The study explores the impacts on cycle rickshaw communities amidst a push towards green energy transition through a literature review and interviews with cycle rickshaw pullers and experts. Interviews with cycle rickshaw pullers in Chandni Chowk and Lajpat Nagar showed that most of the communities involved in the cycle rickshaw are primarily migrants who have vanished or adopted the E-ricks.
Furthermore, it was revealed that the emission level of cycle rickshaws is far lower than that of E-ricks. It was recently reported that Chandni Chowk has the lowest Air Quality Index for reasons connected to traffic regulations and zoning protection for cycle rickshaw operators.
Delhi’s regulatory ambiguity, such as the Delhi Cycle Rickshaw Bye-Laws of 1960 that capped the number of rickshaws plying in Delhi, further accentuated the precarity of the cycle rickshaws and the operators. At the same time, the councillor of the Lajpat Nagar MCD area considers them “unauthorised” and a nuisance to congestion during the peak seasons. It was found through interviews that the zoning protection helps cycle rickshawallas from the ever-burgeoning E-ricks. Respondents in Lajpat Nagar said that the restriction on E-ricks has helped them to continue working in the sector. The preliminary findings were presented at the IIHS' Annual Research Conference in January 2025.