Bhubaneswar: “Mu rickshaw wala…” song sung by Md Sikandar Aalam for 1977 film ‘Punarmilana’ has still the charm to attract a listener, even a youth also. Whenever it is played on the radio or at any musical programme, elders and youngsters cannot help crooning the lyrical words.
The song is still holding its charm. But the character, a rickshaw puller, on whom the song is written or is filmed, is struggling for his survival.
Two to three decades ago, it was the cycle rickshaw that used to carry passengers, be it to hospital, market or cinema hall. Even children were being transported to their schools by this cheap means of transportation.
The cycle rickshaw pullers had been in high demand until auto rickshaws and city buses started appearing on the road. As the life style of people became busier and the city started moving fast, to keep pace with the time, people also started preferring fast modes of transport.
While some rickshaw pullers have switched over to autos, some, not so financially sound as their fellow pullers, are still puling on their livelihood with their old source of earning.
About 30 to 40 cycle rickshaws can be seen in and around railway station area here. Though they find it very difficult to feed their families from pulling rickshaw, they also find it difficult to switch over to other means of earning livelihood. “I do not know anything to do. Even if I give it up, I would surely find myself begging,” says a rickshaw puller at the railway station.
“I do not have money to buy an auto or doing any other business. I have to toil hard on pedals to keep the kitchen fire burning back at home,” says another. When I find it difficult to feed my family of four, how I can think of giving them better education, he argues. Most of these rickshaw pullers do not own their three-wheelers. They hire them. They have to pay the owner Rs 25 a day, irrespective of their earnings. “At one point of time, I used to pay Rs 1.25 to the owner for hiring a rickshaw for a day when I used to have a good business. But now, when we have already lost our business, the hiked rent is proving a last straw,” says Bipra Nayak, a puller.
They spend the whole day at the railway station waiting for passengers. When they get any offer from hotels to carry vegetables or other articles, they feel they are lucky, as they do not have to keep waiting at the station for long hours.
However, in this case too, trolleys or goods-carrying autos are taking away their business.
Left with no other source of income, they are now seeking government help. “If the government provides the rickshaw pullers at the railway station with some battery-operated rickshaws, we may be able to live a better life,” most of the pullers observed.
PNN
