I chose Rickshaw as my focus of this month’s report as they are integral to any Bangladeshi’s life. Moreover, they are ecofriendly and provides job for almost 4 Million people. I think more people should learn about Rickshaws.

Rickshaw one of the principle means of transport in the urban areas of Bangladesh. With the improvement of road communication throughout the country, rickshaw has now found its way into rural areas as well. As a mode of transport rickshaw was first introduced in Japan in the early twentieth century. This mode of transport became particularly popular there due to the Second World War situation, which made petrol and motorized transport scarce and expensive. Japan, however, had soon replaced rickshaw, nintaku in Japanese, with motorized vehicles and by the 1950s the cycle rickshaw had disappeared from Japan.

Unlike in all Southeast Asian countries, rickshaws in Bangladesh have a lasting foothold. It has established itself with a dominance unmatched by other modes of transport. The predominance of rickshaw as a transport is evidenced by the fact that the percentage-wise traffic composition in Dhaka, Sylhet, Comilla and Rangpur cities are 49%, 78%, 80% and 55% respectively.

Fifty percent of the value added in transport sector is being contributed by rickshaws and the mode of transport provides employment and living to people engaged not only as the pullers directly but also as its manufacturers of its mainframe, the body with seat and hoods and its spare parts. A great number of people depends for the living on the decoration of rickshaw body, artwork on it and rickshaw garages