Many reduced to penury

Many low-income people across the country have been suffering as much as ever because almost everything is closed amid the strict lockdown to curb Covid-19 infections, stopping their incomes and making them worried about how to run the family during the days ahead.

People from various slums and low-income residents of the capital said they had not received any aid from the government. Those who have been trying to make a living by borrowing from others are anxious about how they would repay their loans.

Transport worker Md Ismail, who lives in the Kalyanpur slum, said his income is off as public transport is stopped during the lockdown. Neither the government nor any NGO has provided anything to them.

"The government has stopped everything and we have no income. We are starving and severely concerned about the days to come. Is it possible to stop eating?" he asked.

His brother, a bus driver, left Dhaka as he could not manage to earn a living in Dhaka. He borrowed Tk15,000 which he could not repay, he added.

MdParvez used to be a bus driver in the capital. He lost his job amid the epidemic. Initially, he drove some small vehicles and later a private car. After some time, the owner said he did not need any driver.

Water transport workers have been facing the plight of the pandemic too. Many of them have returned to their village homes and changed their professions.

Anwara Begum, a widow at the Kalyanpur slum, was a housemaid, and her son was a driver. Both of them are unemployed now.

"We have nothing to eat as everything is closed during the lockdown. I am a diabetic patient too. How can I buy medicine when we are starving!" she said.

Besides, low-income people from informal sectors, teachers of non-MPO and private schools and colleges are also passing very hard times amid the lockdown as they have not got any salary from the institutes.

Md Reza, a teacher at a private school in the capital, said, "At present, I ride a rented motorcycle for living for my three-member family. That is also closed in lockdown. Will the government listen to us? Those who do not have food at home understand what a lockdown is!"

Another teacher named MdSagor from Pabna said he cannot beg others as he is a teacher. As the school was closed for a long time, he started working in a private company but he was laid off after three months without paying any salary. 

 "Those who work in the government or MPO institutes get salary as well as bonuses regularly. The government has given us neither salary nor any aid," he added.