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Box 1: The Bicycle Rickshaw Economy and Challenges for PolicyBicycle rickshaw pulling is one of the main jobs that poor andilliterate people enter when they go to the city in Bangladesh andIndia. In Bangladesh bicycle richskaw driving is the second mosteconomically important occupation for the poor after cropping (perscomm. Bijoy Kumar Barua, Addl. Dir. Gen Bangladesh Academyfor Rural Development). In New Delhi, the Indian capital, therewere some 73,000 licensed and 300,000 unlicensed richskawsin 2001. Partially in response to civil-society group pressure, thegovernment of India repealed the Cycle Rickshaw Bye-laws, andthus control over registration and regulation of rickshaws in 2001in order to make it a more pro-poor environment. The impoundingof rickshaws by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) andby the Delhi police ended, barring a few “No Rickshaw Zones.”However, this led to an explosion in the number of richskawsto more than 700,000 in just one year, and the emergence of socalledrickshaw lords – people who own about 10,000 rickshawseach, charging a rent of Rs. 50 to 60 per twelve hours. What thegovernment discovered was that rent seeking by officials wasreplaced by rent seeking by these richskaw lords. In case a rickshawdriver was unable to pay the rent, he faced the threat of beingbeaten up by the owner and having his belongings confiscated.The change in legislation was then reversed because of theseproblems and also because intelligence reports had suggested thatmany richskaw pullers were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.5.2 Hostile Urban PoliciesLinked to the overregulation of the informal sector are urban developmentpolicies that are hostile to the interests of the poor. An important exampleis the Delhi Master Plan, which aims to keep migrants out. Added to itis the floating population which travels to the city every day from theNational Capital Region (NCR). 9 An estimated 500,000 migrants enterDelhi every year and they are viewed as a burden on the city: In an effortto ease this pressure, the Delhi government was speeding up plans forthe development of townships in the National Capital Regions to divertthe flow of population and reduce the congestion in the capital. 10 Anotherexample is the “Mee Mumbaikar” campaign launched by the Shiva Sena1699http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/pgemail.pl?date=2001/10/04/&10http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/pgemail.pl?date=2000/12/21/&