In the concrete and dusty city of the capital city of Dhaka, at the crossroads or on both sides of the road, you will see hundreds or thousands of people of different ages selling tea, biscuits, bread, bean, cigarettes, cucumbers, carrots, Amra, guavas, pineapples, papaya, etc. And most of the people in these shops are either lower-middle class, working class, or poor class.
In this episode, there is a story of the footpath business life of the capital Dhaka.
Walking from Dhaka Bijay Sarani (Tezgaon) to Farmgate, I saw several stalls. I was talking with Saikat, a student of honors 1st year, who sells tea besides studying. Along with tea, there are cakes, bananas, biscuits, chips, and bread, where tea is 6 per cup only. However, the average daily sales are 3 thousand takas. Saikat and his brother are supporting the family by running a small business together.
Shahjahan Ali lives in a rented house in Kawran Bazar, he came from Jamalpur, and now he spends the whole day traveling from place to place with his food van. He buys lemon, amlaki, Amra, and papaya from the Kawran market in Dhaka. Selling it all day long. I wanted to know what such a business life is like in this city, he said that it is normal to feel bad but it is inevitable, you have to work and eat, so the battle to survive in life is constantly going on like this.
While walking in front of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, I met a fuchka seller called Hriday, before talking to him, I asked a customer, how is the fuchka, and the buyer Mehdi Hasan replied, "Great, here you can find fuchka at a very low price, Tk 25 only per plate.
Fuuka seller Hriday came from Companyganj, Comilla, and has been doing this business in Dhaka for 10 years. He can sell about 1000 to 1500 taka daily which is about 400/500 taka per day earning. In this kind of business, there is no need to face any irony, and no need to pay any subscription to any political party members, which is very common in Bangladesh.
I couldn’t share an interesting incident here, during the interview of Fuchka seller Hriday, the buyer Mehdi Hasan asked, why am I doing this, am I working here? I told him about the local guide program on google. I explain to him about Local Guide Connect in detail and showed him the various things I have written, He was very happy to learn that and got excited. Explain the importance of volunteer work in our society and how mapping is doing a great part in developing local experiences.
Sadu Mia, a seller of almond and chickpea boots from Bhairab in Dhaka, with whom her lively smile appears when asked to speak and take pictures. Who sells nuts daily from Vijay Swarani to Farmgate for 3 years, earning Rs 250-500 per day. It is difficult to bear the family expenses including the education of his son and daughter with this income, but luckily he gets some help from other sources.
Thousands of people like Saikat, Shahjahan, Hridoy, and Sadu Mia struggle in this city in search of life and livelihood. In various big cities of the country including Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, many floating people can be seen on footpaths, bus terminals, launch terminals, or railway stations to do business and sleep. Forced to spend their lives on the streets for the need for livelihood or any other reason. In this concrete city, the footpath is the last destination for lots of people among the high-rise buildings.
