Street barbers of Dhaka city

Street barbers are a common site in Dhaka and in many urban and suburban localities in Bangladesh. Unlike the barbers who have full-fledged shops, the lives of street barbers are vastly different and, in many ways, prone to way more challenges. 

Street barbers generally charge less than the barbers working in shops. While a lot of questions might be raised regarding the quality of their work and the overall hygiene of the places, they are a go-to sight for lower-income people, for whom visiting regular barber shops might mean spending an extra amount of money.

The street barbers usually work from morning to afternoon. Many of them have moved to the capital by leaving their belongings and their ancestral barber shops in rural areas, which they might have inherited from their previous generations. In Bangladesh, working as a barber is an occupation that is generally passed down from one generation to another. 

After coming to the capital, they try to set up a new life for themselves, most times with the only craft they know: working as a barber.

Many work in designated spaces beside the roadsides allocated for the government, making them quite susceptible to eviction. However, as their lives cannot come to a standstill, they make a new life for themselves in a new place.

The street barbers from Dhaka can barely make ends meet. They often have an entire family to feed, and it's quite difficult for them to properly fulfil the demands of their family with their meagre earnings, as they are the only earning members of the family. 

However, they often live with their families in some of Dhaka's most impoverished parts, which makes it possible for them to carry this out. They are often also targets of street gangs and goons demanding bribery and extortion from them, which seriously impedes the proper conduct of their business.

Street barbers have become part and parcel of the daily life of Dhaka, and it is quite unimaginable to come across a footpath in Dhaka that does not have a street barber doing his job. 

Like many other vulnerable communities in the capital, street barbers also need rehabilitation and support from proper authorities to have a better quality of life.

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