The Rickshaw Wallahs
You must be the change you want to see in this world.
Gandhi, the Mahatma
"Rickshaw Wallahs"
are exploited men, subjected to a local specie of Mafia
and (of course) maltreated.
Never respected as human persons
because they belong to the caste of "Parias".
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My homage to my rickshaw-wallah
Béatrice
We are blocked in a traffic jam, at middle coast, and it is us who have to move back! Then, on my seat, I rise, he turns over, he smiles to me and says that it is OK. His muscles are tightened and he sets out again as a dancer. It makes a heat to be burst, his face oozes.
But where he finds the force to pedal? To advance? To smile? He impresses me!
He has this dignity that only the "humble ones" can have.
He comes from Bihar (one of the poorest states of India). He lives alone here, his family remains over there. He belongs to the caste of "Dalits", he is illiterate. He is not owner of his rickshaw. He rents it 40 rupees each day with a company (the equivalent from 4 to 6 races).
A true small "Mafia"
("the City of Joy" of Dominique Lapierre does not have anything about a whimsical novel).
This man is never respected as a human being. A rickshaw-wallah is always wrong! A burned priority, a bad carpark are subject about physical violences, even from part of the policemen.
He is at the bottom of the social scale, he cannot rebel.
He however has an exhausting work: under the rain, in the wind, by the cold or during strong heats, he pedals. He pedals 12 hours per day, 7 days a week for a few rupees.
Then, the night, he joins with the others and to forget his painful muscles, the blows, the insults, his remote family, he drinks. He drinks this alcohol which explodes the head and he gently falls asleep on his rickshaw while dreaming at better days...
No way for me to be "Mother Béatrice of Delhi".
I just try to open some shelters with showers where they can rest (they sleep outside) and to wash themselves.
I benefit from the relative notoriety of my travel agency to sensitize my customers on this subject, but I am not yet Nouvelles Frontieres. There is a lot of ONG here who defending or helping the children, the maltreated women but nobody concentrated themselves on this problem. Therefore, while waiting to have Kouchner which passes by here, I would need your savoir faire. It would be necessary that I "to dash off" (excuse the commonplace expression) a Web site and referencing in record time. Is what the Utilisable community can take part in this project? I need your free hours (where are they, you will say to me!) because not set enough in data processing for a project this width.
Thank you for your invaluable help, I remain at your disposal for all useful information.
I thus have, with my thin resources and the small gifts of my customers, open a pretence of refuge but it is too small, the showers also miss, the water tankers too, not to speak about the covers for winter. It is obvious I found myself, when it made very cold (for us) this winter, with a lot of rickshaw wallahs and the impossibility to help all of them. And that, for me, it is inconceivable.
Here, I cannot make large-thing at the local level because I remain a wog,
I "just" am married with an Indian!
Not questions of hustling customs and habits centenaries.
Our souls are so small for such a project !
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