Beggars crowd Dhaka streets, labourers plead for help as costs rise

Despite numerous poverty initiatives, the recent spike in the cost of living means that people are unable to cope

Nur Hossain is selling bags on a bus. He calls out several times, trying to attract sales, but finds no takers. Then he goes to the passengers one by one.

“Please take a bag, brother!” he says. “The quality is very good, and it only costs Tk 30.”

“Can I show you one, please? Check it yourself. Take it if you like."

The passengers looked at the bags, but not a single person bought one.

Desperate, Nur Hossain pleaded with them: “I can’t feed my family. This job doesn’t give me enough. Please help this incapable man with Tk 10, even if you don’t want to take a bag.”

Nur came to Dhaka from Bhola’s Swarajganj three decades ago after he lost his home to river erosion. He was asking for help on a Mirpur-bound bus in Dhaka’s New Market area after he was unable to sell his bags.

He came to the capital in search of work and began living in Kamrangirchar, Nur told bdnews24.com.

He started a job in a workshop. In 2017, after being severely injured in an accident, he lost his ability to do strenuous physical work.

He tried setting up some small businesses but suffered huge losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then he has started hawking goods in public areas. But, as the cost of living has skyrocketed, he is struggling to cope and it forces him to beg sometimes.

The pandemic that began three years ago and the global economic crisis caused by the nearly year-long Russia-Ukraine war have pushed many people like Nur into poverty, unemployment and begging in Dhaka.

Experts say that despite the various government steps to prevent poverty and begging, people are unable to cope due to the rise in commodity prices and the increase in the cost of living.

After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the number of people begging door to door suddenly shot up in Dhaka, though the number had dropped significantly in the years before that. When the lockdown started, the wheels of the economy practically ground to a standstill, leaving poor working people in the informal sector with no choice but to beg.

The coronavirus has ebbed, but on the road to recovery, Bangladesh’s economy has taken a beating from the war in Ukraine. The earnings of low-income people have not increased, but the cost of living has soared.

Fifty-year-old Zainab used to work as a household aide or cook only a short time ago. Now she begs from shop to shop in Mirpur’s central Manipur area.

"I have been begging for four to five months now. I worked [as a household aide] at one house for ten years before the pandemic. When the father lost his job during the coronavirus pandemic, they could not afford to keep me any longer. After that, I worked in a few more houses. I don't get work anymore, so I ask people for food,” Zainab said.

Mohammad Jahangir Alam, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, believes that hawkers and labourers like Nur or Zainab are resorting to begging due to the decrease in people's purchasing power.

He told bdnews24.com, "Since there is a discussion of famine ahead, and the prices of daily necessities have gone up, people have cut back on excess spending. People used to buy things from roadside or bus hawkers before this, but now they are buying less.

“This has an impact on these hawkers and labourers. Earlier, one might have earned Tk 500-700 a day, but it has now dropped to Tk 250-300. They are unable to feed their families with this money, so they are pleading for alms.”

According to the latest census report, Dhaka is a megacity of more than 10 million people. Due to climate change, many people come to this city every year in search of work. Professor Jahangir believes that this is also the reason for the increase in beggars.

He said, "When facing serious poverty, the people of this country think of leaving their home villages and coming to Dhaka because [they believe] it's all here. But many fail to get work and resort to begging.”

Questions have also been raised in parliament as to why there are a large number of beggars in Dhaka city despite numerous social safety net (SSN) programmes. On Nov 6, ruling Awami League MP AKM Rahmatullah posed a question on the matter to Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed and sought steps to stop begging.

Rahmatullah said, "The government is in its third consecutive term. We were in power in 1996 as well. We are providing many allowances, including an old age allowance. We have given houses to those who do not have any. But still, even today, ten people were asking for alms on the street on my way here.”

“We're bringing everything within the scope of social programmes. We have shelter projects. We are providing all kinds of help. We are not supposed to have beggars on the streets. They shouldn’t be there. My question is – what steps will be taken for them?.”

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke to me about the influx of beggars in Dhaka city. We have formed a plan to solve it,” Nuruzzaman said in response.

CORONAVIRUS, THE KEY FACTOR

The number of beggars has increased in the city, believes Ali Ahammad, a disabled man who has been begging for alms in the New Market area for over a decade.

“Before this, it was only those who were poor and crippled who begged for alms. Now fit and healthy people do it too, and we can’t compete with them. I know around 10 to 12people who started begging after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic as they don’t have a job. People also do not give out as many alms as they used to. They don’t have money either.”

Jahura Begum, who started begging for alms recently, said her husband worked as a porter in Najirabazar and they were saving to start a shop of their own.

“We have had no work since the coronavirus pandemic hit and have passed our days in gruelling hardship. We used up all of our savings to get by. Now my husband can’t work as a porter due to his age. We married off our daughters and have no son to look after us. Thus I have no option but to beg for alms as we need to feed ourselves,” she said.

Jahura said the other beggars try to drive her away from ‘their territory’ as she is new.

More people seek financial help these days, feels Tahmina Tabassum, a private university student who came to New Market to shop.

“Begging has increased across the country over the last few years. Whenever I reach the entrance to New Market many people [beggars] come and surround me [asking for alms]. If I give alms to one, then the others feel bad. So sometimes I don’t give alms to anyone.”

On Friday after the Jummah prayer, at least 50 beggars were seen near the Gausul Azam Jame Mosque in Mohakhali. They rush to ask anyone coming to the mosque for alms.

