Happy to see a number of voluntary agencies have come up to accept and redistribute the cycles given as donation to mainly students and small vendors, household help, security personnel around the country. Happy to see the list of NGOs in http://www.donateinkind.in/bicycle-donation
Under the "Whom can you Contact section," in Delhi NCR and Mumbai for instance features the following information:
Delhi-NCR Mumbai
Raahat Foundation
Donate your unused cycles which will be distributed among students in villagers who have to travel miles together to reach their school for basic education. Hand over at their Collection Centres and if that is not possible call them on phone.
Gurgaon (Delhi-NCR): 98106 05721, Mumbai: 97697 58666
In Chennai the following information is given:
Chennai
Aid India
Donate old bicycles which will be refurbished and handed over to students in the tribal hamlets of Jawadi Hills, Tiruvannamalai District to get to school. 'Just Buy Cycle' outlets in Chennai refurbish them and even give a discount to donors wanting to buy new cycles.
No 45, Pycrofts Road, First Street, Royapettah, Chennai 600014
Thothadri Srinivasan
044-2860 2308
In Coimbatore:
Donation of Bicycles
People in Coimbatore who want to donate used bicycles need to send address and a photo of the bicycle by whatsapp to the number below. The bicycles are picked up and taken to Cycle Zone near Hope College where servicing is done. Thereafter the same are handed over to underprivileged children in areas like Karumbukadai, Eri Medu, Rangapuram and Variety Hall Road.
Prabhu K.
0422- 663 9911, Whatsapp: 72009 11911
Individually also people have taken initiatives. Like for instance, Thanraj Radhe, a well known tribal activist has gathered together some cycles and has donated it to tribal school going/ tuition going children in the Western Ghats region of Tamil Nadu.
The idea of donating a cycle is very noble and it takes a few minutes of introspection to get over the emotional angle that might have prevented you from donating. "My son had used it for six years, now that he is studying abroad, we want to preserve it for him!" or "such an expensive cycle, we don't have the heart to give it away" or "I want to give but I don't know whom to give". It is simple, ask around in the society of yours or the housing colony and you vet the requests yourself and give away your cycle after of course repairing it at your cost. That's only fair.! If you are a bit more organised you could ask the Resident Welfare Association to put up a notice to collect the cycles on any designated Sunday and shortlist the beneficiaries with the help of RWA and distribute. Or even better mail to us cycletofuture@gmail.com
This morning I took a round of our housing colony which has merely 400 houses I counted as many as 70 cycles rusting neglected in the basements. A few were in active use. The cycles that were being used were usually stored in the landings. I am not including the rooftop trashing or in house storage. Almost 500 to 600 cycle are lying rotting in our neighborhood and extrapolate to the country you will get millions. The tragedy is that equally millions walk miles to their workplace because they can't afford a bicycle.
Of course during the unplanned lockdown last year 2020, one saw millions trying to go back home walking thousands of kilometers and a few thousand were also using bicycles to go back. Many would have preferred bicycles but these just were not available for their use.
Another website https://cyclingindia.org/index.php/donation/ also has interesting leads as to how one can donate their cycle. The advice here:
Donate a Single Bicycle
For small donations, you should drop into your local Cycling India Workshop where a mechanic will be happy to see you. Donations can be made during normal workshop opening hours; details of which can be found in the contact pages.
Bulk Bicycle Donations
For larger quantities of donated bikes (10+), it is generally possible to arrange for collection. This is typically best suited for universities, colleges, local authorities or similar organisations. To arrange a collection, please get in touch with your local Cycling India workshop.
The website is also appealing to the housing societies to participate in cycle donation. Cycling India describes itself as a New Delhi based non-governmental organization working for environmental protection. We believe that cycling can reduce global warming, while the body remains fit and healthy. Riding a bicycle provides a fairly fast and dependable mode of transportation and it doesn’t require any fossil fuel.
Good will India https://goodwillindia.org.in/cycle-donation.php is another website that seem to be working towards cycle donation with some headway. The website has some details of the donations received and redistributed among needy.
The Better India a news blog site has a story https://www.thebetterindia.com/52724/cycle-recycle-project-springfields-society-sunandan-lele-pune/ relating to how one of the housing societies in Pune got their residents to donate their cycles for reuse.
At our website please visit our cycletofuture Home page section for donating your cycle. You don't have to contact us but do your donation yourself. You can send your donation pictures which we would be glad to use in our website to acknowledge your charity.