Children in Dinajpur are busy selling litchis they have gathered from the orchards, helped by their mothers, sisters or grandmothers. Anyone seeing the roadsides would think a litchi festival was under way.

Such scenes are now an everyday sight beside roads in various upazilas of Dinajpur. With educational institutions on holiday, children are keener on this work than in other years.

From Pulhat, a commercial area of Dinajpur, a road runs straight south towards Ramsagar. A little past Pulhat is Masimpur village, where litchi cultivation first began in the country. The area's bedana and Bombai litchis are famous across the country. In this "honey month", women and children can be seen selling litchis on both sides of the main road through Masimpur.

With schools closed, children have taken up the litchi trade, and such stalls can be found on and off along a three-kilometre stretch.

It is not only Masimpur. Similar scenes can be found on the road from the town past St Philip's High School and College through Kasba to Ghughudanga, on the road from Dinajpur town to Chirirbandar, beside various roads in Birol upazila, and along roads in Birganj and Kaharol upazilas.

Talking to the children, it emerged that during the litchi season they get up very early to go and gather litchis. They go to whichever orchard is being harvested and collect the fruit that falls, then store it. Later they take the litchis to the roadside in bowls of different sizes, sort them and arrange them in the bowls. A bowl costs Tk 30, 50, 70 or up to 100 depending on the variety. The buyers are passers-by, and the trade will last a month.

The children said some wanted to buy a wristwatch with the money, some clothes, and some would buy favourite food for their tiffin. Others dream of buying a smartphone or a bicycle, and some have lists of places to visit during Eid.

Tamim Islam Shuvo has come to his grandfather's home in Masimpur for the Eid holiday. He said he gathered litchis in the morning while they were being picked in the orchard and arranged them in bowls of different sizes by the roadside in the afternoon. His grandmother is helping him gather and sell them. He will save the money to buy a bicycle he likes.

Another child, Selim, said he had collected his litchis from an orchard and was selling them at Tk 50 a bowl. The orchard owners do not object when they gather the litchis, he said. He will buy clothes he likes with the money.

Akash of Masimpur village said they collect the litchis that break off and fall when the orchard is harvested. He has saved Tk 3,500 from selling litchis so far.

Matiur Rahman Sumon, a young man from the Kasba area, said this was the scene every year. "We used to see children collecting paddy from rat holes during the aman harvest, and gleaning broken ears of paddy. They sold that paddy to buy new clothes, go to fairs and buy books and exercise books. That sight is rare now. Now children happily gather fallen or reject litchis and sell them by the roadside. It reminds us of that childhood," he said.

Abdur Rahman of Kamalpur village in Sadar upazila said there was no problem with the litchis being gleaned, and the price was much lower. Where 100 China Three litchis sell for Tk 2,000 and bedana for Tk 900 in the market, these litchis are available for Tk 100 to 150, so passers-by buy them happily. "I bought 200 bedana litchis for Tk 200," he said.

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