Mahfuza’s day begins at 5am. She wakes for dawn prayer and quickly gets ready to head out. There’s no time for a proper breakfast, just a cup of tea or maybe some leftover fish if she’s lucky. Usually, by the time the sun starts to rise, she’s already out on her boat, gliding over the river.At the end of the day, her hair flecked with sand from the river and dust from the road, she comes home and bathes in the pond close to her house. Sometimes she swims for fun.
Mahfuza catches about five kilos of fish a month. She keeps 1kg for herself and Lavlu and sells the rest, earning about 10,000 taka ($10), which the two must survive on.
Some fish, like sardines and mola carplet, are found all year round. But her work otherwise changes with the seasons. In warmer months, she catches shrimp and hilsa, and in the cooler months, she goes after bigger fish and crabs.
“The seasons dictate everything,” she says. “You have to keep up with the water, or you’ll fall behind.”
On a good day, she makes a few hundred taka, enough to cover her expenses, which include the constant burden of renting her boat. The work is always unpredictable. “Som …
