Legal aspects of rickshaw pulling in Punjab

Cycle Rickshaw pulling activity is an important occupation of the informal sector, where a million of poor not only serve the transportation needs of the society but also try to meet out their own economic and employment needs. Rickshaws or rickshaws are a mode of human powered transport; a puller draws a two wheeled cart which seats one or two persons. The word Rickshaw comes from Asia where this was used as a means of transportation for the social elite. Now, a day's man pulled rickshaws have been replaced by bicycle rickshaws. The main objective of this paper is to explore the legal aspects of rickshaw pulling and pullers in Punjab. Keeping in view this objective, the research was carried out to find the various laws and bye laws of Municipal Corporation which governs the plying of rickshaws on the city roads of Punjab in general and Patiala city in specific. For this purpose the information from secondary sources and first hand information from Municipal Corporation officials was obtained.