Wiping tears of middle class

The Covid-19 pandemic has already pushed many middle-income families into poverty.

Like many others, the ongoing crisis has hit Rafiqul Islam (not his real name), a clothing shop owner of Bogra, who recently had heart surgery, which required him to take expensive medicine on a regular basis.

Rafiqul, however, never thought that he might face such a hurdle at least before the Eid-ul-Fitr, as most of his sales take place for this significant occasion. Like many others, he invested a large amount of money for Eid, but sadly, almost all the clothing remained unsold due to the countrywide lockdown.

The pandemic not only blocked all his ways of income but his wife too has been affected. She would also support the family by giving private tuition, but due to the lockdown, she is not being able to earn any money.

Rafiqul's elder son, who has a family of his own, used to work as a salesperson at a shop. However, due to the pandemic, he also became jobless as his employer failed to pay the salary without keeping the shop open.

As far as Rafiqul can remember, he never had to ask for money from anyone. Instead, he would always help people in times of financial trouble. Now, he cannot even buy medicine for himself. His grandchildren too are in need of food, yet he cannot help them.

There are many who belong to Rafiqul's socio-economic class, or what people call the "middle class", who cannot ask for money, relief, or any financial support, even if they starve or are unable to support themselves for days.

However, in these trying times, an initiative called the "Tears of Middle Class" has come forward to support such middle-income families through mobile banking services, such as bKash, rocket and Nagad, so that they don't feel ashamed to receive the money.

The organisation has been operating through a Facebook page and group, and collecting funds from those who want to support their cause.

Since the beginning of April, the organisation has helped around 70 families by sending money to their mobile banking accounts. 

According to Tanzina Aktari, the brains behind this initiative, they have created a list of 100 middle-income families in 21 districts of the country. The list has been made with the help of the doctors, teachers and journalists.

"The list includes retired school teachers, private tutors, farmers, artists, businessmen, private service holders, theatre workers, music teachers, madrasa teachers and others who will never seek money from anyone," said Tanzina, who is also a print media journalist and a news presenter for Bangladesh Betar.

While checking up on her relatives, Tanzina found some of them were struggling to make ends meet. "I found that some of them had lost their jobs due the current situation, some were not given their due salaries, many had to stop their businesses or many had no savings that could help them survive for at least three months at a stretch," she said.

Although, in the beginning, Tanzina spent her own savings for these people, she later started asking for funds from her personal and professional settings, as she was experiencing more and more people who were silently suffering from financial distress.

"We began by giving each family around Tk 2,000. Later, when the funds finished, we even sent Tk 500 to the families. It was shocking that they were even unable to manage this minimal amount from anyone else," added Tanzina.

"We know the amount is very little compared to the needs of a family. But we want to help them until the situation gets better," said Tanzina. "I wish the rich people of our society would come forward and the national and international donor organisations would express their interest. If we had enough funds, we would try to increase the amount so that they can have enough for their house rent, food or other emergencies," she hoped.