Trixi.com
07-01-2005, 22:36
Unique rickshaw bank brings life back to hundreds in NE: [India News]: Guwahati, Dec 26 : Unemployed labourers in Assam have got a new lease of life through a unique rickshaw bank, which sells them ready-to-run rickshaws on easy credit.
The easy-to-pull new rickshaw model has been prepared by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and is manufactured locally making it very cost effective.
The Center for Rural Development (CRD), a voluntary organisation spearheading the project, has devised a monthly buyback scheme under which the rickshaw-pullers do not have to make any initial deposit. Instead a nominal amount is collected daily from them and by the year-end the rickshaw will be theirs.
The CRD roped in corporate houses to sponsor the rickshaws and are rewarded with tax sops and advertisement on the vehicles, which are on the roads for most of the time.
To ensure accountability, the CRD has divided the men into small groups with each member being accountable for the actions of the other. So, in case, somebody decides to flee away with the rickshaw or defaults in payment the other members will have to repay his debt.
"What we did was to make a group of five rickshaw pullers. They have to make a group and take the understanding of each other. Each person is responsible for the repayment of the entire cost of the rickshaw. After that we have also formulated the necessary papers and then we applied for the licenses of rickshaws and for the pullers," CRD executive director Pradip Sharma said in Guwahati.
Each of the rickshaw-pullers has been given an identity card, a cap, and a dress so that they can work as a team. "I left my master's rickshaw and bought this. I got my identity card and a uniform. We are paying a daily installment of 20 rupees (almost half a dollar) and at a last can own something. This is my own," said Gopal Sharma, a proud rickshaw-puller.
Assam is the largest state in the north-east with a population of almost 27 million and a poverty rate of 36 percent. (ANI)
The easy-to-pull new rickshaw model has been prepared by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and is manufactured locally making it very cost effective.
The Center for Rural Development (CRD), a voluntary organisation spearheading the project, has devised a monthly buyback scheme under which the rickshaw-pullers do not have to make any initial deposit. Instead a nominal amount is collected daily from them and by the year-end the rickshaw will be theirs.
The CRD roped in corporate houses to sponsor the rickshaws and are rewarded with tax sops and advertisement on the vehicles, which are on the roads for most of the time.
To ensure accountability, the CRD has divided the men into small groups with each member being accountable for the actions of the other. So, in case, somebody decides to flee away with the rickshaw or defaults in payment the other members will have to repay his debt.
"What we did was to make a group of five rickshaw pullers. They have to make a group and take the understanding of each other. Each person is responsible for the repayment of the entire cost of the rickshaw. After that we have also formulated the necessary papers and then we applied for the licenses of rickshaws and for the pullers," CRD executive director Pradip Sharma said in Guwahati.
Each of the rickshaw-pullers has been given an identity card, a cap, and a dress so that they can work as a team. "I left my master's rickshaw and bought this. I got my identity card and a uniform. We are paying a daily installment of 20 rupees (almost half a dollar) and at a last can own something. This is my own," said Gopal Sharma, a proud rickshaw-puller.
Assam is the largest state in the north-east with a population of almost 27 million and a poverty rate of 36 percent. (ANI)