Rickshaw-Pulling as a Possible Pathway out of Poverty: An Analysis of Landless Households' Livelihood Strategies in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Rickshaw-pulling is one of the prevalent occupations for poor males in Bangladesh and it has been regarded as an “unsustainable livelihood.” Seeking an alternative to the mainstream understanding, this article attempts to interpret rickshaw-pulling as an important phase of getting out of poverty. The study draws on an observation of landless poor households who participated in a poultry-rearing program implemented by a Bangladesh NGO, Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD). Data were collected in a village in north-western Bangladesh, which I will refer to as “P village”, from October 2003 through April 2004.

The participant households in P village fell into two categories in terms of their main income source before participation in the poultry program. They are those who had an occupation bringing a comparatively regular income throughout a year, such as rickshaw or rickshaw-van owner-driver, sawmill worker and rice mill worker, and those who relied on day labour characterized by fluctuating job availability and irregular income from season to season. The families belonging to the first category overcame food shortages with a regular income and could use the poultry income for other investment purposes from the beginning. In contrast, those with irregular income had to, first of all, use the additional income from poultry for food consumption. Furthermore, while the rearers with a year-round main income source endured fluctuations in poultry income, those with a seasonally fluctuating main income source were more vulnerable to a loss in poultry rearing.

When a new economic opportunity is given, it turns out that occupational change from a day labourer to a rickshaw owner-driver is an advance in livelihood. Microcredit programs of NGOs opened up an opportunity for landless labourers to become a rickshaw owner-driver on credit. It is, however, impossible for a family with only one male income earner to find another regular income source, even with a loan. What is important is to create a second regular income-generating opportunity during the advance achieved through the first opportunity. A good example of necessary intervention is IIRD's poultry program which allows uneducated women to earn a regular income in addition to existing incomes earned by male breadwinners.