Eid-ul-Adha, the Qurbani Eid, is the second main festival of the Muslim ummah. Around it, a seasonal butchers' market has come alive in Kishoreganj. From the morning of Thursday (28 May), the area in front of the town's Shahidi Mosque and Islamia Market was busy with seasonal butchers.

For Eid-ul-Adha many labourers, day workers and rickshaw pullers leave their daily work and crowd into this market. Their pay depends on the size and price of the animal, though seasonal butchers earn somewhat less than professionals.

The seasonal butchers said that for the rest of the year they work in their own trades: construction workers, rickshaw pullers, vegetable sellers, day labourers or hawkers. At Eid they work as butchers hoping to earn extra. People giving Qurbani come to the market in front of Shahidi Mosque to bargain and hire butchers, and contracts covering slaughter, cutting the meat and dividing it are agreed on the spot.

Butcher Al Amin said he works in farming the rest of the year but works as a butcher every Eid-ul-Adha. "It's hard work for a day, but the income is good. Last year four of us together cut several cows. I hope for good work this year too," he said.

Butcher Mohammad Selim said: "A few of us work together as a team. The price is set according to the size of the cow. Many people give meat as well as wages, which helps our families."

Butcher Abu Bakkar said: "I have worked as a seasonal butcher for about 20 years. On Eid day I serve people and earn something extra. I come every year for that income."

Mohammad Nazrul Islam Bakul, who came to hire butchers for his Qurbani, said it becomes hard to find a butcher at short notice on Eid day, so he had come in the morning to fix one in advance. "Those who do this work should be paid fairly. Those of us who live in town are not used to this work, so we came to the market to hire butchers," he said.

Maulana Jubayer Ibne Abdul Hai, alternate imam of Sholakia Eidgah and a lecturer at Hoybatnagar A U Kamil Madrasa, said these people from the disadvantaged sections of society give up their own Eid enjoyment to serve others, so ensuring a fair price for their labour is everyone's duty. They are pleased if given a share of the Qurbani meat in addition to wages, he said, but giving meat instead of wages is not right.

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