Need Civilized Ways To End Disputes

Lack of civilized means in dispute settlement
Only grows anarchy and resentment.

Since the resumption of educational activities after COVID break, we have been witnessing tragic incidents at roads, campus and outside campus,costing innocent lives.

The violent clashes between two factions of ruling party student wing at Chattogram Medical College University left many students seriously injured,including one victim, son of a school teacher,who underwent a head surgery¹. In addition, many faced suspension of various duration. And the Medical College was shut down wielding the “unfavorable atmosphere” as reason.

Many students also gave in to pressures and uncertainties left by COVID-19.Some ,coping with COVID problems, found it hard to tackle personal problems. Many met unnatural death. Lack of proper guiding and supervision led to this unwanted situation. Many of them received subsidized education and country did not manage to avail their contribution due to the untimely demise. Just categorizing the incidents as “another mental health” problem exposed our inability to decode the gravity of the problem. State does need to do more when it sees so many loss of aspiring souls.

What is worrying is that sloppy governance created such an atmosphere even adolescents with little knowledge of outside world tried to leave the country. Worried about the future life in Bangladesh, three school-going sisters took a bus ride to Cox's Bazaar. They wanted to go to Japan,no idea where the country is situated.

The unprecedented student protest in the wake of Bus fare hike shook up the government. Citing oil price hike in the International market,private bus owners raised bus fare,causing anger among COVID-battered lower income group. Students took the opportunity to make some concessions. Situation turned worse when a college student was threatened to be raped as she refused pay extra fare and when another college student was run over by a dumping truck of Dhaka South City Corporation². Later,three more students died in Chandpur and a former journalist was died in another accident caused by a Dhaka North City Corporation vehicle. By this time,school students blocked key roads and started checking papers of circulating vehicles. It reminded one of the student movement in 2018 across Bangladesh following harrowing death of two school students in an accident inside cantonment. They demanded reforms in traffic laws,which were partially met.

Student vigilance on streets for valid papers and fitness certificate literally rocked Bangladesh back then. Similar wave of protest is being observed right now.

Once we had a well managed bus services in Dhaka,under World Bank financed Dhaka Urban Transport Project. Since the government assumed power,it had scrapped the projects and misfit buses started to ply over the roads.

Back in 2019, I had witnessed an accident,which I narrowly escaped. I wrote about it in another piece³:

My bus was boarding passengers while an empty bus intentionally hit the rear side of the bus. That was where I sat. In the blink of an eye, it smashed the back of the bus. It took few seconds to befuddled passengers to understand what was going on. I got off and took few snaps of the assailant bus on my mobile phone. Two days later I went to the police station where seized bus was parked outside.

I filed a general diary and tried to know the identity of the owner. To my surprise, I came to learn that there were many owners of that bus company. Maybe 400 or 500. Even a single bus is owned by several people, as disclosed by the claimed owner of the bus. The transport businesses is all about to mainstream or whiten the undocumented money. The accident took place the very next day of the brutal murder of a BUET student. Two-month after I had lodged the diary, the bus was no longer before the police station. Maybe they released the bus.

Government’s reluctance to implement digital Bangladesh projects in transport sector further strengthened the conviction that the transport system is being used by some quarter to whiten undocumented money.

The ongoing student movement took a virulent turn when a student died in Badda after being hit by a bus. Angry mob instantly torched 9 buses. Sensing trouble private bus owners agreed to provide discount on fare for Dhaka students.

Later another private university student met a tragic end when his Uttara-bound bike was hit by a cargo truck in Khilkhet.

As culture of agitation is strong in Bangladesh, dead body bears strong significance and adds another degree to that agitational politics. Perhaps that is what we are witnessing in the streets and campuses.

Recently, a Professor was succumbed to stroke after he had been intimidated by ruling party student wing at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology over recruitment of a dining manager at a dormitory. Teachers protested the matter and demanded exemplary punishment of the intimidators. Later KUET was closed and 9 were expelled⁴.

Similar agitation was observed in other subsidized educational institutions,hampering the academic environment. As academic activities resumed after long COVID break, ongoing anarchy only delays recuperation of academic loss. Over the years we have not developed civilized ways to resolve disputes, this leads Bangladeshis to resort anarchy to settle disputes.

