Rickshaws

My mom gave me a book to read called, The City of Joy. It's a fascinating book about one of Kolkata's slums in the 1960s. The names of the characters have been changed, but it's otherwise a true story. One of the main characters, Hasari Pal, arrives in Kolkata with his family looking for work and becomes a rickshaw puller. I've been going back and forth on how I feel about rickshaws.

Rickshaws are completely inhumane. They treat humans as if they were horses, and I don't even like seeing a horse pulling a carriage. The pullers look like they are 20 years older than they really are because the life they lead is so hard on their bodies. In addition to the physical labor, they are breathing in the grossest grossness in the grossest city all day, everyday. I'm sure plenty of them end up in Kalighat with lung cancer.

On the other hand, rickshaws provide employment to innumerable Indian men. Hasari is overwhelmed with joy at the opportunity to pull a rickshaw. They are certainly more environmental than taxis. If they outlawed rickshaws, there would be a massive unemployment problem, and this city would become even more polluted (if that's possible).

I took a rickshaw the other day and thought I would do a good thing by simply overpaying my puller. This was a bad idea. He then continued to follow me around all day, even waiting outside of shops that I went into. I don't know what the solution is to this problem. I guess the Indians don't see it as a problem, but it's certainly not something that would happen in my country.