Md Joynal Abedin Khan
The ongoing nationwide strict lockdown is taking a heavy toll on the livelihood of transport workers as their living largely depends on the moving of wheels of vehicles in the absence of a fixed salary.
The worst victims of the nationwide blanket lockdown are drivers, helpers and supervisors, who basically live on hand to mouth and termed the ongoing lockdown as a curse on their livelihood.
The prolonged lockdown also dried up their savings and many are falling into debt loads and fearing the revisit of last year’s hardship which lingered for a long time.
To survive the ongoing hardship caused by the lockdown most of the transport workers are sheltering on the credits from different microcredit organisations, relatives and transport workers’ organisations and even many are forced to sell their land and assets.
Mazinur Rahman, a bus driver, also a lone breadwinner of his five-member family, expressed his disgust at the news of extending lockdown while talking with The Business Post on Sunday.
“I am panicked with the news of the possible extension of the current lockdown as my income reached rock bottom. My income largely depends on the running of the wheels. I am yet to cut my crushing debt load that I took during last year’s lockdown to support my family,” said Mazinur Rahman, who drives a bus on Sayedabad-Gazipur route.
“Bus Owners and Transport Workers Association is providing me Tk 300 a day since April 11 which is not enough to support my family,” lamented Mazinur Rahman.
Sohel Mia, a co-worker of Mazinur Rahman, told this correspondent about his hard times saying “I earned Tk 100 a day over the last 12 days whereas earlier I could earn Tk 1,000 a day.
Amir Hosain, a supervisor of Labbaik Transport, said, “Now I am helpless as I have no money to buy any food. The bus owner is reluctant to provide me with any monetary help as the bus is now off-road. I live off the relief, charity and donation given by different organisations. The lockdown brought curse for me and my family as I am struggling to manage food on the plate.”
Abu Zafar, who drives a bus of Shoukhin Transport runs on the Dhaka-Haluaghat route, said, “I received a sack of 8kg of rice, 2kg of lentil, 2kg of onion, 2kg of potatoes and 1kg of sugar from Khandakar Eneyet Ullah, Secretary General of Dhaka Bus Owners’ Association.”
Osman Ali Khan, General Secretary of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Shramik Federation, drummed up the different initiatives taken in favour of the transport workers during the last year’s public holiday. Although many find no logic of lockdown on the ground he said, “We have distributed Tk 1200 during the shutdown in the last year despite no help from the government. We are providing iftar items and some financial support to the transport workers on a limited scale during the ongoing lockdown.”
The government suspended the operation of mass transport in the face of surging COVID-19 from April 5 and later declared the nationwide strict lockdown from April 14 to April 20.