It is a pity students have to descend on streets to make their voice reached the right place. While opposition force is subdued, there is no sign in abatement of agitation politics. Rather, anarchy reigns everywhere. Sometimes bus owners called strike,sometimes workers or students. In UP elections, we witnessed factional clashes within the ruling party claimed more lives. Anarchy breeds anarchy. Civilized ways of dispute settlement and more participation of democratic parties could free us from this evil.

Notes And References:

1 ”CMC Expels 31 Students Over BCL Clashes”,Staff Correspondent, November 23,2021, Link here

2 “Notre Dame Student Death: City Corporation Proxy Driver Remanded”,Dhaka Tribune,November 25,2021,Link here

3 “Unruly Roads,Unsafe Lives”,Rezaul Hoque,February ,2020,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com, Link here

4 “KUET Suspends 9 After Professor's Death”,Dhaka Tribune,December 04,2021, Link here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(19 novembre --- 26 novembre)

Selon un reportage, un étudiant a été tué par frappe d’un camion appartenant à mairie de Dacca nord. Ses amis et étudiants sont descendus dans la rue et ont manifesté contre la tuerie. Avant les étudiants demandent ristourne dans le frais de bus après une étudiante avait été menacée de viol par adjoint de bus.

Selon un reportage, Police mexicaine a secouru 600 migrants dont 37 Bangladais depuis Veracruz.

Selon un reportage, 6 personnes ont été tuées dans la troisième tour d’élection rurale.

Selon un reportage, 33 éléphants dont 20 électrocutés ont été tués dans l’année actuelle. En 2020,20 éléphants ont été tués.

Flocking Parasites

Parasitism invades the society,
While most get impunity,
Only mosquito gets the blame.
Pointless to spend the money,
Unless the issue is put into planner's frame.

Dhaka has long been a city of parasites. Mosquito is perhaps the most annoying one and gets the most blame. Hardly any evening left when mosquitoes do not swoop on bare parts of the body. As the night gets deeper, the mosquito problem becomes unbearable. Overcrowded Dhaka, unhygienic lifestyle of its residents and little care to the surroundings are equally responsible for worsening of the problem.As the night gets deeper , the mosquito problem becomes unbearable. Overcrowded Dhaka, unhygienic lifestyle and little care to the surroundings are equally responsible for the worsening of the problem. People from all the corners of Bangladesh thronged into Dhaka and amplify the problem of clogged drains, shrinking canals and disappearance of lakes. Swampy lands only turn into breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Though city corporations employ all the arsenals they possess to fight this buzzing evils, no mean turns effective to give relieve Dhaka residents from this blood-sucking nightmare. To my surprise, I discover that even inside my mosquito net mosquitoes outside the net behaving like zombies desperately try to enter inside the net. I have never seen such all-out-effort from the mosquitoes before.

Affluent families could easily afford to take all the steps including buying foreign anti-mosquito gadgets and mosquito repellent, but those reside in slum and those fall in lower-income group have little means to protect themselves from the unstoppable zeal of mosquitoes. Imagine the pain the kids of these families endure while studying or housewives have to go through while cooking or doing other household work.

I encounter a news report claiming number of culex mosquitoes quadrupled in recent weeks. I do not want to embark on blame shaming. Anti-mosquito programs run by city corporations smoke the mosquitoes into houses. An incessant and annoying song hangs in the room till the dawn break. Few years ago, I encountered a video on social media. In that video a city corporation employee of a suburb is seeing fighting mosquito with a fogger machine on the back of a pickup truck like a medieval chariot-riding warrior.

That is not all. Dhaka South City Corporation few years ago released Guppi fish into the drainage system. The fish lives on mosquito larvae. Little progress has been made in subduing the mosquito in spite of all the efforts.

Thanks to mosquito, mosquito aerosol and coil publicity flourishes the media. Even these goods are not enough to contain the mosquitoes.

I have heard that male mosquitoes exposed to a little bit of radiation comes very handy in the fight against mosquitoes. It stops the procreation process. When the male mosquito meets the female counterpart, the female lost its ability to produce eggs. Could we somehow go for this approach?

