Women entrepreneurs are increasingly showing concerns over their seasonal business in the future for coronavirus pandemic in the country, experts said.
They pointed out that the rural based small entrepreneurs have already missed some important business opportunities like making handicrafts on the occasion of the Independence Day and Bangla New Year (Pahela Baishakh) celebration as the country has declared lockdown to fight against deadly coronavirus.
If this situation continues, they fear that they may also have to incur huge losses on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr due to lack of adequate support, they added.
They mentioned that the businesses by such small women entrepreneurs are mainly centred around handicraft items, boutiques, food and beauty parlours which are mostly on demands and sold in huge quantities during festivals.
However, the government has ordered a suspension of all modes of transport and shutting down all shops and markets except daily essential items like pharmacy and grocery stores as part of its efforts to enforce social distancing effectively in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Economists said if the government had provided supports on time to their business, many workers would not have incurred losses and also losing jobs. An estimated says that there are more than 10 million such young and energetic entrepreneaushave been generated centring female-run businesses.
Taking to Bangladesh Post about this, many women entrepreneurs said, they don’t know whether they will be infected with the virus, but they know that if this situation continues, they have to pay the price of huge losses.
They said, “if we don’t have running business how can we run our families affairs, especially buying food to susrvive?”
A SME entrepreneur Esrat Jahan Choudhury told Bangladesh Post, “We are passing difficult time. If this situation continues, we will have to incur huge losses.”
She said if we cannot run the business for a long time how we can pay salaries to employees, rent and different bills.
Esrat requested the government to sanction immediately cash incentive for them to sustain in this critical time.
“Otherwise, many companies may shut down permanently for fund crisis,” she said adding that, women run businesses create huge employment contributing to economy.
Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) Selima Ahmad said more than 15,000 members of her association urged the government to make rebate of bank interest for at least three months, VAT and tax for women entrepreneurs to get out from the current situation.
The World Bank former lead economist, Zahid Hussain told Bangladesh Post, “Women entrepreneurs are going to face many challenges as coronavirus has broken down all activities of the country,” he added.
He said, “The government has taken time befitting measures to allocate funds to overcome the possible Covid-19 impact on the country's economy.”
He has suggested providing this incentive to those groups of people most affected by the current coronavirus in order to overcome the worsening national and global crisis.
The government should immediately provide funds in women entrepreneurs to manage the critical situation in the country, he mentioned.
