Nur Islam, arrived at the Kutubkhali garage, near Jatrabari, at 2pm to pick up his rented cycle rickshaw--a three-wheeled carriage which can carrry up to three people--for his second shift of the day. Ahead of him lies another 8 hours in the saddle, pulling people through the sweltering heat, dust and fumes of Dhaka.

“I get up at around 5am every day to pull my rickshaw as it is less tiresome to work during the early hours of the day when it is cooler. I work till 9am and then go for a rest. I start my second spell at around 2pm and work till 10pm,” said Nur Islam

Like hundreds of thousands of men in Dhaka, and millions across Bangladesh, Nur Islam earns his living pedaling the three wheelers. It is one of the country's most visible jobs, supporting millions of families, but its very existence is a source of both pride and anguish for many Bangladeshis.

For some it is a way of providing a livelihood to those who have nothing else, and offers a chance of social mobility. It is also lauded as an environmentally friendly and convenient means of transport in a city where buses and cars belch filthy fumes into the air.

Others scoff at such romanticism. “Behind every rickshaw there is a tragedy, of lost land or of a dowry that needs to be paid. This is as much a sign of our poverty as the beggars. It leads nowhere," said one Dhaka resident.

For Nur Islam there seemed little choice. Landless in his home district of Baghabari, Pabna, he came to Dhaka in search of work. Like thousands of other landless agricultural day laborers reliant on seasonal employment, rickshaw pulling is seen as offering a more stable income.

Relatively young and fit, Nur claims to earn more than 300 taka (US$4.37) a day from his 13 hours of labour, more than the figure given by his colleagues who put their earning at closer to 200 taka ($2.91). Of this between 80 taka ($1.16) to 100 taka ($1.45) has to be paid to rent the rickshaw.

According to Sharifa Begum, co-author of a report on rickshaws for Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, only 20 per cent of pullers own their own vehicles. The vast majority hire from 'mahazan' who normally own small fleets of rickshaws and may also give accommodation to pullers on the floors of their garages.

The exact rent depends on the duration of hire and the condition of the rickshaw. New and well-decorated rickshaws cost more as they are often easier to pull and can command higher fares.

Few rickshaw pullers move up to become owners, partly because of the relatively huge cost of a rickshaw, now around 14,000 taka ($204), but also because of the risks involved in ownership. Few have the margins needed to cope if a rickshaw is stolen or damaged in an accident.

There are no set fares, and the price that can be charged depends largely on the bargaining power of the rickshaw driver. “It's intuition,” Nurislam said. “If a passanger wants to go somewhere I consider the distance, the traffic, the road conditions, and the time it will take.”

“The fare is less during dull hours and more at the beginning and closing hours of offices and schools,” he added.

Officially there are 79,602 registered rickshaws in Dhaka, but in reality the figure is estimated to be between 400,000 and 500,000. There have been attempts to limit their use on some main roads, notably under a World Bank backed scheme. However the scheme has faltered, with opponents saying it favoured a few wealthy car drivers at the cost of the poor.

The numbers on the road is somewhat seasonal, swelling during Ramadan as rural labourers seek cash to celebrate the festival, while during harvest times the numbers fall.

Shamsul Alam, the owner of 35 rental rickshaws, said: “Today 19 of my rickshaws were not hired as the number of rickshaw pullers is less in the city as it is rice (boro) harvesting season and many drivers went back to their villages for work”.

The vehicles themselves are assembled and decorated in Bangladesh, although around 80 per cent of the parts are imported. The rising cost of components has pushed up their price and has hit sales, according to manufacturers.

Are rickshaws a good thing? Dhaka City Corporation seems to have few doubts. “It is such a vehicle, which keeps the environment free from pollution. It can move easily even in a narrow lane. It is an easy, cheap and comfortable transport for every body,” DCC states on its website.

But it is grueling work. While in perfect conditions, the power to move a rickshaw is manageable, the slightest wind or gradient, worn wheels, poor road conditions and constant stopping and starting sharply increase the effort needed. According to research in the early 1990s under such conditions pullers need to work as hard as "Olympic athletes".

“Being as physically fit as these athletes is an absurd proposition for rickshaw pullers who are poor, often malnourished, and living in unhealthy environments. Fatigue and exhaustion therefore, are the natural outcome of hours, days and years of rickshaw pulling,” wrote Sharifa Begumn and Binayak Sen in their BIDS report.

This means that after around 8-10 years of working as a puller incomes tend to decline, at a time when the individual often faces increased demands form a growing family. This is one of the reasons why the BIDS report had the title, “Unsustainable Livelihoods”.

The present economic problems in the country are not helping. “The costs of every product has increased, so passengers prefer to walk instead of hiring a rickshaw for travelling short distances. This means rickshaw pullers' incomes have also shrunk,” said Abdul Barek, a rickshaw puller.

And the increased prices also make it harder for the pullers to make ends meet. Montu Mia, who runs a mess for rickshaw pullers at Kutubkhali, said previously he took 40 taka (58 US cents) for two meals of a driver for a day, but now he takes 60 taka (87 cents).

Yet whatever the views on the trade all agree that if they are to be phased out, or at least limited, alternative livelihoods need to be found to provide for the millions who now rely on the trade.

“Normally a rickshaw is run by two pullers so that two families are dependent on a single rickshaw. Then come the manufacturers, artists, and parts importers and parts manufactures,” said Mahtab Uddin, general secretary of Dhaka City Corporation Rickshaw Owners Society.

Prof Atiur Rahman, who teaches at the Department of Development Studies at Dhaka University, said, “Rickshaw pulling is a symbol of the non-formal economy and when our economy will totally be formal, then rickshaw pulling will also vanish.”

“The government and NGOs can come forward to relocate the rickshaw pullers to other professions after proper training. Rickshaw pulling hardly helps to improve the quality of life,” he said. (By KAWSAR KHAN/ The Daily Star/ ANN)