Safety Vs Livelihood

The current political situation in the country seems to be a pandora's box; no matter what the cause is, every political party is trying to encash every issue which appears on the table without even going to the depth of what’s right or what’s wrong.

For example: Electricity issue in Delhi, every party is in the line to use it as a tool to malign the other one; BJP in the center blames Congress and AAP for not managing resources well, Congress which had been for 15 years in power would blame both the AAP for not having done when in Govt and blaming BJP for not doing enough now, and the nascent AAP would use the same rhetoric for blaming both Congress and BJP to be allies in the power deterioration situation.

Another interesting cause now comes up of the e-rickshaws in Delhi. With the recent notification issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, E-rickshaws currently plying in the city were rendered illegal. The livelihood of almost the two crore e-rickshaws drivers was rendered at stake. The AAP at once stood up for the cause and decided to support them. Next in line is the BJP’s support for the cause and union Road transport minister announced the Deen Dayal E-rickshaw scheme, which will keep the E-rickshaws out of the purview of the Motor vehicles Act.

Standing up for the cause of livelihood of the E-rickshaw drivers is good and humanitarian. But neglecting the other side of the coin - the safety issues of the drivers and the passengers plying on the rickshaws does not seem to be a wise decision. Instead of blindly revoking the notification, without any alternate safety arrangements seems to be opportunistic.

The rendering of e-rickshaws as illegal was based on a series of studies and discussions between the TERI and the transport department. Per their observation, about 90,000 e-rickshaws are poorly design without paying any heed to either the construction material, the center of gravity of vhicle, or the weight to passenger ratio. Common observation also shows that the rickshaw drivers ply more passengers that can be seated thus making the drive unsafe. Since the E-rickshaws are now outside the purview of the MV act, neither could any challans be raised against them, nor can any criminal FIR launched in case of accidents nor can any insurance claim be made either for the driver or the passengers.

Striving the poor rickshaw drivers  of their only means of livelihood should never be the final solution but equally irresponsible be to leave the drivers and the passengers on their own, on busy Delhi streets without any insurance and assurances for their lives.

In my opinion, even if they are taken out of the purview of the Motor vehicles act, there should be different act designed for them. Something which could regulate the design parameters of the vehicle, govern the maximum weight and the maximum number of passengers a vehicle could carry and provide insurances against the accidents leading to deaths or permanent disability. The Govt could propose, may be an exchange program where it could ask all the drivers to return their unsafe rickshaws and provide them with the safety compliant rickshaws with complete paperwork in return. This might involve an extra homework for the Govt but would work as a win-win situation for safety and livelihood both:)