Community Visit:A STUDY ON THE COMMUNITY OF HINDI SPEAKING RICKSHAW PULLERS OF DIBRUGARH TOWN

A STUDY ON THE COMMUNITY OF HINDI SPEAKING RICKSHAW PULLERS OF DIBRUGARH TOWN.

             Course Paper: Development Communication

Paper Code: 20300

Assignment No: 01

Submitted to:

Abhijit Handique

Centre for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication

Dibrugarh University

Students Name and Roll No.

Deepanjali Phukan -7

Deepjyoti Dutta  - 8

Jayashree Roy -14

Jesus Gogoi- 15

Kalyan Sengupta – 17

Madhusmita Saikia – 19

Mridupwan Borah- 22

Neelakshi Baruah- 25

Neeva Dutta – 26

Rajshree Gogoi – 32

Shivani kalita- 37

Acknowledgement

In performing our assignment, we had to take the help and guideline of some respected persons, who deserve our greatest gratitude. The completion of this assignment gives us much Pleasure.

We would like to show our gratitude Mr.Abhijit Handique, Assistant Professor in Centre for Studies in Journalism and Mass CommunicationDibrugarh Universityfor giving us a good guideline for assignment throughout numerous consultations.

Many people, especially our classmates and team members itself, have made valuable comment suggestions on this proposal which gave us an inspiration to improve our assignment. We would also like to expand our deepest gratitude to all those who have directly and indirectly guided us in writing this assignment.

Contents

·        ABSTRACT

·        OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

·        STUDY AREA

·        ASSUMPTIONS OF THE OUTCOME VISIT

·        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

·        INTRODUCTION

·        OBSERVATIONS OF THE FIELD VISIT

·        PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RICKSHAW PULLER COMMUNITY

·        RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTION

·        PHOTOS

·        CONCLUSION

Abstract

The students of CSJMC, 2^nd semester Dibrugarh University has done our project of community visit successfully. For our community visit, we choose the Rickshaw community. Rickshaw is a familiar means of transport, our study is conducted to analysis the social-economic conditions of Hindi speaking rickshaw pullers of Dibrugarh town. The reason for our choosing the particular community is that rickshaw pullers community was migrated, illiterate and poor rural people in majority who spent their nights in poor dwelling where civil amenities and facilities were absent or poor. They often used to carry passengers by negotiated fare for shorter distance. Through this survey we want highlight the problems of rickshaw community and make people focus on their problems extent.

Objective of the Study

·        To know about their livelihood, wages

·        To know how they adjust their expenses

·        Have they ever got any scheme from the government

·        To examine age group, marital status, religion and caste of rickshaw pullers

·        To analyses education level, residential conditions and facilities of rickshaw pullers in Dibrugarh city

·        After a particular age leaving the profession, how do they arrange their livelihood

·        Does someone from their family continue their profession

Study Area

For the study group choose Dibrugarh town in general and Maruwaripatti and the market area of town in particular. The group visited the area and studied. The study

was conducted for two days. The group met the President and Assistant Secretary of  Dibrugarh Rickshaw Chalak Sangha (DRCS). We asked various questions to the rickshaw pullers and took their interview. Recorded their interview and took some photograph.

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE OUTCOME VISIT

·        People who belong to lower segment of society, due to lack of money and education, they prefer the work of rickshaw pulling to get earning and employment.

·        Though, it is a symbol of poverty but they are solely depending on this profession because it provides bread and livelihood to them.

·        According to our assumption most of rickshaw pullers are below the age of 50 years, because this occupation needs more physical labor.

·        Majority of rickshaw powers were rural-immigrants leaving their previous occupations. They mainly belonged to backward community.

Background of the study

It is believed that the first Rickshaws in India appeared circa 1880 in Simla and around 1900 in Calcutta (presently Kolkata). These were the hand-pulled rickshaws. As time evolved, Cycle Rickshaws with three wheels came into vogue, leading to the famous Indian Auto Rickshaws (Tuk Tuks) and much later the motorized cycle rickshaws (in Chennai). Cycle Rickshaws, are economical and environmental-friendly and hence, should be able to play an important role in today’s chaotic transportation system in the country.  As plying a Cycle Rickshaw does not require any educational qualification but sheer physical ability, it becomes the first choice of employment for the poor and migrants from rural areas to urban areas. One immediate attraction is that it does not call for financial capital for the Rickshaws as they are available on rent. However, due to this, a significant chunk of the daily earnings also go away towards rent and perennially.In addition to this, continuous exposure to all natural vagaries, lack of awareness on health and hygienic issues, alcoholism etc., take a toll on the health of the Rickshaw-puller which has an effect on the family rendering the families to be eternally below the poverty line.

Introduction

The first day of our survey

We go to meet Mr. Nabin Gupta, the Assistant secretary of the Dibrugarh Rickshaw Chalak Sangha (DRCS) in Marwari patty Dibrugarh city. He said that there are different languages people which is Hindi, Miri, Bengali, and Assamese. In the Dibrugarh district, there are 10,000 Rickshaw pullers. Some people are come from Goalpara. He said that there are most probably 500 pullers are Hindi speaking people. In the DRCS, Binay Jaishwal is the president and Dasrath Rai is the President. They mainly demanding to the government is to increase the price rate of the pullers. But the government didn’t provide any facilities for them and also there has no scheme for the Rickshaw pullers. Rickshaw pullers are mostly came from the outside of the different places. They still didn’t get the opportunity to vote for the election. The age group of the pullers is 18-70 and the daily income is 300-400 Rs. From the daily income, they provide 50 Rs. to the owner of the house. The starting time of the pullers is 8:30/9:00AM to 7PM.

