Tiny sellers of small pieces of meat

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By Bristy Rahman

DHAKA, Dec 3, 2017 (BSS) – Tiny sellers of small pieces of meat are seen during the Eid-ul-Azha popularly known as the Qurbani eid. These small sellers don’t see a single piece of meat months after months due to skyrocketing price of beef.

The Qurbani eid is the only festival for them when they get pleasure of eating meat and selling extra one.

The small sellers in groups go to the capital and other big cities from villages to collect meat during Qurbani eid.

The day before the eid day, the poor people irrespective of children, juveniles, males and females throng to Dhaka and other big cities by trains or buses.

After getting down from the trains and buses they eat bread and banana and later spread out different areas of the cities to collect meat.

Everybody holds a polythene or jute bag where they keep small pieces of meat, bone or tallow of the sacrificial animals.

Emon is such a boy who came from Gafargaon of Mymensingh. The lanky boy got enrolled to a local school, but later left it as he didn’t feel well to pursue study. “Teachers always used to rebuke me, that’s why, I left the school,” he recalled.

Emon said he has been coming to Dhaka with their team leader “Badal Bhai” for the last three years to collect meat during the Qurbani eid. “I don’t find any problem to reach Dhaka by train as we don’t need ticket … Badal Bhai manages everything,” he said with smile.

The distribution of meat of the people who give Qurbani varies from each other. Emon said some people donate one piece of meat and one piece of bone, while some give tallow.

However, there are some people who donate one or half a kilo meat.

Those who collect meat by going door-to-door of the well-off people also get paunch from them. The meat collectors get about 10/12 paunches as the people have lost their interest in it due to their health consciousness.

Emon said they have brought lime to clean the paunches, and the restaurant owners purchase half of the paunches that they collect. The common middle class people also buy paunches.

The meat collectors sell the meat and paunches at about half of the market price. As much as meat they can collect, they couldn’t take the entire meat to the home as some meat is rotten on the way.

Emon in his Mymensing accent said the main buyers of this meat is middle class and lower middle class people.

Shahidul Islam is another such a boy who sells small pieces of meat during the Qurbani eid. Most of the boys and juveniles who sell small pieces of meat come from lower class families and are almost illiterate.

Shahidul is exceptional from others as he reads in class five. He said he joined Emon’s group to sell meat as their family is living with abject poverty.

Shahidul said he took two ox paunches and five-kg of meat to their village home last year after collecting those from Dhaka.

When he was asked that eating ox paunches is how much hygienic, he said with smile that he heard that it’s not good for health, but they consume it for once that is during Qurbani eid.

“We eat vegetables, lentils or small fishes on other days of the year,” he said, adding his favourite food is vermicelli with milk.

The number of sellers of small pieces of meat is increasing day by day. During the remaining time of the year, they sell vegetables and dried food.

Some of today’s small meat sellers will undoubtedly become a successful businessman in future. But they will have to face many hurdles to the way of becoming good citizens. To avoid it, ensuring mandatory participation of these small traders in education system is very much needed.