In India, human-powered transportation tricycles are known as cycle rickshaws. In Delhi, most cycle-rickshaw pullers are seasonal rural migrants. Pulling also attracts a large number of traditional artisans and craftspeople, who are willing to leave their age-old trades in exchange for an occupation that provides instant income without financial risk. Cycle rickshaws were introduced in Delhi in the 1940’s as a technological advancement to hand-pulled rickshaws. Today, they provide a vital public transportation service, especially for low-income urban groups (a kilometer-long ride costs about 5 Rupees – 2 cents of a dollar). There is a vibrant rickshaw-related informal economy in the city of Delhi that includes contractors (owners), pullers, mechanics and manufacturers of an astonishing variety of cycle rickshaws designed for transportation of people and goods. The vehicles are often eclectic, colorful, ad-hoc assemblages of found parts and pieces. They could be considered customized by circumstances, limited resources and creative know-how: there are no two cycle rickshaws alike. A few years ago, the government of Delhi restricted and/or banned the circulation of cycle rickshaws in several parts of the city. It sanctioned policies that allowed the confiscation and destruction of so-called illegal rickshaws. According to social activist Madhu Kishwar, this led to an escalating web of illegality involving bribes, extortion and blackmail: government inspectors and the local police agreed with rickshaw owners to a system of monthly payments as protection money although, apparently, paying not always guaranteed that the vehicles would not be confiscated.
