TC

Vision

Sound

6.10

Street scenes

06.14

Man pulling rickshaw

Rashid is one of about 80'000 men who pull rickshaws through the streets of Calcutta. His day begins before dawn. He rents the rickshaw for about 50 US cents a day. Sometimes he earns little more.

06.28

Traffic Jam, beeping cars

The city of 12 million is jammed with cars - the air is terribly polluted. But despite this the city administration wants to ban the 40'000 or so man-pulled rickshaws. They say they should be motorised. More air pollution is inevitable. Every rickshaw driver supports on average a 5-10 member family. Over half a million people will be severely affected by the rickshaw ban.

6:53

Man with child in street

But the city fathers remain unmoved.

7.07

Interview: Assim Barman

city official

We feel it's inhuman when people are pulling other people in rickshaws. It doesn't look good - that's the first reason. The second is that they cause traffic jams. We want to ban rickshaws because of this.

7.32

Rubbish pickers

(1.30 min. music - music starts at 1.22)

In Calcutta thousands of the poor and sick live and die on the city streets. The rickshaw drivers may suffer the same fate. They have no other opportunities. Unemployment is high. Everyone tries to earn money whatever way they can. Many beg or search through the garbage to survive.

8.02

Motorised rickshaws & man-pulled rickshaws weaving through traffic

The rickshaw drivers manage just a little better. A journey costs one cent - whatever the duration.

08.15

Man feeding rats

In Calcutta even rats get more sympathetic treatment than the poorest of the poor. The four legged creatures at least get enough to eat - more than what some people can achieve.

08.21

Family on the street, child  scraping bowl

Many can only afford rice or a chapati. Often there's not enough for the whole family.

8.30

Woman begging, man lying on street under a blanket with little girl

Many of them come to Calcutta  from the poorer cities like Bihar. They hope to find work. Now, they can't go back. They don't have anything - particularly money for the return trip.

08.56

Men waiting by rickshaws

But the rickshaw drivers count themselves amongst the fortunate - so long as they are healthy. That's why they want to fight to keep their means of employment.

09.04

original sound

Interview -

Mukhtar Ali

Bengali Rickshaw Union

We are not ashamed to pull rickshaws. We earn money, we can feed ourselves and our families and don't need to steal. We will fight to the last against this rickshaw ban - even if we have to lose our lives.

9.26

Abdul pulling rickshaw along road

Abdul Rashid is happy to have a job. He's been pulling rickshaws for about a year. Every day for 12 hours a day. His whole body aches all the time. He doesn't earn enough to have shoes.

9.36

Panning through shanty

Illegal housing and shacks spring up from the earth wherever there's space. (pad out)

9.47

Family gathered at the front of a shanty hut

This is where Abdul Rashid lives. He shares a single hut with several families. The rent costs 8 US dollars. Walls are made from palm leaves, giving a little bit of privacy. Everyone cooks together. Other family members live nearby. No one has a better life - none can read or write.

10.03

Ashid and his children share rice from a bowl

Abdul has two children - 11 year old Majid and 9 year-old Rashida. Both are small for their age. Neither of them will have the chance to go to school. There's not enough money for books, pencils or school uniforms. What will he do when he loses his job?

10.31

original sound

Interview: Abdul Rashid

rickshaw driver

I don't know

Even now we don't have enough. No proper food, no house, not enough work.

10.46

original sound

Interview: Margina Biba

wife

Today he didn't even bring 25 cents home - the highest he's ever made was 3 dollars in a day. We eat badly, sometimes not at all. We have two children. What can we give them? We can't leave from here either when he doesn't have work anymore. We don't have any money - not enough for clothes, food - for living.

11.08

People along the railway track

The lowest caste of Indians live here.... Following along the rails Margina Biba goes to the market. The rails also serve as toilets. Garbage lies everywhere - amongst the mess made by humans.

11.28

Buying soap from vendor along the railway, bustling market scene

For the wife of a rickshaw driver, soap is a luxury item. She has to calculate exactly how to spend the money her husband earns.

11.40

It's not just her, millions of Indian families live like this.

11.54

Margina Biba fetching water from the well, girl shampooing her hair

Margina Biba has to fetch  water several times a day. There's one pump for hundreds of people. It's also the washing place for the whole area.

12.12

Carrying water back to the home

The water isn't clean. Diseases of all kinds are rampant. Typhus, pneumonia, asthma, diarrhoea diseases and hepatitis. Margina Bibas' children have tuberculosis and they're frequently sick.

12.32

Man standng outside clinic, woman visiting doctor, looking into her throat with torch

The only medical practice in the vicinity of the illegal settlement belongs to Dr Iqbal. He charges 25 cents per patient regardless of what illness they're suffering from. Even with this, he can do little for them.

12.54

original sound

Interview: Mohamed Iqbal

doctor

If the rickshaw drivers lose their jobs it will be absolutely catastrophic. Even now they have nothing. The settlement is  filthy. Many of them are sick. Often they don't eat. They don't have enough to live.

13.16

streetscenes through the rickshaw wheels,

There have been rickshaws in Calcutta for almost 100 years. They were invented in Japan. The Chinese modified them. And, it was a Chinese who brought the rickshaw to Calcutta in 1900.

13.26

tooting cars at rickshaws, rickshaws dodging cars

Omar Sharif's been pulling rickshaws in Calcutta for 10 years. He can't afford to get a motorised rickshaw. The daily rental would be higher. Apart from that he couldn't go wherever he wanted. Bribes for the policemen would be higher. Many drivers rent their vehicles. Night and day they roll through the streets of Calcutta.

14.03

original sound

Interview: Omar Sharif

Rickshaw driver

There's no other work. I don't like it, but at least I earn a little money for my family.

14.16

Men pulling rickshaws through the streets

Rickshaws are the cheapest means of transport. When they no longer exist, people will have to go by foot. Buses and trams are too expensive and overcrowded. Indians are not ashamed to use rickshaws.

14.29

original sound

Interview: Radar Sanjiv

They can at least feed their families. That helps people in Calcutta. When rickshaws are banned we will have severe problems. There's already enough people that don't have any work.

14.50

Abdul running with rickshaw along the street with customer, collecting the fare.

Abdul Rashid still runs through the streets of Calcutta. Officially it is said: The traffic speed in Calcutta should rise to 20 kilometres an hour in the city. Rickshaw pullers can never achieve this. The traditional carriage will disappear from the city scene. How Abdul and the other rickshaw drivers will survive has not been given much thought by the city fathers.

Ends 15.19