How Are Lower Incomes of Bangladesh Experiencing COVID-19: Preliminary findings from an ongoing research.
2020.06.24
7 / 7ページ
The normative teachings of cleanliness across different religions are very relevant in preventing and responding COVID-19. Culturally, religious norms on cleaning is critical for this pandemic when frequent handwashing with soap is one of the preventive measures to stop COVID-19 infection. Taking example from Islamic “sacred-profane” concept, the Muslims have to clean their body prior to saying prayer. Similar norms observed among other religions including Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism. Moreover, religious institutions or praying places are not only place for practicing religious rituals but those have social and cultural value. If we take example from Muslim culture, mosques are considered as important social institutions during health, natural and other crisis or disasters. In Bangladesh, for example, during expanded program on immunization (EPI) events mosques are playing important role in conveying messages to the mass people. In recent times, it was also observed that, mosques were playing role as important source of information for disaster when other mediums were unavailable due to different reasons. During the weekly Jummah (on Friday) prayer, the Imams usually discuss different everyday life issues among the attendants. In addition to that, culturally and socially, the Imams are very influential and acceptable group to mass people at national, regional and local level. Interestingly, this influential institution and group of people were not included in the COVID-19 response mechanism in Bangladesh from the starting point of this crisis.
Response from NGOs and development sector
The national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) were closely observed the situation when coronavirus impacted in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In Bangladesh, after the confirmation of first cases, the international and national organizations allowed their staff members to work from home and limited the implementation of field level activities. As part of government’s declaration of closure, stopping public transportation, and maintaining social distancing to avoid human to human contact, the field activities of donor funded development activities and programs also postponed. However, a number of organizations are responding COVID-19 by distributing relief, sanitary kits (soap, mask and sanitizer) and disseminating key messages to the lower income people. BRAC – the largest NGO in the world is also assisting the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to install walk-in sample collection booths (kiosk) in different areas of Dhaka and outside. As part of the initiative, BRAC is currently recruiting medical staffs, collecting samples and transferring those samples to government designated testing labs.
A recent analysis shows, the NGOs have provided around Tk155.87 crore in support for Covid-19 response from March 5 to May 25 this year. The support was provided to 49 districts by 212 national and local NGOs. Of the amount, Tk140.22 crore came from donors and Tk15.67 crore from own funds of the NGOs. The major areas supported by the NGOs were awareness programmes (37.1 percent), food (32.2 percent), health (19.2 percent) and cash assistance (11.5 percent). Soap and hand wash support was at the top, followed by emergency food items and masks, leaflet, and personal protective equipment. However, the NGOs initiatives is having far-reaching impacts on health and economy, especially on the poor and vulnerable communities across the country.
Conclusion
The people of Bangladesh are living with different socio-cultural experiences, diversified life style, variation in the level of education and with different type of positive and negative economic transaction. In this context, this research conducted to explore how slum lower income population perceive about these messages and guidelines, how these groups of people cope with and how they live this pandemic. Analysis revealed that, people have different perceptions on the preventive and control guidelines which is beyond biological understanding. The results on people’s experiences of pandemic and disaster also revealed that, the sufferings are social and economically constructed. Those people are at highly vulnerable position whose socio-economic condition is not suitable to respond in the pandemic crisis. This particular group of people are at higher risk, though they have different ideology, life style and religious practices. The key concepts of COVID-19 preventive messages fail to recognize social and cultural reality realty of lower income people. In this case two problem can be seen – firstly: avoiding instruction due to vague meaning of the concepts and secondly: getting involved in such work which can increase social tension. In this context these key terms should be contextualized and culturally inclusive according to cultural norms and perceptions. Moreover, creating enabling environment to practice the key messages is also equally important.
References:
- Asif, I., Akram, Hossain M. A., Khan, N. M. (2020) COVID-19 in Bangladesh: Measuring differences in individual precautionary behaviors among young adult
- Bertocci, P.J. (1970) Elusive villages : social structure and community organization in rural East Pakistan, Ph. D. thesis Michigan State University 1970
- BIGD (2020) Webinar Deck: Crisis of Communication During COVID-19: A Rapid Research
- BIGD (2020)Livelihoods, Coping, and Support during Covid-19 Crisis.
- Bourdieu, P. (2000). Practical discourses for the theory of action. Athens: Plethron.
- Bourdieu, P. (2002b). Symbolic capital. Sygxrona Themata, 80, 18-21.
- Chowdhury, I.A. (2020) For many in Bangladesh, staying home isn’t an option: Children living on the streets have few safe places to go during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
- Foster, R. (2020) Why do people hoard ans socialize duaring a pandemic? University of Rochester News center.
- Saeed, A., Nasrullah, M. and Hosen, M. J. (2020) COVID-19 and Bangladesh: Challenges and How to Address Them, Front. Public Health, 30 April 2020
- Irene, C. (1999) At home: an anthropology of domestic space, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1999
- Jansen E. G. (1987) Rural Bangladesh; Competition for Scarce Resources, (Norwegian University Press/Oxford University Press/UPL, Dhaka.
- Kleinman A. (1980) Patients and healers in the context of culture: an exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1980.
- Morsy, S. (1979). The missing link in medical anthropology: The political economy of health. Reviews in Anthropology, 6, 349–363.
- Kohinur Khyum Tithila. 2020. Fear and stigma slows down COvid-19 prevenion. DhakaTribune.
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Ethnographic Studies of Muslim Society in South Asia, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan.
- JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)[19H00554], JSPS Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research: Fostering Joint International Research (B)[18KK0024].
This ongoing research is supported by
This particular project Socio-cultural impact of Covid Situation in Bangladesh has been started from April 1, 2020. The final report will be submitted on October 2020.
本原稿は『科研プロジェクト活動報告 現代南アジアにおけるムスリム社会の多極化の傾向』<https://fakir2020.webnode.jp/>からの特別寄稿原稿です。