Diarist 54's husband is a bamboo craftsman, specializing in strainers and winnowers of various kinds (picture), which he then sells in the local market. He works hard. She helps him and does a little maidservant work. They are uneducated. They are also poorer than they should be, by their own account, because when Diarist 54's husband inherited land from his parents he was persuaded by his brother to sell it and to give him the money, and he would improve it and return it to them. But he never did, nor did he give the money back. They now live rent free on 'his' land but he is now threatening to evict them. They use a brick building belonging to a neighbour, rent-free, for their workshop, and they also rear cows. In 2019 she inherited some land from her own parents and sold it.
They have three children of which one son went to work in Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2019, financed in part by the sale of the inherited land. His remittances have been small compared to some other Diarists but up to late 2024 he had sent 237,000 taka in 17 instalments. During the peak of the Covid outbreak he was unemployed, in Saudi, and unable to remit. In 2024 he came home on leave and in May married without his parents' consent, then returned to Saudi. Then from September 2024 they lost contact with him.
The second son has been rather restless: he dropped out of school and has been idle for most of the time since. He fell ill, then suddenly married in February 2024, with all marriage expenses provided by relatives. He brought his wife to live in the family home. Diarist 54 would like to send him overseas too but she has made no progress: she tells us he is 'rather sickly and rather lazy'. The daughter is living at home and attending school.
As chart 01 shows, their outlays are modest, and with the help of the money from Saudi they survive and even manage to make home improvements. But they live on less than two dollars a day per person.
