rickshaw in Dhaka, Sylhet, Comilla and Rangpur cities are 49%, 78%, 80% and 55% respectively. (Source - Banglapedia )

A young guy finds his job as a rickshaw driver

A road side tea shop earns their living from rickshaw drivers

Every year a huge number of working force coming to join in the labour market of Bangladesh. As Bangladesh is a least developed country and government don’t affort to create sufficient jobs for the working force. The number of literate working force have a chance to find a job in industry sector like garments factory or any type of official job or even in service sector like  a seller or canvasser, in health sector or in manufacturing sector. But the illiterate working force coming from the rural areas to the labour market don’t have any jobs for them. They don’t have year around job and as a result of rural poverty this group of people migrate from rural to urban areas. They try to find jobs in the informal sector like rickshaw driving or in construction. These occupations don’t demand any previous experience or know how. It’s a question that why do rural migrants accept rickshaw driving as an occupation, despite its arduous nature. In a study done by Sharifa Begum and Binayak Sen in 2005 (Pulling rickshaws in the city of Dhaka: a way out of poverty?) shows the reasons that driving rickshaw is easy entry, especially for men who are illiterate, unskilled and lacking capital. Other reasons include the regular flow of income and earning more money. At the same time they can decide their working hours and own desire for choosing routes. Last few years a trend has developed that many people migrate to the big cities especially in Dhaka and drive rickshaw just for a month or little more. Now they try to avoid borrow money from others with a high interest rate for their children educational expense or other type of household needs they need a handful amount. Within a short period they can earn a handsome amount of money and return to their home. In my own investigation in Dhaka and Savar a rickshaw driver can earn on an average 500 taka per day. To hire a rickshaw for whole day 70 taka and for a half day 50 taka need to pay to the rickshaw owner.

A rickshaw garage and repairing center

By paying rickshaw fare to a rickshaw driver has a great socio – economic impact in our national economy. We can see that it’s a way to transfer wealth from middle class to the poorest. Especially Dhaka and other major cities rickshaw drivers send a significant portion of their earnings back to their villages, and may work seasonally as rickshaw drivers in order to raise money for farming. Rickshaw drivers of the urban areas actually supporting their families in the countryside and agriculture as well. So harming rickshaw drivers means harming poor villagers throughout the country and potentially our agricultural system as well. (Rickshaw bans in Dhaka city – Mahabubul Bari, Debra Efroymson; August 2005)

A seller of rickshaw accessories

We can make our own calculation to see that how much money flows in rickshaw sector. We count around 20 lacks or 2 million rickshaws are operating in the roads of Bangladesh. Very few rickshaw driver owns their rickshaw. We make a flat calculation. In an average rickshaw drivers pay 50 taka per day to the rickshaw owners. So the amount is per day earnings of rickshaw owners is 10 crore taka or 100 million BDT and per month 300 crore taka or 3 billion BDT.If we count that rickshaw drivers earn daily on an average 200 taka, so the amount will be 40 crore taka or 400 million BDT and per month 1200 crore taka or 12 billion BDT. From the lower middle class and middle class people 1200 crore taka  go over to the poorest group people of the country and circulate in our economic system.

A rickshaw rally for green environment

Now a days people all over the world is talking about ‘’global warming’’ and to keep and save a more green environment. Like Bangladesh, a most over crowed country in the world that don’t have almost any spear land to keep the country green can contribute in a way to a green environment by helping and develop rickshaw sector in a better way. We should think that rickshaws don’t make any harmful carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide in the air. Policy makers and mass people should consider the consequence of a well functioned rickshaw sector in Bangladeshi economy before taking any drastic steps and decisions. 

NB: All the images in this post are collected from different web sites. If anyone have any objection of using these images, that should be removed.

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Rickshaws of Bangladesh and its history

The word ‘’ricksha/riska/rickshaw’’ originates from the Japanese word ‘’jinrikisha’’. In Japanese language ‘’jin’’ means human, ‘’riki’’ means power or force and ‘’sha’’ means vehicle. So, literally ‘’jinirikisha’’ means human powered vehicle.

