More than a crore with no job and hope

Published: শুক্রবার, মে ১, ২০২০

Perhaps Bangladesh has the highest number of people out of jobs thanks to the protracted shutdown that has taken away income opportunities for tens of thousands of people, particularly in the informal sector. Or, perhaps not. We would never know given the apathy in the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE).  This does not end here.  There is no database of workers in government labour offices although the Labour Policy 2012 says that the government will take steps to maintain detailed information on employed workers based on each firm and sector.

The policy also says that the government will maintain data of job seekers and job opportunities to attain the government’s top priority goal of creating employment opportunities for the working population.  To journalists nquired officials of three departments, Department of Labour (DOL), Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE) and Bangladesh Labour Welfare Foundation (BLWF), to know whether they have taken any steps to enrol the jobless workers, particularly those who were working in the informal sector, and to support them overcome these tough days.

“No, no. It is not possible to do any list of unemployed at this situation of lockdown. But if they want to operate their activities, we can provide them guidance on how to do that by ensuring safety and social distance,” said DIFE Inspector General Shib Nath Roy. No initiative has also been taken to create a database of workers, he said. “This cannot be done without a project. We have not been able to take any project,” he said. And replying to a question of why no steps have been taken so far, he said: “It is difficult to answer so many questions during this period of general holiday. Let the offices open. This can be seen then.”

The DOL, another agency under the MOLE, also does nothing to create a database of workers and the number of jobless people in the country.  Despite repeated attempts, DOL Director General AKM Mizanur Rahman did not receive calls for comment last week. However, Mohammad Aminul Haque, director of Divisional Labour Office Dhaka and also the convenor of Crisis Management Committee on Labour issues related to the coronavirus crisis, could be reached. Haque said they have taken an initiative to collect a list of workers in the informal sector through labour leaders.

Until the middle of last week, it got a list of 42,000 construction workers and rickshaw-van pullers. “We will make a database after collecting all the names,” he said on April 27. The number of people without work claimed by several workers’ rights organisation vary from 1.5 crore to upwards of 5 crore, while two economists said the number would be between 1.30 crore and 1.50 crore. This is five times the official number of unemployed population of 27 lakh as per the latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2017. When the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were announced on March 8, Bangladesh had 6.08 crore people in employment.

It is the duty and role of the government to collect and make available such data or for that matter data on employment and labour force of the country on an up-to-date basis, said Rizwanul Islam, a former special adviser of employment sector at the International Labour Office, Geneva. The number of people who have gone out of work for the pandemic would be 1.5 crore, said Wazeul Islam Khan, general secretary of Bangladesh Trade Union Centre.

 

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