Golam Ashraf :
In the recent days if anybody has travelled to Gulshan-2 of the capital city Dhaka would notice that vagrancy has stepped up in this posh cosmopolitan area. For past several days consecutively I have noticed from a distance no one talks with them while some passerby are very kind to handover coins and cash money discreetly. As a citizen with a curious mind, I stepped forward to unearth the reasons for these beggars; motivated to travel by a bus from a distance and swarm the shoppers those who would visit the kitchen market regularly.
First, I talked with some of the front side shop owners and the employees of the shops of the present Dhaka North City Corporation market about the pertinent situation. Strangely, I discovered that few employees of the shops whom I knew very well for a long time told me that the reason for begging in this area is quite lucrative and also some told me the estimated amount of the money they would receive in a single day.
Next, I talked with the alms seekers and as they are senior citizens and already lunch time therefore they should retire to their place of residence timely every day and take bath, offer prayers and finish their meals. Another salesman of a shop answered, ‘if they remain clean and tidy then nobody would give them alms and moreover these help seekers prefers to wear a prayer cap and a panjabi so that the Muslim devotees coming out from the nearby mosque would have satisfaction that they could standby with the fellow Muslim brethren in the time of their need.’ I approached and talked with several of the alms seekers those who had resorted to begging! Interestingly, for continuous every day habit they were reluctant to give any answer to any of my queries but were insisting that I should handover earliest whatever amount I have to give to them the very day.
I told a lady with a relatively good look and comparatively fair-skinned seemed to me to be once member of a settled family but it was painful to hear that overnight they became poor when they lost their homestead caused by erosion from the mighty Padma River. As I occasionally, assist them with paltry sum of cash money from my pocket some are friendly with me.
I found vagrants also have a human quality of gratitude and they do not mind if I take some of their time. It was interesting when they responded and feedbacked me with that on and off foreigners staying in these nearby two five-star hotels take their snap shots with their iPhones and digital cameras. They instantly gave me additional information that some officials from the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) established in Bangladesh also visit them and time to time clicks for their photos. I found some are also politically conscious and have in depth knowledge of the most of the owners of the high rise buildings on the both sides of the current grand Gulshan Avenue.
But everybody complained to me about the owners of these high rise offices, bank, shopping mall and hotel buildings that they do not assist them by giving money to start a small business or help them with treatments for their unfortunate disabilities. They also knows about the present day richest man of Bangladesh who passes them everyday sometime before noon in a sleek brand new white coloured body and black top Mercedes Benz car with an advance patrol car filled with a company of body guards in a black coloured suit and a dark sunglass.
It seemed to me some of them have ideologies to follow! One smart fellow in a wheel chair told me that it was an inappropriate act to desert from a major political party when the two of their top leader’s one remaining in a jail hospital and the other living abroad for the treatment of fractured bones. He also reminded me about this wealthy politician of his earlier act of leaving the Jatiya Party. I told them, ‘there could be a misunderstanding between you all and the wealthiest section of the prime Gulshan Avenue.
As usual, the wealthy people living in Gulshan contribute a lot to the mosques, madrasas, orphanages, educational institutions, foundations, clubs and societies.’ From this random sample, I could assess something should be done urgently to address the severe financial inequalities prevailing in our country of the present time. The difference between me and the successive policy and decision makers of our country is about the ground realities!
Last year an enumerator from the Ministry of Planning visited our apartment building in Gulshan and I requested our apartment manager to treat him with tea and biscuits from our flat while I would change my clothing to meet him at the waiting area in the ground floor of our apartment building. The gentleman would not receive my hospitality as I told our manager that out of seventeen flat owners of our building five of them are cruising on 7.5 % GDP growth while twelve owners are left out from the current prosperous growth rate.
Honestly, from my childhood very often I used to and still now travel by a bus, train, launch, taxi, CNG auto rickshaw, tempo and cycle rickshaws but I hardly ever found our successive policy and decision makers of East Pakistan era and later during the last forty-eight years travelling by aforesaid means of transport which definitely brings close to the mass people and could understand the actual and factual situations existing in our country.
I often utilise services from the computer operators available at the stationery shops located in commercial buildings around Gulshan-1 and Gulshan-2 areas. I also find the preceding person or a group scanning and again preparing bills from that of the last year that was cleared by payment with replacing the earlier billed amounts with higher amounts for submission in the current year in a large scale. Some literate people of our society should be ashamed for preparing false bills without accomplishing any visible or tangible works.
The major political parties should have a credible think tank which could recommend in writings to all the sitting parliamentarians how to urgently address about the resurgence of the vagrants in entire Gulshan area and also loitering in the other prime locations across the country.
(Golam Ashraf, Dhaka; email: [email protected])
