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Radiance of the Obscurity: The daily life of Jatra  
 
  Amrao Manush
 

    
   

15,000 to 20,000 people sleep and spend the day on the pavements of Dhaka city. These are some of the most vulnerable people in the country, with few assets enabling them to cope with life and a political, social and economic context that virtually ignores them. Pavement dwellers are engaged in a variety of activities, including being porters, labourers unloading trucks in markets, rickshaw-pullers, maidservants, sex traders and waste recyclers. These people are deprived of the basic necessities like food, shelter, health, and security. They are conscious about their identities as human beings, although they are living an inhumane life. ‘Amrao manush’ is a Bangla phrase that means "We are humans too". The number of pavement dwellers increased at about the same rate with the increasing population of Dhaka. A significant cause of the city’s rapid population growth is urban migration, including both people being pushed out of rural areas because they have lost resources to floods, debt or other disasters and people being pulled to Dhaka by the promise of better opportunities. Now is the right time to think about this community of victims swept behind by the seemingly unstoppable tide of urban migration.

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A group of pavement dwellers entertaining themselves in Osmani Uddyan (a park in Dhaka) singing “We eat in the hotels, sleep in the streets, we are rogue vagabonds, our home is in Gulistan and our house is in Osmani.” 2007, Osmani Uddyan, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



A group of pavement dwellers sleep on the veranda of Mirpur Mazar (Shrine) market. They do not know each other but sleep together like a family. They will have to get up very early in the morning before the shopkeepers arrive and chase them away. 2007, Mirpur Mazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



A pavement dweller, working as a porter, unloads vegetables at dawn from trucks coming from different parts of the country at Kawran Bazaar in Dhaka. A large number of pavement dwellers, in Kawran Bazaar work round the clock as porters. 2007, Kawran Bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



Pavement dwellers, queuing at a public toilet in the morning, in Paltan. In cities designed for the wealthy, the poor struggle to retain their dignity. 2007, Paltan, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



The Mazar (Shrine) authorities supplies free meals for about 300 people at lunchtime everyday, on first-come first-serve basis. For many of the pavement dwellers around the Mazar, this is the only secure meal of the day. 2007, Mirpur Mazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



Neighbours sharing moments. They come from different parts of the country, but live together like a family. 2007, Kawran Bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



Rabeya, a physically handicapped woman, begging for alms. 2007, Mirpur Mazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



With help from a neighbour, a mother cleans her baby’s excrement of her child with a cloth but no water.  2007, Kamalapur Railway Station, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



A young man massaging his sick friend with 'tel pora' (blessed oil). They have been friends for four months, strangely however they do not know each others names. 2007, Kamalapur Railway Station, Dhaka, Bangladesh.



A rickshaw-van puller sleeps on his van, wrapped in a plastic sheet to ward off mosquitoes and rain. 2007, Kawran Bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.


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