Journalism of Courage
Near Barasat station in West Bengal, Sunil Das lives along with his family in a small hut next to the Sanatan Samiti railway line. Das is a hawker who sells his wares on local trains. Since the pandemic hit, life has been nightmarish for him as he struggles to make ends meet with train services shut down. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Sunil Das sells everything on local trains, starting from fried nuts and fried cutlets to lozenges. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Like Sunil, his wife Sumitra Das is also a railway hawker who sells wares on trains in the Sealdah-Bangaon division. Ever since the wheels of local trains stopped moving, around 50,000 hawkers have been left unemployed in the state. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
The couple has been selling goods on trains for over a decade now. Although their income was low, there was never a shortage of food in the family. That changed when the curbs were imposed due to the pandemic and local train services were shut down. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Last year, the family somehow survived the first wave by borrowing money. But there was no such respite this year. Sunil Das said the family does not have enough food to survive now. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Das lives with his wife and his elderly mother, his son, his wife, and his grandchildren. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
With debt in the local grocery store mounting, Sunil tried selling his wares in his locality. But with Covid curbs in place, business was slow for him. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Like Sunil, many railway hawkers in Canning, Diamond Harbor, Laxmikantpur, Bangaon and Basirhat are spending their days in misery. Abhijit Bokshi, secretary of the Sealdah-Bangaon Railway Station Hawker Union, said, “There are about 10,000 hawkers on the Sealdah-Bangaon line who make a living by selling goods on local trains. All of them are unemployed now.” (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