A Bangladeshi ricksha/ riska/ ricksha/ rickshaw

A riksha/ riska/ rickshaw making garage or workshop

Long before when rickshaw was first introduced it was a two-wheeled cart, pulled by people. There were two rods attached to the sides of the cart that extend to the front. The driver or puller holds a rod in each hand and pulls the rickshaw. Rickshaws can have one or two riders. Only two people can ride at one time. Mostly men pull the rickshaws through the crowded streets. This type of rickshaws were seen in the beginning in Japan and spread out other south-east Asian countries like China, Singapore, Hongkong, Philippine, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, India. Still now these types of rickshaws are seen in the roads of Kolkata (Culcutta) in India. In Bangladesh rickshaw differs from its originality. Bangladesh has adopted three wheeled rickshaw. In fact, the Bangladeshi rickshaws we can call bicycle rickshaw or trishaw. But publicly in Bangladesh this bicycle rickshaw is called simply as rickshaw. This vehicle looks like a combination between a rickshaw and a bicycle. Instead of pulling the vehicle, the driver pedals in this vehicle. It has three wheels with one wheel in front of the driver and two wheels on the back side supporting the passengers. It’s a light three wheeled cart comprising a door less, chair like body mounted on springs with a collapsible hood. The hood consists of a frame of four bamboo strips with steel fittings and bollards over which an oil skin cover is stretched. It is made of wood, fabric, metal and plastic. It is handmade by the artists and craftsmen. Although it is a hard job to drive a bicycle rickshaw but much easier and better than the human pulled rickshaw. There is a story that how the two wheeled hand pulled rickshaw transformed to a bicycle rickshaw. This transformation happened not in Japan but in China. An American lady named Miss Betty Gordon of Louisville, Kentucky, was in Peking, China who got this idea. In fact the hand pulled rickshaw was slow and tearful job to pull. She tied a hand pulled rickshaw behind a cycle to get more speed with less wear and tear on the rickshaw puller. The idea went great with the Chinese and they started to shape this combination in a better way. As it was easier to drive like this bicycle rickshaw and offered twice or more the speed than of the hand pulled rickshaw.  This type of rickshaw soon gained popularity in China and then in Singapore. They became popular also in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and throughout Asia. Bicycle had got its modern shape by 1890 and helped to get rickshaw now a day’s shape. It too became easier to handle.

  American lady Miss Betty Gordon of Louisville, Kentucky, 
with her invented cycle rickshaw

It is still now controversial that who first invented rickshaw. So far as we know that rickshaw was first introduced in Japan widely at the beginning of Meiji restoration, around in the year 1868. From different sources we get different information about the inventor of rickshaw. Some sources say that an American blacksmith Albert Tolman has invented rickshaw around the year 1848 in Worcester, Massachusetts, for a missionary. Others claim that Jonathan Scobie or Jonathan Goble, an American missionary to Japan, invented rickshaw around 1869 to transport his invalid wife through the streets of Yokohama, Japan. Japanese sources often credit Izumi YYosuke, Suzuki  Tikujiro and Takayama Kosuke, who are said to have invented rickshaw in the year 1868. Starting in 1870, the Tokyo city authority issued a permission to build and sell rickshaws to these three men. The seal of one of these inventors was required on every license to operate a rickshaw. Other sources say that the design of the rickshaw was probably based on a old French painting ‘’Les deux carrosses’’ by Claude Gillot in the year 1707, that showed two rickshaw-like carts in a comical scene. These carts known as vinaigrettes, were used in the streets of Paris in the 18^th century. But finally we can say despite of all the theories regarding the invention of rickshaw, it had been developed in Japan by about 1868.

 A old French painting ‘’Les deux carrosses’’ by Claude Gillot 
in the year 1707 seems like a pulled rickshaw

In Indian sub-continent rickshaw first appeared in Simla around the year 1880. 20 years later, rickshaw was then introduced in Kolkata(the then Calcutta). There rickshaws were initially used by the Chinese traders to transport goods. Then later on the year 1914 some Chinese people applied for permission to transport passengers. Before or later rickshaw appeared in many big cities in south east Asia. Rickshaw became very soon a popular mode of transport in this region, because of they were cheaper, faster and easyer than the previously used palanquins(Palki-human carried cart) and horse cart(human labour was considerably cheaper than the use of horses). They were also able to get around narrow streets more easily.

