Standing on a dusty road in Bangladesh’s capital, Tanjila Begum weighed her options for getting to work at a garment factory as a planned political rally to scrap a Jan. 5 election kept buses off the streets.
For a moment, she considered walking 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) to avoid taking a rickshaw for 40 takas ($0.51), four times more than a bus ride and about 20 percent her average daily wage. In the end, Begum shelled out the cash, as she risked being docked a day’s pay if she arrived late.