Bangladesh: People Struggling to Survive in the Most Overpopulated Country in the World

people

work in these marine cemeteries. They often work by hand without proper equipment. And they suffer injuries and poisoning with toxic materials. But, as I said, Bangladeshis don't have much choice. They are willing to do any job. Here on the coast there are many workshops where ships are sawed. According to publications about it, half of the ships that fell into disuse end up here, on the coast of Bangladesh, where they are broken down to turn them into iron. That all seems incredibly epic. Imagine a huge ship thrown onto the shore like a whale. And these

people

, with their primitive instruments, break these old pieces of iron.

They cut pieces little by little. This seems incredible. There are videos and some images of it on the internet, but lately they have tightened the access rules to this site. They fear that if it becomes public, if foreigners film it, this local business will close. They care about their money, because it brings them profits. The fact is that a couple of months ago a report was published about these workshops where they dismantle ships. It was published in a foreign magazine. That affected the business itself. That is why all foreigners are prohibited from visiting the shipyards. I don't know what magazine it was, but...

Believe me, I did everything I could to convince them to let us in. I even told them that you were two foreign professors studying ship dismantling and that you needed to collect data for your studies. But they still rejected us. Despite the ban, we wanted to see it. At least from a distance. Now I'm going to take a boat and we're going to see everything from the sea. This is what it looks like from the water, you can't get too close. First, there are some sticks and nets there, I guess, the workers built a kind of water fence, so no one gets close.

Secondly, the guys on our ship are afraid to go there. They say: If the workers see us, they will start throwing stones at us. Also, there are guards here on speedboats. And if they see someone filming, they might stop us, and who knows what they'll do... They just don't like people filming them. Because the working conditions here are... particular, safety regulations are obviously not respected, I saw how a considerable part of the ship simply sank into the sea. They break it inside and the giant pieces fall into the sea, and then they take them to the shore with cables and break them into smaller pieces.

Obviously, sooner or later someone is going to get hurt here with these saws. This has been possible thanks to very cheap labor. People earn between 5 and 7 dollars a day doing this work. That is, per month, if they work every day, they earn between 150 and 200 dollars. But doing so costs nothing, which is why dozens of people choose this dangerous job. Nothing is automated, the tools are primitive, because normal equipment costs more than a worker with a cane. This is how they carry tools and fuel to the boat. Why is this spectacular city famous? It is the second largest city in Bangladesh with a population of around 10 million people.

In addition, the memory of Soviet sailors is honored here. How did they get here? In 1972, more than 50 years ago, Soviet sailors came here to help the young

country

of Bangladesh, which had just declared its independence, and there was a problem, because after the war the only port here was mined, and furthermore, it was blocked. by sunken ships. During the war the ships blocked it on purpose, they sank them so that they could not approach the shore, the docks were destroyed. This could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, because even ships with humanitarian aid on board would not be able to reach the shore.

Therefore, the young and independent

country

of Bangladesh turned to others for help. The sunken ships had to be removed and the port demined. And, as they say, I can't be sure, all countries asked a fairly high price for their service. And only the Soviet Union was willing to do it for humanitarian reasons. As a gesture of good will. A Soviet-Bangladeshi gesture of friendship. Soviet sailors came here, brought modern equipment and for two years they were removing sunken ships, demining the port and, well, helping Bangladeshis in other ways. They say that the local population was worried, because they thought that the only free cheese was in the mousetrap, especially if it was from the USSR.

They thought that the Soviet sailors and soldiers were going to impose their order here, that they would build a military base or something like that. "What are they doing it for?" There was no need to worry. The Soviet Union cleaned up the bay and left these lands alone. By the way, I was reading some memories of one of the participants of this special operation and he commented on the difficulties that Soviet sailors faced. First, there was a very strong current. You could only work a few hours a day, between high tide and low tide. Secondly, there was no visibility.

Because underwater, even in January, when they say the water is clean, you still can't see anything, that is, nothing at all. The sea is super dirty, so bringing the sunken ships to the surface was a big problem. In addition, there was a lot of mud, and some ships sank 5-10 meters in it, so they had to first remove it and then raise it somehow. Also, the weather. The temperature was like 40 degrees above zero, there were many insects, they had to work in those terrible conditions. But these Soviet sailors and engineers were heroes: they cleaned the bay and now in Bangladesh...

I wanted to say that everything is fine, but no. It's still very bad, but at least they helped them back then. Soviet sailors can no longer be found in Bangladesh, but let's look for fishermen who can now navigate the clear bay. Now it's low tide and basically all the fishermen's boats ended up in the field. After lunch the water will rise and they will be in the sea again. All of that will be filled with water. And now these ships look so sad that they are stuck in the countryside for now. And we are approximately one kilometer from the sea.

