Rickshaw Pullers of Kolkata

 

Rickshaw pullers of Kolkata

            If anyone who goes to Kolkata there he will confront with unusual scene of pulling  Rickshas by men on its streets. Which looks inhuman and reminds the days of slaveries where big landlords, white men, were use to travel by the handpulled Rickshawas by the poor men. It is the thing gifted by the Whites to the poor and uneducated Indian peasants or migratory poor workers of Bihar, Odisha who came to Kolkata for earning but ended into this inhuman act because they are illiterate and poor. They don’t get any respite from this work  and toils for whole day from 5 am in the morning to late in the evening they use to pull passengers or heavy goods to and from the lane and by lanes of the Kolkata without proper food and rest. Their attire is tattered cloths and Lungi they don’t have proper shelter to live in, so they use to spend their night on footpaths, railway platform or in a park under the trees if not then sometimes they crawl under their Rickshaws itself.

 Previously this type of Rickshawalas were serving in Shimla, which was the summer capital of the officials of British’s East India Company, those rickshaws were made of iron so four men use to pull one Rickshaw to a white men. As The white men had already their official workplace and residence in Kolkata so they gifted this hand pulled rickshaws to this city. Whoever from foreign countries or from any part of India comes to this city they use to see this inhuman act of Indian Colonial Treasure with their wide eyes? There are about 18000 hand pulled rickshaw walas in the city, but more are unlicensed but plying it for their livelihood. As the days are modernizing so electric vehicles, rickshaws, autos are taking place and the government also wants to replace this inhuman hard working and eyes shoring scenes of the city but couldn’t succeeded yet.

In 1953 film of Bimal Roy this hand pulled rickshaw had taken centre stage which was operated by thespian artist Balraj Sahani, as per the story Balraj Sahani went to Kolkata for earning he pulled the rickshaw just to get rid of the debt he had taken from a landlord, but when he came to his village with some earned money he perplexed to see that a factory is coming up into his field. Just to fit into the role of rickshawala Balraj Sahni mingled with them in their attire and makeup for months and practiced rickshaw pulling bare footed.

Text and Photos by- Ashok Karan,

Ashokkaran.blogspot.com,

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