Last year I read a news report that revealed that part of the sanctioned money for buying pesticide was embezzled. Result was lesser amount of pesticides available to fight mosquito. Amazing! Parasites come to rescue other parasites! In the animal kingdom "birds of a feather flock together". In this parasite-infested society we see that parasites flock together too.

Parasitism has been taking a virulent form in our society. It is pretty natural to see too many swarms of mosquitoes lingering over our head. They are just offshoot of a bigger problem. Focusing on the smaller problem like mosquito eschewing the bigger ones will not bring drastic change.

Development planners , policymakers formulated policies intended to improve people's lives, but they had reckoned without the parasites invading our society and eating our resources. Imprudent spending only swells their number in our society. Parasitic activity only gives trouble to us. Trouble caused by mosquito is conspicuously visible. But others remain subtle, hard to detect.So no complaint against the mosquito next time!

In Search Of Cheap Hostel

A city thriving on black money
Has hotels, apartments and bouts of felony.
No safe space for woman, traveler and worker.
Cheap hostel of city authority could be the answer.

Thousands of people travel across the country for different purposes every day. Part of them reside in the houses of their dear ones and large part of them rent hotel rooms for temporary stay. Stat on number of hotel rooms, be it cheap or luxurious, is not available. Travelers find it difficult to find cheap accommodation in Bangladeshi cities. Tourism corporation, a government entity, operates some hotels that are mostly scattered across tourist hotspots.

So cheap accommodation in Dhaka and mofussil towns is rare and inaccessible to most of the travelers.

A look at Dhaka's hotel accommodations reveals that most of them are meant for well-to-do-of travelers. But the capital city also houses daily wage earners and residents who constitute 80% of Dhaka city dwellers.Many stay here for more than a month to earn money and remit it back home in other parts of Bangladesh. But these people are lacking decent place to stay and food at an affordable price.

The condition for working women is somewhat nightmarish. Only few hostels are available for them. A religious charitable organization came forward to address the matter. However, the initiative is pretty small to cover huge demand of accommodation.

In recent years, a Chinese joint venture however showed the way how to do this kind of service oriented business. Its quality of service is good but it is not targeted towards the vast working class who mostly dwell in slums. Even in the Moghul era rulers built cheap accommodation across the subcontinent for travelers.

Last year back in November and December I did a small survey among the rickshaw pullers in Dhaka. I found that on average they spent 10-40% of their monthly earnings on house rent. Most these money went into wrong hands.

The money in turn contributed to the deterioration of law & order. Most of these slums were set up in public and private properties and lack proper sanitation and basic amenities. In addition, crores of Takas worth of utility bills do not end up in government coffer.

Whatever the reasons for their arrival, the seasonal worker, climate refugee, lone wanderer have right to get decent accommodation, food and amenities.

Unlike other countries, government and private sectors are conspicuously absent in accommodation services. I am not stressing on setting up luxury hotels for foreign tourists who are very rare in this country. I underscore cheap accommodation that an average daily wage earner can afford. Think of a huge hostel that offers common dining, toilet, laundry service and kitchen. And the services it offer are reasonably priced.

If such accommodation were widely available , then people making a brief stopover and seasonal workers might pay much less as rent what they are paying now.

Dhaka's real estate boom,fuelled by undocumented money, has little solution to address this problem. People dominate the business are concerned with optimization of the flat size so that the undocumented money will be legalized quickly. They bother little to invest in this kind of cheap hospitality business. More luxury flat sale means more black money manages to come in legal channel.

Dhaka has become an overcrowded big slum that is invading the surrounding areas. Since the city corporations have the means and authority to set up this kind of settlement they can embark on investing in this kind of hostel-like accommodation in association with private companies. The benefits are multipronged: cash strapped city corporation will get the much needed fund, utility companies will get bills, travelers and seasonal workers will get cheap and safe place to stay and decent meal, government and city corporations will keep a close tab on who enters the city and who gets out by maintaining a database, identifying the target people migrated to the city for social security programs, and hygiene and calm ambiance can be easy to maintain.

The city corporation operated hostel will set precedent for private companies to invest their money in this sector.

Another great advantage of operating such service is that city corporation in collaboration with the police can start services like lost & found. This kind of services are pretty common in metropolitan cities. Unfortunately, this kind of service is not available in this part of the world. In addition, community library, community health campaign could be launched more effectively and efficiently in such hostels.

