PHOTO: STAR/FILE

MD ASADUZ ZAMAN

In the village of Kuralia, under Sirajganj Sadar upazila, about 125 kilometres northwest of Dhaka, Moklesur Rahman once earned a living as a handloom weaver.

With the advent of power looms, the age-old traditional handlooms that sustained his family for generations began to lose out.

Left with few options, he gave up weaving and turned to driving a battery-run rickshaw van for hire to provide for his seven-member family. Four of his five children now attend school, from grades one through ten, keeping alive dreams his parents could not fulfil.

“I don’t want them to live the way I do,” says the 43-year-old artisan, who never made it past secondary school.

“I had to stop dreaming early,” he adds softly, “but I want them to keep dreaming.”

While Moklesur’s story is one of persistence, others, like that of Al Mahmud, reveal how struggling families can be pushed into the depths of poverty by a single health crisis.

Mahmud, a carpenter from Sirajganj, is currently receiving treatment at Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital for a diabetic foot ulcer.

“I have already spent nearly Tk 50,000 on surgery and medical tests. Of that, I had to borrow Tk 40,000 from my relatives,” he said.

“Although I didn’t need to undergo surgery, I had to visit Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College, a private hospital about 31 kilometres away, several times for lab tests. Each test costs nearly Tk 5,000,” he told The Daily Star.

“Now I’m going through a hard time. I don’t know how I will manage in the future,” said Mahmud, a father of three.

Mahmud’s ordeal reflects a grim reality for millions.

Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure accounts for nearly 73 percent of Bangladesh’s total healthcare spending—the highest in South Asia. Such costs often drive low-income families into debt, forcing them to sell assets or borrow money to pay for medical treatment.

Like Moklesur and Mahmud, thousands of families across the country continue to bear the dual burden of intergenerational poverty and rising OOP expenses, often aggravated by institutional neglect and limited access to affordable healthcare.

Amid these struggles, Bangladesh today observes the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, under the theme “Ending Social and Institutional Maltreatment: Ensuring Respect and Effective Support for Families Living in Poverty.”

The observance comes at a time when poverty, which had been declining for decades, is showing signs of resurgence amid persistently high inflation, low job growth, and limited social protection coverage.