Corona affects health and the economy

 Corona affects health and the economy

-Khondakar Ibrahim Khaled

At the beginning of the year, people were shocked by the appearance of Corona. Because the disease is unknown, unfamiliar. Many people isolate themselves by taking precautions. Office-business is closed. Road traffic is down to the lowest level. Prolonged separation disrupts the practice of friendship, kinship falters, and acquaintances seem to become strangers. No one goes to anyone's house. Even after opening the office, everyone seems to be hiding. Shops opened, but there was a lack of buyers. The bank opened, but you have to enter one by one. Large shopping malls have opened কিন্তু but somewhere five will enter, somewhere ten.

Corona has also changed the face of man. Cover nose and mouth with mask. Many cover their hair. Someone is wearing a face shield again. There is no way to recognize it. If the name was written on the mask, it would be easy to recognize. The distance from each other must be maintained. According to some, three feet. According to some, six feet. There is no way to understand when we follow the rules that we are isolated from society, without looking back. However, there is a feature of Corona in Bangladesh, which would be unfair to Corona if not mentioned. I am trying to tell the feature through a joke.

As we all know, Corona is spread all over the world from Wuhan Province of China. We also know that the ability to make the same thing with different meanings and sell at different prices is seen among the Chinese. The country that wants to buy at a higher price, they will get good quality products. Again the same look will be available at a lower price for those who want cheaper. China adopted a similar approach to the distribution of corona. The highest class corona was sent to America. The second class is sent to several countries in the world, including Europe. And the dull class corona came to Bangladesh as a sign of friendship. So in some developed countries the death rate has exceeded 12%. In middle countries, the tax mortality rate is between 8 and 10 percent. And the death rate in Bangladesh is less than one and a half percent. The average coronal mortality rate worldwide is a little over 5%. The secret of the Sino-Bangladeshi friendship is at stake. As a result, I cannot say whether the Bangladesh-China friendship has been further strengthened or not. The more health professionals emphasize the need for masks, the more people choose to ignore them. Someone says, breathing stops. Some say that the carbon dioxide emitted by inhalation is entering the body again and causing harm. Handgeoffs began to be introduced in small houses. Now almost closed.

Corona died and health deteriorated. Those who have been infected are recovering and going from health problems. Especially not everyone can afford to maintain nutritional value in food. Health problems have become more widespread due to economic reasons. That is why I am trying to understand health and economy together.

Let's remember the early days of Corona. Various measures were being taken in the country as per the guidelines of the World Health Organization. Because we had no idea about the disease. There is a kind of fear. If you go to the patient, the disease will happen. The idea is that if you look at the patient will understand the disease! Isolation began. Offices, courts, shops, businesses are all closed. Large industries including garments are closed. Thousands of workers are leaving Dhaka. Other workers are unemployed. Many middle-class people are victims of layoffs. Dhaka was filled with 'too late' notices. Everyone is rural. Let's do an economic analysis of this situation.

Those who bring the day, eat the day, they are fasting. The government took up a program worth several thousand crores for them. At first the cooked food was delivered to Anhari. The work is hard. It's a little easier because not everyone on a low income eats. It was soon revealed that not only the poor, but also the middle class and many others were starving. In the darkness of the night he came quietly and collected food. Thousands of crores of rupees have been spent in this process. It has been alleged that some money has been looted. Maybe. The inefficiency of the economy leads to looting. But the question of starvation was more important to us. So the hunger-raising program was conducted with expenditure.

Corona's damage calculation has not yet reached an acceptable level. However, according to the International Organization for Migration, the poverty rate in Bangladesh has increased from 20% to 39% due to the Corona effect. The rate of extreme poverty has also doubled from 10%. From this information, a big aspect of the economic condition of the country will be revealed. At the beginning of this century, the poverty rate in Bangladesh was about 40%. The present government has been paying special attention to this issue since it came to power. As a result, continuous improvement comes down to 20%. The Prime Minister expressed his determination to further reduce the poverty rate in the United States. Note that the poverty rate of rich countries like the United States was 18% at that time. But in the attack of Corona, all was lost.

