One of Kolkata’s legacies has been restored, at least for now, by a new policy of the West Bengal government. Hand-pulled rickshaws, which were banned by the Left government in 2006, are back on the streets.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, of the Trinamool Congress, said that the rickshaw pullers will be issued new identity cards. The registration process will legitimise the business.

However, though the 6,000 registered rickshaw-pullers can breathe easy for the time being, the threat of banishment still looms. Firstly, there are fewer takers of the transport left than before as it has been deemed outmoded and slow. Second, the numbers of those who think that the handpulled rickshaw is an inhuman exploitation of labour and is a blow to the dignity of the puller is increasing. Human rights campaigners have been calling for its removal saying that it is a blot on civilised society.

"We can't imagine one man sweating and straining to pull another man," the then mayor of the city, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, had said in 2006 after the rickshaws were outlawed. The rickshaw pullers and their associations had largely rejected the rehabilitation package offered.

Today, the rickshaws ply unhindered. It is not as if the ban had had any outcome on the ground. But now the pullers say they are happy that their trade isn’t considered forbidden. “Now we can make a living without worrying,” said Ganesh Panda who ferries people in the Lake Market area.

These traditional carriages, made famous by Dominic Lapierre’s novel, 'City of Joy’, are common in the more traditional parts of the city’s north. They are a ubiquitous sight in the alleys, circling the old roads and buildings of north Calcutta (now Kolkata), evoking nostalgia.

Sambhu Nath, a rickshaw puller, lives on a pavement. He informs that it is getting crowded these days. Many of his friends in the trade live a similar life and have no shelter. A square meal a day depends on how many trips has one made. Given their poverty, a ban and its enforcement would be a devastating blow. “I have been doing this for decades. My father was also a rickshaw puller. Don’t take my job away. I don’t fancy any alternative,” he says. Legalising the trade by issuing new ID cards will bring in some cheer, the lean puller contends.

But traffic policemen aren’t a happy lot. Anonymously, they oppose the lifting of the ban. “Traffic slows down with these rickshaws. They are just obsolete. They should be discontinued immediately,” said one of the traffic constables at a busy avenue.

However, these rickshaws come to the city’s rescue in the monsoons. When all else fails, the rickshaw pullers wade through the waterlogged streets with the large wheels keeping the passengers snug and dry.

Common citizens are also divided on the issue of these handcarts. Those who are reliant on them want these rickshaws to continue plying. Some indulge their nostalgia supporting the preservation of a landmark heritage.

While human right activists see red, green advocates are cheering the latest move. According to estimates, 20,000 tonnes of carbon monoxide will be released into the city’s atmosphere if all hand-pulled rickshaws were to be replaced by motorised (the so-called civilised mode of transport) ones. 

On the other hand, rights activists allege, the concept of a poor wiry man sweating it out to pull moneyed men day in and out is reminiscent of slavery. They are of the contention that the business of hand-pulled rickshaws should be laid to rest and all the stakeholders must be offered rehabilitation packages.

This is precisely what the Left Front government had done with the passage of the Calcutta Hackney Carriage (Amendment) Bill (2006).

With a change in guard at Writers’ Building, however, there has come a new lease of life for the rickshaws.

Internationally almost everywhere this form of transport has been proscribed. China, which brought it to this country, banned it back in 1949. Japan doesn’t have it anymore. Pakistan outlawed them in the sixties. Hong Kong has not issued new licenses since 1975. Large parts of Dhaka too have enforced a hand-rickshaw ban.