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Name written by-Vinoo Kaley
 
Title Pedalling Uphill:An Innovation on the Roadside
 
Details Burden of pedalling uphill Anyone can see that pedalling/pulling a loaded rickshaw is an exhausting task; especially on an uphill tract. When the power that the pedals can transmit falls short of the critical level, the rider has to get off and physically pull the rolling load, at an exceptionally high drain-rate of energy. Being always on the move and earning very little, the rickshaw puller gets his nourishment during working hours from frequent cups of tea and an occasional snack at road-side eateries. This ration is woefully inadequate. At the end of the day the rider is usually so fagged out that he can hardly resist a quick nip of hard liquor before going home for a meal. The combination of heavy exhaustion, poor nourishment and hard liquor on an empty stomach is detrimental to his health. Rickshaw drivers show a very high incidence of tuberculosis, asthma and other ailments, as found in a study conducted by the Regional Engineering College (VREC) of Nagpur. In Nagpur they say, “A rickshaw-wala remains young till he dies”. That’s not surprising; “They die so young!” Public Transport for the Poor by the Poor A pedal driven rickshaw is a public transport for the poor, by the poor (It is a different matter that while in India, it does not have a bright future, it has been re-established in Oxford university by young women enterpreneurs. :Ed). The number of persons who ‘man’ (a male preserve so far) this crucial service in our country can safely be placed above a couple of millions. Three-wheeler rickshaws are equally common not only in the Indian sub-continent but also in most countries of southeast Asia. There is very appreciable and legitimate concern among the enlightened citizenry of these countries about the hard life of rickshaw pullers. Some would like to ban this mode of transport altogether, making room for the auto-rickshaw. Appropriate technology found inappropriate It is not as if the matter has not received any attention from formal researchers. The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) of UK, has for long been canvassing a gear box design. Their Indian collaborator, Appropriate Technology Development Agency (ATDA) of Lucknow made these gear boxes readily available to buyers and seemed singularly well-poised for a roaring take-off, with the local Lucknow rickshaw pedallers’ population exceeding 50,000! Despite the assumed technical advantage of the variable gear system, the ATDA was able to sell very few pieces and even fewer got actually fitted to rickshaws. All of these have since been taken off by the pedallers because of unending maintenance problems and resultant down-time. A local innovator, Jabbarbhai has devised a very user-friendly system of gears. Jabbar Gear When Jabbarbhai was about 35 years old, he too suffered the strain of rickshaw pulling and was forced to stay away from work for a few months. This period provided him the opportunity to reflect upon the source of his problem. Before he took to rickshaw driving he had been a truck driver, and his experience behind the steering wheel had taught him the advantages of the variable gear system. He felt sure that adapting this system would enable even his weakened body to cope with his rickshaw. He decided to set up a small service point for bicycles and rickshaws, where he also usefully engaged his two school drop-out sons. During his spare time he experimented on his idea of fitting a gear system on the rickshaw. The income from the service centre was certainly not enough, nor was there enough work, but all that hardly mattered. The lack of work actually helped him spend hours at scrap shops (chor bazaar) looking and bargaining for odds and ends. Jabbarbhai’s contribution The high point of Jabbarbhai’s innovation and his truly original contribution to the world of gears is his radically different gear changer. The gear can be changed, at the flick of a thread, by the pawl getting engaged to the moving ratchet. (This is possible only under pedalling condition). To return to first gear, the rider has to stop pedalling and move the pedal in the reverse direction slightly. Jabbar’s system consists of a series of drives, each complete with sprocket, link chain and free-wheel. Except for the first gear’s free wheel, all others normally stand disengaged. Jabbarbhai has achieved this by removing the spring under the pawl and replacing it with a ‘fish’ in all these other free-wheels. The ‘fish’ right under the sleeping pawl can activate the pawl whenever desired, engaging the corresponding gear. This fish gets activated, by a tug on the other end of the ‘fish’, that is, its tail on the outer side of the free-wheel. This is effected by a slight tug at the cord near the handle which pulls a wooden strip which in turn comes in the way of the rotating tail of the fish. Support for scaling up and extension Starting with a two gear rickshaw, Jabbarbhai now rides a four gear one with a differential drive and foot operated axle brake. He is also taking keen interest in extending the benefits of his innovation to other rickshaw pullers of Nagpur with the help of some friends belonging to the Centre of Science for Villages at Wardha, and a project grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Delhi. Jabbarbhai wants to continue his work both on the research and extension fronts - but does not want to give up his original occupation of rickshaw-pedalling! We wish him luck in his endeavours! (A question that remains uncovered though is, “Why is it that students and scholars in elite engineering institutions do not address such problems that affect the disadvantaged workers in our society? Perhaps the young technical minds haven’t been challenged enough. Any exceptions?: Ed)
 
Volume No. Honey Bee, 7(2):5-6, 1996