The sea is far away! It would be nice to launch a drone here, but drones are strictly prohibited in Bangladesh. That's why I decided not to risk it. I will have to enjoy from land these small boats that lie in the fields near the coast. Which isn't that impressive. By the way, here's an interesting fact. They make these lakes in such a way that the fish stay here after low tide. And then they capture them with a net. The boy caught a crab. He Caught a Crab! Let me see, show me the crab. Show me. It's a big crab!

They sell fried crabs right here. You can buy one and eat it right here. And this must be the saleswoman. There are shrimp and something else, some unknown fish. It should be noted that it is very quiet here and it is safe to film here. Maybe it's different in other places, but so far no one has been outraged that I'm recording, nor have they tried to hide from the camera or ask for money, they all seem pretty calm. They just mind their own business. and no one pays attention to a curly traveler from distant, cold Russia.

And that is the right thing to do. The afternoon arrives, the high tide, and the port takes on a second life, because if you wanted to take a boat to go to the island during the day, here a few kilometers away there is an island, very populated, and the boats to go to this island are overcrowded. At low tide to get to the boat you have to go through a long pier, one kilometer long, you can walk or take this bicycle cart. The boats are already starting, there are some fast boats too, each one has two 75 horsepower Yamaha engines, they are going to this island, full of people.

Soon the boarding will take place here, because the water is rising quickly. They write that the water level changes 5 meters. I do not know if it's true. But apparently the sea really goes away a lot and comes back. We couldn't buy fish, but at least we saw the city. It's interesting: they work with these cables and the ladder is supported by the same cables. And the cables here, as is often the case in Asia, are infinite. I don't think anyone knows which ones are actually used. Buses, rickshaws, like in India. Yes, the traffic looks amazing here.

Especially if you need to cross the street. Now I'm going to try to do it very carefully. Ah, I did it. Now I can enjoy local transportation. Bicycle rickshaws, motor rickshaws, buses. And, as you can see, people don't care which lane to take. Of course, it causes a lot of tension when everyone honks. I don't understand this logic. They just go and honk. Just like that, you go and honk. After half an hour I have a terrible headache. Maybe it's just me, but this noise... It's a lot. Traffic jams appear out of nowhere. Because, as you can see, the speed cannot be high, since there are rickshaws in each lane.

People cross the street and everything can literally stop out of nowhere and no one can go anywhere. But people don't care. And this is a person sleeping in a tied sack. In the middle of the road, I don't understand how he got there or how he's going to get out of there. But that also happens. This is what the train station looks like. It looks a lot like India. Although there are not that many people. Nobody sleeps on the floor. People line up to buy tickets, pressing against each other. Well, although it is the second largest city, it takes seven hours by train to reach Dhaka, the capital.

There is no good rail connection, the trains go very slow, everything is messy, so it is better to go by car. And by car it takes 4 hours to get there. No trains! They have built the station, but I only see one train. I think it's still under construction. They have already planted some flowers here. Soon everything will look great. It seems strange to me, because with so much population an efficient railway system could have been developed. And this one... can be used, but only because there is no alternative. I don't think you can get very far with this.

The trains generally look like those in India. The interesting thing is that they don't wash the cars, the cars are very dirty. There is an option for the richest, with some armchairs. Apart from dead ships and fish, the sea supplies salt to Chittagong. This is what the salt flats look like. Everything is filled with salt. They take it to the salt warehouses manually, there they package it in bags and from there it goes to the stores or wholesale buyers. There are also those large ships, from where the salt is unloaded with a crane. There are some trucks, so it is like an industrial process, the transportation of salt.

And there are also these small boats, from where they take the salt to the warehouse. Now the tide is low, so these boats are already on the shore. And they carry the salt in these baskets, then they weigh the baskets. These guys are weighing them. 52 kilos. So people carry 50 kilo bags all day. Over their heads. And they look happy and cheerful. It will take forever to unload this ship. It seems like it would be easy to automate everything here, but labor costs less than any machine. That's why there is no automation. Everything is the same as it was 1,000 years ago.

And they wash it here, right? There are people standing in this salt mixture doing everything by hand. They wash the salt in the water and then the process continues here. The skin becomes hard from the salt. That hurts a lot. Look! Everyone suffers from it. This is refined salt. A salt market! There is a salt warehouse here, they package it in bags right here. And then it goes further. Each bag weighs 50 kilos. In general, carrying 50 kilo bags on your head is not very good for your health. But people here have no choice. I decided to try their lifestyle myself.

My back I don't understand how these guys can carry those bags of salt with such calmness. It's a mystery to me, because the bag is super heavy! - It's not the bag that's heavy, it's that someone here is weak. The bags of salt that arrive here on heads are sorted. In some parts they are selected by hand, in others there are conveyors like this one. Hello, where are you from? -From Russia. I'm a tourist. This is how packaging is done. Look at this speed! One after another, one after another! How much do they earn? Those who transport salt earn less than those who process it later.

