Kabir Hossain :
Forty-year-old widow Sumi runs her family by harvesting water lilies grown in the Chandani pond in Rajbari Sadar Upazila. Every morning, she goes down to the pond with her nine-year-old son Hridoy. Along with water lilies, she also collects water lilies. Later, she sits on the side of the road at Rajbari’s Notun Bazar intersection and sells them in bundles. Although each bundle is sold for five taka, she earns no more than three to four hundred taka a day on average.
Sumi said that her husband died ten years ago. Since then, her struggling life has begun. She has given a daughter in marriage, and is struggling to survive with her younger son Hridoy. She has no place to lay her head—she lives in a house next door. She has to pay 1,200 taka a month in rent. The family survives on the income from selling water lilies during the water lily season, and has to work in other people’s houses after the season. Still, she has not received any government assistance.
The future of her nine-year-old son Hridoy is also uncertain. At the age when he was supposed to go to school, he went down to the beel with his mother to pick water lilies and help in selling them by tying them. This daily reality seems to have taken away his childhood.
Local grocer Nurannabi Babu said, “For several days now, Sumi has been sitting in front of my shop selling water lilies. Poor people—if they earn a few taka sitting here, their family can survive. If they get government support, this family would benefit a lot.”
Sumi goes down to the rotten water of the beel to pick water lilies every day. It makes his body itch, and he has trouble sleeping at night. Nevertheless, the mother and son continue to struggle because of their stomach.
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