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Bangladesh economy faced further 'informalisation' with consequent lower wages and higher underemployment under a stumbling upset done by the pandemic, it was revealed Sunday at a conference on post-corona policy choices.
And the country's marginal enterprises and underprivileged people were disproportionately affected by the covid-19 fallout. But they are the ones, again, who were "mostly deprived of various recovery schemes" launched by the government.
Unavailability of adequate data on the impact of the covid-19 is one of the major causes behind this, said speakers in the opening session of the two-day conference on 'Bangladesh Emerging from the Pandemic: Coping Experiences and Policy Choices".
Planning Minister M A Mannan joined the inaugural session as the chief guest while Resident Representative of the UNDP in Bangladesh Sudipto Mukerjee was the special guest.
Member of the Centre for Policy Dialogue Board of Trustees Advocate Sultana Kamal presided over the opening session of the conference, organised by Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, in partnership with the CPD at the Brac Centre in Dhaka's Mohakhali area.
"There was urban-rural migration and further informalisation of the economy with consequent lower wages and higher underemployment," said CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya in a keynote, titled 'The COVID Consensus: Bangladesh's Experiences in Dealing with the Pandemic', presented at the meet.
Dr Bhattacharya said various studies conducted by different think-tanks on the socioeconomic impact of the covid-19 revealed that the aftermath of the crisis disproportionately affected the underprivileged.
"The disproportionate impact of the fallout was more prominent in Char, haor and coastal areas, where people had to sell their belongings like livestock, lands and other assets in a bid to cope with the fallouts," he stated in the paper.
The people had not only limited access to various services but also they were deprived of digital learning and other issues, said Mr Bhattacharya.
"Loss of income by the households and long closure of educational institutions paved the way for child marriage and child labour, leading to socioeconomic problems," he told the meet.
The planning minister, M A Mannan, said a government survey found the households economic conditions recovering in the middle of the year following the fallout.
The government has also been working to expand healthcare facilities for the country's people.
"The country will move ahead with its agenda to eradicate poverty and enhance living standard overcoming all barriers-- either domestic or external," the minister told his audience.
Advocate Sultana Kamal pointed at "huge gaps with data and information" in the country.
"We still don't know how many areas and to what extent pandemic hit the country's people," she said.
CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun, Coordinator of the Citizen's Platform Anisatul Fatema Yousuf and Professorial Fellow of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman spoke on the occasion, among others.
Dr Fahmida Khatun said the virus breakout affected the healthcare as well as almost every other sector to varied extents.
She also said the government-provided financial packages didn't proportionately reach all sections of people.
"There is need for extending and continuation of the financial support to the micro, small and medium enterprises so that they can turn around," she said in her recommendation about the dos of the day when the recovery process is gathering steam.