WAITING FOR BETTER DAYS

Every morning, day labourers arrive at certain spots to find takers for their services, and they have been getting by this way. But it all changed in March, when the coronavirus arrived. In one fell swoop, their source of livelihoods was hacked away when the government imposed a countrywide shutdown on March 26 to slow the spread of the lethal pathogen. Many of them slipped into poverty and some went back to their villages. The shutdown was lifted on May 30 and the economy took another month to properly open up. While the demand for their services returned, it is not the same as before. And even if they get lucky, the wage is much lower than before the pandemic. The photos were taken at Mirpur-1 on Tuesday.