Shaheen Mollah

One thing from the lockdown last year still etched raw in the collective memory of the city is hordes of starving people coming out onto the streets.

The scenes were straight out of a Dickensian nightmare -- hungry people standing beneath the tall unyielding buildings of the city, imploring food, hungry people stampeding each other while running after relief trucks that held far too less rice for far too many people. Those who could not bring themselves to beg on the streets, went to bed hungry night after night.

Now, the government’s announcement of imposing social restrictions beginning tomorrow sends a strong message to the general public -- the situation is going from bad to worse and it is time to go back inside. This time last year, the Covid-19 positivity rate was 2 percent, yesterday it was 23.1 percent.

It is those people who are once again looking at the skyrocketing positivity rates with a dread that is far removed from dying of Covid-19. They are more worried about surviving.

Mohammed Alam, a rickshaw puller from the capital’s Abuler Bosti slum has been a resident of the city for the past 23 years, but he never experienced a year like the one which has gone by. Now he faces the weeks ahead of him with the fear of starvation. Alam lives with his nine-year-old daughter and elderly mother.

“I had to take loans of Tk 25,000 last year just to survive. Things were so bad that I was eating rice and dried chili, which gave me ulcer. Even potatoes were too expensive. Now, we are finally able to afford potatoes and onions.

“If people go back inside, which one do we cut back on? How much less can we eat than what we are eating right now?” asked Alam.

Rubina Begum is a domestic helper employed at two houses in Benarasi Polli, gigs that she only going towards the end of the last year after the pandemic restrictions eased. Now with the restrictions coming down hard again, she is fearing unemployment.

“I used to work six days a week at a house, but just this week my employers told me to come only two days a week from now on. I am afraid I will get fired soon,” said Rubina. She has her orphaned nephew and niece depending on her.