Living with the virus and MFS in Bangladesh

Several countries, mostly European, are now in a bid to treat the coronavirus Covid 19 pandemic as an endemic and to reset life back to its normalcy. For the last two years, people across the world have been battling against the pandemic that brought life to an unwarranted halt in every sector and in every nook and corner.

While Covid 19 steered havoc in medical history with uncontrollable speed of transmission and casualties, a rampant development of vaccination succeeded in pulling down the momentum and thus buoy some kind of hope amongst all for a return to normal life. However, the ray of hope was soon eclipsed by dark clouds with a sudden repeated wave of the virus dubbed as Omicron.  Nevertheless, with millions of people already vaccinated and due to maintenance of strict health safe protocols, the Omicron impact was lesser thus prompting many countries to abort the Covid 19 restrictions and revert to life as usual. After all, the invisible virus has significantly dented visible marks of damages to social, economic and psychological fabric of human society everywhere and the question of sustainability on all fronts has been looming large.

The highly sportive vaccination discovery has been an unprecedented biotech development and its massive deployment has immensely helped in developing and boosting immunity of the people. The question though still remains highlighted whether this covers a lifelong immunity against such virus. If it is temporal, then eye-brows can obviously be raised because the virus has been resurfacing in different variants and that the trend could continue.

 Though the core jerk of the Covid 19 virus rendered a biological shock with people succumbing at random, particularly the old and the vulnerable, the shockwaves rippled extensively in all factors of economy that normally gear human living, development and sustainability. Thus, we have seen how people, particularly the poor working community in our country and elsewhere, dared to be on their feet to continue their work even when the health and administrative authorities were desperate to flatten the rising curve of death and infections. It was more of a case in point for survival from the danger of unemployment, losing business, slipping into poverty or even getting into social disorders.

It is without any doubt that the role of technology is well tested and manifested in combating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic of such measure. Historically, it is not the first time that a pandemic has come. The chronology speaks of a series of pandemic, their lengths as well as the impacts. However, while doctors, nurses, paramedics and biotechnology scientists were upbeat on their professional and moral values, technology, particularly information and communication, did its best to make dramatic interventions to keep alive the human quest for survival and sustainability. And that brought the difference between the Covid 19 pandemic and those in the past.

Be it telemedicine or medical emergency care or statistical surveillance or financial transactions, mobile telephone played a domineering role during this pandemic. This did not exist during the pandemics of the past. That is why any modeling on the socio-economic impact of Covid 19 pandemic would strongly top up the contribution of mobile phone technology in this critical juncture. During the measures like lockdown, isolation and social distancing to counter the virus threat, this digital tool has simply been a gifted relief.

In fact, there has been a robust growth of financial dependence and services through mobile phones in several countries including Bangladesh and many developing ones, particularly in Africa and South America. According to GSMA, the global association of mobile communication industries, over US Dollar 2.0 billion has been transacted through mobile financial services every day during the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020.  In its annual report of 2021, GSMA mentioned that mobile financial services (MFS) accounts grew by over 12 per cent globally and that a big segment of the new entrants was from the poorer tier of the society, mostly unbanked and women.

In Bangladesh, the MFS industry had a special contribution towards mitigating the challenges posed by the pandemic. The government's crisis management maneuvers were significantly navigated through the interventions of the MFS industry which itself is only a decade old. During the lockdown period in 2020, millions of readymade garment workers received their salaries and other incentives while staying in their villages, far away from their workplaces. About 2.0 million garment workers had opened MFS accounts during March and May that year. Similarly, remittances inflow from Bangladeshis working abroad also increased by 419 per cent following conveniences and incentives provided by the MFS providers.  As known, readymade garments export sector and remittances from abroad form the country's economic lifeline and this timely support enabled the best relief and reassurance for the millions of workers, at home and abroad.

Adoption to MFS and telemedicine made a sterling breakthrough during this crisis. Because of lockdown, social distancing and more so for maintaining lesser physical movement, there has been a mammoth increase in use of MFS for payment of utility bills, grocery purchases, medical treatment bills and so forth. It is estimated that about 45 per cent of the people have adopted MFS for their health safety and conveniences.

This scenario has also prompted the country's MFS industry to be vibrant and draw up as much facilitation for reassuring the people to pursue a worry-free life. With its lead in wide network of operations from urban areas to remote areas, bKash has courted about one crore new customers during the pandemic. Likewise, other providers like Nagad, Rocket, TAP and few others have also been adding value to MFS in the country. MFS is now like a bank in our pocket that renders a great sense of relief in facing challenges in disasters.

With medical scientists working strenuously to track and evolve solutions to combat such virus and its mutations, technologists are upbeat in developing ways and means to keep the pace of life in momentum. Virologists and researchers have indicated that the virus of such kind would always remain active; much like a volcano and it will be our responsibility to manage when it erupts. We may grow our resilience through vaccination and a careful adaptation to the 'new normal' way of living that includes behavioural changes.

It should be noted with seriousness that the impact of climate change can have a significant bearing on the growth and spread of new virus syndromes. Many countries are already facing abnormal weather conditions and effects from sea level rise induced saline swamps. These conditions can have potentials to generate new diseases or stimulate many current ones. So, we have to ensure integration of political governance, economic pursuits, technological advances and social progress with biological and environmental realities. Only then, we can live with the virus. 

Mohiuddin Babar is a freelancer. [email protected]