Guljar Hossain is an old Rickshaw puller of Dhaka city. His age is almost 75. His age may not be capable any more to earn his livelihood by himself but it’s his irony of fate that he has to do such hard work like pulling rickshaw. Guljar lives with his wife in a small shabby hut in Mirpur 13. He has to pull his rickshaw every day to earn his livelihood. He has become too old to pull a rickshaw properly. But he has to do such hard work just for his livelihood. Guljar Hossain was born in Pramanikvari village of Kathalbari Union in Kurigram. His father was a day laborer. He had 5 brothers and 4 sisters. His father had to go through a lot of hard work to support his family. The earning of his father was insufficient for his family. He had to take hold of his family for being the eldest son of the family. He had no affection for education. His poverty forced him to earn some money for his family. He used to earn taka 1 or 2 during the 60’s, which is like tk 500/600 in present days. But he wasn’t a livelihood every day for being a child. His father was also unable to manage works regularly for his growing age. As a result, economic crisis was there regular problem. He got married in 1970. But after marriage, it was more important for him to manage a decent livelihood. He started doing the business of rice and pulse after the liberation war of Bangladesh. He used to wholesale rice and sell them in a retailed way in the village market. But his fund was too little for expanding his business. On the other hand the demand of products is poor in a village market. As a result he had a small business. He wasn’t able to sell more than 40 kgs rice at that time. His profit was 2/3 tk after selling them. He started doing wood business after 2 years. At first he used to buy a tree. Then he used to sell the tree log in the saw mill and used to sell the rest of the tree as fire woods. He had to pay 2 or 3 workers 10 tk to help him cut those trees and woods. The van fair was 100tk. It used to take more than 2 days to cut a big tree. He used to earn 1000tk in this way. He settled down in the wood business because it was more profitable than the rice business. He was doing well but his illness became a problem. He hurt his back one day while carrying a big log. This did quite a damage to his kidneys. He took a treatment from the Upazilla Health Complex. After that he suffered from Typhoid and Diarrhea. And after being sick in a regular interval he used all his money for his treatment. He had no savings for being poor and he became a father of several children at that time. He used all his savings and also lost his ability of doing hard works for his injury. So he had no option but to pull a rickshaw. When he was asked if faced any problem while puling rickshaw for his injury he replied, “ I feel pain in my back. But it’s easier than my previous business. And the village can’t provide you with suitable jobs and it’s difficult to survive there without any jobs.” He came to Dinajpur in 1988 in order to earn more. He used to live in a small room with his wife, 2 sons and 3 daughters. At that time his house rent was 200tk. He came to Dhaka after living there for 2 years. He came to Dhaka because the earning was good here comparing to Dinajpur. Besides he came to Dhaka because a lot people used to pull rickshaw in Dhaka who were the resident of Dinajpur. He used to live in Kazipara when he first came to Dhaka. He returned to his village after 2 years. He started his wood business in a different way. He hired people to make furniture such as chairs and tables. First of all his savings were insufficient to buy quality woods and secondly furniture made from Neem wood were cheap but the salary he used to pay the workers were same. So he managed to get a little profit from the business. So he returned to Dhaka. He resided in Mohammadpur and Natunbazar of Mirpur 13 for few days. Though he is 75 now, he has to pull rickshaw for a livelihood. He lives in a small house that has a poor display of furniture. Just a bed for sleeping and a hanger to hang clothes. He has to pay 3000tk every month for this small house. Other rickshaw pullers are paying the same amount like him for living in such small houses. When he is asked about pulling rickshaw he says, “it’s hard to pull a rickshaw at this age. But there’s no option because we have to earn money to survive.” He doesn’t get too many passengers. People usually avoid riding his rickshaw because he is old. He gives 2 reasons for this. First, he can’t pull a rickshaw fast and second, they feel uncomfortable while riding his rickshaw because he is old. People give him extra 5 or 10tk sometime for these reasons. He gets fewer passengers for these reasons. He can’t manage to pull another passenger or more after one trip, if he doesn’t get rest or eat something. The young guys manage to earn 800/900tk everyday but he earns 400/500tk. His neat income is 300/4ootk every day because he has to pay 100tk as a fair. A rickshaw puller has no fixed working time. You have to pay 100tk everyday if you want to bring out your rickshaw. One can return the rickshaw at 3/4pm after taking the rickshaw at 6 am. Sometimes he pulls his rickshaw in the night. Many rickshaw puller do this cause they can earn more at that time. But he can’t pull rickshaw the next morning if he pulls the rickshaw at night. He tells that a rickshaw puller pulls a rickshaw for almost 10 hours in Dhaka while other workers have to work for 8/9 hours in various working sectors. But he gives an example of himself that when he pulls rickshaw in the morning, he takes rest in the market after earning some money. Then he pulls the rickshaw again and goes home for lunch. But how much one can earn in this way? Even you have to go through such pain during the sunny days and the rainy season. He has to suffer from hunger if he doesn’t do that. Talking to him we get the information that, now