Mitali Perkins' book Rickshaw Girl* is a children's novel set in Bangladesh, a small Asian country bordering India and Myanmar. Its main protagonist is Naima, a young girl whose one wish is to provide some financial relief to her poor family. Supporting characters include her parents and sister Rashida as well as best friend Saleem and the owner of the local rickshaw repair shop.
Young Rickshaw Girl Wants to Help Family
Ten-year-old Naima is the most talented artist in her village who is especially good at drawing alpana designs, geometric floral patterns made during celebrations and holidays. She even won a prize the year before for her beautiful artwork.
This year however, instead of re-entering the competition, Naima decides to find a way to somehow help out her family financially. She wishes she could work like her friend Saleem, who drives his father's rickshaw, a bicycle attached to a large seat used to carry passengers.
From this wish springs forth Naima's secret plan to disguise herself as a boy so that she can also drive her father's rickshaw. When Naima's scheme inevitably fails to work, this leads her to realize that she shouldn't really change herself after all just to work outside.
Rickshaw Girl Teaches The Importance of Caring For One's Family
One benefit for youngsters from reading this book is that it imparts a valuable lesson, that of always showing kindness and concern toward one's family. Naima embodies this concern well when she willingly chooses to give up her favorite hobby in order to allow her family's needs to come first.
In her childlike way Naima wishes to help her father take more breaks from work, to buy her mother a new silk sari, and to see her sister indulging in her favorite Bangladeshi sweets called roshogollah. Naima's sense of compassion for her poor family is thus apparent throughout the story. Her character can serve to teach young readers that charity should always begin at home.
Rickshaw Girl Teaches Readers About Bangladeshi Culture
The book's other benefit is that it provides young non-Bengali readers a peek into life in rural Bangladesh. As someone of Bengali descent, Perkins knows how to depict her characters' lives and culture in the most simple matter-of-fact way so that it comes off seeming more ordinary and familiar than just exotic and strange.
In her Author's Note, Perkins explains that she wants readers to discover that Bangladesh is more than just a poor densely populated country occasionally struck by cyclones. Since it is rare to find Bangladeshi characters, from poor backgrounds at that, in modern Western children's literature, Perkins understands that she has to write the best story possible introducing these characters' lives and culture to Western readers.
Perkins includes a helpful glossary of Bangladeshi words used throughout the novel and her book even contains some attractive illustrations of various cultural items referred to throughout such as the rickshaw, alpana designs, sari, lungi, etc.
Rickshaw Girl's Portrayal Of Bangladeshi Gender Roles Is Too Simplistic
One of the book's major flaws is that it doesn't provide a well-rounded picture of actual Bangladeshi gender roles. According to the book, poor Bangladeshi females are not allowed to work outside the home, which is not completely true.
Perkins does not reveal that while most Bangladeshi females are indeed expected to take care of the household, many of them do also work outside the home, including the poor.The majority of jobs taken on by poor Bangladeshi females are low-wage positions performed under exploitative conditions, such as farming and manual labor, factory work, street peddling, and domestic work.
Poor young girls Naima's age are also expected to work low-wage jobs to support their families, since child labor laws are hardly ever enforced in Bangladesh. So Naima could actually work, only it would involve some form of menial labor. Thus, instead of having Naima simply wishing to work, Perkins could have shown her wishing to work in another profession. Rickshaw driving is a predominantly male occupation that could be contrasted within the story's context, to what she would have most likely become, such as a maid.
Rickshaw Girl Touts The Concept Of Microcredit
Through her simple and engaging story, Perkins introduces young readers to the notion of microcredit, extremely small loans given to the poor in order to help them attain self-employment. Microcredit loans were first popularized by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank is famous for giving out such loans to poor rural Bangladeshi women.
In the story, Perkins provides a realistic example of how microcredit loans function. While disguised as a boy, Naima discovers that the local rickshaw repair shop in her village is owned by a woman, who reopened her late father's shop after receiving a microcredit loan.
In her Author's Note Perkins expounds upon the virtues of microcredit; the one major drawback to her effusive praise of it, however, is that Perkins makes it seem as though it is the only workable solution towards combating developing nations' poverty.
It would have been better for her to point out that microcredit loans can only go so far towards reducing a nation's poverty. In her article, "Microcredit,microresults" (Left Business Observer, 1996) Nina Neff points out that what is actually necessary towards eradicating poverty is a politically accountable government that is serious about implementing comprehensive policies addressing job creation, education, training and social welfare. Perkins thus offers only a one-sided view of microcredit, without admitting that the program has its flaws.
Pros And Cons Of Rickshaw Girl
Rickshaw Girl teaches young readers an important lesson about the virtues of caring for one's family. The second benefit for youngsters is that they can learn certain aspects of Bangladeshi culture. The only problems with this book are that it misrepresents the reality of Bangladeshi gender roles and offers a one-sided view with regards to the concept of microcredit.
If parents and teachers are willing to discuss the book's shortcomings with their children, then Rickshaw Girl can provide satisfactory reading to youngsters. This book is suitable for readers aged 7-10. In addition, the book's publisher Charlesbridge has included a handy online Discussion and Activity Guide to go along with it.
*Perkins, M (2008). Rickshaw Girl. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge
Rahela Choudhury - Hello, I have always had a love for writing about various topics of interest. For my undergraduate studies, I attended Hunter College ...
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