TEMPORARY TANNERS
It’s not the tailor shops that are having their spring times, rather it’s the laundries.Cashing in on cattle � in more ways than one
FAISAL MAHMUD
With Eid-ul-Azha round the corner, its not only the cattle owners who are banking on it. Several others have been eagerly waiting for the qurbani season for cash inflow. The Independent focuses on some of the side businesses centering the second biggest Muslim festival.
TEMPORARY TANNERS
When Eid-ul-Azha approaches, Salat-Uz-Zaman takes leave from his software company job and becomes a full-fledged leather businessman for one week.
Zaman told The Independent: I first started this business during the qurbani Eid of 2007. One of my friends who has a leather business, asked me to collect as many pieces of raw hide I could from my residential area in Uttara.
At first, it was a challenging job and I was new to it. But I bought nearly 300 pieces of raw hide from different households and gave it to my friend, who then processed it in his tannery and sold it. It proved to be a very lucrative business. I earned a good commission. Since then, Ive been doing business with my friend during qurbani Eid each year, said Zaman, a quality assurance engineer at a local software firm.
Zaman is not alone. There are thousands of other seasonal leather businessmen like him who are taking advantage of the occasion to make quick money.
Shamsul Huda, former president of the Bangladesh Tanners Association, said these seasonal leather businessmen are helping the tannery industry. Nearly 4-6 million animals are slaughtered across the country on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha each year. One-third of these are slaughtered in Dhaka alone. It would have been a tough job to collect the raw hides from different parts of the country had there been no seasonal leather businessmen. They collect hides from various areas and sell them to the tanneries, he said.
According to data available with the association, in 2014, around six million pieces of raw hide were collected from different parts of the country. This year, tanners predict the number will be more.
ALL ABOUT GARBAGE
If you think cleaning up is a task no one wants to do, you havent met Dhiraj. I clean cattle dung in fact, I collect it, he said. Nothing at the qurbani haat goes to waste, especially not cattle dung.
Workers like Dhiraj clean the shallow drains that run between rows of cattle and collect the dung in baskets. Dhiraj said the dung will later be dried in the sun, and ghute would be made from it. Ghute has a great demand in the slum areas, where it is used as fuel for cooking, he added. Dhiraj says he would also sell the dung to nurseries, where it would be used as fish feed.
While men like Dhiraj attend to the cow dung, Hemayetul Islam in Bakshibazar deals with the sacrificial animals waste. He collects waste from the households in his area, and charges a small amount for the service.
I started it as a community service in 2003. Later on, I thought I could make a business out of it. It serves two purposes. Each year, during this time, around 40,000 tonnes of garbage are produced during the three days of Eid-ul-Azha. The cleaners of the civic body are not sufficient to clean up that mess. I love to play a small part in cleaning the mess, he said.
HIGH TIME AT LAUNDRY
Its not the tailor shops that are having their spring times, rather its the laundries.
With Eid-ul Azha being celebrated just a little more than two months after Eid-ul-Fitr, most men prefer to re-use the Panjabi that they bought during Eid-ul-Fitr.
On the eid-day, there is hardly any time for showing-off new clothes. I have to take care of the meat preparing, said Golam Morshed, an investment bank employee. Besides, Panjabi is not the dress I wear on a regular basis. So, my last Eids one is in a good condition, I just dry washed it, he said.
Iftekhar, an employee of Calcutta Dry Cleaners of Dhanmondi told The Independent that business is better than ever during Eid-ul-Azha. Before Eid, we get plenty of orders for dry-wash of Panjabi. After Eid, its cleaning all sorts of clothing with blood stains, he said.
It was found that tailoring shops for women werent doing bad business either. Our hands are full until the day before Eid, and this was the position two weeks back, said Miraz, a tailor at the New Stylo Tailoring Shop at Dhanmondi.
BILL-HOOKED CUTTERS
At Azimpur colony, Nazia Sharmeen, a housewife, was eagerly looking through the window from her second floor apartment. Its just two days to go and I still havent got my boti (bill-hooked cutters) sharpened, she said with a hint of tension.
Normally, a number of boti dhar walas come just before Eid-ul-Azha, but this year, they seem to be late, she said.
The Independent went to Bibir Bazar of Kamrangir Char, home to some 2,000 boti dhar walas. Its a profession that has been running in our family for generations, said Aloke Karmaker, a veteran blacksmith who has been running a shop there for over 20 years. But the youths of our kamarpara seem to have other professions in mind, he said.
Karmaker said the number of boti dhar walas has been decreasing over the years. Also, many of the youths of kamarpara have received training at youth centres run by NGOs and become blacksmiths. There are still some 1,000 boti dhar walas who are now roaming across the city to sharpen kitchen knives and boti ahead of Eid, he said.
FRIDGE BUSINESS
Fakhrul Amin, an employee of a marketing agency has been saving money for the last few months. He wants to buy a deep-fridge during this years Eid.
With Eid bonuses I am going to buy a new one as several companies have offered discounts. Besides, my family needs one to store qurbani meat, he said.
Like Amin, many people are planning to buy refrigerators ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. Shops dealing in refrigerators also prepare for this time of the year, considering the time as peak season for their business as a large number of refrigerators are sold during this time.
To post record sales, the countrys leading electronics, electrical and home appliance manufacturer, Walton, has undertaken
massive preparations. The electronics giant has set a target of
selling more than three lakh units of refrigerators and fridges during the season.
Eva Rezwana, chief coordinator of the marketing department of the Walton Group, said: We increased the production of refrigerators and fridges just after Eid-ul-Fitr, as our comprehensive market research helped us forecast about the increased demand ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
While companies are planning on making huge profits, fridge repairing workshops are also cashing in on the occasion. Altaf Uddin, a mechanic at a repair shop at Jhigatola, said that for the past few days, he has been busy repairing fridges. During this time of the year, many people come to my shop for loading gas in their fridge and minor or major repairs, he said.n
