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AyRojgar
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Mixed experienceA sweet shop owner in Koyra, Khulna, in a Prothom Alo report

After a cyclone and the river, a sweet shop rebuilt on a 60,000-taka loan

Cyclone Amphan on 20 May 2020 wrecked the shop and the house, and the Kopotakkho river later took the homestead. A 60,000-taka loan last year rebuilt a small sweet shop, against a 3,000-taka monthly instalment.

This woman ran a sweet shop with her husband at Kashi Hatkhola in Koyra, on the Khulna coast. Cyclone Amphan on 20 May 2020 tore the roof off their house and wrecked the shop, and erosion of the Kopotakkho river afterwards carried away both the shop and the homestead. With everything gone, her husband fell back on driving a van and day labour. Last year she borrowed 60,000 taka from an NGO and rebuilt a small shop, selling rasgolla, chomchom, kalojam and gaja alongside peyaju and shingara. A 3,000-taka instalment comes out every month against that loan, before any profit does. The report gives no income figure; by her own account the business is only just ticking over.

Lessons

  1. 1.On the coast the biggest risk to a food shop is not the market, it is the weather and the river
  2. 2.Rebuilding on a 60,000-taka loan means a 3,000-taka instalment leaves before any profit does

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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