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Desperate fight to ward off hunger

Sohel Parvez
Mostofa Kamal stubbed out his cigarette, flung the soiled scarf on his shoulder and trudged out of the tiny hut. His lunch break was over, meaning it was back to sorting out stones and carrying them to the trucks for him, for the next five hours.
But this has not always been his job. Before the opposition alliance embarked on its demonstration programme involving non-stop countrywide shutdowns and blockades, he used to haul exportable goods from the Burimari land port to Changrabandha across the border.
For the past month or so, his income dried up as goods-laden trucks became few and far between.
"Day after day I waited for trucks to come to the port, but none came," said Kamal, whose job as a carrier across the border fetched him around Tk 500 a day, enough for his family of six to get by.
"It was frustrating for me to not be able to put food to my family at theendofthe day."
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so after a month of joblessness, the 26-year-old from Patgram, Lalmonirhat decided to swallow his ego and take up work as a day labourer at a quarry.
"Initially some of my neighbours teased me for working as a labourer - it was embarrassing and painful. But, necessity knows no law."
He now earns Tk 120 a day, meagre but always welcome.
"Things can't get any worse than this. I can't wait for peace to return and normal service to resume along the border, so that I can get back to my old job," said Kamal, whose both parents have taken up day labour to sustain the family in the lean times.
His is not an isolated story. The wave of political turmoil that has swept the nation over the past two
months has forced many to temporarily switch to lesser jobs to fight off hunger.
Like Kamal, Mohammad Nuruzzaman, too, stomached the humiliation in the hands of his neighbours after swapping tractors for rickshaw-vans.
He used to feed his family by carrying goods in his tractor between Saidpurand Nilphamari,
but the non-stop shutdowns and blockades meant that he was virtually cordoned off the means to his livelihood.
"The amount was too scanty to meet the regular needs of my family. Already my dues to the grocer had risen - he kept pressuring me to pay back, which soon turned to abuses. I had to do something."