More than 24 million day laborers are going through a critical time without their daily food for loss of work due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Coronavirus. Following the other countries of the world, experts and economists have suggested special cash incentives be provided to the low-income people to help them offset the impacts.
In this situation, low income and poor people are suffering more than the others as they have no savings, experts said while adding that the government should take some initiatives as quickly as possible to take a hold on the situation. However, the government has ordered suspension of all modes of transport and shut down all shops and markets except for daily essentials like pharmacies and grocery stores as part of its efforts to enforce social distancing effectively in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Besides, the government deployed soldiers and police on Thursday to enforce the start of a nationwide 10-day shutdown to slow the spread of the virus in the densely populated country. As a result, all city streets across the country were empty and malls and roadside shops closed.
Only essential services such as vegetable markets and drug stores were allowed to operate. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh has almost 24 million workers on wage and salary basis. Of them, about 8.34 million workers get salary on a daily basis, and 1.77 million on a weekly basis.
However, the report does not include those who are self employed and assisted in family financing, it added. On the other hand, there are 7.29 million workers in the agriculture sector, the report mentioned. Talking to Bangladesh Post, many lower income people said, though they did not know whether they would be infected with the virus, they did know if the situation continued, they and their families would die in a food crisis.
I used to buy essentials for the next day every evening from my day’s earnings, a construction worker, Jahangir told Bangladesh Post. I have a 5 member-family, and all are dependent on me.” “All construction work in the country has stopped following the coronavirus outbreak,” he said adding, “If I cannot earn money for a long time, how can I manage money to buy daily essentials.”
Economists say, most of the day labourers working in the construction sector, tea stores, transport sector and agriculture sector are now jobless for the closing down of all sectors by the government to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, large numbers of people have lost work and are facing a food crisis, they added.
They said, the government should quickly ensure food and health security for day labourers and low-income people. Otherwise, the situation will become too bad. Eminent economist Zahid Hussain told Bangladesh Post, “Bangladesh is going to face many challenges as coronavirus has broken down all activities of the country,” he added.
He mentioned most of the workers of Bangladesh anticipate losing jobs as many companies have temporarily closed while many small businessmen are passing a critical time following the outbreak. Hence, the government should immediately create funds to provide cash financial incentives in all sectors and individuals especially who work and earn on a daily basis to manage the bad situation of the country, he added.
In order to protect day labourers and lower earner groups, he urged the government to provide money to ‘social protection or security programmes’, extracting from other sectors in the 2019-20 fiscal budget. Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Nazneen Ahmed said, “In the ongoing crisis, the government should firstly ensure food and health care for the low-income people.”
“It is not the time to benefit large enterprises and the rich people,” she said, adding, “We have to remember that the country has limited resources.” Dr. Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster management and relief told Bangladesh Post, “Nobody will die in a food crisis; we have already decided to distribute relief among lower income people in those areas already locked down, and those that will be, considering the situation”.