a days a lot of people from the village are coming to Dhaka to pull rickshaws. There is no such work in the village or even there’s no food supply throughout the year if they doesn’t do hard labors. Apart from increasing auto rickshaws in the district, rickshaw rentals have also increased. As a result, the common people do not ride a rickshaw now. Then they are forced to move to Dhaka after being forced. He has been living a very inhuman life for his life and execution. He said, "We are dragging people. But we do not get what we need to eat. We are leading our life through eating pule.” Asked about his food list, he said, 5 days a week, it is necessary to eat pulses and vegetables. He buys small fish from the market for 2/1 days. He doesn’t get to eat meat. They can’t buy any meat even after the Eid sacrifices. Occasionally they buy chicken but it is 1/2 times a month. He and his family could not even buy new clothes. Not only in Eid, at other times of the year, they can’t buy a good dress. His dream was to educate his children to shine in life. But because of poverty and lack of concentration towards education by his children did not fulfill his wish. And his boys were his resources. His eldest son studied up to class 5 and younger son studied up to class 3. His eldest son got separated from his family after marriage 7/8 years ago. He lives in Kazipara and runs a CNG. His income is good, but has no responsibility for his parents. This is the main reason for his sorrow. His younger son used to work in a garment factory but the pay was little. Then he left his job and went to the village. He works as a day-laborer in the village. Although Gulzar Hossain's two daughters got married, one of her daughters is in class 9th class. She and his brother are living in their maternal home. He had to sell his homeland because of treatment and lack of it. Only his elder son keeps contact with them. But he can’t help them much because of lower income. Besides, the cost of teaching his younger sister is also up to him. Otherwise, Gulzar Hossain owns no assets. The land that was found in the paternal heights in his village also had to be sold due to illness. As a reason for selling the land, he said that his father had 3 bighas of land and they were 5 brothers and 4 sisters. He had to sell the land during the marriage of his sisters. The percentage he got after his sisters’ marriage was just 15%. He is pulling the rickshaw because he is totally broke and he has no other option. As an old man, he has to spend the day with various problems. On his way to life, his main problems are: 1. Physical problems: Gulzar Hossain is seventy three years old now. He is going through several physical problems. At this age, everyone suffers from old age diseases. He is no exception. He has pain in his whole body. He also has kidney issues. When he ran wood business, he got hurt and since then he has been suffering from kidney problem. After getting cured by taking medicine he never consulted a doctor. But he needs to go through regular check-ups. Other than this, he suffered from typhoid once. He needs to see a doctor on a regular basis but because of poverty he fails to do that. Because of this, his physical condition is deteriorating. He cannot afford medical service. 2. Economic problems: One of the most notable problems of the old people is their economic condition. Gulzar Hossain is going through the same experience. At the end of the month, managing the rent of the house becomes impossible for him. He is no longer fit enough to do any work, he thinks. At this point of life he has nothing to do other than relying upon his sons. The name of his wife is Fatima. She says, “After getting marrying, sons change.” More than that, he can no longer pull the rickshaw properly, any longer. They have a very little income and no savings. Gulzar Hossain, now, thinks that if they had saved little, it would be a lot better. He would be able to run the family smoothly. 3. Loneliness: At this stage of his life, Gulzar Hossain has become alone. He says, “Old people want to spend the rest of their life with their children. We are not lucky enough. I still have to struggle with the rickshaw. I don’t enjoy this life.” This means, he wants to stay with his children. Because of financial crisis, he is not being able to do this. 4. Excessive labor: He says, “This not the age of doing the hard-work. Still, I am burdened with excessive amount of work. I cannot continue pulling the rickshaw for a long time at a stretch. Compared to other rickshaw-pullers, my income is low. People usually don’t want to get on my rickshaw because of my age. I cannot pull the rickshaw very fast either. After daylong work, I earn a very little. That’s why I continue pulling even in the night.” Just to fulfill the basic demands Gulzar Hossain has to do excessive work. He, basically, covers the area Mirpur 10 to 13. He also goes to Kochukhet. He never takes other routes. For him, this route is more comfortable since traffic jam is way less problematic here. In other routes, traffic jam is more terrific. In the middle of jam and under very high temperature he has to wait for passengers. The roads are not very good and he has to go through severe pain. Still, just fulfill the basic demands like food he has to come out of the house every day. He says “Even the young people struggle pulling rickshaw around here. But what option do I have? I don’t take other routes. If I want to survive I have to do the work.” 5. Crisis in medical treatment: Gulzar Hossain, along with his whole family, is going through severe medical treatment crisis. He and his wife are old people. Because of old age they have to see doctors on regular basis. Because of poverty, they cannot do that. They are deprived of medical service. They can see doctors at government hospitals for free but they cannot buy the medicine that the doctors prescribe. That’s why they don’t go for treatment. Gulzar Hossain says, “Maybe we will die like this”. Doctors and medical service are for the rich people”. 