Applied Statistics and Data Science Seminar on Thursday, January 22, 2024

Title: Impact of Covid-19 on im(mobility) of informal sector workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Venue and time: ISRT, 2:00 pm

Speaker: Md. Touhidul Alam, PhD student at Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK

Abstract:

Comparable to many fast-growing cities of the developing world, Dhaka city contributes greatly to the national economy (36% of GDP and 32% of national employment), with much of the employments being in the informal sectors. During COVID-19 pandemic, the poorest section of this informal workforce with little or no savings became the worst victim of economic turmoil and lockdown. To escape starvation and annihilation, many had but to return to the very villages that they had left to join Dhaka’s ever-expanding informal workforce. Curiously, following lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions, many of the returnees did not come back to the city immediately. This trend has the potential to reduce the supply of informal workforce to the city, although their absorption in the rural economy has many positives for the rural development – like the availability of new skills, ideas and technology. Taken collectively, COVID-19 might have opened-up new possibilities for poorer people to secure higher wellbeing for themselves, as well as to unleash a new way of doing development. While studies focusing on loss of jobs, food insecurity and coping mechanisms of informal workers in Bangladesh are emerging, documentation of the (im)mobility of informal workers is required for better policymaking and advancing scientific knowledge.