Outside Kailash Colony metro station, standing next to his cycle rickshaw, Bhoopram, along with five other rickshaw pullers, waits for customers. While bearing the scorching heat is one of the main challenges rickshaw pullers in the Capital face, the advent of technology in the form of e-rickshaws is what they truly lament.
Similar is the case of tongawalas, once part of the characteristic charm of the Capital. Tongas were a popular and indispensable mode of transport for an average Delhiite in the old days.
While a cycle rickshaw can carry two passengers, a single e-rickshaw — a battery-run three-wheeler — can take a maximum of five passengers. In the times of e-rickshaws, both tongas and e-rickshaws seem to be headed towards an inevitable end.
Bhoopram, who has been in this profession for 12 years, testifies that he has been a witness to the decline of the cycle rickshaw business. “I used to earn a minimum of ₹600 a day before the e-rickshaws made a debut. Now, it hardly amounts to a total of ₹300-₹400, which does not suffice,” the 37-year-old said.
Dilip, 40, a tongawala who lives at Motia Khan Chowk, has a similar grouse. “It has been 25 years since I started...I was 10 when I saw my grandfather and father ride the horse cart and I developed an interest. Since the last six years the work is minimal. The government bribed us with false promises of allotting shops if we gave up the trade. Our community leaders built their own houses with that money,” he alleged.
Dip in income
A Centre of Civil Society (CCS) research shows that while a cycle rickshaw, valued between ₹6,000 and ₹12,000, provides an earning of ₹300-₹450 per day, an e-rickshaw, valued between ₹80,000-₹1,10,000, can fetch a minimum of ₹550- ₹800 a day.
According to Dilip, parking stands in trans-Yamuna areas used to provide private permits every six months for ₹101 followed by commercial ones. “We started with 8 annas per passenger, then ₹5 and now the rate per passenger is ₹10. On festivals, we could earn a decent amount. But these days, festivals have become a one-day affair. We are unable to feed the horses with a proper diet. Our daily income is not more than ₹600-₹700,” he rued.
The rise of the battery-operated vehicles is because they are a considerably “smaller investment” than autorickshaws, and produce much higher earnings.
Moreover, subsidies from the government and “loopholes in the system” permitting their operation without registration are “stimulating factors for the thriving business of e-rickshaws”. Money is the core issue for practitioners of both the evidently dying trades.
“I used to own a rickshaw until four years ago. The municipality fined me a large sum for it. I had to rent a rickshaw after that. I have to pay ₹1,200 a month as rent to the rickshaw owner. What is left after that is not enough to suffice,” Bhoopram, a father of five lamented.
Sachin Kumar, a resident of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, spoke about his financial problems after he rented a cycle rickshaw. “I used to work in a meat shop. I committed the mistake of visiting my village for more than a week and was fired from the job. Later, I rented a rickshaw with a monthly rent of ₹1,000... I used to earn ₹16,000 a month during my previous job, now I barely earn ₹500 a day,” he said.
Mohammad Farahtullah’s family has been in the tonga business for seven generations. “Everybody is affected due to these battery-operated rickshaws... Our horse and carriage work is finished. Forty years ago, there were 1,000 tongas; now only 20-30 are left in Delhi. How should poor men like me make a living,” he asked.
Once they provided services to everyone — from an average citizen to royalty. Now, they ferry waste and rubble. The government, he complained, was blind to the plight of those like him. “Nowadays, we get work of picking up rubble, sacks of cement and garbage. When we don’t earn anything, we survive on loans... This work is finished and nobody listens to a poor man. Even the Delhi government is not doing anything for us,” he added.
Naveen, 39, another horse cart owner, sought to emphasise the fact that despite paying taxes and having all the required permits, licence, cart number and horse number, he still can’t ride on the main road.
“It has been 30 years since I am doing this work. There used to be 10,000 customers for this horse cart in a month. I still have the permit the government issued to my ancestors,” he said.
“These days, our source of income is just from marriages, birthday parties and occasional film shootings. First of all, no policeman lets us stand on the road and I am forced to return,” Naveen alleged.
Promises not kept
The fast-paced life has left the horses behind. “People are going to the moon. So how can you expect somebody to sit on our tongas? We own these horses, so we have to take care of them. We cannot kill them. Before elections, party workers come with promises, only to forget them after winning,” he said. Besides putting up with relatively low income, cycle rickshaw pullers work twice as hard as their competitors. Needless to say, they would switch trades if given a chance.
“I have had some cardiac problems in the past because of the physical exertion caused by peddling the rickshaw all day. The e-rickshaw on the other hand requires almost no exertion and would be a better fit for me, if I had the money,” Bhoopram said.
If given a choice, I would happily choose an e-rickshaw over the one I peddle for a living, said Sachin.
