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Tempo Boy |
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"I cannot sleep at night for coughing" Anwar, age 11 I have been working this tempo route for the last 5 days. I can’t get a permanent job here. I have to keep changing, as there are more tempo boys seeking work then there are tempos to employ them. Drivers will sack any tempo boy who is ill or who tries to bargain about wages or is absent for whatever reason. Then he will take on a new boy. The drivers take no breaks. I don’t normally work as often as 4 days in a week. Nobody can work continually as a tempo boy. We all have to take time off to get rid of our coughs and to recover voices through so much shouting in a loud voice. If we don’t call out loudly than the tempo will get no customers. Once every week I take at least a day’s break because of my cough and throat pain. It is not long enough to recover properly. I have to spend money from my savings on the day when I can’t work. I am sure that within a few years I will be suffering from throat cancer – my cough is chronic, and most of the time I have throat pain. I cannot sleep at night for coughing, and I often suffer from fever. During these days off I try to put in a few hours work to earn enough to buy medicine and food. I earn 2 taka for a 2 mile trip, for example from New Market to Farm Gate.” |
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