Mohammed Rafique with his granddaughter at his Alimuddin Street shanty on Monday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Mohammed Rafique and his wife Bano Begum skipped their meals on Monday so that their six children could eat.

It is possible that the couple, who live in a shanty with their six children, will have to miss a meal or two on Tuesday, too, because Mamata Banerjee’s bandh robbed Rafique of the Rs 60-70 he earns daily.

With today’s earning, this family buys tomorrow’s meals. Rafique made only Rs 30 on Sunday, as business was slow. That explains Monday’s semi-starvation.

The 48-year-old man sells colourful posters of Lord Shiva and Goddess Lakshmi, and of Shah Rukh and Kareena, bodies no less heavenly, at Mullickbazar market.

“Kya karen aaj bandh ke wajah se bazaar bandh hai (What to do as the market is closed because of the bandh)? I lost my daily earning and we are starving ourselves to feed the children. We can’t help it,” Rafique said at his shanty at 24 Alimuddin Street, barely 100 metres from the CPM headquarters, blessed by living deities.

Monday’s, however, was not a bandh called by the CPM, but could well have been. Mamata’s shutdown in protest against price rise has a link with Rafique’s life in another way, separate from the loss of a day’s income.

Trinamul leader Partho Chatterjee was not apologetic. “In any bandh, daily wagers suffer the most. There is nothing new in it,” said Chatterjee.

According to the 2001 census, out of 81.176 million people in West Bengal around 20 million were daily wagers.

Starving to feed the children is hardly an unknown practice in families like that of Rafique’s, which has among its possessions a wooden cot in which the children sleep while Rafique and Bano sleep on the floor. There is a table fan and a light bulb.

Of late, the frequency of skipping meals has increased to twice or even thrice a week. “There are days when I earn less than Rs 30. My wife and I starve the whole day and have breakfast the next morning so that the children can get something to eat,” he said.

Breaking fast acquires a new meaning.

The family has to spend between Rs 50 and 70 a day on food. Besides vegetables, they buy 1.5 kg rice (Rs 14 per kg), 1.5 kg flour (Rs 16) and 100 gm of mustard oil (Rs 8.50) every day.

All of these food products have seen a sharp price rise. This means every day’s lost earning, or every day’s lower than Rs 60 income holds the seed of an extra meal skipped.

Rafique is more unfortunate because he also has to feed the daughter he had married off, Kismati, 18, and her two children because her husband lost his business in pirated CDs after a police raid.

It’s hard to believe Mamata is not aware that when food prices rise, the poor suffer more. Her bandh against that price rise swells that pile of agony.