Second-hand clothes their only refuge

Jahirul Islam works as a nightguard at a Karwan Bazar building. A sweater, which he brought several years ago, was all he had to protect himself from the bone-chilling winter cold.

Yesterday, he was seen buying a jacket from a roadside van in Karwan Bazar.

"Earlier, I visited a market to buy winter clothes, but those were out of my reach. So I'm here to buy a jacket from this roadside van," he said.

People belonging to the low-income bracket are now thronging roadside vendors to buy warm clothes, as cold waves continue to batter normal life in the country.

At the beginning of the year, the intensity of winter increased throughout the country including the capital. Due to this, the sale of warm clothes has increased in the last few days.

Visiting several places in the capital, this correspondent found that roadside vans have lined up jackets, sweaters, coats, socks, trousers, cardigans and so on.

For the last three days, street shops in Karwan Bazar remained almost packed with customers. Located just opposite to Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, several vendors were shouting to sell warm clothes yesterday.

"Tk 30…whatever you take, price is only Tk 30," shouted one of them.

"We buy these used clothes from Begum Bazar for Tk 10 each. We wait for winter to sell them," said Aminul, a vendor.

Kulsum Begum, a mother of two, came there to buy clothes for her son and daughter.

"If I buy a new one, it would cost Tk 350 each. But I can't afford them. So, I came here to find used sweaters for my children."

However, Kulsum left the place with a heavy heart as she didn't find a suitable size for her kids.

Moktar Hossain, a vendor at Farmgate, was selling used warm clothes for Tk 150.

"Two weeks ago, we used to buy them for Tk 50-60. But now, the price rose up to Tk 80-100," he said.

Meanwhile, at Dhaka Medical College Hospital area, attendees of the patients were seen buying warm clothes from the nearby vendors.

Salauddin, a resident of Cumilla, was one of them.

"I came all the way from Cumilla to admit my family member at DMCH. Now I'm buying  sweaters for us as the cold is unbearable," he said.

This correspondent also talked to people of lower income groups in Karwan Bazar and Farmgate area, who are one of the worst sufferers. They claimed they were yet to receive any warm clothes by the authorities or from the affluent section of the society.