Another big reason for the increase in poverty is the good economy followed by the government. There is no problem with market economy. There are several types of market economy. If you imagine a straightforward market economy, there is a 'capitalist economy' on the far side, a 'welfare economy' in the middle and a socialist economy on the far left. The latter is again of two kinds Ñ communist economy and non-communist socialist economy. All of this is more or less running in a market economy. Bangabandhu introduced democratic socialism for Bangladesh in the sense of 'welfare economy'. Bangabandhu himself defined this policy, ‘People will not have economic inequality, there will be no income inequality.’ It has been implied that there will be no discrimination. But on the one hand, the present government is celebrating the year of Mujib. On the other hand, it is the exact opposite of Mujib's economy. Income inequality is at its peak in Bangladesh now. The Ginny coefficient has increased to about decimal five. On the other hand, the palma ratio is now catastrophic three. As a result, Bangladesh is now a country of extreme income inequality in the economic index. The government only talks about GDP growth. But this growth is limited to one tenth of the population. Ninety percent of the people are victims of income inequality, which is in conflict with Bangabandhu's economy and the principles of the country's constitution.

The issue of inequality will be discussed another day. Today I will talk about the consequences of inequality. As a result of the continuous sharp income inequality of the last two eras, the powerful have become ten percent richer and ten percent richer. The next twenty is called middle class. Forty percent of the remaining sixty percent is direct poverty and the remaining 20 percent is so-called poverty. Corona has revealed the real picture in the statistics. 40% of the people are poor and 20% of the people are poor. That means 80% of the country is in financial crisis.

What to do in this situation? We assume you will not burn more. Doing and repeating is different. Talk about rubbing salt in my wounds - d'oh! The more time it takes to lose money, the more time it takes to build wealth. It is said in English, jhasari nah nngbadhafu rihang yab tdhapab. If you stick to it, you can win. First we have to look at the country's budget. How will the expenses incurred in the name of Corona be met?

We have a number of projects in our budget for the 20% poor as a safety net. Funding for these programs has increased since the current government came to power. If that is not enough. In this situation, if the number of homeless people increases to 39%, the allocation to the Safety Net program will have to be doubled. To do that, allocations to other sectors will have to be reduced. This task of coordinating the sector will not be easy.

Let's look at a few more realities. Many people have been fired or fired. They need to create an environment for re-employment. The garment industry is going fairly well. But many large-medium industries have not yet gained momentum. By identifying these without pouring measures, one should try to solve each problem accordingly. That is why it can work as a task force. But the problem of self-employed people is different. You don't just have to give a loan. There may be a different task force for them. Who will talk to the entrepreneurs and guide them to the solution and help in the implementation. There was not much problem in agricultural production. However, agro-industry and handicrafts will require connection and cooperation. In this case, responsibilities and funds can be provided to the Pallikarma Sahayak Foundation.

The government has provided several loan facilities. Debt, however, is not the only downside. Other assistance and technical support is required with the loan. For this, it is necessary to identify companies for different sectors and take steps to create linkages with entrepreneurs.

Finally, I am emphasizing on solving the main problem. Until the equitable distribution of national income is ensured, this problem will continue to haunt us. This is what Bangabandhu said about 'equal distribution of income and wealth'. He also wrote in the constitution. We are ignoring Bangabandhu's economic policy and adopting and practicing the policy of 'forceless capitalism'. In this system, 40% of the low-income people will remain in the 'Rose-Anna Rose-Khawa' stage. They will not have savings for a month. As well as the top ten people will continue to be fat. Will the government be able to change the policy? Will the government be able to get out of the grip of 'fat people'? Will the government be able to return to Bangabandhu's economy? Today I am ending with just a question.