Rippling: How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation Throughout the World

Chapter 3

From Servitude to Solution—India

Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, Executive Director of the Centre for Rural Development (CRD), headquartered in Guwahati, India, is a former veterinary surgeon who is helping to elevate the status of thousands of rickshaw pullers by helping them achieve ownership of the rickshaws they pull and gain access to bank loans and insurance guarantees in order to raise themselves and their families out of a cycle of generational poverty.

GIVEN MY NORTH AMERICAN BACKGROUND, I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN uncomfortable using cycle rickshaws as a mode of transportation. Not so much from a safety standpoint or a “the street comes up and hits you in your face” feeling (which it does as you are riding along), but from being overwhelmed ...