Govt’s special stimulus package for the extreme poor

We commend the government for its plan to offer cash aid to the 34 lakh poor families who have been hard-hit by the ongoing shutdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak across the country. The families will get a monthly allowance for three months starting from April through mobile banking, while farmers will also get an amount to boost crop production. The government also plans to give farmers loans at only three percent interest rate.

Since the enforcement of social distancing measures and countrywide lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly Covid-19, the low income people—the rickshaw and rickshaw-van pullers, transport workers, construction and hotel workers, street hawkers, agricultural and day labourers, garment workers, porters and domestic helps—have been suffering the most as they have lost their livelihoods. A Brac study, conducted between March 31 and April 5, has found that the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased to 60 percent during this lockdown. The study also reveals that 14 percent of low-income respondents do not have any food at home while average household income has fallen by 75 percent during this time.

Under the circumstances, the stimulus package the government is planning to unveil for the extreme poor is really important. Because if financial aid and food assistance do not reach those who need them most, it will compel them to leave home to earn a living defying the lockdown and social distancing measures, which will eventually increase the risk of spreading the virus more.

Therefore, the government should plan judiciously to reach these people and provide them with food and financial assistance. Its plan to send money to vulnerable groups through mobile phones seems to be a good idea as this would, hopefully, prevent corruption in disbursement. However, a key challenge for the government would be to identify all the families who are in need of urgent assistance. We hope the large mobile phone operators in the country would give their full support to the government in tracking these people. However, special efforts will be needed to track and reach the people who do not have access to mobile phones. We hope the non-government organisations working with the most vulnerable groups of society can help the government in doing so.

Since, according to IEDCR, we are now at stage-3 of the coronavirus outbreak, we need to strictly maintain the lockdown and social distancing measures taken by the government. If we fail to do so, we will soon reach the stage-4 of the outbreak, meaning that the spread will be practically uncontrollable. In order to stop that from happening, the government must make sure that all sections of people stay at home willingly. And that will only be possible if food and financial assistance reach the poor and extreme poor at the right time.