Kitchen shopping gets unpleasant at dingy, crammed markets
An hour inside Karwan Bazar kitchen market, the largest one in the city, could make anyone find Dhaka's notoriously hot, humid summer air heavenly, thanks to the city fathers' reluctance to the convenience of tax-payers.
Still it is lucky for the shoppers, their time spent inside the three-storied 'warehouse' should not stretch for more than an hour.
Not so lucky for the traders though. The vendors who spend hours haggling with customers have to virtually grasp for air due to lack of fresh air inside the market.
"Most of the time, it gets really suffocating here. Things get worse during power cuts," said Mohammad Khalil, a trader at the market.
"When all the shops turn on their lights, even the air produced by the electric fans becomes overheated. It makes the place feel like a boiler," said Moktar Hossain, another seller.
Quite a few among the thousands of traders and workers in the Karwan Bazar kitchen markets, who have to toil long hours under the unhealthy atmosphere, complained of asthma, jaundice, skin diseases, headache and chest pain.
"I have been suffering from chest pain since I started working here around four years ago," said Hazrat Ali, a grocer at the market.
"Doctors in Dhaka Medical College Hospital said I should avoid being inside closed spaces for long to get rid of the pain," he said. Hazrat now gallops out of the market for a breath of fresh air whenever he gets the chance.
A quick glance inside the markets would give one the impression that they were built just to make room for around 3,000 odd stalls, putting facilities including easy movement, ventilation and sanitation at the backyard.
Scenes at some 16 other kitchen markets in the city are hardly any different.
"The stalls are located haphazardly, as if they [vendors] have set their shops wherever they could find a few inches of space to spread their legs. Even walking inside the place feels like a hassle," said Anwar Hossain, a shopper at Malibagh kitchen market.
"There is hardly any space for two persons to stand side by side in the narrow paths between the stalls. Sometimes you may have to get inside the stall to make way for the other shoppers to pass by," said Anjan Sarkar, another shopper.
A huge portion of the kitchen market is virtually located on the nearby railway tracks where hundreds of people do shopping, ignoring the risk on life.
The scenes from Jurain kitchen market are quite similar, if not worse. Over 600 hawkers at the kitchen market are operating their business sitting on railroad tracks.
Rampura kitchen market is chock-a-block with hundreds of shops along the adjacent street.
"The condition of the kitchen market here [Rampura] would make it clear why many people these days prefer to shop in the supermarkets," said Arafat Huda, a resident of Rampura and a frequenter in the local kitchen market.
"There you would have a hard time finding way out through all the haphazardly set stalls and thronging people."
Situations of the kitchen markets in Khilgaon Taltala, Mohakhali, Kalmilata, Hatirpul, Kanthal Bagan, Mohammadpur, Rayer Bazar, Nolgola, Sadarghat, Badamtali, Shyambazar, Sutrapur, Kadamtala and other places are but a little different.
"Most kitchen markets in the city were made, as if to accommodate as many shops as possible with as many varieties of goods. They are far from being hygienic for the sellers as well as frequenters," said Rafi Uddin, member secretary of Karwan Bazar Shopkeepers and Hawkers Association.
"The authorities should give some thought on the convenience of the buyers, and as well as sellers," he said.
Sources at Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) said they are now constructing four new wholesale kitchen markets at Mahakhali, Aminbazar, Jatrabari and Lalbagh in the city.
Authorities in November last year decided that the wholesalers and retailers of Karwan Bazar kitchen market, the largest one in the country, will be relocated to these markets.
The aim is to introduce a better market monitoring system and ensure smooth supply and distribution of farm products in the city, said an official at the Bazar Circle of DCC.
The construction of the markets and the relocation of Karwan Bazar wholesale market is scheduled to be completed by December 2010, DCC sources said.
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