A large number of low-income people, who had suddenly become unemployed and returned to their villages, have started moving back to the cities, mainly capital Dhaka in search of a living.
According to sources, after the production of Aush paddy, plantation of Aman paddy, the main crop, has already been completed, so there is no demand for agricultural labourers in the paddy fields now.
There are also no government programmes like ‘food for work’ or ‘money for work’ at present in the rural areas resulting in most of the people who had returned to the villages from the cities, having no work.
According to inter-district transport workers, pressure of passengers bound for capital Dhaka and other cities has now almost doubled compared to the passengers bound for villages.
Rustum Ali, a vice president of Bangladesh Inter-District Bus Owners Association, said, they get extra passengers on the way to the cities, but buses have to return empty on the way back.
Meanwhile, the presence of people returning from villages is also now clearly visible in the cities. A very few of those, who lost their jobs at the beginning of Corona and had returned to the villages, have not been able to find places in their previous workplaces. As a result, many have been forced to sell various products on the footpaths, many others are found moving around jobless while a large portion of them are now looking for jobs.
Shah Jalal, who was an employee of a private firm and had gone to the village after losing his job, said, “I left Dhaka after I had lost my job. During the last five months, I had been working in the fields. But now there is no work there and that is why I have been forced to return to the city again in search of a job.”
Like Shah Jalal, many others are now in the same situation in the cities.
Economists say many people have lost their jobs due to the corona pandemic, and the income of many has decreased. Under the circumstances, the big challenge of the government is to create new jobs by reviving the economy.
Importance should especially be paid to rural areas by creating employment opportunities because a large number of labourers and employed people have returned to the villages from the cities after losing their jobs due to corona.
They said, creation of more employment opportunities in rural areas will discourage the working people to move to cities. In this regard, economists have called for a quick release of agricultural incentives and an increase in allocations for the construction of roads, bridges and culverts to create infrastructural facilities to increase employment in the non-agricultural sector.
Employers in industrial and commercial establishments said that although the corona situation is somewhat normal, the recession in their trade, manufacturing and marketing has not yet ended. As a result, they are not able to recruit workers and employees like before. On the contrary, some organisations are still having to cut staff.