Buriganga boatmen struggle to keep their head above water in pandemic

At the crack of dawn, Abdus Salam gets on his boat and prepares to ferry passengers across the Buriganga River. But, as the day wears on and the sun beats down on his head, the 58-year-old boatman wonders how he will make do with the Tk 100 he has managed to earn.

"Before [the pandemic] I used to make Tk 600-700 a day,” Salam said, the weariness and despair clear in his voice.

“How will I pay the money I need to rent the boat? How will I survive?"

A resident of Keraniganj’s Zinzira Bazar, Salam has been a boatman on the Buriganga for the past 40 years.

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across Bangladesh, it has bruised the economy and battered people on low income. The boatmen on the Buriganga are another of the pandemic’s victims.

Before the COVID outbreak, a boat was allowed to carry six passengers, each of whom would be charged Tk 5. A boatman could earn Tk 30 from a single trip.

But now authorities only allow four passengers on a boat in a bid to maintain health protocols. They have, however, allowed fares to double to Tk 10 per person. In theory, a boatman could earn more, making Tk 40 from one trip.

But it is not enough to offset the drastic fall in the number of passengers, and the boatmen are unhappy.

The week-long lockdown imposed on Jul 1 has made things worse for Salam and his fellow boatmen. The number of people looking to cross has dwindled.

Most of them idle through the third and fourth day of the lockdown, waiting for passengers who never came at the Lalkuthi, Farashganj, Wiseghat and Badamtoli boat piers.

The boatmen say small traders and shop workers make up the bulk of their regular fares. For the last three days, very few of them had come to the pier. Usually, a boat would fill in five minutes, now they stay empty for half an hour or longer.

“We have no support. We've been sitting idle for the last three days,” Salam said.

The total lockdown has changed the scene at the Badamtoli Fruit Market near the Sadarghat as well. The ever-bustling marketplace, one of the largest bazaars for local and exotic fruit, is now nearly empty.

Around 300 boats usually make the trip between the Badamtoli pier and the Alam Market in Zinzira every day. It has now dropped to 150.

“The only reason I'm surviving this lockdown is that I have sent my family to our village home,” said Shahadat Hossain, a boatman who works at Alam Market.

“On a regular day, I would have made Tk 500-600 by now. Today I’ve only earned Tk 180. After paying the boat rental at the end of the day, I may only be left with Tk 200. It's really difficult to survive.”

Most of the boatmen do not own their boats. They rent them, paying Tk 100 a day. They also have to pay a tax to the pier.

“I've been rowing boats at this jetty for 15 years,” said Md Zafar, who works at the Lalkuthi pier. “We'd faced similar problems at the beginning of the lockdown last year. But this year is even worse.

"We’re hardly getting any passengers," added Zafar. "We've to take a serial number and wait for about half an hour before we can make a trip. After paying rent and taxes, I make only Tk 150.”

“Yes, the fare was raised from Tk 10 from Tk 5, but what's the point? There are no passengers,” said Md Abdul Kashem, who also works at the Lalkuthi pier.

“I brought passengers here from Tel Ghat after an hour of waiting. I don’t know how long I will have to wait now.”

“How can we get passengers if people don’t leave home?” asked Gafur Mia, a boatman of about 60 years of age at Farashganj.

Fewer passengers mean longer wait times for each boatman.

“It takes an hour or so before the serial moves along,” said an exasperated Gafur.

“I don’t know if people believe me, but I can’t make enough money to afford a proper meal.”