REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DHAKA -- A few typewriting professionals are still clinging on to the age-old device to earn their bread when Bangladesh along with many countries across the world have bade farewell to the devise years ago and being digitized.
Some of such professionals, who are over three decades on the device, say they do not want to abandon the equipment.
Replying to a query why they are still sticking to the age-old device when the country is almost digitized and people in the remote village are benefiting from digitalization, Abdul Momen, from southeastern Chandpur district told Xinhua the device would stay for long.
"I have not practiced in computer, moreover, I am too poor to afford one, " said Momen, a typist who sits in the makeshift shed, just opposite the Jatiya Press Club (national press club) near the city center in Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
"I sit with the device almost every day to earn some money to run my five member family."
"Now my income from the device has fallen alarmingly with the arrival of the modern computer. I cannot earn over Taka 100 to 200 daily from typewriting. I also do some other jobs like translation and notary public. In this way I survive," he said.
He does not have an official job.
Momen and 50 other such professionals on the device sit in the shed in front of the press club.
Abdur Rahim, another typist, who is in the profession for nearly 30 years and sits in front of the police headquarters told Xinhua that his earnings ranges between Taka 500 to 700 a day.
Rahim said he does some specialized work like filling difficult forms in square size houses, the job, which is almost impossible with computers. These forms are used in selling and buying shops and property in the capital.
Rahim said they also make some cards almost identity cards, which is also difficult in nature.
These typing professionals sit in the sheds, where infrastructure facilities are absent for using computers. The sheds lack power supply and other amenities for computer use, and always seen crowded.
In the capital Dhaka there are some other spots where some people use the device. Momen said one can see people use this old device at Mohammadpur town hall, Nilkhet, near the Dhaka University, and near Dainik Bangla road junction.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which took office in early 2009 for the second time, pledged that her government would digitize the country.
Most offices are now digitized, and the remaining work is being done in phases.
The government to facilitate the village people has digitized the Union office, the bottom tier of local government, from where the village-educated youths are facilitating from the latest devices.
They can now apply for jobs sitting at home. The youths also can see vacancy notices through the information centers set at the Union level.
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