Those who walk on the footpath right in front of a cluster of eateries or hotels opposite to the secretariat, the hub of the country's administration, are unlikely to miss the uncanny figures. Some of them are in a kind of uniform, others are not but then one or two of them are midgets trying to draw the attention of passers-by. If they could, they would have stopped every one using that particular segment of footpath and usher in to the cafes serving meals or drinks. To them every one is a potential customer or a hungry person who must eat there.
Usually they plaintively and monotonously as against cheerfully announce what items are available in the hotels or restaurants. But then they are too insistent and at times intrusive enough to limit their urge for collection of customers. Fortunately, passers-by most of them rushing out do not pay heed to the solicitation.
The recruitment of midgets for posting them right in front of the restaurant doors dates back perhaps to early 80's when a fast running hotel-cum-sweetmeat shop at Farmgate introduced the tactic. Why it was done is not clear. Such short and unusual figures have always drawn public attention. People were unaccustomed to see them so well-dressed. Anything unusual raises curiosity in people's minds. So the idea might be that the posted midget can pull more crowds who will as well turn out to be potential customers. On the sideline, the midget also gets employment and does not need to beg. Soon others followed and at a restaurant of the Stadium Market another short fellow was posted in immaculate khaki with a military cap on his head.
How effective the ploy is however can be questioned. If hotels or restaurants cannot draw customers by the varieties and qualities of foods, such addition may rather prove an unprofitable exercise. On the contrary, people may grow suspicious that if this is the type of incursion outside, things may be worse inside. Persuasion of this vulgar and rustic manner may annoy many potential customers. They may look for a calm and quiet place to visit and have their meals there.
However there are dalals or middlemen or facilitators whose service proves quite essential unlike the pests in many others. Not many people are aware of the fact that pestering people can prove counterproductive. A tourist guide for example knows that s/he must not overact or speak well beyond providing the essential information and facts. Then s/he is always ready to answer to the queries of tourists s/he is in charge of. A clerk, stamp vendor-cum-writer or even a lawyer is a facilitator. To manage visas from some embassies, unlettered or barely literate people take help of the dalas. Without them such people find themselves in a soup.
Even in police stations, a few civilians act as professional scribe. They help in filing a general diary or similar other odd jobs, members of the police are unwilling to do. Well, they realise fees or charges for such services. Passport offices earned quite an infamy on account of the limitless assertion by the middlemen. Now this has been curtailed but not eliminated.
Some just stick to a few services like parasites. For example, at some strategic bus stops, there are a few youths who realise money from every passing vehicle. They spend the day there and pretend to prove their indispensability by, at times, guiding the buses or other vehicles. But their main purpose is to realise the unearned money. Who are behind them? Unless there is strong political backing, they cannot do this. The transport operators grudgingly part with the money earmarked for the unholy group.
The greatest shock one is likely to receive is from the medical front. Some private clinics or hospitals hire the service of such middlemen gangs who stroll on the compounds of hospitals, mostly the orthopaedic one situated in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. They are on the lookout for poor and illiterate people accompanying accident victims or patients suffering from bone diseases. They swoop on the target and at times force the patients on to their vans in wait to lead to their clinics or hospitals. All these times they convince that the patients will receive best of care there and at a lower cost. Government hospitals do not take care and so on and so forth.
In this way they prove themselves worse than pimps who serve the flesh business. So there should be limit to the service of the ones who help facilitate the process. It should by no means violate the ethical considerations.
Pestering hordes of facilitators
Nilratan Halder | Published: November 28, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Share if you like