The coronavirus pandemic forced nearly half of the marginalised people in Bangladesh to borrow to make a living amid income losses, according to a study of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs Bangladesh released on Sunday
And they are likely to remain indebted for next four to five years as their incomes are yet to recover fully, it said.
"We have found that four out of five households have experienced financial hardship due to the Covid-19 crisis. People living in the coastal belts, in slums, persons with disability, and micro, small and medium enterprises suffered more than others," said Estiaque Bari, a senior lecturer of economics at East West University.
He shared the findings at a conference on "Bangladesh emerging from the pandemic: coping experience and policy choice", jointly organised by Citizen's Platform for SDGs Bangladesh and the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) at the Brac Centre Inn.
MA Mannan, planning minister, said amidst the pandemic, Bangladesh had done better than many other countries like India and China in terms of growth. The poverty situation has improved a lot than earlier stages, said the minister
The survey, among 1,600 marginalised households in February 2021 found that seven out 10 households suffered either job losses or temporary shutdown of business in the early phase of the pandemic, the study said.
Average withdrawal of savings per household was Tk 34,460, and people in the haor, coastal and slum areas and the dalits and the returnee migrant workers had to dip into their savings.
And as the income has not risen enough, the incidence of overlapping membership at micro-finance institutions for loans and multiple borrowing are likely to increase, according to the study.
He suggested the government to provide soft loans to these marginalised households through local government bodies to speed up their recovery.
"The economy will need a recovery package with distributive justice," said Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow at the CPD, referring to an advanced version of the stimulus package.
He stressed the need for supporting the marginalised people at a time of rising prices of daily essentials and considering their struggle.
Macroeconomic stability is no longer in a comfortable state because of rising commodity prices fueled by both international price hike and unfavourable government policy. The government's fiscal space has squeezed, according to Khan.
At this stage, a targeted flow of fiscal resources to the more vulnerable households and relatively smaller and informal enterprises will protect the marginalised groups, he said.
Prof Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, said social recovery was still slow. The stimulus package suffered from many shortcomings. "We have not seen any monitoring yet."
Sultana Kamal core group member of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, decried data anarchy to properly guess things at field level. "So, on what basis will the policy-makers take decision to overcome the situation.
Sudipto Mukerjee, resident representative of the UNDP appreciated the remedial measures of the government, which managed the Covid-19 fallouts. The economic resilience of Bangladesh has surprised many developed countries as the country achieved a good GDP growth during the pandemic.
Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the CPD, called for robust investment in the health sector to set up physical infrastructures and develop the skills of physicians and nurses.
She called for continuing the subsidised incentive for SMEs as most of the entrepreneurs have not received loans.
Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman of Brac, said a transparent vision of the government was needed to help the economy recover fast. Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the CPD, also spoke.