“I beg for alms as I have no option. When I was young, I pulled a rickshaw, but now I can’t due to my age. Also, I have no one to take care of me,” said Sadek Ali, a beggar.

Seven of the beggars near the Mohakhali mosque say they started begging after losing their jobs due to the pandemic. Some of them were labourers, some were security guards at residential buildings and some worked as domestic help.

“I had a small stall selling cigarettes and betel leaves at the jetty. I lost it all during the pandemic. I have no capital left. Poverty has hit me hard and I can’t look after my family anymore. Throughout my life, I gave alms to others and now I am begging for alms. This is so painful,” said Azmat Mia.

Some shopkeepers in the neighbourhoods of Mohakhali and Mirpur said the number of beggars has increased after the COVID pandemic. These days around a hundred beggars come to seek alms, said Shah Alam, a grocer in Kazipara. “I can’t give alms to everyone. Each day I see new people begging. If I have small changes I give it to them, otherwise I say sorry and move on,” he said.

It is quite evident that more people are begging for alms in Dhaka, said economist Anu Mohammad. “You can see more beggars on Dhaka’s streets. Ministers and MPs may say there are no beggars in Dhaka as no one approaches their cars. But we can see it. Beggars are going to households and neighbourhoods these days, which was not the case a few years ago.”

LABOURERS TURNING BEGGARS

Shefali, a young woman, was asking pedestrians for financial help near the Mohakhali Wireless Gate. She came to Dhaka all the way from Kamarer Char in Sherpur along with her sister to work in garment factories. But she never got a job.

“Many women [from my village home] and who live in Chairmanbari in Banani said that I would get a job. But it has been 13 days since I got here. They tell me no garment factories are recruiting now. I can’t even go back home. So I am asking people for help until I get a job,” she said.

Mosammat Shanoor was begging for alms while carrying her two-year-old child near the Shah Ali Market at Mirpur 10. She has other jobs as well.

“I work as a domestic help to three houses from the morning to the afternoon and earn Tk 3,000 per month. My husband pulls a rickshaw. I come here to the market in the evening to seek financial help, but I don’t beg. I have a small child and a family to run. We have to pay the room rent as well. Whatever my husband and I earn is spent on that. I get around Tk 400-500 if I come here in the evening. I can buy food with that.”

Sumon Mia used to work as an agricultural labourer but earned very little. “I came to Dhaka because someone said I would get work here. But no one employs an unknown labourer. I get to do odd jobs sometimes, and when I don’t I beg for food from people like you,” he said.

More people are living below the poverty line now, said Prof Anu Muhammad. “A big group of people are suffering from the financial crisis after the coronavirus pandemic, and the government did not have a long-term plan for it. In the industrial factories, many people were laid off, while those workers in the informal sector were hit the hardest.”

Those people did not have a secure income and also had no place to seek help, the economist said. “That’s what triggered all these uncertainties and they went into debt.”

In working-class families, every member steps up to work and contributes to the family when there is a crisis. But now the prices of essentials have risen so high that they cannot manage anymore, he said. “That’s why they are taking to the streets and begging from others.”

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

To prevent begging in Dhaka city, initially, the city corporations announced some neighbourhoods as ‘beggar-free zones,’ said the Department of Social Services.

These include the junction at the east of the entrance to the airport, Airport Police Outpost and surrounding areas, Areas near Radisson hotel, VIP Road, Baily Road, and roads adjacent to Hotel Sonargaon, Hotel Ruposhi Bangla, Rabindra Sarani and the diplomatic zone.

A Ministry of Social Welfare project regarding begging has been ongoing since 2010, but it has not fixed the situation. The government allocated Tk 750 million from the 2010-11 to 2022-23 fiscal year for this project and Tk 420 million was spent. At least 14,707 people benefited from the project.

Also, 16 temporary dormitories are being set up in the open space inside five government shelters to keep the beggars detained by the mobile court in the beggar-free zone of Dhaka.

A total of 2,600 beggars were detained in 130 mobile court drives in the Dhaka area in the fiscal year 2021-2022. At least 1,805 of them were released under the condition that they would not beg again, as there was no space to keep them. The other 795 people were sent to different shelter homes.

The government has provided a fund to the deputy commissioners to rehabilitate the beggars, said Md Shah Jahan, deputy director of the Department of Social Welfare. “They will get the benefit if they go back to their village homes, but they never want to,” he said.

“We do public service announcements, and take them to the rehabilitation centres. But they resume begging after a while. They enjoy it as they can earn money without doing any work.”

State Minister for Social Welfare Md Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru did not agree that the number of beggars has increased in Dhaka. “The number did not increase, but the beggars have concentrated on specific areas at different times,” he said.

The government has been working to rehabilitate the beggars, he said. “We have different projects to rehabilitate the beggars. We even provided houses for some of them. But after some time, they sell those houses and come to Dhaka. This is because they can earn without doing anything. Also, the economic crisis across the world has an impact on the situation.”

He said some of the young beggars are nothing but drug users. They are professional beggars and it is very hard to prevent them from begging. The way the government is providing allowances and other financial help, they should not continue to beg, he said.

“But they keep begging as it is an easy way to earn without any capital or work. This is why we can’t stop these people from begging.”

[Writing in English by Arshi Fatiha Quazi and Sabrina Karim Murshed; editing by Shoumik Hassin]