The poor among the worst affected as Bangladesh braves second Covid wave

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Bangladesh extended its nationwide lockdown by a week, but uncertainty and distress among hundreds of labourers, rickshaw pullers, hawkers and auto drivers has risen in the face of their plummeting incomes.</p>
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According to a report by Daily Star, those dependent on daily earnings for their livelihood said they have no problem staying at home provided the government ensured food and aid for them.</p>
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Referring to a new study undertaken by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), the daily pointed out that over three percent of the labour force lost jobs while 16.38 million people became new poor amid the pandemic.</p>
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“The most affected workers' groups were the labourers in urban areas engaged in construction, informal services, rickshaw-pulling, and launch and boat driving,” the news report said adding that self-employed people including street vendors, hawkers, tea sellers, food stall owners and repairmen were also among the worst hit.</p>
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Bangladesh, home to 160 million people, is currently in the middle of a second wave of Corvid 19 pandemic.</p>
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The national technical advisory committee on Covid 19 management has predicted that the spike in Coronavirus cases will continue if appropriate measures to contain the spread of coronavirus are not enforced strictly.</p>
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Aware of the adverse downstream impact on ordinary people, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday appealed to a global audience to feel for  the “socio-economic impacts of the pandemic,” which are massive and are still unfolding. “It is, therefore, extremely important to strengthen the global and regional partnerships through coordinated efforts to address these challenges," she observed.</p>
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The Bangladeshi leader said in her pre-recorded video message at the opening plenary of the four-day annual conference Boao Forum for Asia (BAF) that her country was trying to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic through balanced measures between life and livelihood.</p>
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"We've so far announced various stimulus packages worth $14.6 billion, around 4.4% of our GDP, for social protection and boosting (the) economy," she observed.</p>
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