Rickshaw fare
A write-up on what should be reasonable rickshaw fare, and what actually is paid came up in your columns a few days back. Small wonder, it is a far higher amount than the out-dated city corporation's published fare charts state. This is the factual reality and needs to be looked at in a rational manner, considering the stratospheric rise in prices of daily necessities. Rickshaw pulling is a labourious and demanding task, and so is the need for adequate nourishment for the ill paid rickshaw-puller. I believe that the rickshaw fare is arrived at through a verbal bilateral agreement between the two parties--the passenger and the puller. A fare chart just based on mileage of the journey is neither correct nor based on the realities and variables of rickshaw-pulling income. Income generation from rickshaw-pulling which must have idle (no revenue) mileage and time plus needed rest periods is influenced by many variables that cannot be ignored. Among others, it depends on distance covered, where the passenger wants to go, en-route traffic density, weather conditions like heat and humidity, rain with flooding of roads, time of the day or evening and prospect of getting a return fare after dropping the passenger. These are important factors that determine the fare to be charged. We cannot brush aside these factual realities of rickshaw-pulling, and just determine fare on the basis of distance covered. Easier to monitor and control is the amount charged by the rickshaw owner for hiring out his or her rickshaw for a fixed number of hours to the rickshaw puller. This could be displayed prominently in the rickshaw. It may vary depending only on the condition and get-up of the rickshaw. It could be changed, based on changes in the registration fees; cost of investment and the investment needed. These factors can change, but at a slower rate than the reality of galloping prices of daily necessities, which reflects directly on the fare charged by the rickshaw puller. On a very rough basis; if we assume that the rental paid by the rickshaw puller to the owner is Tk 200 a day; and that on an average the rickshaw puller makes fifteen revenue trips during the period. If the fare per trip comes to say Tk 30, and the average trip distance (up and down, looking for next fare) is five kilometers, then average fare per kilometer comes to six taka. For fifteen trips the rickshaw puller earns (15X30) Tk450 for the day. Deducting the hire charge of Tk.200; the rickshaw puller is left with only Tk.250 for the day to meet costs of rent of a shanty, two meals a day for him and his family of say four dependents, and may be a few cups of tea for the hard physical labour of the puller. Could be that my figures not being based on facts are off, but I believe it may well be close to reality. This too is not regular income for the puller; as earning is limited to days on the pedal. Sickness of self and dependents and other matters may cut off his income for a few days or more, for which there is no remedy, no saving, to fall back upon. It is a hard, cruel and rigorous life that is the only remedy between food and starvation. Let us not grudge him the fare that provides him and his family a means of bare survival!
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