Category Archives: Focused Topic

Impact of Lock Down in Rural Economy

It has been one month since the first COVID-19 case has been confirmed in Bangladesh. The numbers of infected people are increasing exponentially. Already the government has declared lock-down in different areas and cancelled all the international flights. This step is necessary; however, this has lead problems to many people. As Dhaka is the center of all the employment for the people who earns by daily basis, they have lost their livelihood. Economic problem is just not limited within this group of people. Present world is dependent on being globalized. We are depended on many sectors for export and import. For example, RMG and remittance sectors will face challenges. Both sectors plays vital role on our GDP. As garment workers are unable to participate and foreign workers are unable to go foreign countries, their share of economic growth may go missing. The more concerning issue is our food industry. We are dependent on different types of food supply from foreign countries. AS COVID-19 is global pandemic, other countries are suffering too as a result there is a chance that food supply may face various obstacles.

It is time, we start thinking about revitalizing our food need as well as economic condition for upcoming days. Recent lookouts have been confirmed that the rural people are suffering the most. This is very logical as most of the people are earning on daily basis. For example, the farmers, which are the largest portion, are unable to sell their harvest, vegetable and other food items because of transportation restriction. As they do not have any cold storage, they are unable to store too. As a result, they are selling products with minimum amount leading great loss. The poultry and dairy farmers are facing same situation. Moreover, they have to buy feed which would have been already sold by this time. In this crisis, price of feed has also increased. On the other hand, the irony is that although farmers are selling their product at low price to the middle man, common city people are buying these product at regular or high price. This problem will continue, even will get worse without government intervention.

There are 83,000 poultry farmer who have investment about 42,000 crore BDT. If they continue to lose profit share, they have to bear the burden of loan. Many of them will loss everything. Farmers who are unable to sell their products and also unable to buy seeds, pesticides, etc. for harvesting will have nothing to feed themselves. As a result, rural development will decrease. Housing, infrastructure, education, health and so on will be at risk. People will have few amount to expend on these as their basic need of eating is at risk. As flood season are coming, rural people are more vulnerable. Each year flood causes housing , infrastructure and livestock destruction. Rural people will have very few resources to rebuild what they have lost.

The business standard has collected data which are shown below.

Rural People at Risk for COVID-19
Rural People Involved in Non-institutional Work 5 Crore
Day Laborers 1 Crore
Self Employed People Currently at Risk for Lock Down 2.7 Crore
People Engaged in Food Related Works 72 Lakhs

Coronavirus in Bangladesh_ Bangladesh rural economy reels from shutdown _ The Business Standard

Air Pollution of Dhaka and Risk of Corona Virus

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The world is now facing the ultimate threat of new pandemic COVID-19, Corona virus. Each day  is passing and bringing the tragic death news from all over the world. This virus can be the reason of destruction of civilization from a place.  Pandemic is just a term, meaning worldwide distributed. WHO has confirmed Corona as pandemic which has origin from China, but it has been spread all over the world and struck many countries really hard. Bangladesh has confirmed as well that the people could not be able to escape from this virus too.

This is not first time, Bangladesh is dealing with epidemic. There was a time when Cholera had killed large number of people from village to village. But Corona is more dangerous because it is more contagious ( a single person can spread among 2.6 people) and the symptoms are not identified at early stage. However, when people learn they are infected, it may be too late for some people, specially for elderly and people with respiratory problems. Here comes the more concerned issue for Bangladesh or we can say for Dhaka people as air pollution in Dhaka has caused respiratory problems for great number of people. This year multiple days air quality has been identified as hazardous and number of people with respiratory problems are increasing day by day. Experts are really concerned that Corona can bring extreme causality. The city life has been dependent on a life style which is creating more pollution and the authority is also unable to address the problem. Our urban design, daily activity and relation between them can make us more susceptible to high health risk for Corona. We may breath in hazardous air for several days but this time it may bring hazardous impact which we have not expected at all.

Coronavirus_ As experts warn air pollution can elevate health risks, should Dhaka worry_ The Daily Star

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3rd Round Table Discussion : OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

Forum for Physical Development of Bangladesh (FPD) arranged a series of round table discussions on September 14, 2011 and October 15, 2011. As confirmation of those FPD arranged their third round table on 25th October. The third round table discussion was also regarding “Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Sector.”

The round table conference was presided over by Dr. Toufiq M. Seraj, Chairman, FPD and moderated by Kazi Anisuddin Iqbal, Executive Director, FPD. On the advent of the round table, Toufiq M. Seraj described the aims and objectives of FPD.

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2nd Round Table Discussion: OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

Forum for Physical Development of Bangladesh (FPD) has arranged a series of round table discussions on September 14, 2011. On the consequence of that round table FPD has arranged their second round table on 15th October. The second round table discussion was regarding  “Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Sector”.

The round table conference was presided over by Dr. Toufiq M. Seraj, Chairman, FPD and moderated by Kazi Anisuddin Iqbal, Executive Director, FPD. On the advent of the round table, Toufiq M. Seraj described the aims and objectives of FPD.

Continue reading 2nd Round Table Discussion: OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

1st Round Table Discussion : OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

FPD has organized a series of four round table discussions to convey the opinion of expert professionals of the society about the condition of Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Sector.

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