6. Inability to work: Because of his old age, Gulzar Hossain has lost his ability to work. Gradually his ability will keep getting lessened. He has no idea for how long he is going to able to pull the rickshaw. After three to four years he might get totally unable to work. He is not being able to work anymore. When we asked him about his plans he replied us that if he gets any work that he can do from his home he will do that. He will do any work that does not require going outside. He basically wants a job like a security guard. He can do this without moving much and that’s why he is interested in this profession. More than that, he thinks that this is not going to harm him physically. 8. Housing crisis: Gulzar hossain lets us know that the way they are living is inhumane. After talking to him we got to know that, most of the rickshaw pullers in Dhaka city are living like this- inhumanly. The housing crisis is same for all of them. The house owners in Dhaka city make small rooms close to each other for people like them. These rooms are given on rent. In order to rent each room one must pay 2500-3000 taka per month. That’s why, for most of them, renting more than one room is impossible. But the condition of the rooms is terrible. These are tin shaded rooms and in the summer the temperature becomes unbearable. At this age bearing that temperature is too tough. Besides, when heavy rain or storm takes place, the roof is damaged and water gets into the rooms. The house owners take a lot of time to repair the damage. For young peope, this problem is less difficult to face than the old ones 9. Misbehavior: Gulzar Hossain let us know that he has to face fights and misbehavior every now and then. If he parks the rickshaw in front of any shop or if he does so in a narrow road, the people behave very rudely. He says, “Who behave with me with such manner are most of the time of the age of my son. When they do these things, I cannot stand them. In the city, there is no place to park rickshaw. If I want to take a break or if I want to eat, I must park the rickshaw. I need a place. Sometimes cars cross the roads where I park the rickshaw. Sometimes there is a shop not very far from the place I have parked it. They behave very rudely. Sometimes, the passengers behave rudely. For people of such age, it is very hard to deal with this kind of rudeness.” That means, if you come out with your rickshaw, you will have to face so much misbehavior. 10. Inability to fulfill the demands in festivals: Gulzar Hossain and his wife, in most of the festivals, fail to fulfill their desires, especially, in Eids. He says, “We don’t get to eat properly the whole year. When Eid comes, we feel like wearing new clothes and eating quality food. But one son of me has totally forgotten our existence. The other son is jobless. That’s why for me, festivals are like every other ordinary days.” He let us know that in last Eid he could not buy any new clothes for them. In Eid-Ul-Adha, let alone sacrificing, he could not buy any meat. Just because the house owner gave them some meat, they could taste some good food. In order to earn money, Gulzar continues working even in the Eid days. He told us that Eid day and 2-3 next days, he can earn extra money. So even if he does not like to go out for work he has to. That’s why Gulzar Hossain goes out with his rickshaw even in the times of festivals. While he was telling this, he started crying. 11. Lack of nutrition: One can tell just by looking at Gulzar Hossain and his wife that they are suffering from lack of nutrition. Let alone balanced diet, they don’t even have enough nutritious food to eat. They eat rice and vegetables five days a week. He goes to market and buys some cheap fish once or twice in a week. They cannot afford good food. He also let us know that the price of things is really high. It gets tough to even afford vegetable, let alone fish and meat. They cannot even think about it. Thus, they are getting sicker day by day. Old age demands more nutritious foods. Moreover, he does a hard work like rickshaw-pulling. He needs more nutritious food. Because of poverty, Gulzar Hossain fails provide nutrition to his family. 12. The lack enthusiasm to do any other work: At present, if he wants to stop the rickshaw-pulling work and start a new work like setting a small road-side shop, it will be impossible for him. If he wants to start a small business he needs capital which he does not have. He cannot take a loan from the bank because he doesn’t have any property to use as mortgage. He cannot take micro credits. As a reason, he said, starting the business with small loans will lead him to start paying back before he starts making profit. Besides, if you cannot pay for repayment or delay in payment, then people from the office will come and insult you. Sometimes, they take away personal belongings. Gulzar Hossain first caught the attention of ProChESTA in the September of 2017. In order to know the details of his suffering ProChESTA talked to him. On the other hand, for a better understanding of his situation, his neighboring rickshaw-pullers have also been talked with. After that, he got included in ProChESTA. Talking to him, it was decided what kind of business would suit them the most. Initially, he started the business of selling sharee and lungi. Gradually he started making profit. currently, he and his wife is continuing this business and Gulzar sells sharee and lungi on street and his wife sells those goods walking from house to house. In their experience they are found that this business is more profitable than pulling rickshaw. He now can pay his rent properly and he is living a healthy life now. He now has to work less. Now he eats nutritious food and gets proper medical service