Monga returns again

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With the Eid-ul-Fitr only days away, the monga-affected people of rural areas of the northwestern region are now crowding this city and other towns desperately looking for jobs just for their survival, not to speak of celebrating the greatest religious festival of the Muslims.

Monga, a near-famine situation, hits this predominantly agricultural region in October and November each year when job opportunities for the farm workers and food stocks of peasants dry up with the main harvesting season still to begin–in December.

The government however is yet to take any special measures to create employment facilities for these sufferers by expanding its programmes like Food for Work. As a result, thousands of poor people in a vast region are exposed to serious unemployment problems at this time.

The worst affected are those who have no farm land and are naturally not eligible for farm loans, and also not covered by the government’s VGF (vulnerable group feeding) programme.

The situation this time is so bad that those who have moved to this city and other towns are now forced to sell labour for only Tk 25 to Tk 50 a day. The skyrocketing prices of essentials have added to their miseries.

Many of them told this correspondent that they have come to the city about a month ago but managed to get work for only three to seven days. Their families are now selling off household goods for survival.

Bachan Sheikh of Tentulia in Paba upazila of Rajshahi was seen waiting for work till noon yesterday at the city’s Laxmipur crossing, just as many others. He was waiting this way for the last 19 days but in vain, he said in utter frustration.

“I start walking for the town (city) just after taking sehri at my house and reach here in two and a half hours every day, ” he said narrating his plight.

Tofazzal of the same village said, “Two people took me somewhere for some work three days ago but fled away taking my bicycle”.

Another sufferer, Rabeya, said she could not sell her labour even for Tk 25 a day this season as against Tk 60 in other seasons.

Samjan Ali said he sold his only cow at Tk 9,000 last month as he did not find work.

And there are hundreds of people like Abdur Razzak of Nandangachhi in Charghat, Hazrat Ali of Kakonhat, Samjan, Shariful and Altaf of Dangerhat, who are regularly seen waiting for jobs at different places in the city including Laxmipur, Gourhanga Rail Cossing, Talaimari and Kasiadanga Crossing.

On Tuesday, while this correspondent was talking to such day labourers at Laxmipur, one Khorshed Alam went there to hire some 50 labourers for some work. More than 100 labourers gathered around him but Alam was seen selecting only the young ones for the job.

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