Photo Feature

Working Eight Days a Weekd

Photos: Zahedul I Khan

These days even an honest day’s work is hard to find. But the lucky few that actually trudge to work everyday have to put more than just their mind, body and soul into their efforts. Disconcertingly, they have nothing to fall back on. They can readily be replaced by thousands of other people who would probably work for less, and with little or no savings, their hand to mouth existence is freighting and fragile. The average day labourer does not get paid much and yet they toil for up to 12 hours a day for their measly wages. From working in disgusting tanneries to the numerous construction sites around the city, to the death traps that lie in ship breaking yards, millions of our day labourers give everything they have for a few measly Takas a day. On May Day while the rest of the world is talking and arguing over worker's rights and unions, millions of Bangladeshis will wake up at the crack of dawn and work well past sun down into the night. Those issues mean nothing to them; all they care about is surviving.

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