Covid-19 Fallout: Falling sales distress boat makers in Atrai
Craftsmen making a living from boat sales at Shamspara boat market, the lone boat market in Naogaon's Atrai upazila, have been facing financial hardship due to declining sales at the market even during the peak season.
The boat makers wait through the rest of the year for monsoon when lowlands fill up with water and demands for new boats rise in the region.
But since the coronavirus pandemic broke out last year, sales of boats at the largest boat market in the area have continued to fall during two consecutive rainy seasons, said many boat makers.
In rainy season, Shamspara boat market is open two times a week -- on Mondays and Fridays.
Rivers, canals and large and small wetlands including Chalan Beel are filled to the brim during monsoon. This is when people in different areas of Naogaon's Atrai and Raninagar upazilas as well as Natore's Singra upazila have to rely on boats to get around for their day-to-day activities, said locals.
Many others roam around on boats to catch fish to make a living or just for fun, they also said.
The region usually turns festive in the monsoon with many boats out on the water bodies, said boat craftsman Abus Sobhan.
Monsoon is also the best time of the year for several hundred boat makers in Atrai upazila as this is when the boats they make are sold, he said, adding that they also get a lot of repair jobs in monsoon.
Locals said there are several thousand boat makers in different upazilas of Naogaon where their livelihoods depend on boat sales and repair.
On August 6, when this correspondent visited the market, nearly four hundred boats of different kinds were put on display for sale. But only a handful of prospective buyers were seen checking out the boats.
Abdul Latif, another craftsman who brought four boats to the market, said he makes one boat every rainy season and sells it at the market where people from even surrounding districts throng to buy boats. But sales at the market this season have been poor so far.
He works at agricultural fields at other times of the year, but he makes boats in the rainy season when agricultural work is not available in the region, he added.
The pandemic is the primary reason for the significant fall in sale of boats during peak season this year, said another boat maker, Abdul Mojid.
At a time when prices being offered by buyers are going down and prices of the main elements -- wood and bamboo -- going up, it is quite difficult for one to make much profit these days, he lamented, saying that depending on the quality of wood, it costs between Tk 3,500 and Tk 4,000 to make a 15-foot long boat.
Many local youths had been getting seasonal jobs at Shamspara boat market for pocket money, but without an adequate amount of sales, the sellers will not be able to employ them anymore, said boat maker Nagen Chandra.
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