Cyclone Aila washed away everything the people once had; now the means of income are almost next to nothing.
The second part of the stories on the cyclone Aila affected people of Bangladesh.
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| Photo: Muktadir Irtiza Miraj |
Now, the case of the shrimp farming is slightly different. It is not that the people want to work in the farms but cannot, because there are no such farms remaining to work in; rather in actuality, the people themselves do not want shrimp farms anymore here in these areas.
“The main curse for us was the shrimp farms, they made the flood embankments weak”, tells Osman Goni, a local and a witness of the destruction caused by the cyclone Aila. “Those farms made holes in the embankments, it made them weak, and then the heavy saline water washed away the materials from deep within. Finally it collapsed on the May 25 last year”.
Seasonal labor
The poor farmers now go to other distant areas during the seasons and assist other land owners to cultivate the lands. It becomes very hard for the elderly ones to do so because they have to travel to long distances for this. The people have no money, so their travels become harder too. Now, what they get by doing this seasonal labor is nowhere close to what they need even for a minimal living, the result is that they starve.
On our way through the narrow muddy roads, we found one Fakir Chondro Mondol who was trying to catch fish in the mud under the scorching sun; at least which is what it seemed to us. We stopped and looked around for a minute; everywhere we looked, we could see only barren muddy fields and stagnant water. When Mondol was finally asked for what he was doing, he confirmed our initial speculation that he was indeed trying to catch a fish. During the tide when the water starts to cease, a few fishes get stuck in the mud; he was trying to catch those. And everyday, just like this, the old man keeps on trying the way he has for the last one year.
Life goes on for these people; some have already accepted their fate and expects nothing more from anybody. As Bangladeshis, the people are quite the experts in adapting to changing scenarios. “How many days can you live without food? I can for some days; the women can too, but what about the children! They can’t. So, I am searching for whatever I can get, fish, shrimp, and anything eatable”, says Mondol, whom we met again after two and a half hours later. He was still searching for fish in that mud and could get none, for apparently there were none.
No solution rather a quick fix
There are no industries here where people can work, all of these people are farmers and that is what they know best. Now these people have almost no means of income. There were a few initiatives taken here to empower them and to engage them in different sorts of productive activities. But then again, that was not a permanent solution but a mere temporary fix. Definitely the options are very limited here because most of them are unskilled, but that is not the point. The point is that, whatever opportunities these people get (e.g. Food for work), not all can be benefited of it, not all is given a chance to take it, and finally not always it is being continued earnestly.
The scenario here is very simple; these people do not have anything to earn and live off to. The people are so helpless that they can not even come to cities and beg for money, simply because they are from good families; poor families but honest and respectful families. There’s a humanitarian crisis going on here. No, people are not dying here in numbers everyday. But one has to understand that they are dying here little by little, everyday and every moment.
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