For traders, Eid is the busiest time. From shop owners to vendors on the street, the two Eids are the occasions for the most volume of sales in a year. A lot of plans and life goals rely on making a good profit during the festivals.

Oli Ahmed Oli, a vendor in Karwan Bazar area, planned to pay off all his debt with profits from the Eid-ul-Fitr shopping spree. But his plans have been hung out to dry as public life has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Not only he has outstanding debt of Tk two lakh which he will not be able to repay, he's accruing even more. So far, he's loaned Tk 25,000 to run his family of five living in the Monipur area during the lockdown.

"It's the third month that I have failed to pay my flat rent of Tk 10,000. I'm making zero money right now," said the former general secretary of Tejgaon Hawkers' League. "My relatives are still loaning out to me but I don't know how long they will keep it up."

The situation is worse for Mohammad Selim, a hawker in the Dainik Bangla area, who has been unable to even borrow money for the last one week.

"I have already borrowed Tk 21,000 to run my five-member family as I have been out of work since March 8. Even before this I had an outstanding loan of Tk 70,000 so now the situation is just worse," said Selim.

"I have failed to pay my Tk 7,000 house rent for two consecutive months," he said. "As my relatives are in similar situations, no one has lent me any money for the last one week."

Selim said he has only Tk 100 left to run his family. They are barely surviving on rice, lentil and mashed potato for both iftar and sehri.

"On top of this, I am not a voter of Dhaka. I haven't received any government relief," he alleged.

Not just Oli and Selim, around four lakh hawkers in the capital are struggling to survive. Most of them said they did not get any relief.

"I tried to get relief from the local ward councillor last week but he asked me to wait," said Shahidul Islam, a street vendor in Jatrabari area.

He said he has already borrowed Tk 23,000 during the shutdown. Now, he has no idea about how the future is going to pan out.

Arif Chowdhury, president of Jatiya Hawkers' Federation, said there are around eight lakh hawkers across the country, of whom four lakh are in the capital.

"All the hawkers are now running their families borrowing money but many of them have stopped getting fresh loans as the condition of their friends and relatives are almost similar," he said.

Arif said the government will have to come forward to help the hawkers with loans and relief, as they will go unfed otherwise.

"We are planning to hold some programmes in near future to demand relief, financial assistance, and loan facilities from the government," he said.

Contacted, newly-elected Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said they are providing assistance as much as they can but everyone will have to come forward.

Not only hawkers, assistance is being sought by everyone, even from the lower-middle class, who have never sought relief from the government before, he said.

He said DNCC is providing door-to-door food assistance based on their helpline phone calls.

"We have already prepared a list of 229 slums where we will focus our relief efforts. We have to provide around 8 lakh relief packs," he said. "We have to prepare a list of hawkers who live outside the slums to bring them under food assistance programmes, but it is a tough job," he added.

Beside the government, everyone will have to come forward, otherwise it will be tough to help out everyone in need, he said.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) also decided to provide food packs to one lakh poor families who are out of work during this Ramadan, DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon had told this newspaper. Many hawkers and their families will be benefited by the initiative as well.

DSCC has already formed committees in every ward to distribute the relief, the mayor added.