Underground Rickshaw
Bicycle rickshaws are the most popular modes of transport in Bangladesh and are available for hire throughout the country including the capital city Dhaka, known as the “Rickshaw Capital of the World“. Rickshaws are the most popular means of transportation in Bangladesh. In the capital Dhaka there are over 600,000 competing for passengers. The rickshaws carry passengers but they are often adapted to transport all sorts of goods. Because of inflation and unemployment in the rural areas, people from villages move to the cities to become rickshaw drivers, locally called the riksha-wala.
On my first visit to Bangladesh I became fascinated by Rickshaws. I viewed them as mobile works of art as they (when traffic jams were absent) flew through the streets thanks to the strenuous efforts and skill of the riksha-wala. Used to travelling in London on the Underground I relished a ride on a Rickshaw in Bangladesh. There can be no better way to see Bangladesh than from the passenger seat of a rickshaw. This piece imagines two modes of transport combined: the underground and the Rickshaw.
Rickshaws are covered with paintings of rural scenes, animals, film stars, the rich and the famous, great monuments and religious symbols. Scores of people are employed to paint and decorate this popular form of human powered transport. In recent years computer generated images have joined hand painted patterns. The main aim of rickshaw art is to attract the attention of potential passengers.
Comparing travelling underground in a sealed tube full of commuters is like prison compared to the Rickshaw. Nevertheless I’ve been photographing the underground for decades as it provides a brilliant opportunity for human observation. Sadly pollution in Dhaka compares to the pollution on the underground.
There is a battle between rickshaws and cars in Dhaka. Rickshaws are blamed for traffic congestion. However, rickshaws are safe, environmentally friendly and do not rely on fossil fuels. Many people rely on rickshaws. The industry employs people from 38 different professions.
Perhaps the two women in the rickshaw are travelling with a driver searching for a place untroubled by pollution, global warming and the stress of ‘modern’ living.