Mr. Nabin Gupta introduced  us to a 45 year old rickshaw puller whose name was Dinesh Rai. When asked whether he went under some obstructions or faced any problems, he replied that he hasn’t. During questioning about his family members he informed us about their whereabouts back in Bihar. Although his stay in Assam hasn’t been that long {4years}.

We asked Dinesh Rai whether there are any other Hindi speaking people or not. He replied that there are some people which we were looking for who can be found in the Railway colony. After that we met another rickshaw puller named Sunil Shah aged 25 from the district of  Baishali in Bihar. He didn’t have access to any sort of education. Dinesh’s father lives in Kolkata and manages a Pan shop. Fortunately his elder sister has completed her educational qualification till 7^th standard. His brother in law and sister live together with Dinesh. Dinesh pays 1800 as rent per month. The rickshaw Dinesh has actually is rented and he pays 50 rupees daily to return the interest. .Dinesh’s brother in law and sister have got the opportunity to vote unlike Dinesh himself.

Day 2 of survey

We went to Marwari Patty in Dibrugarh city where we interacted with another Rickshaw puller named Nareshwar Kamath.He is from the district of Madhubani in Bihar and arrived in Assam during the 1980s. Even though he lives currently in Dibrugarh he had stayed at Tinsukia for 5 years.  He has six children of which 2 are boys and the other 4 are girls. Two of the elder girls have been married, one has recently appeared for matriculation exam and the other one is occupied in knitting business. The boys are younger than their sisters and one of them goes to 3^rd standard while the other one has dropped out. Even Nareshwar Kamath drives a rented rickshaw and pays rupees 50to the owner. His daily income is around 400-500 rupees. According to Nareshwar they haven’t been entitled to any facilities or opportunities by the government.When asked whether someone from his family would take the job, his reply was negative. He said that all his children’s are studying and they won’t do that kind of job.

One boy we found during the study he was just 17 years old. He told me that his father died couple of month ago. He said that he has leaved his studies because of his families’ poor economic condition. He has mother and young siblings to feed so he chose to do the job of rickshaw puller.

Observations of the field visit

We conducted our survey in Dibrugarh town. While visiting the rickshaw community of Dibrugarh town, lots of facts related to the lives of rickshaw pullers were highlighted. At the beginning, we interviewed the Assistant secretary of the Rickshaw and Thela Chalak Santha of Dibrugarh, he stated that most of rickshaw pullers were not permanent inhabitants of Dibrugarh but came to Dibrugarh in search of employment. He added that they are not recognized in any schemes of the government. While interviewing some of the rickshaw pullers, most of them stated that they are originally from Bihar and they do have their families in Bihar. They stay here without their families and they never want their sons or future generations to be in the profession of rickshaw pulling. They further added that the daily wages they earn their daily wages they earn is not enough to fulfill the basic needs of their families. The rickshaw through which they earn their wages is also a rented rickshaw and most of them even don’t have a L.P.G for cooking, they use to cook their food by burning woods or kerosene. While conducting our survey, they also further added that they often receive unsatisfactory fare and behavior from the passengers. Most of them reveal that they are illiterate and had no formal education. According to them, illiteracy is one of the reasons, which led them to the profession of rickshaw pulling. So their children’s are having formal education. And they don’t want their children to take this kind of job. We asked about them about their political conscience. We found that some of them have voting right and some doesn’t. Most of the puller we interacted said that the government is totally ignoring their community. Both the central and the state government doing nothing to uplift this under privileged community.

Problems faced by the rickshaw puller community

·        Lack of proper housing facility.

·        No schemes from the government.

·        No proper cooking facility.

·        Illiteracy.

·        Unsatisfactory fare from the passengers.

·        Poor hygiene of the members of the community

·        Alcoholism among the member of the community

·        Most of the rickshaw puller doesn’t have their own rickshaws

·        No legal help for them

Recommendations and suggestion 

·        Rickshaw pullers are not economically sound. It can be observed from the study that the rickshaw pullers have not been benefited from the existing Government schemes. This calls for awareness among them about the various measures adopted by the Government. The general public should take initiative to create awareness among them about the benefits of the schemes while travelling in the rickshaws.

·        The study revealed that a large number of rickshaw pullers are not owner of the rickshaws. This hinders on their income as they have to pay a part of their income regularly to the rickshaw owners. In this regard, it can be suggested that the problems of society making them do the job.

·         It has been concluded that the rickshaw pullers should be treated as part and parcel of our society and provide necessary assistance as and when required to them.

·         The municipality and police including traffic control departments need to work together on assigning roads and appropriate rickshaw stands in  town with fare chart and to maintain urban discipline.

CONCLUSION

The study found that the condition of rickshaw pullers in Dibrugarh town is no better than the rest of them in other parts. They are deprived of good working conditions. A great majority of them had suggested that there were various accidental risks involved in this job and the working conditions were not satisfactory. The lack of proper parking place many times creates traffic problems during rush hours. The study underlines the need for a comprehensive policy of welfare of these teeming millions as they provide easy and cheap transport option to the people besides contributing towards environmental conservations and protection. Majority of rickshaw pullers were rural immigrants leaving their families in their own land and living a tough life with a low income. They conditions were more miserable than that of schedule caste people. The government should take measures and adopt schemes for their upliftment. Social approach is needed to their uplift like other targeted groups for their socio-economic development. Employment generation programmes must be initiated for their upliftment.

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