MIT's D-Lab to Host Rickshaw Bank Founder

Image credit: Steve Evans

For the next two weeks, MIT’s D-Lab will be hosting Dr Pradip Sarmah, a veterinarian by profession, who has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati to design lighter, larger and more stable rickshaws in India.

Rickshaws are a common means of transportation in Indian cities such as New Delhi and Calcutta. Most rickshaw pullers pay rental fees that make it impossible for them to save enough to buy their own rickshaws. The vehicles are also not covered under insurance, leaving the pullers liable for any damages.

Sarmah has partnered with the Centre for Rural Development to approach insurance companies and banks to create the Rickshaw Bank, providing rickshaw pullers with social security and financing options. 

While Sarmah’s model is not based on charity—the rickshaw pullers pay Rs. 25 (about 50 cents) a day as rent, which allow them to become the owner of the rickshaws over a period of 15-18 months—the Rickshaw Bank is a non-profit.

“One of the purposes of Dr. Sarmah’s visit to MIT is to explore the idea of creating a for-profit business to serve this market because Rickshaw Bank’s growth is now constrained by fundraising because of its non-profit status. As a business, it would be able to access commercial capital and scale to the need, which in India alone is huge as there are thought to be 8 million rickshaws in service,” writes Gwyndaf Jones on the D-Lab blog. 

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from Sarmah’s visit to MIT. Given the lack of organized security for rickshaw pullers in India, the rickshaw bank is a worthwhile project: a sustainable means to scale the endeavour without undercutting its fundamental objectives would be useful.

Additionally, given that Sarmah is looking beyond rickshaw pullers to designing better carts for food and produce vendors as well, the applications of any such model could be far reaching.

I’ve interviewed Sarmah about his work with rickshaw pullers before – you can listen to my podcast interview with him here.