|| Md. Mijanur Rahman Akanda, Phulpur (Mymensingh): Members of the Muchi community in Phulpur Municipality, Mymensingh, are living in subhuman conditions. They reside in Rishi Para of Magon Phulpur area within the municipality. Around 20 of them earn a living by repairing shoes, attaching soles, and polishing shoes on the footpaths of the municipal bus stand, Gol Chattar, and Amuakanda intersection.Those regularly engaged in the trade include Ranjit Rishi, Biren Rishi, Sunil Rishi, Subash Rishi, Nibaron Rishi, Ponchu Rishi, Bombol Rishi, Sushil Rishi, Bakka Rishi, Pulak Rishi, Montu Rishi, Nipendra Rishi, Shribinda Rishi, Pradip Rishi, Girindra Rishi, and Paresh Rishi. Ranjit Rishi is one of the members of this Hindu minority community that has faced discrimination for generations.He runs a family of six with his wife and four daughters amid severe hardship. He owns no land. The family lives crammed into an old tin-shed house built on someone else’s land. With the Boro paddy harvest season underway, customers are scarce. Working from morning to evening, he earns only Tk 150 to 200 a day repairing and polishing shoes. That meager income must support his entire family.With a sigh, Ranjit Rishi said, “We live on another person’s land. I don’t know when we’ll be evicted. On days when I earn a little more, I buy groceries and feed my family. On days with no income, we all go hungry.”Pulak Rishi, who also lives on someone else’s land, echoed the same hardship. “There’s almost no work now. I’m in deep trouble with my wife and children. What I earn from shoe repair isn’t enough to run the household. I don’t know if our fate will ever change.”Ponchu Rishi said living with his family in a broken tin-shed house is extremely difficult, yet they receive no support from the municipality. “It’s become impossible to maintain a family just by repairing shoes,” he said. Locals say that without rehabilitation, skill training, and alternative employment for this historically marginalized community, their inhumane living conditions will not end.