When simple task turns to ordeal
Nightmare grips school kids as they try to get into buses. The photos were taken from Kakrail intersection in the city yesterday morning. Photo: STAR
Sultana Bilkis, a housewife of Gendaria, was waiting outside her daughter's school at Eskaton. She took her five-year-old child Afifah there, but did not go back home. Sultana would wait till the kid's classes end. Everyday the mother commutes between the city's Gendaria and Eskaton this way, investing about 6-7 hours just to drop and collect her daughter. Afifah's classes at BIAM Model School and College begin at 11:00am and end at 1:00pm. Sultana spends the hours in between waiting, as there is not enough time to return home and come again to the school to pick the child up. "Waiting is tiring, but is better than journeying", she said, referring to the two-hour bus ride she and her daughter endure everyday. Sultana's suffering does not end here. She has another battle -- to get into a bus home. Be it in sweltering heat or pouring rain, the mother and her kid have to suffer a long wait. "Sometimes we wait as long as an hour or two for the bus to arrive", Sultana said. "Even then we cannot get empty seats in the bus and cannot always board the first or second bus as they come packed". On average, Sultana and Afifah get home after 3:00pm even though her classes end at 1:00pm. Sultana is not alone in the suffering for severe transport shortage and horrible traffic situation in Dhaka city. Thousand other housewives endure similar ordeals everyday for small tasks like taking kids to school or going to bazar. To save time, many resort to alternative modes of transportation. Take Samsun Nahar, who commutes between Mirpur-1 to Eskaton everyday to drop her daughter to school. She and her daughter have to wake up very early to get to school. "In the morning, we come with my husband on his motorbike", Nahar said. "As his office begins early, we also arrive at the school hours before the classes start". "This is the only option because we cannot get in the buses coming always crowded", she said. "So either we have to come early or end up being late for the school". Nahar also spends hours at her daughter's school waiting for the end of the classes following which begins the endless wait for the bus to get home. This correspondent also talked to other mothers and listened to similar complaints. They spoke of the terrible traffic situation and the difficulties they face on public transportation. As travelling in Dhaka city entails huge time, it gets difficult for them to perform other daily activities. Many housewives, therefore, sacrificed jobs. Sultana Bilkis used to work in Bangladesh Girl Guide Association, but had to quit the job as she failed to strike a balance between her daughter and the job. "I would like to go back to work, but now it has been impossible", she said. These mothers and housewives are forced to spend larger portion of the day on the road just for a simple task as dropping their child off to school. Condition of traffic and public transportation is terrible in Dhaka city. How can the city progress if the people spend most of the day on just commuting between places?
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