Apart from city corporations, Bangladesh Internal Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) could also play a role in addressing this problem. BIWTA operates terminal and landing stations across the city. It also possesses and houses launches and vessels that are no longer in operation. These vessels could easily be converted into cheap hotels in the light of public and private partnership.

Both the BIWTA and city corporation can offer the cheap accommodation services to other cities. For instance, Dhaka City corporations may ink deal with other districts whose residents come here in drove in search of informal jobs to set up cheap hostels in those cities. The accommodation facility will be solace to cheap travelers from Dhaka and serve as resource center for district municipal authority.

Since 2010 , Dhaka has fallen into the hands of organized criminal groups. To make it woman friendly, traveler friendly, working class friendly, elected city authorities should be given more authority. City corporations should exercise power to set up cheap accommodation for travelers and workers curbing undesired influence of vested quarter.

Live Stock

Earn a cent,
Spend a dime,
Be it good days,
Or hard times,
Daughter wedding,
Left with nothing,
But piling debt.
Could not make it
When rivers inundate.
But life is easier
When there is microcredit.

My endeavor with a little study on rickshaw puller is finally over. I spent three hectic weeks in November and few days in December in 2019 to glean the desired information. The 40-respondent strong survey is intended to comprehend the spending and savings behavior of a typical rickshaw puller. The learning is amazing and new. It opened a whole new world where "out of sight, out of trust" means savings have to be visibly present right before one's eyes. In the previous post, I brought the house rent issue of a rickshaw puller under scanner. Here I dig deeper and divulge what I  gleaned from my recorded interviews.

General information:

A total of 40 respondents are interviewed. I split them based on locations of their garages: Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation. They age between 22-year old to 68-year old. They hail mostly from Mymensingh(10%), Gaibandha(10%), Bogra(10%), Sherpur(7.5%), Naogaon(7.5%), Kishorganj(7.5%), Barishal(5%), Chandpur(5%) and other districts. So respondents are scattered all across Bangladesh and no single district is dominating the pool of respondents.

Cultivable land:

Most of the respondents (64.10%) do not have any cultivable land. I have met rickshaw pullers who hinge on sharecropping to get part of their annual food stock. There are others who work as day laborers in village labor market. They split their time between Dhaka and villages, switching from Rickshaw pulling to sharecropping or selling labor. Only 15.83% of the respondents say they sell their labor in village labor market.


Daily earnings and costs:

Rickshaw pulling is a grueling task. Though in Dhaka, rickshaw pulling is becoming a lucrative job for informal laborers. I get wide range of responses about their daily earnings, varies between Tk 400 to Tk 1200. More than half of the respondents(57.50%) earn Tk500 per day. Tk 800 is earned by 15% of the respondents. I notice a battery-run rickshaw puller earns double than what a traditional rickshaw puller earns per day. One of the respondents is a battery-run rickshaw puller.

To take notice of price changes, I also calculated real earnings. I relied on GDP deflator to get a better measure of inflation adjusted earnings since GDP deflator comprises prices of all the goods and services in a country in a given period. The base year is here 2005-06 and I take the nominal GDP of 2017-18, as the data is available, to get the GDP deflator, which is 2.20.
In the given period, price level registered a 120% increase. For majority of the respondents, I find , the real daily earnings is Tk 227.27.

Respondents face a daily cost between Tk 250 to Tk 700. Most of the respondents (30%) face an out-of-pocket expense of Tk 300. 15% of the respondents incur a daily cost of Tk 270. 12.50% of the respondents count a daily cost of Tk320.

It appears that many respondents chose garages to spend their nights during their stint in Dhaka. They pay Tk 120 per day in this case.  And the price is inclusive of two-meal per day. They pay Tk 100 to garage owner for driving the rickshaw for a day. For snacks and other meals during their working hours, they encountered a range of costs, varying between Tk 60 to 100.

Daily real earnings & costs of rickshaw pullers

Both the daily real earnings and real cost are higher for rickshaw pullers reside in Dhaka South City Corporation. From slum census of 2014, we know that most of the slum dwellers from DSCC reside in slums erected on own property. Meanwhile, most of the slums in DNCC were built on government land. What changes took place in the slums of two city corporations are yet to be probed.

