Giant Gerbil Wheel?

A human powered ferris wheel? Who'd have thunk it? These guys would run/climb/hop from the internal struts, making the wheel go round. Then stop when they got tired and unload everyone.

There were a few problems with this method. For one thing, the operators had little control over the wheel balance. Basically, fat families all seemed to went to get on together, while the other chairs around the wheel were filled with toddlers. This made the wheel unbalanced, which gave the two "running it" a hard time getting started. While I'm sure they were both strong, combined I'd be surprised if they were more than 300 pounds. Once momentum was on their side, however, they were fine.

Also, stopping was a little tough, it seemed. They slowed down the pace of the awkward run/climb/hop they they had going, until finally a guy at the bottom attached what looked like bungee cords with hooks onto the frame, rocking it to a halt. They then went one at a time unloading the old and loading the new customers.

Anyways, this is another elegant Indian solution in an environment where machinery is expensive, electricity is spotty, but people are cheap.