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Thursday 17 April 2014

Calcutta - City of Joy: Affordable for all!

The hand-carts are believed to have originated from Japan in 1860. These human powered vehicle were popular in the Asian Countries e.g. Japan, China etc. and also some other regions of the world. In India, Calcutta in particular, these rickshaws made their  first appearance for public use in 1914. 
The hand-cart or the Tana-Rickshaw (in Bengali Language) of Kolkata are on the verge of extinction. The Govt. of West Bengal had decided to ban these rickshaws on humanitarian grounds in the year 2006, but following a lot of protest from rickshaw pullers, total ban wasn't imposed. Thereafter, there has been a decline in the number of rickshaws inrecent times.
These hand-carts have large wheels which come good when the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta) are flooded with rain water. The job of pulling these rickshaws may appear to be a very distressing to an onlooker but the rickshaw pullers have no complaints in doing the job, they do it almost effortlessly. As you can see in the photograph the rickshaw puller is relaxed and talking to the passanger while pulling a rickshaw. 




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