Rickshaw pullers’ income down 50% in pandemic

Rickshaw pullers are among the most impacted by the pandemic as both the number of passengers and fares have gone down by half, according to Professor Rezaul Karim of Social Work Department at Jagannath University. 

Rickshaw pullers earned Tk500 a day before the pandemic, but their income plummeted to a daily Tk250 during the lockdown, said Professor Karim quoting a study at a roundtable on safeguarding the livelihood of Dhaka's rickshaw pullers on Tuesday.

Highlighting the woes of rickshaw pullers amid the pandemic, he said almost all rickshaw pullers have been forced to take out loans to run their families during lockdowns. Many have had to reduce their daily meal count from thrice a day to twice a day.

He noted there has been no study to determine the actual number of rickshaw and van drivers in the country but the numbers could be a few million at least.

"Some 22 lakh rickshaw pullers live in Dhaka city alone and some 25 to 26 lakh more people in the capital depend on this profession for their livelihood. These people live in unhygienic environments in about 500 garages across the city," he told the programme.

At least 15%-20% of the population in Dhaka are either directly or indirectly dependent on the rickshaw-pulling sector. More and more people are coming to Dhaka to pull rickshaws. 

"In many garages, as many as 20 or 30 more people have joined as rickshaw pullers in the past few months," said Dr Karim.

The vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), Shirin Akhter, said the vast majority of rickshaw pullers in Dhaka do not have an association where they can speak up about their troubles. But there is no alternative to a coordinated movement for rickshaw pullers to retain their income and make sure their social and national rights are being met.

President of the Bangladesh Rickshaw Van Owners' Association, Md Harun-or-Rashid, said that in the past two years amid the pandemic, rickshaw workers never received any relief or financial assistance from the government. 

"We need separate social security programmes for rickshaw pullers and we need the government to ensure a fair and equitable income for them," he added.

Associate Professor of the Accident Research Institute of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Kazi Md Saifun Newaz, said an online database of all rickshaw pullers in the capital must be prepared. 

"The 500 garages in the capital must all be brought under police stations in each area so the government can ensure basic facilities for rickshaw pullers," he added.

Professor of urban and regional planning at Jahangirnagar University, Adil Mohammed Khan, said as rickshaws are one of the most important modes of transportation in Dhaka, the city corporation should pay more attention to the health of rickshaw pullers, their accommodation and income, when doing city planning.