With His Toddler Son Tied to His Waist, Pabna Rickshaw Driver Rabiul Fights to Keep Life Moving

Both hands on the handlebars of his auto-rickshaw and a small child tied to his waist with a gamchha towel — that is how driver Rabiul Islam moves through the lanes of Pabna town every day. The child sometimes drinks milk from a feeder and sometimes stares around in wonder. Many passers-by are visibly moved by the sight.

Rabiul lives in Dakshin Ramchandrapur village in Pabna Sadar upazila. The child tied to his waist is his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Alfe Sani. Unlike other children, Sani does not have his mother's affection; deprived of a mother's love since the age of two, his father is now his only shelter.

Rabiul says he was married through a family arrangement on 23 January 2023, and Alfe Sani was born on 1 May 2024. But amid a family dispute, the child's mother left on 5 May this year, leaving Sani behind. Since that day, Rabiul has been raising his son alone.

According to Rabiul, poverty is why his wife went back to her father's home nearly six months ago. He tried several times to bring her back, without success. His own parents are no longer alive, so he has no way to leave his young son with anyone when he goes out to work.

Rabiul once worked at a mustard oil mill. When the mill closed, he was forced to start driving an auto-rickshaw to meet the family's expenses. He bought the vehicle for 80,000 taka by selling a half-katha plot of land he had received from his mother.

Driving the rickshaw used to earn him 800 to 1,000 taka a day, and the family managed reasonably well. But everything changed after his wife left on 5 May. He cannot drive properly with his child alongside him, yet there is nowhere to leave the boy either.

Visiting his home on Monday afternoon, he was seen returning from work and feeding his son; father and son then bathed together. After work, Rabiul cares for the child at home much as a mother would.

Rabiul has no homestead or land of his own. He lives with his little son in one of two dilapidated tin rooms belonging to his cousin's son — a broken tin-roofed hut is the whole world of this father and child.

Rabiul says he faces a severe crisis, but there is no scope to stop. He has to win this fight — which is why he ties his son to his waist and takes to the road with his rickshaw every day. He does not know when this struggle of life with a small child will end.

Neighbours Ramzan Ali, Shahidul Islam and Bijon Sheikh say Rabiul has been helpless since childhood. After his marriage he was getting by driving the rickshaw, but since his wife left he has been living in great hardship. They demanded that the government stand beside Rabiul and his son and help improve their lives.

Encouragingly, the matter has reached the administration. Pabna Deputy Commissioner Md Aminul Islam said: 'We have learned about Rabiul and his child through you. We will do whatever is necessary for them from the government. If he has land of his own, we will build him a house there. And we will talk to Rabiul's and his wife's families to learn what the problem between them is and try to resolve it.'

Neighbours now wait to see how much change the deputy commissioner's assurance brings to Rabiul's life. For now, as every day, he sets out through Pabna's lanes with Sani tied to his waist — the family's survival in one hand, his son's future in the other.