In pursuit of Good Words, Good Thoughts, Good Deeds

In pursuit of Good thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.

At four score & five, my desire to play Golf remains unabated. It is rightly said, golf is not just a game, it is a philosophy, another interesting four-letter word. I can write a thesis on this but the purport of this article is not Golf.

In the course of my regular commuting to and from the Golf Club, the route from my residence in SoBo to the Golf Club takes me from Chowpathy, past Opera House, the Reliance Hospital, the Gol Temple and straight from under the JJ Flyover, to Dongri, Wadi Bunder and on to the Eastern Freeway on P DeMello Road. I do this back & forth at least twice a week. In the early hours of the morning, driving through this area is a breeze but the return trip is harrowing and painfully slow. This is owing to the heavy vehicular & pedestrian traffic along this route. This, however gives me ample opportunity to watch and observe the activity taking place in one of the most congested business districts of our city.

I encounter hordes of hand-carts being pushed and/or pulled by our hard-working labour force. Sadly, akin to Sunaura Taylor’s “Beasts of Burden”. Ironically, this mode of transportation is suitable & essential in these areas where neither a 3-wheeler nor a 4-wheeler will serve the purpose. This is primarily owing to the accessibility of these hand-carts in the congested narrow lanes of these business districts for the transportation of heavy goods. I understand that there are a large number of store-houses in this area which are not accessible to the trucks which bring in the goods from outstation. Hence the necessity of this mode of transportation for movement of these goods over short distances.

I am certain that there will be many such areas in our city, dependent on this economic but also essential mode of transportation of goods for short distances.

I have attached a few photographs for visual appreciation.

This slow-moving traffic gave me ample opportunity to interact with these hand-cart operators and what I learnt was amazing.

By practice, very few operators own these carts, most of them take them on hire @ Rs 100/ per day, from individuals who own a fleet of them. The Operator thereafter, approaches the potential clients to move their material from one place to another. The rate for the loading, transportation & unloading at the destination varies from Re 1/ to Rs2/ per Kg, depending on the distance from pick-up to Delivery. Each hand cart is capable of transporting up to about two tons. Depending upon the load, the Operator hires, on an as-required basis, additional man-power to assist him in the task, at a fixed rate of anything from Rs 300/ to Rs 500/ per trip, which he has to share from his earnings. I also interacted with the owners of these handcarts who have invested amounts upto Rs 30,000/ in each of these carts. The carts are taken on hire in the morning and returned in the evening. Incidentally, this loading & unloading continues by night as well.

It was thus that HUMATHA (Good Thoughts) came into play and I wondered if there was some way of easing this burden by retrofitting an inexpensive battery-operated motor, just enough to give traction to the wheels. The hand-cart operator would then just have to steer/guide it and not push/pull the cart. This led me to Hukhta (Good Words) and taking advantage of my earlier association with M&M, I wrote to Mr Anand Mahindra. His reaction was spontaneously positive and the following is what he said on his Twitter Handle:

A retired colleague, Commodore Mike Bhada, sent me a thoughtful suggestion after seeing these hardworking hand cart operators while on his daily commute through central Mumbai:

“I was wondering if there was some way of easing their burden by retrofitting an inexpensive battery-operated motor, just enough to give traction to the wheels. The hand-cart operator would then just have to steer/guide it and not push/pull the cart. I fully appreciate the ramification of this exercise from the technical as well as the operational as well as the institutional aspects but imagine the relief we will render to this segment of our labour force”

It is ironic that even as we send crafts to the moon & develop sophisticated EVs for our expressways, that these manual carts are still necessary to negotiate the narrow alleys & by-lanes of our teeming cities.

Mike, compliments on your empathy. I suspect that motorising these would not be a commercial initiative, but if students at our technical institutes could develop a compact and inexpensive device to make the lives of these workers easier, then corporates could disseminate these through SR.

Any other ideas?

The last call, “Any other ideas”, generated considerable interest amongst his Twitter followers but most, if not all, suggested replacing the handcart with either a 3-wheeler or a 4-wheeler.

I, once again, reiterate that the aim of this exercise is only to reduce the strain on the human element involved in this mode of transportation and NOT to replace him by a machine, which the user can ill-afford. Further, it is imperative that the size & shape of the hand-cart remains the same, including the length & breadth of the surface area. This is because it must be easily manoeuvrable in the narrow, congested lanes where these carts are required to operate. It must be capable of transporting material as hitherto.

I have approached a large number of Engineering organisation & technical Institutes, requesting them to take this on as a project and produce a protype but with no success. I have had protracted deliberations with the Director, IIT-B, who was kind to spare his time to hear me out. Initially he was quite enthused with the humanitarian idea but later, had to regret his inability to take it any further.

I guess, use of our desi technology of “Juggad” is the only answer. And yes, the other associated issues of availability to the user and related technical/institutional aspects concerning the modified motorised hand-cart will need to be addressed & resolved. But that will be subsequent to the design, production & trials of the affordable, mechanised proto type hand-cart.

Any comments/ideas to culminate these Good Thoughts & Good Words into Good Deeds will be highly appreciated.

Commodore Medioma Bhada mrbhada@gmail.com