Hajj from Bangladesh

Hajj that is spelled as Hadj or Haj in English is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is a mandatory religious performance that must be carried out once in the lifetime of a Muslim. Mecca is regarded as the holiest city for Muslims. It is said that the Muslims who are physically and financially capable to take a journey ensuring their support to their family during their absence should go to Mecca. According to the official statistics between 2000 to 2019, the pilgrims come approximately 2,269, 145. Again, approximately 1, 564, 750 are from outside of Saudi Arabia. Again, in 2012, the highest number of participants approximately 3,161,573 was seen to have Hajj. To have the hajj, there are some official activities that should be performed to go like pre-registration, sending payment, and so on. Again, there are some difficulties or challenges faced by Bangladeshi people to have Hajj perfectly or smoothly with the growing world.

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Bangladeshi people started taking the journey in 1973 and there is seen significant changes in the number of people from day today. To say about the cost, here one needs to spend money according to package. As it is like a traveling tour, there are definite packages for the hajj passengers. According to cabinet okays, hajj package-2020, pilgrims who will go to have Hajj have to pay to 4.25 lakh to avail package-1 and tk 3.60 lakh under package-2 under the government management which is tk 6500 and tk 16000 more than the previous year respectively. There are also both government and non-government agencies to have pre-registration that is very much necessary to fill.

Those who want to go to hajj should fill a form remaining offline or online. For online, there is an official address named hajj.gov.bd to have this registration. One needs to have a national Identity card, mobile number(to have SMS). Again, for government management, one needs to give 30,000 takas and for non-government management, the cost is 30, 752 takas. For this pre-registration, you need to go to the office of district administration, Islamic foundation, union information service center. Once again, you need to complete this registration step by step. At first, verification of your name and other pieces of information regarding identity will be verified by your identity card and then you have to give the money and confirmation will be provided. There is kepy a definite time to pay the money. Otherwise, the person should register again. At the last stage, there is provided pilgrim identity for each passenger when their payment is confirmed. PID is sent to everyone who can complete all the procedures following the rules. To travel, PID is very necessary for a passenger. Without it, to travel is impossible. If there remains any mistake in the pre-registration form, the authorities will go for cancellation of the pre-registration form but there needs to spend some money to cancel it. Two thousand taka will be cut from the payment as service charge and additional three thousand will be cut for processing for the second time. People who are below 18, should fill the form after showing his/ her parents' birth certificates. There are also faced some challenges by the passengers nowadays like the large number of pilgrims, illegal human trafficking, government monopoly, excessive pilgrimage fees, accommodation, etc. Thus, to perform Hajj from Bangladesh is getting difficult day by day.

Written by, Sonjoy Kumer,

Reference (Information Collected)

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