Recent study findings have shown that people from the low-income groups in urban areas are struggling to have three meals a day, consume quality food, and maintain their daily protein intake due to the crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of them have plunged into debts after borrowing overwhelmingly from informal sources to face the crisis. To tame the crisis, the government should develop and introduce a one-year “Solidarity Package” targeting the recovery and well-being needs of household aides, daily labourers, and transport workers, it suggests.
BRAC University conducted the survey among 1,056 RMG workers, non-RMG workers, and migrant returnees. The study said 49 per cent of the RMG workers said their pay and perks were slashed due to the pandemic. Their monthly income went down by 21 per cent on average compared to the pre-pandemic period. However, their monthly expenditure decreased by only two percent. This forced them to reach for their savings and rely on borrowing and other forms of debts to manage the expenditure.
According to the study, 38 per cent RMG workers had to reduce the frequencies of their meals, 69 per cent had to consume low quality food while 85 per cent had to cut their protein intake. The income of 92 per cent of the non-RMG workers declined. Their monthly average income also decreased by one-third. Among the non-RMG workers, 47 per cent reported a decrease in the frequency of meals, 73 per cent reported that they consumed less food than before, and 83 per cent lowered their protein consumption. The study also found that about 64 per cent of migrant returnees were repatriated forcibly, while 33 per cent of them returned home after their employers bore the relevant costs. Upon arrival, the returnees found it difficult to find jobs in Bangladesh. They have experienced a sharp fall in their average monthly income — by 60 per cent. As a result, the returnees used their savings and borrowed money to finance expenditure.
Seventy percent of the pandemic-affected workers expected that the government would help them recover from their losses. But the reality was grim due to inappropriate and inadequate timely action to support the most affected people. Given the massive impacts of the pandemic on low-income people’s food intake behaviour, the government should introduce targeted programmes to provide them with subsidised nutritional support.