But on average they earn between 5 and 7 dollars a day. The workers eat in the same market where they work. By the way, food prices are not very low for their salaries. How much does it cost to get bread and a banana? I see that they normally buy bread and bananas. And tea. - Bread costs 10 taka, that's 1 cent. Bananas: also 10 taka. And tea, 5 taka. That is, 0.5 cents. In total, 25-30 cents per meal. For them it is more of a snack. It is not a proper meal. Taking into account that they earn less than a dollar an hour, they need to work an hour to have a banana and a slice of bread here.

One of those bags is mine. One of the bags in this car is mine! I sacrificed my back for it. There are more elegant shops here, you can buy mineral water, for example. Cars leave this market to send the salt to another place. Some cars here... don't run very well! I don't even know what it is. Looks sad. But it's full of salt. Bangladeshi men are forced to do hard physical work. However, women's lives are not easy either. Thousands of women are forced to provide sexual services and entire brothel cities spring up in popular places. Now we will visit one of those.

It's not that easy to buy cheap love. You have to cross the ferry crossing. There are no bridges available in all parts of Bangladesh, so now we will take a ferry. Let's see how the ferry crossing works. So far we have been on several ferries. Special ferries are needed tobamboo. Very simple. And there are children here... My driver explained to me that they are local nomads. They never stop in one place. They move from one place to another all the time and now they stopped here on the sidewalk. Something similar to gypsies. Now let's see. They sell different remedies for illnesses, for headaches, for muscle pain.

Basically, any disease. They sell different natural remedies here. They don't want to be recorded. Alright? If we film you and do a couple of takes, and we pay... - Yes, you have to pay. - Alright. They ask you to pay them. Then you can film them. - How much do you want? - I don't understand, what do you want? - He asks you how much you want. - Give us 5,000 and you can film. You can talk to them, I will help you communicate. Then I will show the gold and silver. We will play a game. All of this can be recorded on video.

For 5,000 taka. One person already gave us 10,000 like that. - Let's haggle, 5,000 is a lot. - You do not believe me? Look look. 5,000 taka. 5,000 5,000 taka. - So he's the boss? - Yes it is. - Well, can I ask you to tell me a little about these people? Why are they here? How many there are? - Why do you live here? They are temporary homes... - Why? Because we don't have a home. That's why we live here. Allah gave me a house, but they don't have it. That's why I'm your boss. They are called BD. - What do they do? - We do "shinga", we remove worms from the teeth, we collect gold... - What is shinga? - Explain it to him. - You have ligaments here, sometimes you feel tension there.

To eliminate this tension you need 500 taka. - Most women walk around with these bags. They have so many things there. They call this process shinga. They are like cups. Do you know cupping therapy? They use it to relieve tension. - Here, give me a hand. Keep your arm straight. Film it, film it! Something like this. We use this one to hit you over the head. Like this. - What is it made of? - It is a special wood. - With it we check the whole body, we eliminate the poison and then you are healthy. This tree is called chaku. - They are a kind of nomadic doctors. - Ok, how many families live here, in this camp? - How many families live here? - Here, about 20. - How many people are there in each family? - In some, 5, in others, 7, sometimes only 2. - Do your children go to school? - No, they don't go to school, but it would be nice if we had a school here.

Our children could receive an education. - How much do they earn with shinga and everything else? - We do it every day, we have income. Sometimes it is 200, 300, 400, 500. - Is it the income of a family? - No, it's not a family, it's for a small group of BD. This is what the house looks like. There are wooden boards here, some kind of beds, dirty pillows. I wonder if the speaker works because I saw a couple of solar panels there. This is the coolest store. They have a closed kitchen, gas stove and two bedrooms. Everything full of rags. -How many people sleep here? -How many people live here? -Two: her and her husband. - How old are you? -sixteen. 16.

Her husband is 17 years old. She told us that she sleeps there with her husband. She is supposed to be 16 years old and her husband is 17. But something tells me that she is 14 years old, no more. - Seven people live here. - Seven people. - Yes, in this store. Seven people live in this store? Five girls and two boys, in total, seven children. Yes, there are seven. And where is his wife? - Is this your wife? - Yes, she is my wife. How old is she? - How old is she? - 30. And you? - 45. - Liar! She is 35 years old. 35.

These are solar panels, here they are charging batteries. She skins the chickens, then sells them in the market, then they collect the skin and cook the food. India was once made up of several different counties. It was later united by the British Empire. And then, they cut it into pieces like those ships in Chittagong. During the 20th century, Bangladesh was under different rules. But it seems that none of them have been able to build a normal country for the people. Bangladeshis breathe dirty air, bathe in rivers of waste, get stuck in huge traffic jams, dismantle old boats and work in a city-sized sister.

The country's national motto is "Victory of the Bengalis". At some point they won the war for independence. But they have not yet been able to win the war to lead a normal life. If you liked this video, don't forget to post it on Reddit and share it with your friends on WhatsApp!