From the 40-respondent strong study of rickshaw pullers, I also try to  carry out a statistical analysis on the interaction between daily earnings and costs. Commonsense says that costs will respond positively to an increasing earnings. However, in the stat analysis, I find that F statistic gives a reading in that direction but the stubborn coefficient goes on the other way, trapping itself in confidence intervals. Pouring more observations could dispel the lack of evidence.


Savings:

While enquiring about their savings habits, I find and learn interesting things. Many respondents do not save at all. Those do save rest their trust on microcredit institution. They take loans from microcredit institutions at various points and start paying the credit the very day they take the loan. Savings amount is tied-in the credit. After completion of installment payments, microcredit institution retains the principal plus interest but gives back the savings to the borrower. This savings amount could then be reinvested or spent on family expenses.

Many of the respondents save by spending money on livestock. They buy a calf, rear it for some time and then sell it at a propitious time. Then they spend the money on family expenses, house renovation or land rent for sharecropping. This way of savings ---rearing livestock ---gives them some kind of trust as their "savings" grows right before their eyes, roams around them and is kept under their possession. No cheating, no deception.
They fear that evil quarter may swindle their money. Their fear has ground.

One rickshaw puller told me a heart breaking story. He opened a fixed deposit at a bank in Dhaka. For several years, he regularly deposited the money. Just before the maturity he came to learn that his deposit would mature two years later. The previous bank clerk did not keep any record of his first two years' savings. The poor fellow tried everything to convince the bank authority in vain. His two years' sweat money was swallowed by a swindler.

Besides microcredit institution (42.5%) and livestock(15%), insurance company (5%), self(5%) and relatives (5%) appear to be savings option for them. I encountered a rickshaw puller saves in an insurance company. Mobile financial services could also be considered as an option for savings. But none of the respondents said they opened the mobile banking account for savings only. Rather mobile banking account is extensively used to send money back home.

Loan:

Respondents take loan , which ranges from Tk 2000 to Tk 200000. However, a good number of them(33.33%) do not take any loan.
And those who take loan, most stick to the size of Tk 50,000(17.9%). Equal percentage of respondents (12.82%) take a loan of  size Tk 40,000 and Tk 30,000. The rest goes for various amounts of loan.

Respondents take loan mostly from microcredit institution (66.66%), relatives (5.56%) and neighborhood cooperative (5.56%). BRAC , Asha, Grameen, Shakti and Bureau Bangladesh appear to be the mentioned microcredit institutions.

Respondents put forward an array of reasons for taking loans, varies from daughter's wedding to cultivation and livestock. Daughter's wedding (8.57%), family expenses (8.57%) and sharecropping and land rent (8.57%) jointly top the list of reasons for taking loan. House purchase or renovation (5.71%), rickshaw purchase (5.71%) and livestock (5.71%) are other frequently mentioned reasons. In addition, reasons are attributed to children's education, natural disaster, cultivation, medical expenses and family dispute.

Contrary to my conviction,man made issues appear to be the principal causes for taking loan by rickshaw puller.

Money sent back home and the medium:

An overwhelming number of respondents prefer mobile banking services to send money back home. Apart from that, they also send the money by themselves or through relatives / acquaintances. Mobile financial services, it appears, play a crucial role in financial inclusion of lower income group by easing the financial transaction between sole bread winner and the rest of the family. At the same time, it reduces dependencies on traditional method that is opaque and that is difficult to keep record of financial transaction. Thus securing the interests of clients and insulating them from any wrong or fraudulent transaction.

Money sent back to village home ranges between Tk 2000 to Tk 15000 per month. Most of the respondents send Tk 10,000 per month(19.44%). Meanwhile, Tk 15,000 (13.89%) and Tk 5,000(13.89%) are other two frequently cited amount the respondents prefer to send back home.

Government allowance or social security program:

In sharp contrast to my belief, I find that only three of the respondents actually get government allowance or benefits from social security programs. One rickshaw puller gets few kilos of rice every month , another rickshaw puller's wife gets lactating mother's allowance and another one's father gets elderly allowance from the government. When I probe about ease of getting social allowance , they say they have to get along well with the local representatives and, in some cases, they pay part of the allowance as bribe to comply for such programs. In fact, many respondents lack this kind of privileges.

