Gypsies' digital life

A group of 70 to 80 gypsies, including women and children, with all their belongings got down from a dilapidated bus at Sutipara village in Sadar upazila on February 19 and erected 25 makeshift houses on an open field beside Nilphamari-Saidpur road within couple of hours.

Local people are not surprised to see them as the gypsies, known as the floating Bede community, who change their location frequently.

They come here every year and stay for three to four weeks and practise their ancestral mystic treatment in rural areas.

What surprised them is when they saw that two-third of the shabby tents were lighted with electricity generated from solar panels though they are still deprived of their basic needs, villager Azizul Hakim, 45, and many others said.

“Wave of digitalisation has also touched the under-privileged community people, upgrading their living standard,” said Mohammad Waliullah, a teacher of Nagor Darwani High School.

Visiting the site on February 20, this correspondent found that as many as seventeen solar panels were kept in sunlight for recharging.

“We used to light earthen lamps using kerosene earlier but now most of us use solar panels to generate electricity as it is not expensive and easy to carry,” said group leader Rabiul Islam, 50, whom the community people address as Sardar.

“Many of us have cell phones as we can recharge it now,” the leader said, adding that even one of their fellows Kahirul, 45, has a laptop, which is used to entertain all.

Bede man Paran Sheik, 60, said they earn their livelihood by entertaining people showing snake dances,  selling amulets, treating diseases by reciting mystic and esoteric words.

Plain hearted rural people are their main clients, Paran added.

Senura Khatun, 45, a female member of the group, said she and her husband travel to different places for earning.

She said as their daughters Ravina, 12, and Baishakhi, 7, stay at home and do household works like cooking and washing clothes they cannot go to school.

Sadar Upazila Social Welfare Officer Abdul Mannan said Bede community people deserve support from the government but it is not possible because they do not live in any area permanently.