People of all classes and professions have lost their jobs during the covid period. However, this number is much higher among the workers. Their condition is the most fragile. Multiple studies have found that figure.
The Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC) and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) conducted a three-point survey on the socio-economic impact of the covid period twice last year and once this year. According to the survey, domestic workers topped the list of job losses in June last year. According to the latest survey in March this year, the rate of job loss was the highest at 32 percent. Following are the skilled workers and low-paid people.
After the arrival of coronavirus, working people can no longer see the face of their corona-preceding income. According to a PPRC-BIGD survey, domestic workers’ income in March this year was 61 percent lower than in the previous covid period. Then there are unskilled workers. Their income has shrunk by 50 percent. The income of transport workers and rickshaw pullers has also declined by 48 percent.
The Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS) and the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) conducted a study last April. According to the study on the impact of corona on workers, workers in the manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors have lost the most jobs due to the pandemic, and they are at high risk.
These are the informal sectors of the economy. The study also said that about 1.8 million people in the informal sector have lost their jobs in the city. This number is more than 6 percent of urban employment in 2017.
PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman assumes that the working class was the biggest victim of the pandemic. Adding that the working people fell into a more complex trap of poverty due to the corona. Its effect will be felt everywhere in their body and mind. Sadly these workers have no organized voice. And they do not have the social capacity to make demands for government incentives.
Nazrul Islam Khan, executive director of BILS, said that the position of trade unions in supporting workers to reduce the impact of corona was not positive. He said, “There are more than one owner of ready-made garments, MP-ministers. There are also influential leaders in the transport sector. But there is no one to talk about the demands of the workers. ‘
The number of workers killed and injured in accidents at work has yet not decreased during the coronation period. According to the Bills survey, 4,795 workers died in workplace accidents in the country from 2015 to 2020. At that time 3 thousand 213 workers were injured.
Covid-19 has not reduced the number of workers killed in the workplace, despite long public holidays. In 2020 alone, 729 workers were killed in workplace accidents. 433 people were injured. As of March this year, 264 workers have been killed in accidents at work. The number of injured is 136.
