People from low-income group, including rickshaw pullers and day labourers, in the capital are grappling with a scarcity of work amid the countrywide curfew imposed from midnight past Friday after at least 112 people were killed across the country in July 16–19 in the movement over quota reform in government jobs.
The curfew further compounded their hardship as they had already been struggling to make ends meet caused by the country’s recent economic downturn and escalating living costs.Â
Day labourer Md Nazrul said on Sunday that he did not get any work since Friday and so had no earning.
‘I am having meals two times a day spending my savings. I don’t know what I would do if the situation continues for a few more days,’ said Nazrul, who is mainly a tiles polishing worker.  Â
Day labourers typically gather in floating markets in various parts of the capital to get hired, which they cannot do as long as the curfew remains in effect leaving them without work.Â
Another day labourer Omor Faruk, a tiles load and unload worker in Hatirpool area, said that he earned up to Tk 1,200 a day depending on the work, but he was not hired for the past three days due to the curfew.
‘I barely have any savings. If the situation continues, I have to pick leftover food from streets to survive,’ he said.
Several rickshaw pullers and street vendors said that they made hardly Tk 100–300 in earning a day for the past three days.
Rickshaw puller Md Jamal said that he earned Tk 160 on Saturday whereas he had a fixed cost of Tk 220 a day with Tk 50 as seat rent and Tk 170 as cost of meals at the hostel where he lives.
Mentioning that he could earn a paltry Tk 100 till Saturday night, Jamal said ‘I don’t have anyone of my own in the city. I cannot return to my village in Jamaplur for the curfew, nor can I receive money via nogod [mobile financial service provider] as the service isn’t working for internet blackout.’
Several street vendors, who sell betel leaves, fruits, vegetables, and other perishable items, mentioned that they were going to the streets with their items when the curfew was relaxed for two hours earning only a poor sum of money.
The government said that the curfew would continue until the volatile situation improved and normalcy returned to public life, while stating that defying of the curfew ban would be punished with one year imprisonment or fine or both.Â
Clashes between the quota protesters and law enforcers accompanied by the ruling Awami League activists had been ongoing across the country since July 15, taking the death toll to over 150, including students, day labourers and rickshaw pullers, till Sunday and leaving hundreds others injured, mostly in gunshots.
According to the Labour Force Survey 2022, more than five crore people (84.9 per cent) of the employed population, are engaged in the informal sector, with the highest over one crore working in the Dhaka division.
