Most of the village agriculture workers who come to Dhaka in search of jobs have increasingly gone into this informal sector on a temporary basis.
Only the Dhaka City Corporations (DCC) are entitled to issue license for rickshaws in the capital city, but the issuing of new rickshaw licences were stopped in the late 80's.
But everyday new rickshaws roll out on Dhaka's roads without a valid licence.
Despite a ban on plying of rickshaws on Dhaka's key roads, rickshaws have been roaming freely on them in recent years.
Even rickshaws ply on these roads during the rush hours, jamming the wide roads ever so badly.
In replying to a query on rickshaw ban on key roads, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) traffic control room said they had neither lifted nor relaxed the ban on rickshaw movement on VIP roads.
According to Manjur Hossain, a member of Dhaka Rickshaw and Van Owners' Federation, there are currently around 6000 rickshaw garages and about 225,000 rickshaws in Dhaka.
And around 800,000 men are engaged in this profession. Most of the rickshaws in Dhaka have number plates issued by two organisations----Dhaka Rickshaw and Van Owners' Federation and ‘Muktijoddha Samannay Parishad’.
But the numbers on the plates do not indicate any licence number; they rather represent membership number of the respective organisations.
The only advantage of having this number plate is that the unfortunate rickshaw puller of a stolen rickshaw could get back his rickshaw for some money through mediation of some organisation.
Photo: asif mahmud ove/ bdnews24.com