Diarist 64 is from another District but after being divorced by her husband she followed her son who had found work as a mason here in our area. But then that son suddenly disappeared, just after his mother had found money for his expensive marriage. For a long time she tried to trace him but has now given up. When we started working with her in 2017 she was 35 years old, unschooled, with two children. Her daughter of 16 was doing well in school but her second son, 14, had to leave school after class 5 for lack of money to keep him there. He was working as a helper in the restaurant run by our Diarist 19. The three of them lived in a one-room rented house paying 1,000 taka a month.
Their main income came from Diarist 64's work as a cook/maid for medical staff quartered at the local hospital. When we met her she was getting 1,500 per month from each of two doctors, working long hours and preparing three meals a day for them. Those jobs disappeared and she took on domestic service in people's homes then finally went to the many building sites in the area and became a mason's helper. The son quitted the restaurant and became first a mason helper like his mother then in 2018 began driving a hired auto-rickshaw.
In 2019 Diarist 64 was unwell for long stretches and sought medical advice. In 2020 Covid stopped her work as a mason's helper and she shifted to brick breaking which she could do on hidden sites unvisited by police and army enforcing the lockdowns. She later returned to masonry. At that time she was working on the marriage of her daughter and in July 2020 the daughter married and left home to live with the family of her husband, an electric-rickshaw driver.
The following year, 2021, her second son also married, with all costs born by the bride's family. A baby arrived, with Diarist 64 paying for an expensive caesarean delivery for her new daughter-in-law. The son brought his wife and child home to live with his mother but the new wife fell out with the family and soon left (though they are not formally divorced). The son remained, along with his child, but stopped giving money to his mother, saying he needed to renew his e-rickshaw. Diarist 64 found money to repair his vehicle.
Thus by mid 2022 Diarist 64's household had three people: herself, her son, and her grandchild, but only she was earning regularly, as a mason's helper getting between 300 and 500 taka a day, most days. The last time we recorded a contribution from the son's driving was in September 2023. Diarist 64 has borrowed to get her son a passport - getting him overseas work could well be the best way of dealing with him, and is a common strategy among our Diarists.
Chart 01 shows how despite these ups and downs Diarist 64 maintained a monthly surplus most months.
