Home ›› 20 Apr 2021 ›› World Biz
Woes of slum dwellers increased amid nationwide ‘strict’ lockdown as food, money, work and other necessities become scarce among them.
Rahima Begum, who lives in Jhilpar slum in Mirpur, used to work as domestic help. She lost her job due to the pandemic.
“People are not willing to let us work at their homes anymore because of the fear of Covid-19 infection. That’s why now I’m facing hardship,” said Rahima.
Many other women like Rahima are also struggling in their day-to-day life amid the ongoing lockdown.
Daily wage earners of slum areas, including day-labourers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers and other low-income professionals, are also having trouble with the restrictions in effect during the lockdown.
Anamul Haque, a slum dweller, told The Business Post that he recently lost his job at a private organisation as a result of the lockdown.
Another slum dweller Abdul Awal is planning to go to his village along with his family, as he is unable to meet everyone’s basic needs.
A large number of slum dwellers told The Business Post that it was just too difficult to stay home without food just to follow government-directed health regulations and lockdown restrictions.
Rickshaw pullers who live in slums are also going through an economic crisis as they cannot go outside for work during the lockdown, which has been going on for about two weeks now, with tougher restrictions from April 14.
Towfiqul Islam, 35, a resident at Dhaka's Karail slum, said they got financial aid from the government last year. This year, however, they are yet to receive any economic or food support from the authorities concerned.
“Now we have nothing to do except for staying at home. Practising social distancing is not possible for us as we live in a cramped environment,” he said.
Towfiqul added that he managed to vaccinate his father against Covid-19 as he is over 40 years of age, but other members of his family had not been inoculated yet which caused a great health risk for them.
Many other dwellers of slum areas echoed the desperations of Towfiqul, saying that representatives of the government and non-government organisations, and individuals as well, visited the slums in the previous year and provided essential goods.
“Things are different this year. We still haven’t received such help since the government enforced the latest lockdown,” they said.
Most of the slum dwellers of the capital live on their daily earnings. During the ongoing lockdown, most of them have been struggling without a job due to movement restrictions.
Not many slum dwellers are aware of movement passes required to go outside during this period. Arman Samim is one of them, who go out regularly without a movement pass.
Slum dwellers said they fear hunger more than the coronavirus infection. Many of them said they might not be able to survive if the lockdown continues further.
They urged the government to provide food and other necessities as more and more of them are becoming jobless due to the nationwide lockdown.
Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister Tajul Islam on June 16, 2019, informed the parliament that around 6.46 lakh people were living in around 3,394 slums in Dhaka.
He also said there were 1,639 slums with a population of 499,011 under Dhaka North City Corporation and 1,755 slums with 147,056 people in Dhaka South City Corporation.
