UNB :
Financial hardships resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic forced 80.6% households to cut down food expenses, a survey has found.
The Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh unveiled the findings of ‘Marginalised Communities in Bangladesh Dealing with Pandemic Fallouts Findings from a Household Survey’ in a webinar on Thursday.
Some 47.2% households reduced the number of protein items and 37.7% cut down the number of items in meals, the survey found.
It found 78.8% households experienced financial hardship due to COVID-19.
Of them, 75% are in char, 71% in haor, 86% in coastal, 87.3% in slum, 67% in dalit, 67.7% in indigenous, 88.1% in PWD, 76% in Female HHH, 63.4% in migrant and 93.2% in MSME.
The study conducted by the platform is based on information collected through face-to-face survey of about 1,600 households across Bangladesh. It was conducted in February 2021 and covered 10 marginalised groups, including households from char, haor and coastal areas, slum, dalit, indigenous, persons with disabilities, migrant, micro, small and medium enterprises.
‘Debt trap awaits’
The marginalised and vulnerable citizens of the country are facing greater challenges to safeguard their lives and livelihood during the pandemic, the survey found.
Average decline in monthly savings of households is 64.6%. At least one member lost job or had to shut down business in 70.3% households and 68.2% rejoined works later, the data showed.
Besides, 47.9% households took loans to tackle Covid-19 crisis from different sources. Of them, 56% loans were received from NGOs, 24.2% from money lenders and 3.4% from banks, according to the survey.
The platform’s convener and also distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Debapriya Bhattacharya said all
marginalised groups are yet to fully recover from the fall in income and expenditure.
“The government distributed incentives and relief during the pandemic period last year [but] those were insufficient. There was even mismatching at distribution level,” he said.
He said a large number of households are likely to fall in debt trap and lose their savings.
Magrinalised groups need support CPD distinguished fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman said the new surge in Covid-19 and subsequent restrictions are likely to pose new challenges for recovery of the marginalised groups.
