Coronavirus brings life to a halt at Mohammedpur Geneva camp
The embroidery frame has been put away along with the thread and needles. Md Mohan and his wife, who live in Block A in the Mohammedpur Geneva camp of the capital city, would embroider Mirpur katan, benarasi and georgette saris as well as shalwar-kameez sets. Now with the coronavirus outbreak, they have been out of work for the past 12 days.
Most of Biharis, or ‘stranded Pakistanis’, living in the Geneva camp are skilled in embroidery. This is their main source of income. Throughout the year the camp would be busy with needlework, but now they are out of work and distraught. Life has become uncertain.
This Rajab they had only a few qawali programmes as the coronavirus emerged and now their programmes have come to an absolute halt.
There are around 40,000 people, including nearly 7000 voters, living in the 7 blocks of the Mohammedpur Geneva camp. This is in the jurisdiction of Ward 32 of the Dhaka North City Corporation.
As the relief allocated by the city corporation was much less than the population of the camp, they drew up a list of the poorest families and handed the relief bags only to them.
Qawali singer Ghulam Aslam who lives in Block B of the camp, said that very little relief had been distributed in the camps. He has a 5-member qawali group and there are a few other groups in the camps who also earn a living by singing qawali. Their peak time is during the months of Rajab and Shaban of the Islamic calendar. They begin Rajab with qawalis of Khawaja Mainuddin Chisti and continue till Shaban. Then in Ramadan they begin the spiritual songs, ‘kashida’. They earn around Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 a month for these three months. They earn the most in this span of the time. The rest of the year they sing at weddings and other festive occasions, mostly in Old Dhaka.
This Rajab they had only a few qawali programmes as the coronavirus emerged and now their programmes have come to an absolute halt. Standing with Ghulam Aslam in front of their house on Monday, his wife Farzana said, “We are a family of four. We have no earnings now and prices have gone up in the market.” They haven’t received and assistance or relief and cannot even go begging for help. They are overridden with anxiety.
Further down the narrow lane of the congested camp, Md Hannan stands in front of his home in Block D. He works as a barber in a hairdressing salon in Mirpur. The salon is closed and he is idle at home like many others in the camp who are of the same profession. He said even his wife’s embroidery work has stopped. He said that unlike other slums, at least they don’t have to pay house rent in the camp.
Md Shaju of Block B is an electrician. Dilshad of Block A is a CNG-autorickshaw driver. They said they both earned about Tk 500 to 700 a day, but now are without work. Shaju said he was running his family somehow, but didn’t have money to go for a cup of tea at the tea stall.
Dhaka North City Corporation distributed relief in the various blocks of the camp only once. And not everyone received the relief. They are angry about this. Javed of Block G, who is a vegetable vendor, said he received relief. Yet, standing next to him, Nargis said she didn’t.
Ward councillor Nurul Islam said they had conducted a relief and health programme in the camp. The Dhaka North City Corporation had allocated 500 bags of relief for the purpose. Each bag contained 5 kg of rice, 5 kg potatoes, 2 kg dal (lentils), 1 kg onions, 1 litre oil and four bars of soap. They did not receive any relief other than this. As the relief allocated by the city corporation was much less than the population of the camp, they drew up a list of the poorest families and handed the relief bags only to them.