The government will provide Tk 2,000 this month to each of 50 lakh urban families clobbered by the shutdown of the economy. The families engaged in the informal labour sector — mostly manual labourers, mechanics, construction workers, rickshaw and cart pullers, newspaper delivery persons, street vendors and restaurant employees — will be eligible for the fund. The initiative is part of an effort to help the most vulnerable people for staying home during the coronavirus outbreak. Families in which the breadwinner has become unemployed due to the shutdown will be the beneficiaries. It is interesting to see how this will be achieved as Bangladesh is not a developed country which keeps precise statistics on the urban or rural poor. They will have to rely on local political leaders like Ward Councillors to get the statistics. And of course it is here that the problems will lie.
There is no guarantee that the lists will not be filled by those who are politically connected to the leaders–perhaps their henchmen, or those who support them for their benefits. It can be seen very easily that this could very quickly become an exercise in futility. Until the government can keep up with permanent records it will be difficult, if not impossible, to figure out which of the urban poor are actually deserving of the subsidy and which are simply political henchmen of powerful local leaders. To ensure that this doesn’t occur there must be additional layers of people who are there when the aid is actually given out. For each ward there must be a specific location and time where the political leaders must give out the aid in conjunction with journalists and locals who can easily identify whether those who are getting the aid are actually deserving or aides of the local leaders.
Trusting the local to give out cash benefits is akin to inviting a thief to stay at a house like a guest.
