Education | Rural | auto rickshaw
Autorickshaw rally for rural education
You may like or you may hate it. But if you are a resident of India, you can’t ignore the inevitable auto rickshaws. If you ever wonder how it would be to ride auto rickshaws, better still race on it, now you can test it out at the Rickshaw Challenge’s Mumbai Xpress.
The third edition of Mumbai Xpress starts in Chennai on July 31 and traces its route all the way to Mumbai over the next fourteen days. The event is organized in partnership with Round Table India and the finance generated will be used for Freedom Through Education program under whose banner schools are being be built to enable education for about one million students.
A recent entry in the blog quotes…
“The funds raised will be used towards 10 projects along the rally route and will benefit over 20,000 students,” said Aravind Bremanandam, managing director of Chennai Event Management Services, the lead organiser of the event.”
Rickshaw Challenge’s weblink provides further information the kind of interaction the participant would have with the schools that stand to benefit from this race. If you want to be part of it, register here.
7 Comments on “Autorickshaw rally for rural education”
I think its a really cool idea. Autorikshaws are commonly used for public education and advertising (and not to mention for political campaigning). Using them as a platform for bringing resources and attention to a pressing issue seems very neat.
I uphold the cause, but not the means! The grave matter of climate change aside, in most parts of India, auto rickshaws are responsible for a great deal of air pollution (indicated by high SPM & RPM counts), leading to an alarming increase in breathing-related illnesses (gripping over 30% of Bangalore’s kids) and even lung cancer [http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090109/jsp/frontpage/story_10365206.jsp]. Calcutta tops the list; here’s their doctors’ verdict: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_/Act_today_to_curb_pollution_say_docs/articleshow/3995843.cms. As always, the poor are the worst affected in all this.
It would have made much more sense to do such a drive on bicycles (like the one from Mumbai to Delhi here – http://theroadtodelhi.wordpress.com/). Why do one good thing by damaging another?
PS: I know there are people doing car racing and similar stuff only for fun, and this is undeniably better; but car racing is too low a benchmark, and we have to aim much higher [e.g., the cycle rally in B'lore for AIDS awareness, the walk from Bhopal to Delhi seeking justice for the gas-affected].
I uphold the cause, but not the means! The grave matter of climate change aside, in most parts of India, auto rickshaws are responsible for a great deal of air pollution (indicated by high SPM & RPM counts), leading to an alarming increase in breathing-related illnesses (gripping over 30% of Bangalore’s kids) and even lung cancer [ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090109/jsp/frontpage/story_10365206.jsp ]. Calcutta tops the list; here’s their doctors’ verdict: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_/Act_today_to_curb_pollution_say_docs/articleshow/3995843.cms. As always, the poor are the worst affected in all this.
It would have made much more sense to do such a drive on bicycles (like the one from Mumbai to Delhi here – http://theroadtodelhi.wordpress.com/). Why do one good thing by damaging another?
PS: I know there are people doing car racing and similar stuff only for fun, and this is undeniably better; but car racing is too low a benchmark, and we have to aim much higher [e.g., the cycle rally in B'lore for AIDS awareness, the walk from Bhopal to Delhi seeking justice for the gas-affected].
Pulkit:
Valuable points! Completely agree that the rally would make more sense if its in bicycles or a similar eco-friendly alternative. Seems like the rally attracts a lot of tourists from abroad who are drawn to the ‘coolness’ of authorikshaws (which explains rather expensive fee). I didn’t see it being mentioned anywhere – But I hope they are using LPG autorikshaws (which are known to quieter and very eco friendly)
Pulkit,
! Let us hope SE catches up in time!
Very true and thanks for those links! The whole gamut of social innovation is still finding its feet in India partly since social entrepreneurship is in its nascent stage too. But I suppose the next step would be to “help without hurting elsewhere”. I many ways, I should say you are thinking ahead of time
The site (proudly) mentions “2 stroke” autos!
Surely, LPG-run vehicles emit less, but the pollution is still not non-existent. Besides, what we have observed in B’lore is that one of the prime causes for autos polluting as much as they do (I am talking about visible pollution here; Cars, I think, beat them in invisible emissions, including Carbon & Sulphur Dioxide) is adulterated fuel/excessive oil, even though they are LPG-run. So, boarding a CNG/LPG auto is still considerably more damaging than CBW – Cycle+Bus+Walk
.