Calcutta to ban rickhsaw

[Lise]

I don't think a ban on richshaw pulling especially on the streets of India should be banned. You're liable to take away a livelihood of someone. Though a poor source of income it may be, it's probably better than just begging on the streets.

  What do you think?

  [img]http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/Calcutta-Rickshaw-Ban29sep02.GIF"]

 [FONT size=4]Calcutta[/FONT] -- Rickshaw puller Mohammed Hussein is deterred neither by torrential rains that swamp Calcutta streets, nor the heavy-handed heat that melts the tar beneath his sometimes-bare feet.

 It is midafternoon, and the 87-year-old human horse is negotiating his 10th and final fare of the day with a mother and her son. After they agree on 31 cents for a 15-minute jaunt, the two passengers climb aboard. Hussein then takes his place between the rickshaw's shafts, assuming the yoke as he has daily for the past 45 years.

 But Hussein's longtime job is in jeopardy. If the Calcutta government has its way, Hussein and the city's estimated 18,000 rickshaw pullers will have to find something else to do.

 [A href="http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/Calcutta-Rickshaw-Ban29sep02.htm"]http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/Calcutta-Rickshaw-Ban29sep02.htm[/A]

[Gopher]

Yes, leave it alone - as long as peoples' livelihoods depend on it. To abolish it for the sake of political correctness would be yet another step too far. In any case,I heard last year that some western European holiday resorts were starting to use rickshaws as yet another tourist attraction.  

[Sportsdude]

India is the biggest paradox ever.  They say they're a democracy but yet they have a caste system.  People are getting very rich while about 1 billion are poor.  Unless the city can find a job for the 18,000 workers in yeah go ahead and ban it.  But will they do that? Probably not.  Most rickshaw drivers are the 'untouchables' who live in slums.  

[49er]

its pretty unfortunate.....major cities in China faced similar problem with bicycles.  Some cities banned bicycles on main arteries because they were intefering with the flow of automobiles