Each day early morning the dry fish workers start their work. Each fishing boat leaves the shore of Ashar Chor to fish for 15-20 days. When they come back, the work of the dry fish labor starts. They unload the fish from the fishing boats which returned and carry the fish on buckets inland to process and dry them.

Buckets full of fishes are washed in the small sweet water pools to get them ready to finally dry. These are the same water pools which are used for the drinking water by the dry fish labors.

16 years old, Karim helping his father to prepare his fish catching boat.

Without any modern fish treatment plant the bucket full of fishes get a quick rinse in the sweet water pools and laid on the raffia mats to dry to 5-6days.

After the fishes are carried inland they are laid under the sun on hand made raffia mats. They are protected from the birds from eating them by covering them by nets.

Every day 6 years old, Danesh catching fish and playing with his friends. He is not enough young to able do this work properly. But the fortune made him to do such kind of work.

Although in our country we have an extensive program for compulsory primary education but the teenage boy Ponkoj did not had the luck to do so. He came here to earn his living in his very early age near about 5yrs ago and still working here.

The fishermen are getting ready for the next voyage. A local wild fruit known as GAAB is used to treat the fishing nets to increase its longevity in the salty waters.

In many developed and underdeveloped countries around the world child labor is strictly discouraged even it is so in our country. Still in this dry fish community a huge number of labors are children. Like this boy was sent here from Jessore to work in Ashar Chor. The Child workers are getting 40 taka ($ 0.56) per day.

All the tools used in Ashar Chor are of primitive age and hand made by the labor.

Not only men work here in Ashar Chor, female workers also work shoulder to shoulder along with men. But during their payment they are paid less then men, as they are women.

During his long years of working here Karim Ali (52years old) had seen a lot, like natural disaster, kidnapping and lifelong commitment to the Mahajon. He says, “Once one of my co-workers was kidnapped and never came back, I never know when it is going to happen to me, and we have no guarantee of life here.”

This is the only food plate which was found after Cyclone Sidr. Rebuilding the houses after Cyclone Sidr, It is the only hope to beginning again.

The hard working dry fish community lives in a very severe condition. The government does not provide them any cyclone shelter nor are they under any sanitation projects which are being carried out in other part of the country. The community living there lives in shanty houses as gypsies.

In Ashar Chor there are no health supports likewise the sanitation. The community in deceived of every comfort we enjoy in our daily life. The only thing they know and live on is drying fish.

The side of the Island is flooded every day by the high tide. Every day the high tide floods through the barriers and flooded fishing farms and cultivated lands.

The only mean of income is dry fish which is given the maximum priority. In the small island Ashar Chor the dry fish community intends to maximize most of its space to use it to dry fish.

The inhabitants of the villages on the island have to live on the edge surrounding the island.

A vast number of population in Bangladesh lives under the poverty scale because of not having proper education, this results to hardship and unemployment though for the last decade the government took upon various minimum primary education program but it still has a long way to go. Like this young boy from Khulna came here to work for the season of dry fish and to earn his living. This is his first year of work here.

The fish are dried all day long. After sunset they are not taken off the drying fields to store because of the huge quantity and storage problem.

After Cyclone Aila, many houses, trees and boats are destroyed. These Islands people are very brave and they again build their boats and prepare them to catch fish again.

"I lived here more then 15 years. There is nothing left. I lost my family in Cyclone Sidr. Now only hope is my life." says 64 year old Shamsul Alam.

They are playing in the Sea water. But they don't know after Sea level rising, this water can destroy their land and grab their land into the Sea.

This middle aged man Yasin is working here for 9-10 years, every fish drying season he used to come here to work. But now he has permanently settled here with his family from Shatkhira. Yasin says, “My dream was to be a fish dealer to be a Mahajon (middleman), but I ended up as a dry fish labor, still i know if I work hard I can own a boat and fulfill my dream.” the man stills dreams of being a Mahajon and own his own business of dry fish here in Ashar Chor.

After the fishes are dried for 4 to 5days they are stacked and are ready for supply to the market.

Surrounded by salty water there is no sweet water supply for drinking. They have to collect water from the sweet water pools far away inland and store them in their houses. Every early morning or at the end of a day they carry their supply of drinking water.

After working hard the whole day dry fish worker Sharif Uddin sits and relaxes getting ready for another long hard day ahead.

The Bay of Bengal is only surviving source of the Island’s people. Because of most people are fishermen. On the other way, The Sea destroyed their life by flooding and Cyclone.

Cyclone Sidr was killing the people of Bangladesh. The Red Cross believes that 900,000 families, roughly seven million people are affected by the devastation. Of the total lives lost to Sidr, 40 per cent are believed to be children. Children under five, pregnant women, new mothers and the elderly are the people most seriously affected. Many of the children that have survived are now orphans. The child lost his father in Sidr. He is a victim of Cyclone Sidr. Now he tries to make their home with broken plastics.

During winter drying fish is easy. It takes maximum 4 to 5 days. But during the monsoon it is the opposite due to the unanticipated monsoon shower.

The sun rises and it sets in the horizon and their life goes on like this. At the end of day they go back to their abode thinking the next day they have to come back here again and work. But at night they are fear about robbers and kidnappers.