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Bad days for the poor

Working class feels the pinch of blockade

Helemul Alam and Jamil Mahmud
Street violence during the last 71-hour blockade could not prevent the working classes from coming out of their homes on account of necessity. They had a choice between staying at home in fear and starving or going out to earn their living. They chose the latter.
Many bus and CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers, labourers and passersby fell victim to arson attacks, vandalism and explosions by pro-blockade activists but that hardly
lessened the desperation of the working class people.
Talking to The Daily Star, day labourers, commuter bus drivers and conductors said they knew they might become victims of the mindless violence anytime but they had to risk their lives to feed themselves and their families.
"Everybody has a fear of losing life; so do 1.1 don't want to drive in such a situation but there is no alternative," said Rafiqul Islam, 35, driver of a commuter bus on the Gabtali-
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Gulistan route in Dhaka.
He said he had an eight-member family to look after, and that sitting idle at home would not bring them food.
His income during the blockade was half of what he earns on a regular day but the bus owner did not decrease the daily charge on the basis that he could apparently make more trips on the empty road, Rafiqul said.
Conductor Mohammad Khairul said he had to join work yesterday as he had spent all his money sitting idle on the previous two days of the blockade.
His employer had given him Tk 400 on the first two days of the week before the blockade began, which he had already spent.
"Now I have to earn money, whatever the situation is," he said.
For day labourers, the situation is worse since there are fewer jobs for them amid the political tension.
Rashed Hawlader, a day labourer, did not earn a penny all week.
"My nose is bleeding for the last 15 days but I could not see a doctor as I don't have money," he said.
Rashed, a resident of Samad Nagar of Matuail, has been facing serious difficulties in running his three-mernber family for the
last three months as his income dropped significantly during this time.
He earned Tk 1,500 in September, less than Tk 1,000 in October, and only Tk 500 in November, whereas his usual income ranges between Tk 7,000 and Tk 8,000 during this time of the year.
Rashed's house owner has threatened to seize his furniture if he fails to pay the last two months' house rent by December 1
"My wife and I ate only a bread of Tk 10 on Wednesday and we are going to be habituated to this," Rashed said, adding his one-year-old daughter was also suffering from malnutrition due to lack of food for her mother.
The sufferings of other day labourers are similar to those of Rashed.
Nazma Begum, another day labourer of Shanir Akhra in the capital, said she was the sole bread winner of her three-member family as her husband had been suffering from kidney related ailment for the last two years.
"I have had no work for the last 15 days. Every day I come near Shanir Akhra bus stoppage along with others, hoping to get work," said Nazma, adding her husband had not received any treatment for the last two months.