Saying no to begging

Physically challenged Parvez Hossein Bhuttu can be an inspiration to many as he has come a long way from once begging in the streets to becoming self-employed.

The 25-year-old of Jora Pukur slum under Saidpur municipality of Nilphamari is now a goods supplier for the grocery stores in his area and earns enough to feed himself and his family.

He moves around in a tricycle given to him by the upazila social welfare office and collects the goods from the local wholesale market before sending those to the shops.

Parvez has no use of his legs since his birth. He is the second of three brothers and sisters and his poor family could never provide him with necessary treatment.

While still young, his father Mustafa abandoned the family and disappeared, leaving his mother Shahanaj Begum with the responsibility of the entire family.

Shahanaj worked in a factory and tried hard to ensure basic education for her children. She also got her eldest daughter married but died soon afterwards.

This left Parvez, his now divorced sister who had to return home and octogenarian grandmother totally destitute. His able-bodied brothers who could earn had already moved away.

Things were so bad that to survive, Parvez resorted to crawling across the local streets begging for alms.

“I hated begging, but there was no food on the table and we needed to live,' Parvez says quietly.

The upazila social welfare office noticed his plight and provided him with a tricycle to move around. This changed his life and Parvez vowed to never beg again.

“I had to think up of what work I could do now that I had more mobility,” he says.

His mother had left behind a meagre savings of taka 2,000 with which he bought some supplies for grocery stores from the local wholesale market and then he started approaching local corner shops to buy the items from him.

Today, his regular clients don't always even have to speak to him for supplies. All they do is just give him a missed call on his mobile phone and he carries all the goods to them.

Parvez supplies consumer goods like bread, potato chips, chocolates, chanachur, puffed rice, sweetened fried rice balls and so on.

His reliability has gained him a good reputation amongst local shop owners. Wholesalers now give him goods on credit which Parvez repays after collecting money from the retailers.

Mohammad Azam, a wholesaler in Murihati market, said Parvez never misses either supplies or payments. He is very reliable. People who never thought a person as disabled as him could do anything for a livelihood were quite surprised by the young man's diligence and hard work, Azam said.

Today, Parvez earns around Tk 200-250 a day and is able to pay his rent and also take care of his sister and grandmother.

He is so devoted to his work and family that he doesn't think of getting married any time soon.

Local councilor Akhtar Hossain Feku is all praise for the young man,

“Young Parvez though disabled has strong will power and innovative skills. He has proved that physical disability is not a burden.”

Nusrat Fatima, Saidpur upazila social welfare officer, said, “We provided him with a tricycle so that he could move around. The use he made of it to get his life on track is amazing and a source of inspiration to us all."