Rights of pullers
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
A bus driver told me the other day several mobile courts were checking whether or not rickshaws, plying in the city, had valid papers. Who are these rickshaw pullers? He said that absence of work in the villages around this time of the year forces many rural people to migrate to the cities in search of short duration earnings. The only work easily available is rickshaw pulling. These peasants who hardly know anything about the papers were caught on the wrong foot and fined. Even if the fine is paid by the owner, the hapless puller would again be without a job.
Was there any alternative for the authorities? If anything, the government machinery should be pro-people and pro-poor. There can be no reason to muzzle the poor and the weak. It is not uncommon to beat them up, jail and flout their rights.
The people in power should devise better ways to tackle traffic violations so that the poor don't suffer. For lacking valid papers make the owners and not the pullers pay. The poor pullers have the right to survive.
Sakhawat Hossain
Wari,Dhaka
Was there any alternative for the authorities? If anything, the government machinery should be pro-people and pro-poor. There can be no reason to muzzle the poor and the weak. It is not uncommon to beat them up, jail and flout their rights.
The people in power should devise better ways to tackle traffic violations so that the poor don't suffer. For lacking valid papers make the owners and not the pullers pay. The poor pullers have the right to survive.
Sakhawat Hossain
Wari,Dhaka