Concluding remarks:

My little study may not be representative, but I find that rickshaw pullers are extremely vulnerable to any volatility to their monthly and annual spending. Microcredit institutions are doing a tremendous job in empowering them and to get them l decent living. In addition, they also impart the habit of savings among rickshaw pullers. In terms of financial inclusion and improving the living standards of rickshaw pullers, microcredit institutions are leading from the front. I am appalled to learn that so few rickshaw pullers get social benefits. Government can widen its campaign to include the left out rickshaw pullers into social security programs. A good approach to that endeavor will be to make a database of rickshaw garages sprang up all across the Dhaka city. The database will have names of the rickshaw pullers and their native village addresses. Those who are out of social security programs could easily be included into the programs with the help of this database.Any cash or food aid will improve their livelihoods and leave a positive impact on their savings and economic activity.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(30 août --- 1 septembre)
Selon un reportage, État islamique a revendiqué un attentat contre police le samedi soir. Le secrétaire général du parti en exercice a mis en op garde qu'il y aurait attentat comme ça à l'avenir.

Selon un reportage, la Chine a mis 5 banques bangladaises dans la liste noire pour avoir détecté les transactions fausses qui coûtaient les importateurs bangladais et chinois millions de dollars.

Selon un reportage, autorité de télécommunications a ordonné de fermer tous les services de télécommunications dans les camps de Rohingya.

Selon un reportage, un atelier de confection a licencié environ 700 ouvriers sous prétexte de manque de commande d'achat à Tejgaon, Dhaka.

Selon un reportage, luttes intestines de la filiale du parti en exercice se sont soldées par fermeture de l'université de la technologie à Noakhali.

Selon un reportage, un policier a été appréhendé pendant un cambriolage à Motijheel.

Selon un reportage, des fidèles du parti en exercice et élèves d'un séminaire ont déjoué une tentative d'évincer une cuisine de séminaire,s'installe dans un parc opéré par la mairie de Dhaka nord à Mohammadpur.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement va bientôt créer RMG Sustainability Council afin de prendre responsabilité de l'Accord, plateforme des acheteurs européens de vêtements bangladais d'ici le 25 novembre.

Regulate Rickshaws On Key Roads

Recently two city corporations made up their minds to curb free movement of rickshaws on Dhaka's key roads. Later Dhaka North City Corporation changed its position on restriction of rickshaws. Decision came on the wake of a day-long siege made by rickshaw pullers on key Badda-Pragati Sarani. Dhaka South City Corporation however has shown no sign to alter its position.

There is no gainsaying that there are too many rickshaws on the streets of Dhaka. And most of them are illegal.On many occasions rickshaw has been singled out for choking turning points and slowing down pace of the fast moving vehicles. Meanwhile , rickshaw has always been a source of livelihood for thousands of rural workers who throng to Dhaka everyday. According to Labor Force Survey 2017, informal sector employs 77% of urban labor force. And rickshaw pulling is one of the main informal sector professions. Back in 2014, I did a special story for an online news agency. Back then DMP imposed restriction on rickshaws on the key roads of Dhaka. Later this restriction was lifted and thousands of rickshaws inundated the streets of Dhaka, including the Manik Mia Avenue. As one industry insider revealed to me back in 2014, there were 6000 rickshaw garages and 225000 rickshaws in Dhaka and around 800000 men earned their breads by pulling rickshaw.The number might have risen significantly by now. What is interesting Dhaka City Corporation stopped issuing rickshaw license, the number is somewhere around 87,811, in the late 80s.In 2014, a valid license was sold at Tk 15000.Some owners' associations offered some kind of licenses to rickshaws. But these are not valid licenses and only good at finding a lost rickshaws in exchange of a small fee if it went missing. In 2014, a rickshaw puller has to pay Tk 100-120 for a full day shift and Tk 60-80 for half day. Right now a puller has to pay Tk80-100 for half a day. Bangladesh Institute Of Labor Studies recently conducted a study on Dhaka rickshaw pullers, titled " A Study Of Rickshaw Pullers Of Dhaka City" . In that study 58.4% of the rickshaw pullers say they took up rickshaw pulling as no other profession was available to them and it guarantees more income in less time. The study divulges that on average a rickshaw puller earns Tk 371.70 Tk per day and an average monthly income of Tk 11,151. It also finds that 91% of the pullers prefer the morning time to pull rickshaws. It is the busiest time of the day.

