Bring Covid-hit marginalised people under 4-5-year relief programme: Economists

To help the Covid-hit marginalised communities recover from financial hardship, leading economists have recommended the government bring them under 4-5-year-long relief programmes.

Some 70% families of the marginalised community, living in the char, haor areas and city slums, have lost their livelihood during the Covid-19 pandemic, they said on the first day of a two-day conference, organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), where two research papers were presented.

"Our economy is bouncing back. However, we need to find ways to help the pandemic-hit families, including those who have managed to fight back, to ensure their economic condition do not deteriorate again," Distinguished CPD Fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman said while moderating a plenary session titled 'Macro-economic and Household Level Impact'.  

"Our economic recovery needs to be accelerated with long-term planning," he recommended.  

Of the two research, Estiaque Bari of East West University presented findings of the 'Marginalised Communities in Bangladesh Dealing with the Fallout from the Pandemic: Findings from a Household' Survey.

"According to government statistics, the GDP growth dropped 3 percentage points. Recruitment has gone down. Of the 1600 families we have surveyed, 70% lost their jobs or businesses. Over 80% of households survived on their savings and took loans. Some 25% among pregnant women did not get any medical treatment whatsoever while 88% children could not take part in online classes," he said.

Bari also said according to data 80% of these families could not turn around until February. A handful have managed to improve their situation on their own initiative and under the social security programmes of the government.

"However, to ensure that this turning around is sustainable, a 4-5-year-long relief programme should be undertaken," he proposed.

Presenting another study titled Covid-19 and Bangladesh: Macroeconomic Impact and Policy Choices, Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD said, "Industries have begun to recover from the overall economic crisis due to remittance inflows and government incentives during the pandemic period. GDP growth has been 5.24%. However, rising commodity prices in the global market did not stop the recovery."

He also said, "The government has given stimulus packages for the recovery of the industrial sector. This has solved the liquidity crisis. The government has provided various incentives through policy support including tax exemption. However, we think the government could have done more. We think the government at this time does not have enough money and had to hike the oil price."

Mustafizur Rahman said, "The government did not provide the assistance to the marginalised community it was supposed to provide. Because of an incomplete database they could not find more than 36 lakh people in their attempt to help 50 lakhs. The help didn't reach the marginalised."

He further pointed out that the government has a shortage in domestic resources.

Professor Selim Raihan, executive director of Sanem, "The main resource to recover from the crisis is money. The government must spend money. But, the government's revenue mobilisation is poor. Another weak spot is database. They do not really know who to help."

He also recommended improvement of monitoring and management, which he termed rather poor.

Ms Subhra Bhattacharjee, Strategic Planner and Head of RCO, Office of the UN Resident Coordinator, United Nations in Bangladesh said on the way to recovery quality money support is more important than spending money.

"People should get help in real time and there should be special packages for the vulnerable," she said.

Professor Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairperson of BRAC and executive chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), said, "The most important thing for recovery is to give people a place to express what they want."

He recommended setting up a regulatory body, where people can reach out for help.

75% marginalised households had additional financial hardship 

Nearly 75% of the surveyed 1,600 marginalised households had experienced additional financial hardship induced by the pandemic, says a study conducted by the CPD in partnership with Citizen Platform for SDGs. 

Among them, 80% of households did not recover from this additional financial hardship during the study period and their expected recovery time is 18-21 months.

The findings of the study conducted from February to April this year were revealed in Parallel Session 2 on Sunday.

Households perceived that it may take one and a half years on average to fully recover from the crisis.

The second wave will definitely prolong the recovery time, says the study.

"The stimulus packages announced by the government are largely business-friendly. What has been done for the marginalised people is a secondary initiative or afterthought such as the distribution of cash," Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director at Transparency International Bangladesh, said at the session.

"Our state structure is captured by the powerful private sector. It has a handful of sectors including garments. The government cannot do anything under their pressure."