Shawdesh Desk:

Amar Ekushey Book Fair has brought out opportunities for youths to make a quick buck and gathering experiences by working as stall attendants at different publishing houses, private organisations and companies.

As the fair is the highest spending season of the year, publishing houses hire additional salespersons to cope with the fair rush while different company hire youths, mostly university students, for publicity of their products and thus, it is become an income source and a great way of gathering experience.

The payment of the stall attendants varies from Taka 7,000 to Taka 10,000 for the entire month.

Working as stall attendants is a great way to gather experiences and a way of being self-reliant along with continuing studies, youths said while talking to media.

Rafid Ajmain Khan, a third-year student of Dhaka University (DU), said the book fair is an amazing learning place for the youths like him.

“I enjoy dealing with customers. This part-time job has offered me an opportunity to get real life experiences and training which will be helpful to pursue my career as an event management professional,” he said.

A third-year student of Home Economics College Jannatul Maowa Moni, who has been working at ‘Genius Publication’, said she was too happy to do such a job which helped to supplement her income.

Over and above everything else though, this temporary job is valued by the students for bringing them closer to the writers, she added.

Shanta Sheikh, a second-year student of New Model Degree College, said, “Despite getting financial support, working as a stall attendant I get the chances to meet many noted writers and poets in the fair that’s why I like it.”

Fuad, a DU student, said that he had been working for BKash, a mobile financial service, to gain some experience before entering the job market.

He said the money will definitely help, but it is the experience that matters the most.

Marketing Executive of ‘Kotha Prakash’ Mohammad Yunus said, “We run our outlet with four staff throughout the year. But at the beginning of month of language, we have employed 11 part-timers to handle the fair rush.”

This year, around 873 units have been allocated to 560 publishing houses and organisations to sell and exhibit their books and publications, creating opportunities for the young people.

On Sunday, presence of the visitors was remarkable throughout the day.

The fair will be open for the visitors from 3pm to 8pm every day. On holidays, it will be open from 11am to 8:30pm and on February 21 it will open at 8am and continue till 8:30pm.