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

[Jonathan Richmond]

First, I think it would be important to clarify exactly what take-home pay
is, after all costs.

But secondly, no, this income is insufficient for anything like what
Westerners would call a normal living standard. The income is sufficient
to live in a substandard building where there will be no bathroom, perhaps
six to ten people in a single house with kids all thrown into one bed and
a communal toilet shared by perhaps 50 or more people.

There will generally be no ceiling fan let alone no airconditioning, and
plenty of flies and mosquitos. The water supply will likely be
contaminated.

Generally there will be enough money for food, but little else in a very
basic subsistance lifestyle. Depending on the number of people to be
supported by the income, some children may go to school for some time but
will likely drop out and instead work to support the family. Children are
regularly abused in work environments with hard labour and little pay.
Even if they stay in school, admission for public universities is so
intense that children from poor backgrounds have little or no chance at
success. There is a major industry in low-quality private universities for
the children of the rich who do not score sufficiently well to go to
public university, but there is no chance that a poor family can pay for
such a luxury.

What is a luxury for a family of this income level? As I have discovered
from visiting such houses, it is a bottle of Sprite or Coke to be shared
amongst perhaps a dozen people. Unlike in the West, this is not a casual
item to be consumed at will -- a measure of real income is that soft
drinks are not generally sold around rickshaw stands but instead vendors
will sell rickshaw pullers tiny cups of tea with the merit that the water
has at least been boiled.

A medical problem will generate an intense crisis. Public hospitals are
overcrowded and offer poor levels of care. Supplies of medicine are
generally absent and drugs have to be paid for in cash or patients are
left to die. The patient's extended family will generally pitch in to help
if someone goes to hospital: it is not unusual for 50 or more reltives
near and distant to contribute in such circumstances, but the costs can be
overwhelming, and even if they can be paid they can reduce whole groups of
people to financial ruin.

The rickshaw puller's wife may work as a maid to earn some extra money.
Maids work long hours and rarely see their own children. They are paid
little and often work in degrading and abusive situations.

So by no stretch of the imagination can the rickshaw puller's situation be
regarded as adequate or "normal." He is living a medieval subsistence
life, a tough one, and one with little opportunity for escape, either for
his children -- who will remain locked in poverty -- or for his wife and
himself --Jonathan!




On Sun, 27 Dec 2009, Ahuja, Sonal (Capita Symonds) wrote:

> My question to the group will be, is that money enough for a man with two kids to be able to bring a good healthy family, educate and get yourself out of powerty? Probably not. This earning is about £63 a month.
>
> The income must be measured with its purchase power. And normalised to see the real income. It would be very wrong to admit that that rickshaw pullers have a good standard of living let alone  anywhere a standard comparable to minimum wage earners in Europe leave alone rickshaw pullers in London.
>
> I agree with Aashish, in our resarch on richshaw pullers in Old Delhi conducted in I999 we found that 98% of rickshaw pullers take this profession not out of choice and more than 73% pay a rent for it. So what is meaning ful let as an income is debatable.
>
> I know the reserch is old but I don't things have changed a lot in India and in Banglsdesh.
>
> With warm regards
>
> Sonal
>
> Sonal Ahuja
>
> Associate Director, 
>
> Development Transport and Infrastructure
>
> CAPITA SYMONDS
> 86 Fetter Lane
> London EC4A 1EN 
>
> United Kingdom
>
> 
>
>
>
> Kind Regards Sonal +447788666523
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: sustran-discuss-bounces+sonal.ahuja=capita.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org <sustran-discuss-bounces+sonal.ahuja=capita.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org>
> To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Sent: Sun Dec 27 04:08:16 2009
> Subject: [sustran] Re: Rickshaw puller in Dhaka earns Tk 6,300 per month: 	JICA study
>
> I wrote this to Sudhir earlier, thought I must share my response to the
> others.
>
> While I am able to appreciate the finding that Rikshaw Pullers earn 6,300 Tk
> from us, it must be mentioned that Income earned might not be a good
> criteria of whether the lives of Rickshaw pullers are 'deprived' or not.
>
> Consider for instance that most will lack any form of insurance - health,
> life, assets etc. - which means that one accident or illness and their
> savings are wiped out, plus the fact that they cant work for the time they
> are ill; most live in squalor which increases health risks and is a form of
> degraded living. There is much inclusion from social services (one form of
> deprivation) as well as a high level of livelihood risks - some emanating
> from the occupation itself.
>
> Just to clarify, while we are supportive of Rickshaws in cities, we must
> recognise that even when they earn a good income, there are many avoidable
> risks and hazards which they face.
>
> In this context, Sudhir recommended the following link -
> http://cai-asia.blogspot.com/2009/07/transport-refugees-victims-of-unjust.html
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-----
Jonathan Richmond
Transport Advisor
Dhaka Transport Coordination Board
Ministry of Communications
Government of Bangladesh
Nagar Bhaban, 13-14th Floor
Dhaka-1000
Bangladesh

Phone: +880 (0)1714 179013
Fax:   +880 (0)2 956-8892

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/