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Japanese rickshaws c.1897
Calcutta rickshaw, 2004
Rickshaws (or rickshas) are a mode of human-powered transport: a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons.
Rickshaws were mainly used in Asia, but nowadays they are outlawed in many places and have
been replaced by velotaxis. The last sizeable fleet of rickshaws can be found in
Calcutta, where the rickshaw driver union resisted prohibition.
Rickshaws were invented in Japan at the end of the 19th century by a European missionary who had been in Japan.
The name derives from the Japanese expression jinrikisha (人力車) which means literally 'human-powered
vehicle'. The first rickshaw appeared in India around 1880 on the avenues of Simla. Some 20 years later a few of these vehicles arrived in Calcutta, imported by Chinese
traders who used them to transport goods.
In 1914 the same Chinese people applied for permission to use them to carry people and
it was not long before rickshaws were to be found in many metropoli all over Southeast Asia. For peasants migrating to the big cities the rickshaw offered a means of earning a living.
No one knows exactly how many there are today in the streets of Calcutta. Unofficial statistics suggest 50,000, providing
employment for twice as many pullers. Economists have calculated that the economic value of rickshaws and their pulling is $6
million - a quarter of the budget of the whole urban transport system of a city like Paris.
In August 2003 at the Big Green Gathering festival in England, a digital version of the rickshaw called the iTrike (called
"the world's first solar-powered Internet rickshaw") was launched. It is based on the rickshaws produced in the United Kingdom by
Cycles Maximus, who promote them as alternative transport for over-crowded inner-cities.
Film
In the movie City of
Joy, referring to Calcutta, Om Puri plays a rickshaw puller, revealing the
economic and emotional hardship that these underpaid workers face on a day-to-day basis.
See also
External links
iTrike Web site
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