Daily wage laborers in Dhaka face mounting job insecurity as informal job markets struggle amid economic hardship
Photo Collected
As the sun rises over Dhaka’s Mirpur-1, long before the city’s bustle fully begins, a makeshift labor market flickers to life on the roadside footpaths. Hundreds of daily wage earners—masons, carpenters, tile setters, and laborers—gather here with shovels, buckets, and worn-out bags, waiting to be “purchased” for a day’s toil. This informal exchange, a fixture of the area for decades, sees between 400 and 500 workers assemble daily from dawn until 10:00 a.m., desperate to secure enough work to survive the rising cost of living.
For many, the market is a last resort. Seventy-year-old Mohammad Sultan, a veteran laborer who once worked as a taxi driver, has spent three decades in the city struggling to provide for his elderly wife in Shariatpur. Without a home in the capital, Sultan spends his nights on the street, clutching his national ID card and spare clothes. According to a report by Prothom Alo, he has been unable to find consistent work since the Eid holidays, leaving him with an empty pocket and skipping meals for days.
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The struggle is echoed by the women who congregate on the steps of nearby buildings, often facing systemic discrimination and lower pay. Parul Akter, 42, has worked in construction for 15 years to support her sick husband and three children. She noted that employers are often reluctant to hire women, and when they do, the wages are meager. Similarly, Rina Begum, a widow for two decades, balances the expenses of a rented home in North Bishil with the fluctuating income she earns as a daily laborer. Between her own earnings and her mother’s domestic work, the family lives on a razor-thin margin, where missing a single day of work means missing a meal.
The daily ritual of seeking employment is defined by a tense competition. When contractors arrive, they are swarmed by hopeful workers, leaving those not selected to return to the silence of the footpath. Many, like 39-year-old mason Mohammad Siraj, report that work has become increasingly scarce, marking a sharp decline from years when consistent employment was the norm. Others, such as 60-year-old Ghaffar Hossain, carry the crushing weight of debt—nearly 150,000 taka—incurred just to maintain a basic standard of living.
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By 10:00 a.m., the window for finding work effectively closes. Those who remain empty-handed begin the trek back to crowded messes or rented shanties, uncertain of when their next meal will come. For these laborers, the disappointment of the morning is merely a prologue to the following day, when they will return to the same patch of concrete, waiting once more to see what the day might hold.
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