Around 20 million people engaged in jobs in the informal sector have already become temporarily jobless as a fallout of coronavirus putting serious stress on the economy. The government should create an emergency fund for small entrepreneurs and labours in the informal sector and provide emergency loans with lower interest rate amid coronavirus outbreak.
The coronavirus pandemic has substantially put adverse impact on various trades in the informal sector. Many small entrepreneurs are in a distressed situation as their income is almost nil at this moment and they are facing shortage of funds to maintain family and pay salaries to the employees. Informal Sector Industry Skills Council (ISISC) made the demand in a statement signed by Md. Abdul Aziz Munshi, Specialist, Informal Sector, issued on Saturday.
Mentioning that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced Tk 727.50 billion stimulus package to facilitate large, SMEs and micro-businesses and enterprises, ISISC lauded the government for taking such a well-timed and crucial financial decision. “The declared package would not benefit the entrepreneurs, Master Craft Persons (MCPs) and labours in the informal sector as the industry is not yet covered by SME definition of the National Industrial policy 2016,” the statement read.
“So, the declared package will largely be used by SME, cottage and big business defined in the National Industrial policy,” it said adding that the industry people and labourers cannot avail the assistance provided by the government under the social safety programmes. Established by the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as a non-profitable organisation, ISISC has been working with the informal sector industries in Bangladesh since 2015.
Major trades and enterprises of informal sector include tailoring & dressmaking, block batik & screen-print, embroidery & nakshi kantha, handloom, beautification, driving, motorcycle mechanic, automobile mechanic, electric house wiring, electronics mechanic, sanitation housing, construction housing, painting, mobile servicing, tiles fitting, steel furnishing & making, plumbing, refrigeration & air condition, boat & furniture making, welding, photography, graphics design & multimedia, shoe repair & making, candle making, dairy & farming, poultry, beekeeping, jute product making, packaging, mome nursing, housework, forestry & nursery etc.
A total of 250,000 enterprises with 15,00,000 labours (average 05 labours in each enterprise) are compelled to shut their business until April 29, 2020 amid the coronavirus outbreak. The informal sector industries alone may face a loss of Tk 3,000 crore due to the epidemic in this month.
The ISISC requested the government to allocate cash support for entrepreneurs, MCPs and labour for saving informal sector industries and called for engaging financial institutions to lend money from the support package to assist informal business Rakibul Hasan (Ripon), owner of Rahmat Welding & Engineering Workshop, Bogura said, my workshop is closed for last 15 days due to coronavirus. ‘’I've lost my daily earnings. I have 5 workers and all are waiting for their wages." ‘I need to pay Tk 25,000 as wages, Tk 12,000 house rent, Tk 5,000 electric bill and Tk. 4000 security wage this month. But I don't have a single penny in my pocket’.
Due to absence of actual data, it is difficult to figure the number of enterprises and labours in the industry, though they are making significant contributions to the GDP, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). More than 91 percent of the total employment is created by the informal sector, shows the Bangladesh Labour Force Survey 2016-17. The enterprises are mostly in the labour-intensive informal sector. These located in the roadside, small market, industrial areas across the country.
