The coronavirus pandemic has affected people of all professions in one way or another. Security guards are no different, especially the ones staying in Dhaka.
Visiting several areas, this correspondent saw security personnel in charge of various buildings living a life of despair.
All of them remain stuck within their locked down buildings all the time, except those appointed by security providing organizations and can change shifts.
Only a few of them have cooking equipment at their disposal. Their only source of food was the local eateries which are now closed due to the nationwide lockdown.
Some employers are kind enough to give them food but even then they have to travel a considerable distance to bring that food.
Abdul Goni’s family lives in Sylhet while he serves as a security guard at a building in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area.
He does not have a problem staying in the now desolate city but he finds it very difficult to manage food.
“You are the first person to ask us if we are well or not since the lockdown began,” he said to this correspondent.
“We have not received any help. There are no masks or gloves for us. There are days when we have only water and flattened rice to eat,” he added.
Another security guard who was beside him said: “The owners are wealthy people; they do not have to go outside.”
“We also have wives and children waiting for us at our homes, but we are having to stay here instead,” he remarked.
Ramzan Ali is a security guard at an ATM booth in the New Market area.
“It has been hard to find food since the general holidays began. I have had to live on only flattened rice and water as all the shops are closed right now,” he said.
A security guard at a building in Panthapath said he and others like him had not been able to eat properly as their mess was closed down.
“We do not have anything other than hand sanitizers, gloves, and masks,” he added.
Md Amzad Hossain, a supervisor at the security guard company Elite Force who works at a different building in the Panthapath area, said the building had better facilities compared to other buildings as security guards had a place to cook there and items of hygiene like gloves and sanitizers.
He urged the authorities and the building owners to at least provide food for the security guards.
