ramprasad yadav

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung
Rabindranath Tagore

The debate over whether to ban the rickshaws on humanitarian grounds has been raging for decades, but there has never really been much progress because of a lack of alternative employment for the pullers. Most are from Bihar, one of the most underdeveloped states in India, and all of them are desperately poor. Ramprasad Yadav has been coming to Kolkata from his native Bihar for the past ten years, going back home to work in the fields when the rains arrive. He earns around Rs.100 a day in the city, ferrying everything from schoolchildren to housewives to goods, from 10am–9pm, sleeping on the street after work. Such pullers are so poor they don’t even own their rickshaws, but pay rent on them, sometimes Rs.140 a week to the owners, plus the occasional fine when caught pulling into the main streets or taking too many customers at one go, in addition to payment for sleeping space on the roads or in crowded rooms.

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