Due to the restrictions, they cannot go out of the house to look for work. Besides, the help and relief allotment for them unveiled by the government is inadequate during this crisis, they claimed.
There are around 1500 bede families in Pora Bari, Kanchanpur, Amorpur and Boktarpur of Savar municipal area. Once, they used to lead their life by snake-charming and selling amulets. Though the profession has lost its appeal, many of them have found it difficult to move on. Their skill-sets are not easily transferable to other sectors, or even jobs.
Now without work or even permission to go out and look for work amid restrictions, they are passing idle time in their houses. Without work, there is no food in their house.
Ramjan Ali, general secretary of Pora Bari Welfare Association, said that there had been relief distributed on behalf of Uttoran Foundation, Savar Municipality, upazila administration, Dhaka Range DIG, district police and some other private organizations. The relief material did reach the Bede community, he confirmed.
However Abdus Sattar, an old man of Kanchanpur Bede community, said that everyone in the community did not in fact get relief goods. Whatever did was too meagre, he said, relative to their demand.
On the other hand, there is a 600-member strong transgender community in Arapara, Dogormora in Savar municipality, and Baipile and Jamgora of Ashulia. Most of them have no permanent houses and they live in houses of other people. They survive on collected money from bus, shops and people of the areas.
During lockdown, they could not collect money for their survival.
Besides, there is no officially announced help or relief package for them from the government, said transgender Nasima and Rupali of Arpara area. They demanded an intervention on their behalf from the administration.
Several transgender of Dogormora area said that they got some relief from upazila administration and municipality which is insufficient.
But their names apparently do not appear on a list according to which a local organization distributed relief locally, they added.
They insisted the government come up with an allotment for their community.