Rickshaw riding in a  rural area of Bangladesh

In a rainy day riska/ riksha/ rickshaw riding

Rickshaw riding even in a flood affected area

So far we know that rickshaw was first seen in Bangladesh in Chittagong in the year 1919. Not from India but from Myanmar(the then Burma) rickshaw reached in Chittagong in Bangladesh.More interestingly, rickshaw did not spread out to Dhaka and other cities of Bangladesh from Chittagong.Rickshaws were seen in the streets of Dhaka around the year 1938. Dhaka got rickshaw from Kolkata(Calcutta). We get different information when rickshaw was first introduced in Dhaka city and other parts of Bangladesh. Some sources say that rickshaw came before Dhaka city in Narayangonj and Netrokona(now it’s a district, before it was a part of Mymensing district). The European jute exporters living in Narayangonj and Netrokona had first imported cyckel rickshas from Kolkata in 1930 for their personal use. From another source we come to know that in the year 1936 or 1937, two people from Mowlovibazar, Dhaka imported two rickshaws for the first time. They imported them from the French Coloney Chandan Nagor in West Bengal. Both were cyckel rickshaws. Each cost 180 rupees that time. According to writer Satten Sen, these two men were the path finder to operate rickshas in Dhaka city. From Rob Gallagher’s book ‘’Rickhsaws of Bangladesh’’ published in 1992 from UPL publication, Dhaka; states that a Bangali zaminder and a Marwari business man imported for the first time six rickshas in the year 1938. Some sources say that the zaminder lived in Sutrapur, Dhaka and Marwari business man lived in Wari, Dhaka. Besides these cyckel rickshas in the beginning of operating in Dhaka, seven two wheel human pulled rickshas were also imported and started to pull in the streets of Dhaka. People were shameful to ride these rickshas and avoided these human pulled rickshas. For the lack of public interest to use these rickshas, gradually they disappeared and bicycle rickshas became popular. Colorful decoration of the rickshas started after 1950’s in Bangladesh. Some sources say that rickshaw licence started to issue in Dhaka in the year 1944 and in Chittagong 1947. Now Dhaka City Corporation(DCC) has the authority to issue new rickshaw licence but they have made it stop not to issue any more rickshaw license since 1987. But the Wheel Tax Section of DCC renew rickshaw license every year. A issued rickshaw license or registration number can be sold to someone. So the rickshaw license gets a new owner and new address. At present Dhaka city’s rickshaw license number -1 (one) holder is Salauddin Mahmud, son of late Mohiuddin Mahmud, 65/2 New Poltan Line, Azimpur, Dhaka. He is also owner of the rickshaw license number 2 and 6. Salauddin Mahmud’s father was a school teacher and had a hobby to collect and be owner of the rickshaw license number from 1 to 10. He parched the number 1 rickshaw license at the cost of 6000 taka (that time it was Pakistani rupee). In Dhaka city that time market price of one Bigha (33 decimal) land was also around 6000 taka. He had 40 rickshaws. But during the liberation war in 1971, Pakistani army set in fire his garage.

Back side of a decorated rickshaw

A rickshaw driver is waiting with his decorated rickshaw for passengers

There are no accurate figures or statics of rickshaws that operates in the streets of Dhaka. I guess around 700,000- 800,000 rickshaws are  operating in Dhaka city now in the year 1012.  I have tried to collect some statics of rickshaw numbers in Dhaka city in different years from different sources. In the year 1941, Dhaka city had only 37 rickshaws and 181 rickshaws in the end of the year 1947.This information we get from historian Nazir Ahamed’s book ’’Dhakar Ittihas’’(History of Dhaka). According to another Dhaka historian Dr. Sharif Uddin Ahamed, there were 4025 rickshaws in the streets of Dhaka in the year 1962. After the liberation war the scenario of Dhaka city started to change very rapidly. The presser of migration from rural areas to Dhaka city also increased rapidly. At the same time increased the number of rickshaws in the city. In an estimate there were around 14000 rickshaws in Dhaka city in 1974. In the year 1982-83 the number of rickshaws became doubled and reached up to 28,703. Thereafter rickshaw numbers in Dhaka city have increased very rapidly. There were 88,000 rickshaws by the end of 1986-87. Obviously this was official legal registered number of rickshaws but according to various government authorities and newspapers journalists the figure could be around 150,000 to 200,000 rickshaws in the roads of Dhaka. In another report we see that in the year 2005 there were 500,000 rickshaws in Dhaka city.      

Rikshas/riskas/rickshaws in a crowded city's road

When rickshaw was first introduced in Bangladesh in 1919s and afterwards still today the rickshaw design has changed almost nothing. They have got their present look by around the 1950’s. Since then, the design, technology and operation of rickshaws in Bangladesh have showed little change. Most rickshaw drivers don’t own their own rickshaws and the owners themselves have very little reason to improve their vehicles because they are already making good profits. Due to the vicious cycle of poverty, the smaller owners, the misteris (those who build or make a rickshaw) and rickshaw drivers who (are directly involved in the system, have the possibility to improve their vehicles but don’t have the ability to do it) may clearly like to improve their vehicles do not have the ability to do it. This reason we cannot set to the country’s engineer and scientists. They just ignore and neglect to develop any advancement of the rickshaws. Due to lack of interests that development should have happened has not happened.

Still now in Bangladesh as a profession of rickshaw driving is considered very low status job. Very a few passengers behave with respect to a rickshaw driver. In bangla people call a rickshaw driver as ‘’ricshawala’’. We don’t think how these rickshaw drivers rolling our rural economy and keeping the environment carbon free in some degrees.

Rickshaw has become a symbol of Bangladesh and especially for its design and arts. And Dhaka capital city of Bangladesh is known as the world’s capital city of rickshaws.  

S: en.wikipedia.org;banglapedia.org;amarbornomala.com/details5206.html;sachalayatan.com/abu_reza/33630;somewhereinblog.net/blog/benqt60/28981590; Rickshaw and Prejudice by Robert Gallagher, August 1998;amarblog.com/blogs/pavelcc(10-02-2011).