Street Vending at 71: The Daily Livelihood of Kulsum Bibi in Dhaka
Pressenza
- Profile of Kulsum Bibi, a 71-year-old woman selling eggs on the streets of Dhaka to maintain financial independence.
- Contextualizes her experience within the broader landscape of women's informal labor in Bangladesh.
Daily Operations
- Kulsum Bibi operates a daily stall on a busy Dhaka footpath, working from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Her son supplies the inventory: local duck and chicken eggs.
- Pricing: 70 Tk for a 'hali' (four) of chicken eggs; 80 Tk for a 'hali' of duck eggs.
- She moves roughly 20 halis daily, managing all customer interactions and financial transactions independently.
- She expresses no concern for her own safety and views her work as a dignified means of self-support.
Informal Employment Context
- Her situation exemplifies the prevalence of informal work among Bangladeshi women.
- According to the 2024 Labour Force Survey from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the female labor force participation rate stands at 38.4 percent.
- Of those employed women, 95.96 percent are engaged in the informal sector, highlighting the prevalence of jobs like the one performed by Kulsum Bibi.