The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 has hit Bangladesh’s economy hard and jeopardized the country’s impressive achievements in poverty reduction.
Against this backdrop, Dhaka is set to announce its annual budget. People in his area call Imran Hossain an all-rounder.
The daily wage laborer can fix electric lines, clean the drainage clogs or cut wood to fix the roofs.
His daily earnings ranged from 300 to 500 taka (€3-€5/$3.50-$5.90). But, since mid-March, Hossain has had no work and no money to feed his wife and two children. “Coronavirus has spread here like anything. People are scared and don’t call me for any work,” Hossain told DW. Hossain lives in COMILLA, a district that lies about 100 kilometers (62.1 miles) to the southeast of the capital Dhaka and is one of the regions hit hard by the massive health crisis caused by the novel CORONAVIRUS.
Bangladesh has so far recorded 71,675 COVID-19 cases, with the disease claiming 975 lives until now.
A recent study conducted by a group of local NGOs concluded that every three out of five people in the country are at high risk of facing economic and health vulnerabilities. “Those people who are losing their jobs are from the bottom of the pyramid,” said KAMMORSHED, an expert working for the local NGO BRAC.