The Badamtoli and Wiseghat wholesale markets in Old Dhaka are famous for local and foreign fruit. Their wholesalers supply almost all the fruit eaten in the capital and across the country, so the workers here are kept busy loading and unloading fruit day and night.

Their work begins before sunrise. When a fruit vehicle arrives, the rush starts, with workers carrying more than a maund of fruit in each basket. Often, just as exhausted workers are going to sleep late at night after back-breaking work, the wholesaler calls them to load or unload. The workers at the country's largest wholesale fruit market have worked like this for generations, but they complain that despite working day and night they are not paid in line with their labour.

This emerged from conversations with workers at Badamtoli and Wiseghat, on the bank of the Buriganga, on Monday (29 April).

Workers said more than about 2,000 people are involved in loading and unloading fruit at Badamtoli and Wiseghat, all working day and night. "Because wages are low, even though we work round the clock, we are struggling with rising prices of essentials."

On the ground, a clamour starts whenever a fruit-laden vehicle arrives. Workers turn up in groups with baskets, many of them sleepy and exhausted.

Workers said wages are set according to the fruit season and demand. At present they get Tk 2 for lifting one watermelon onto the head, and Tk 10 to 15 for carrying a crate of fruit weighing more than a maund.

Suman Mia has loaded and unloaded fruit at Wiseghat for 10 years. He told Jago News: "We market people stay at the market. When a vehicle comes we unload the fruit, and load it again. There is no fixed working time. When a vehicle comes, there is work, day or night. Trucks from the port arrive around dawn, sometimes at 3 or 4 at night. So many times I've worked all day, eaten rice at 10 and gone to sleep, and suddenly a fruit truck arrives at 12. Sometimes I can't sleep because of back pain."

"Even after sweating it out, we live hand to mouth. If I fall ill suddenly or need money urgently, there is none, and I have to take a loan on instalments. A family of five depends on me. The pay here doesn't match the labour. Even working day and night, it's hard to run the household," he said.

Alam Chowdhury has worked at the Badamtoli fruit market for 15 years and now works at the Jitu Enterprise wholesale shop. He said ordinary local fruit arrives at Wiseghat, while Badamtoli's wholesalers all deal in foreign fruit. "I don't get paid according to my labour. With half the effort I could do better in another profession. I work from 12 hours up to 15-16 hours a day. Depending on the work, I earn Tk 500 to 800 some days, and sometimes as much as Tk 1,500. Most vehicles are unloaded at night, so we have to work half asleep."

Majed, a worker at Badamtoli, said the same: "I started working here in 2015. I still get headaches at night. I work in sun and rain. It has become hard to run my family on what I earn. I can't sleep at the market, so I stay in a floating hotel. That's how I'm surviving."

Abul Kalam, manager of Zamzam Fruit Enterprise, said: "The workers here have a hard time, but nobody's money is left unpaid. It's harder now in the heat, so a lot of goods are unloaded at night. With prices of everything up, our imports are also down. Nobody buys fruit now unless they need it. All in all, business is not good at present, and we have less work too."

About 70 per cent of the country's foreign fruit is imported through Chattogram port, and the remaining 30 per cent through the land ports at Satkhira, Chapainawabganj, Burimari and Hili. Fruit is brought by truck from these places to Badamtoli, and local fruit arrives at the market from across the country.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.