Documentary name:Beggars’ Market
Thousands marginalized are living with extreme poverty in this Dhaka city. The beggar is an exposed symbol of ultra poor. Near by Shajahanpur Railway Colony ground has a beggars’ gathering place where they sales rice, old cloth and materials collected by begging from door to door. This place can be called, “Beggars’ market”. It starts every afternoon with 30 to 40 beggars. The local people don’t know well about this gather, although it is continuing regularly since last 30 years. Most of their clients of this market are marginalized slum dwellers, rickshaw pullers and garments workers. Here the price of mixed rice is less than normal market price. Every beggar generally brings three to four kilograms rice in which per kg price 20 to 22 taka. With a vision for a better life, the beggars generally come at Dhaka from villages of the poor districts Jamalpur, Barisal, Rangpur, Nilphmari and Thagoregaon. In this Shajaanpur area they are begging at Bashabo, Malibagh, Khilgaon, Tikatuli, Shahjahanpur and Rampura. Most of the beggars are river eroded victims, landless, physically and mentally disable. The crude reality most of all have lost the human dignity and self-reliance potentiality. They have taken begging as the last choose for existence. All though government has declare to help aged and disable, but they don’t get any support.
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Script, multimedia and direction: Shahjahan Siraj; Production associates: Zia, Adittya and Arman; © Machizo Multimedia, 2007;