[sustran] Rickshaw puller in Dhaka earns Tk 6, 300 per month: JICA study

[Eric Britton]

		PS. Rather than read this personal comment, I suggest that instead you have (another) look at Sudir and Bert's excellent "Transport Refugees – Victims Of Unjust Transport Policies" piece available at http://cai-asia.blogspot.com/2009/07/transport-refugees-victims-of-unjust.html We liked it so much at World Streets that within two days it became a featured piece for our international readership. But once you have that in the bank, perhaps these few words will find their place.
		

". . . many avoidable risks and hazards they face . . ."  Aaishish. Excellent. From a public policy perspective that is exactly the point.

Sorry (a bit) to double up a bit on my earlier mailing on this, but the point from the vantage of policy is for us to understand that in our sector our main job is (a) to work with what we have and as part of this process (b) to group our intelligence and democratic spirit to figure out together how to identify and then smooth down out those very real rough points. And there are many which we could easily catalogue here.

But this is far far better than, driven by a sense of outrage fueled by high (armchair) morality, simply sweeping them off the street into . . . what?

The problem is that sustainable transport, sustainable development and social justice  are hard work, and for the most part require the caring hands of deep enquiry and innovation, not the hard hammer of sweeping legist station, proscription and compulsion. 

In many parts of the world this gap is filled not by government departments but by local associations, public interest groups, NGOs and others who have the kind of patience and aptitude for this sort of thing. These are the people who can get out there, talk and listen to all those at the core of the issues, do the patient ground work, create the rich base, and then sell their ideas to the media and the political establishment. 

That'll keep us all right busy.

Eric Britton. 


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