Bangladesh is well known for its spicy food, monsoon weather and playing cricket, across the world. But one thing which is a unique trait for Bangladesh, are its student citizens. They have been known to be involved in politics and unfortunately has a very bad reputation around the country and around the world. In Bangladesh, a protest against the government usually means a full strike around the city and burning down of motor vehicles and tires. Bearing this thought in mind, the recent protests in Bangladesh have taken a different toll.
Not even one week ago, innocent high school going students had to suffer the worst of fates because of the horrible public transportation system in the capital. A bus ran over students walking on the pavement and unfortunately was a life ending experience for them. Its horrible to imagine that the children were just living their lives and probably going back home from school, will not be reaching home at all. It is an unimaginable pain for any parent to endure and at the same time a matter of great worry and distress for other students and their parents. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence on the streets of Dhaka. The bus service in Dhaka city is completely privatized and runs a syndicate which protects themselves from all sorts of accusations against them. Because it is privatized, the bus drivers are self employed rather than being on a salary. Buses are on constant competition with each other as to who would get more passengers. As a result they often race each other to get more passengers to ultimately make more money.
Such was the case of what happened a few days ago. The bus driver thought he might defeat his competitor by overtaking him using part of the pavement. And I am sure one can realize what has happened after that. There is no doubt that this needs to be stopped. There is no doubt that the whole transport infrastructure needs to be changed. Majority of all drivers do not have licenses and the ones that does, have used unconventional methods to get those licenses. Therefore it is safe to say that 90% of all Bangladeshi drivers do not have official driving licenses and nor do they have any training on driving motor vehicles.
This sparked an outrage on all ”school going” to ”university going” students all over Dhaka. Soon enough, similar protests started popping up in different parts of the country. They have put out demands to the government which basically demands a safer street for all people in the capital. It also demands that the MP who is in charge of the bus committee has to resign and that all drivers need to have licenses.
A unique revolution in Bangladesh which is truly mind blowing as it is not often that people challenges a government of a country such as Bangladesh. In the past, protesters have been known to be treated harshly by the police and have faced severe injuries. But this did not stop the protesters from going on to the streets and getting their voices heard this time. A bold and courageous move by the youngsters and something to be proud of.
The protests seem to be working on the government as they have now said that they will fulfill all the demands. This however, does not mean that they will live up their words at all.
Buses(the main means of transportation in Dhaka City) are not running on the street at the moment and all for a good reason. Buses do not often pass fitness tests and the drivers OBVIOUSLY are not trained to drive them. All rikshaws are being heavily monitored and all private cars are being stopped for licenses. This is an unimaginable scenario in the streets of Bangladesh. But the only problem is that, it is not the police who are doing this, but rather the students. OMG…………..MIND=BLOWN. This is unusually unique and a lot to learn from one might imagine. The police are doing jack whilst the students(with no traffic training) are running the city. Admirable am I right?
Perhaps not for everyone. Small business owners, office workers, sole traders, rikshawalas and ironically, STUDENTS whose lives have been completely disrupted due to the policing of the streets by citizens. Due to the emotional nature of this situation, students are enraged and are sometimes focusing their anger in the wrong direction. I personally have spoken to many riskshawalas and they all say that for the last week or so they did not earn any money at all. This is the end of the month and they all have expenses but unfortunately it has become very difficult to do as the city is completely disrupted. Trading around the city has stopped, delivery services have been disrupted, import of agriculture has been limited, prices of groceries are increasing and the general population is suffering once again.
Everyone(including myself) is completely enraged because of what has happened. This cannot be accepted and hats off to the students who had the guts to do SOMETHING about it. But at the same time, what about the poor people? what about the middle class whose lives are being affected for no reason(from their perspective). What about the riskhawalas(perhaps the most abused kind of people in our city)? Perhaps it would be nice to be passionate about helping them, as much as WE are passionate about the current situation.
Peace, Love and prosperity
Via ajke o amader Tongi, boro-bari te ek satri trak accident a mara gese :'(
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