Every year lakhs of students take admission in various public and private universities of Bangladesh. The well-off students may be able to easily afford university and related expenses, but students from poor families struggle to meet these expenses. In this circumstance, students from poor families are compelled to find ways to earn extra money.
Many of them live by combining their own income with money given from their family and many depend only on their own income to pay their education and other expenses.
So far through this report you have come to know about the situation of students from poor families. But students of well-off families also try to find income sources.
Analysis of this issue shows that one group of students earn money only to overcome financial crises or for survival while another group wants to gain financial independence by standing on their own feet.
Many of those who are compelled to pay their own expenses spend more time working than studying. As a result they are jeopardizing their educational career as well as their future job prospects while making temporary gains.
Yasin Arafat Tamjid came to Dhaka from Noakhali to study, said, “ As my family is not well-off enough, I earn money to meet my basic needs like food, education and medical needs etc. I face difficulties to survive in Dhaka city.”
“I have been under mental tension all the time since I came to Dhaka, which is deteriorating my mental health. I have no choice but to earn”, he further added.
On the other hand, Amrita Saha, a Jagannath University student, earns money so that she can maintain her own expenses without depending on her father's income. It is not like the previous case that she is earning by seeing his survival becoming difficult.
She said, "I earn money because I feel shy to ask money from my father for my basic needs. So I try to maintain my own expenses and stand on my own feet. I have a balance between work and study.”
