The poor brace for bleaker days
One thing from the lockdown last year still etched raw in the collective memory of the city is hordes of hungry people coming out onto the streets.
The scenes were straight out of a Dickensian nightmare -- hungry people standing beneath the tall unyielding buildings of the city, imploring food, hungry people stampeding each other while running after relief trucks that held far too less rice for far too many people. Those who could not bring themselves to beg on the streets, went to bed hungry night after night.
Now, the government's announcement of imposing social restrictions beginning tomorrow sends a strong message to the general public -- the situation is going from bad to worse and it is time to go back inside. This time last year, the Covid-19 positivity rate was 2 percent, yesterday it was 23.1 percent.
It is those people who are once again looking at the skyrocketing positivity rates with a dread. They are more worried about surviving than getting Covid-19.
Mohammed Alam, a rickshaw puller from the capital's Abuler Bosti has been a resident of the city for the last 23 years, but he never experienced a year like the one which has gone by. Now he faces the weeks ahead of him with the fear of starvation. Alam lives with his nine-year-old daughter and elderly mother.
"I had to take loans of Tk 25,000 last year just to survive. Things were so bad that I was eating rice and dried chili, which gave me ulcer. Even potatoes were too expensive. Now, we are finally able to afford potatoes and onions.
"If people go back inside, which one do we cut back on? How much less can we eat than what we are eating right now?" asked Alam.
Rubina Begum is a domestic helper employed at two houses in Benarasi Polli. She only got the work towards the end of the last year after the pandemic restrictions eased. Now with the restrictions coming down hard again, she is fearing unemployment.
"I used to work six days a week at a house, but just this week my employers told me to come only twice a week from now on. I am afraid I will get fired soon," said Rubina. She has her orphaned nephew and niece depending on her.
"We need relief. There is no other way we can survive," she said.
An economic think tank called South Asian Network for Economic Modelling found that once the coronavirus-driven social restrictions ended last year in December, the poverty rate stood at 42 percent, up from 21.6 percent in 2018.
Abdur Rahman 41, a hawker selling baby clothes at Mirpur-10 intersection had loaned Tk 1 lakh to invest in clothes keeping Pahela Baishakh and Eid in mind.
"We mostly see sales happening during Pahela Baishakh, the two eids and winter," said Rahman. "If I cannot sell anything during Pahela Baishakh, I will be in deep financial trouble."
He said that the government needs to give relief and it has to be enough to last the lockdown.
"Last year, we got 20kg of grains, which was supposed to last for as many as 6 months. It only lasted a month," he said.
During the pandemic, only 35 lakh poor were given a one-time cash incentive of Tk 2,500, leaving millions of other out of the purview of financial assistance. Relief distribution nationally was mired in well-documented corruption.
Maulana Abdus Sobhan, development committee president of Korail Slum Boubazar unit, said, "Last year, the blow left lakhs hungry in the slum. If this year is going to be a repetition, these people need relief materials. The relief can help them stave off the lenders at least."
Monu Miah is a footpath hawker at Bhashantek slum. "Last year during the lockdown, I had to take Tk 40,000 in loans. I am not even able to return the money I borrowed and there are eight lenders after me for the money. I was barely getting back on my feet and you are telling me that this year might be the same?"
[Zyma Islam contributed to the report]