Children of the Lesser God

Mustafa Zaman

The children start cavorting joyously as soon as they hear that the Eid moon has been sighted. Of the 120 street children of Aparajeyo Bangladesh (AB) in East Tejturi Bazar, 105 are to spend their Eid here. Mahbub Ur Raihan and Shahima are the two staff members who will look after these children during the Eid vacation. After a brief encounter with the children who gathered to exchange Eid Mubarak with their two official guardians, they set out to decorate the place with balloons and festoons.

At around 7.30 Mahbub and Shahima are preparing a backdrop for the children's dormitory on the third floor. These two are working away on a big white paper, where big Bangla letters are announcing the greeting -- Eid Mubarak.

Mahbub is the artisticaly-inclined teacher at Aparajeo Bangladesh. Shahima is the Assistant Residential Social Worker; she is here twenty-four hours a day to look after the children. Children are dropping by in one or twos to see the work in progress at the small room that is the office. They are delighted. Some are helping out, some are happy just to see that their bhaiya and apa are busy trying to make this particular Eid as joyous as possible.

The children's enthusiasm seems unending. Every time they see someone older they respond spontaneously -- kemon aachhen bhaiya/apa? (how are you brother/sister).

A little boy walks in to announce to his apa and bhaiya that he has bought three sets of clothes for Eid. His appearance belies his age, with which he is not bothered; his answer to the question inquiring about his age is rather blunt. “This is something that the office will determine,” he affirms. The boy, about eight, is Jamil. He is small and a bit on the frail side, yet his demeanour is lively. He reiterates the fact that it was his sheer luck that while on a visit to Shangshad Bhaban he spotted a five hundred Taka note. This is the note, the windfall that he gave to the Residential Caretaker, and “Right before Eid I asked for it so that I could buy all my clothes,” adds Jamil. Jamil claims that his parents are in Kaliganj, but he has been living here since he was very little. He adds that he does not recall visiting his parents ever. He is happy to have bought the clothes for Eid. He has even fulfilled this plan to visit the Dhaka zoo on Eid Day.

During the last MP election Pinky's mother died of cancer. This young girl was lucky to have been chosen for the embroidery project. She has been receiving training at the Shegun Bagicha UCEP para-trade centre for few months. She receives a monthly stipend of Taka 150and a daily conveyance of Taka 10 from UCEP and another 10 from AB. This applies to every trainee attending courses at UCEP. For Pinky Eid Day is the day she visits her three sisters living in Mirpur. As for Eid special clothes she bought herself a set of salwar kameez with the money she saved.

Putly is distraught on the eve of Eid-Ul-Fitr. Her mother remains incarcerated for the consecutive 3rd year. And it was heart-breaking for her when one day prior to Eid, she went to see her mother at the Dhaka central jail but the authority did not allow her as she did not have the hundred Taka that they unlawfully demanded.

The young girl grieves the fact that her mother was arrested three years back from Tejkuni para, “where she used to deal in phensidyl,”she frankly coughs out. Putly has been lucky, and has been learning screen-printing at the UCEP para-trade centre at Shegun Bagicha. On the night before Eid, her khala (maternal aunt) promises to make her a new salwar overnight, which she does and Putly is all smiles on the Eid Day in her new green dress and fluffy hair-do.

There are 20 Peer educators at the Aparajeo Bangladesh centre. It is they who go out to scour the areas marked by their authority to look for new recruits. Osmany Udyan, the mazaar at Mirpur, Karwan Bazaar are the marked zones where these children set out to rescue their peers and counsel them to come to the centre. Once at the centre the small children pay Taka 5 and the older ones pay Taka 7 to get lodging and three daily meals.