Modernisation blues
Often during modernisation (or as the Maharashtra government calls “Shanghaisation”) of cities, age old practises and traditions come in the way. Examples are the pavement bookshops of Bombay and, as I just discovered, the hand rickshaw pullers of Calcutta.
If the pavement bookshops in Bombay were making pedestrian paths too clumsy, the Calcutta rickshaw pullers are health hazards for themselves. All agreed but weren’t these legalized until yesterday?
Both, the pavement bookshops of Bombay and the rickshaw pullers of Calcutta have been existing from the pre-independence era. The demerits and the hazards posed by them have been identified after 58 years of India’s own Government. And now if the Government has taken a decision, isn’t it that they should also provide these people with other means of livelihood? Will the 1800 rickshaw pullers be simply added to the ever growing unemployed crowd of Bengal?
More about it, here, on the BBC.
7 Responses to 'Modernisation blues'
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I think we should be able to acheive modernization keeping such places which
provide a individuality to the place. I still remember thos days in Asansol and Calcutta where
my aunt used to tell our driver to drop us at the main entrance of the main city and go ahead
wait for us the market so that we could indulge in some rickshaw tour.
Deepa
18 Aug 05 at 4:50 am
I think we should be able to acheive modernization keeping such places/ things which
provide a individuality to the place. I still remember thos days in Asansol and Calcutta where
my aunt used to tell our driver to drop us at the main entrance of the main city and go ahead
wait for us the market so that we could indulge in some rickshaw tour.
Deepa
18 Aug 05 at 4:51 am
I think we should be able to acheive modernization keeping such places/ things which
provide a individuality to the place. I still remember thos days in Asansol and Calcutta where
my aunt used to tell our driver to drop us at the main entrance of the main city and go ahead
wait for us the market so that we could indulge in some rickshaw tour.
Deepa
18 Aug 05 at 4:51 am
Hi Truman…was here
Banterer
19 Aug 05 at 9:12 pm
Lived in Calcutta all my life,da streets wud look naked without such rickshawpullers & et i wonder how they are goin to eke out a living coz the government is good at turning a blind eye to such issues.
nomadic waves
20 Aug 05 at 11:11 am
.
tren
20 Aug 05 at 11:12 am
I loved the pavement bookshops in Calcutta…books everywhere!! It was fabulous. But I found the rickshawas
very jarring. I understand that this is a means of earning a living…and certainly it is better than begging on streets. And yet,
I just couldn’t get around the idea of being “ferried” around town at the expense of some poor man (who more often than not is
elderly) huffs and puffs away while pulling my weight on bare feet. It was like being in a time warp, that. As a foreigner,
it was a fantastic oppurtunity for a novel experience…but I just couldn’t do it. I had much rather gave the man double the
fare for him to not take me back to my hotel, wherever.
That said however, if the government is putting a stop to that, they should have the decency to provide these men with an alternative
way to earn a living.
aidid
20 Aug 05 at 4:28 pm