The rickshaw graveyard

This is some eyesore, or should that be eye-shaw.
For thousands of rickshaws blot the landscape at this unofficial junkyard in a suburb of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
There is an estimated 15,000 here in the Mirpur area, almost all of them human-powered pedal vehicles which are either unsafe after years battling it out for custom on the crazed streets or unwanted.
The traditional rickshaw is facing a growing challenge from battery-powered vehicles that can be easily charged electrically and don't require quite the same superhuman effort from the driver.

These vehicles, mainly made in India, are surging in popularity because they are faster and can carry six or seven people, compared to a traditional buggy's three.
In Dhaka, the number of rickshaws on the street swells to nearly three million ahead of festivals, increasing the chance of accidents and general road chaos.
Nearly half of all crashes involve them. Many who come from out of town have little or no experience driving in such busy conditions.
Many roads in the capital have been declared off-limit to rickshaws to ensure smooth movement of cars but many flout the ban and even enter VIP roads reserved for ministers and government officials.

'Often we are just helpless,' said police officer Saiful Huda. 'We can't allow them to violate rules, but neither can we ignore that they too need an income for survival.'
Mohammad Shapan is a rickshaw who lives in a small town in eastern Bangladesh but has no choice but to head to Dhaka to boost his income and feed his family.
'The last time I came to Dhaka was ahead of the Eid,' the 25-year-old said, referring to the festival that ends the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which fell in August.
'I was happy to see my daily income rose three times. I could buy new clothes for my wife, mother and child for the Eid. It was a happy occasion for the family.'
Rickshaws far outnumber cars on the streets of many Bangladeshi towns, and they are an important source of income for the country's poor, who often have no other options.

'The overwhelming presence of rickshaws on the streets of the capital is a growing concern as law enforcers often find it hard to take them off  the streets,' said Benazir Ahmed, police commissioner of Dhaka.
'They ply, in many cases, without valid permits or are run by untrained drivers, causing accidents.'
The result, say both officials and users alike, is often hair-raising, but the low price makes them unavoidable.
'Every day I go to school to drop and pick up my children using rickshaws, because they are cheap and readily available,' said Munni Haque, a housewife and mother of three.
'But often I travel with my life in the hands of the drivers, who cruise through heavy traffic too fast and not at all caring for safety. This is a daily hazard poor and middle-class people have to endure.'
Still, in a land where poverty grips nearly 40 per cent of Bangladesh's 160 million people, who live on the equivalent of just $1.25 a day, there are often few other options for those who lack land or other jobs.
'We need nothing but muscle to run pedal-powered rickshaws,' a smiling Shapan said, adding that if his earnings rise he hopes to send his son to school and buy his wife a sewing machine so she can augment the family income.

Police and municipal officials say that some rickshaw pullers are as young as twelve, and are working to support their parents -- at the risk of their own lives.
'Poverty is to blame,' said Wahidul Islam, an officer with a private bank. 'Many people living in the villages and urban areas are too poor to feed their families. They have no land, no work and perhaps no option but to seek a living pedaling rickshaws.'

CHECK THIS OUT.

.