COVID-19 seems to have two-dimensional consequences in Bangladesh: it has a direct negative influence on health system, and healthcare access becomes very expensive; and the poor people are facing critical situation due to lockdown and joblessness, resulting in more health and human hazards. This chapter documents the pandemic-related major health and human hazards in Bangladesh by content analysis, using a socioecological lens, of available literature. The overall results showed a significant health burden and a large-scale economic conditional change among the Bangladeshi poor households. A low level of health access and health inequality intensified this health hazard to the poor people. Human hazards are mainly relating to poor economic conditions including loss of jobs, lack of access to income/savings, food insecurity, and lack of welfare support. This observation may benefit the policymakers, development partners, human rights workers, and non-government organizations of the country to make a collaborative effort for the people during and after the pandemic.
TopIntroduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about untold distress to humanity with varying health and socioeconomic impact on different countries and different population groups within countries. After the early detection of coronavirus disease in Wuhan, it took 67 days to spread to 100,000 people, 11 days for this figure to double, and only 4 days for additional 100,000 cases to be recorded (WHO, 2020a; 2020b). The rapid spread of the virus and its outcomes around the world continue to put fear, panic, and anxiety among the people (Anwar, Nasrullah, & Hosen, 2020). This requires governments to prioritize the management of this health crisis to ensure sound health and well-being of people as well as salvaging the ailing economy. In this regard, several approaches have been adopted across societies in responding to this global pandemic and the focus of most of these strategies is to safeguard public health and cushioning the economic impact. Typical among the coronavirus restraint measures are lockdowns, contact tracing, isolations, quarantine, social distancing, and border closures and the situation in Bangladesh has been no different.
Bangladesh is one of the most populous developing countries in the world, with 162 million people (2.19% of the total world population) (Hamiduzzaman, 2018; Hamiduzzaman et al., 2018). The population density of the country is the highest globally, with about 1,266 persons per sq. km. (Hamiduzzaman, 2020). The government of Bangladesh informed the World Health Organisation about the first COVID-19 case on March 7, 2020. A nationwide lockdown was imposed by the government after the first three cases of coronavirus on March 26, 2020 (Hamiduzzaman & Islam, 2020). Residents were advised to remain at home or observe strict social distancing protocols in emergency movements. By the end of March 2020, all schools and universities had been closed and all shops and businesses, except for a few essential services and commodities providers (e.g., pharmacy, hospitals, grocery shops) (Shammi et al., 2020). To ensure compliance, the government deployed the security forces (i.e., the Army, Police, and the Rapid Action Battalion) to safeguard the social distancing mechanisms (Shammi et al., 2020). Moreover, border restriction measures such as suspension of all visas on arrival were implemented.
While the measurements were necessary, many Bangladeshi experts speculated the multidimensional effects of the pandemic, especially on the country’s poor people. At present, 21.8% of Bangladeshis are living in poverty with 11% of the poor population considered extremely poor (ADRA International, 2019; Hamiduzzaman et al., 2021). The poverty rate and the proportion of extreme poor are higher in rural agricultural communities than in urban centres. The proportion of the employed population below $1.90 purchasing power parity a day is 9.2% while the unemployment rate remains 4.2% (ADRA International, 2019). Healthcare access and health outcomes in the country have always mirrored the socioeconomic divide where persons with higher socioeconomic statuses tend to have better access to health services with good health outcomes than those belonging to lower wealth quintiles. In 2018, Hamiduzzaman and his colleagues (2016) established the association between poor living conditions due to uneven access to economic resources and poor health outcomes among low-income households. As such, with the onset and accelerating spread of the virus, the poor Bangladeshis remain the most susceptible to the health and socioeconomic brunt of this pandemic. These poor people are generally slum dwellers and the floating population who are perceived to be immune-compromised, with a lack of access to health information and services and at risk of unpreparedness, poor recovery measures, job losses, and no welfare support (Paul, Chatterjee, & Bairagi, 2020). For example, the nationwide lockdown imposition without adequate social support packages affected adversely slum dwellers and the floating population. On several occasions, the present socioeconomic circumstances of these people can disproportionally increase inequality, by having a greater effect on the pandemic in the country.