Meat for everyone

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Makeshift markets popped up across Dhaka on the evening of Eid-ul-Azha's first day on Tuesday where meat from animal sacrifice was sold.

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Despite the fact that in Eid-ul-Azha as per Islamic rules, people give away one-third of the meat from sacrificial animals for the poor, these markets have emerged in Dhaka for two reasons.

The first is that those collecting meat from homes in the morning often do not have the means to store it for a long time and therefore sell most of it.

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Salma, a woman who was selling meat in a market at the Khilgaon rail crossing old the Dhaka Tribune she had collected 8kg meat throughout the day.

“I can’t keep all this and my family doesn’t need more than 2kg. So I am selling off the rest,” she said.

The second reason is that those who cannot often afford to buy red meat but feel embarrassed to collect meat going from door to door, or simply do not have the time to do so on Eid day, can get meat for cheap here.

While the market price for beef is about Tk420-450 per kg nowadays, these temporary markets were selling meat for Tk200-400 depending on the quality.

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However, since many different kinds of meat are mixed into everyone’s collections, some might even be getting goat, lamb or camel for the price of beef.

Aziz Islam, a trader, bought eight cow’s legs for Tk300 from the Khilgaon market.

Rahela Begum, a housewife, bought 2kg meat from there for Tk200.

“One can’t always go collect meat one piece at a time,” she said.

Markets also appeared in the afternoon at the Maghbazar rail crossing, Hazaribagh and Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar.