Throughout Dhaka, impoverished little boys and girls have taken destiny into their own hands and for them, selling the seasonal attraction amra is a popular way to earn some money regardless of how meager the sum maybe.

Ten-year-old Ashrafuddin sells amra around Banani, Gulshan and Mohakhali. He is the second youngest among seven brothers and two sisters.

They live in a slum and even at this tender age, Ashrafuddin has been forced to join one of his elder brothers in the amra business, as it is quite impossible for his tea-vendor father to manage such a big family.

Brother Shahabuddin is a seasonal fruit seller and has got two year's experience of selling fruits like amra, guava, kamranga etc.

With their future looking anything but rosy, the boys have accepted that pursuing education was a thing of fantasy.

"I have studied up to class two at a primary school and would like to continue. But there's hardly any possibility of that happening because then there would be no one to look after our fruit business," says Ashrafuddin. Shahabuddin was more fortunate as he could study up to class five, but then had to leave school.

The brothers are the only earning members of the family beside their father and together, they generate around Tk 4,500 each month, grossly inadequate to survive in Dhaka.

"At times, we have just one decent meal a day," said Ashrafuddin.

Everybody does not appreciate the boys' untiring efforts and human-vultures lurk everywhere.

"At certain areas, a policeman will pop up from nowhere and demand at least Tk five to ten as bribe. Otherwise they won't let us sit there with our fruit," revealed Ashrafuddin.

"I wish those policemen and the city-dwellers were a bit more considerate towards working children like us," added the youngster.