For my special story back in 2014,  I interviewed a rickshaw puller from Jaipurhat who told me agricultural workers of his district go back to their native villages in November and July. When they have no seasonal employment in villages, they come to Dhaka to drive rickshaws. Rickshaw numbers swell in festival seasons like Eid.

When we take a closer look at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data on average daily wage of construction laborers in Dhaka, we will notice that average daily wage of a construction helper was Tk 414 in 2018. Meanwhile, in some selected industries ( cotton, jute, matches, engineering and edible oil) of  Dhaka , average daily wage for an unskilled worker was TK 339.6 and that for skilled worker was Tk 414.4 in 2018. So this guarantee of earning on average Tk 10,170/ month( as a helper) or TK 11,151/month (as a rickshaw puller ) is drawing more and more rural workers into Dhaka. I would like to add that wages in construction sector are not paid daily and a typical rural worker has to put more blood and sweat into construction work than into rickshaw pulling. Since a rural agricultural worker can make some quick bucks in less time and less effort, rickshaw pulling is becoming increasingly popular among this type of laborers.

The study conducted by BILS also reveals that 91% of the rickshaw pullers take foods and snacks from makeshift hotels and tea stalls during their working hours.Often these makeshift eateries generate steady stream of revenues for some quarter.

Despite the fact that rickshaw pullers are not subject of any extortion activity, they somehow indirectly contribute to the rent seeking economy built by a politically blessed quarter. For instance, accommodation is needed for this large pool of rickshaw pullers who spend months after months in this city. Part or full house and rickshaw rents they provide may go to the pockets of this vested quarter. Moreover cooked food they eat may be bought from the kitchen markets that offer regular extortion to a certain quarter. So part of their daily spending is feeding the labyrinth network of rent-seekers.

Despite strong arguments in favor of rickshaws of Dhaka, unintentional contribution of Dhaka rickshaw pullers to our extortion economy makes the case of unregulated rickshaw pulling untenable. It is pretty much agreed that it is time to put an end to unregulated rickshaws on key roads of Dhaka. Policy makers should step in to make sure easy and safe accommodation for rickshaw wallahs, to tab on their spending so that their money is not ended up in the pockets of rent seekers, to create a database of rickshaw pullers to keep check the rural-urban-rural migration flow and to initiate programs at rural and urban areas for improving their condition and creating more income generating opportunities.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(5 juillet --- 12 juillet)

Selon un reportage, Dengue s’est declaré dans tout le pays. Il y a 1016 victimes identifiés dans la première semaine de juillet. Le pays témoigne le plus de victmes en juin dans les dernières 4 années. Dans son étude ICDDR,B, le pesticide a échoué à tuer le moustique pour provoquer Dengue.

Selon un reportage, glissement de terrain a tué 4 personnes à Chattogram. Pluie incessante a inondé toute la ville.

Selon un reportage, un train a percuté un camion qui a bloqué son chemin à Gazipur, en tuant 2 personnes.

Selon un reportage, la mairie de Dhaka nord a annulé la décision d'interdire rickshaw dans les rues principales de Dhaka. La mairie de Dhaka sud n'a pas envie de changer sa décision.

Selon un reportage, des chercheurs de l'université de Dhaka a trouvé ingrédient antibiotique dans les produits laitiers fabriqués par les sociétés bangladaises.

Selon un reportage, les pluies torrentielles posent risque d'inonder tout le pays.Plusieurs fleuves ont franchi le seuil de danger.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement a coupé bandwidth de deux opérateurs de service portable après les deux avaient échoué de payer leurs impôts arriérés. Les deux veulent résoudre les différences avec le gouvernement hors de la cour.

Selon un reportage, un home massacré trois personnes à Cumilla. Il était en colère avec sa femme. Les villageois l’ont battu sévèrement , provoquant sa mort.

Selon un reportage, l’ancien chef de l’ONU, le président des Îles Marshall , la reine de l’Hollonde , et chef de la Banque mondiale sont venus au Bangladesh dans visite officielle.