Ramadan Lockdown: The Plight of Poor Communities in Bangladesh During Ramadan Under COVID 19

By Aaishah Karim

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Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar bringing Muslim communities together to pray and fast from sunrise till sunset was the latest casualty marred by the plight of the novel coronavirus pandemic. A celebratory time of year in which family, friends and strangers come together to break bread and extend acts of kindness, this year these familiar traditions have been sorely missed. With national lockdowns in place globally, observers were forced to stay at home in order to stop the spread of the virus. Consequently for low income groups, their existing economic and food insecurity was significantly exacerbated.

As a developing country in the Muslim world, Bangladesh faced a difficult challenge in preventing the spread of the coronavirus whilst making sure its poor communities did not fall through the cracks. Unsurprisingly with a national lockdown in place on March 26, casualties of the policy quickly began to appear. The first and most apparent was the economic fallout of labourers in the informal sector who faced either unemployment or a reduction in income. Men and women in this sector working in street vending, construction and domestic work, to name a few, quickly began battling hunger and money shortages.

Ramadan underway a month after lockdown, many affected communities began to take to the streets begging for food and financial assistance everywhere and anywhere they could find it. They leaned heavily on the generosity of strangers during the Holy month despite the threat of contracting the coronavirus in doing so.

Gulshan, an affluent neighbourhood in Dhaka, drew crowds impacted by the pandemic as early as noon, long before iftar around 6:30 pm. Rohima Begum was one such hopeful who made her way to Gulshan everyday sitting on the steps of the pavement of the neighbourhood’s main street, Gulshan Avenue. A domestic worker, she was let go by her employer due the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown. Living in a house with ten other family members and no income except from the odd jobs her son manages to attain, her household was now threatened with the reality of extreme hunger.

“I can’t afford to buy food; how can I afford to buy food when I have no money?” Rohima stressed. When asked if she feared contracting the virus by leaving her home she replied “What can I do? I’m scared but my fear doesn’t feed my hunger”.

Majeda, another woman who would congregate to Gulshan was also a domestic worker. She lost her job as a result of the pandemic and now she and her four children barely survived on one meal a day. When asked what she eats she said, “whatever I can find”. She continued “they [the government] tell us to stay at home but how can I stay at home when I have nothing to eat?” A similar sentiment also felt by rickshaw driver Mohammed Sattar, a father of five, who took to the streets to beg for food and financial assistance after the lockdown prevented him from driving his rickshaw.

Desperation among low income households is palpable. When food or money donations are made to an individual in need, it attracts other congregants in the vacinity to the donor with no heed for social distancing for themselves or others. When it comes to choosing between protecting themselves from contracting the coronavirus or hunger, the severity of hunger is far greater than the fear of the virus. Facing unemployment and unreliable streams of income, poor communities have found it difficult to stay at home when they believe Ramadan donations can ease their difficult circumstances.

Not all individuals returned home with the assistance they aimed to collect everyday. Rohima Begum, for example, never received a donation at the time of my interview a few weeks ago. Despite such possibilities, their hope for interacting with a generous stranger during the Holy month was strong enough to draw them outside. And there were valid reasons for such belief. Efforts from NGOs and individuals to provide food packages to affected areas were prevalent. Emdad Karim, a local philanthropist in Dhaka, founded a Ramadan soup kitchen just outside Gulshan where he provided daily iftar and dinner meals to thirty affected individuals in the nearby neighbourhood. Private sector companies such as the national conglomerate Doreen dispatched vans with food packages to poor groups. Moreover, the Islamic tithe practice of Zakat being collected and distributed to low income communities across the country during Ramadan provided much needed temporary relief.

The plight of low income communities in Bangladesh during the coronavirus pandemic cannot be understated. Faced with money and food shortages, charitable initiatives from civil society during Ramadan lessened what would have otherwise been a very difficult time. But now that Ramadan has ended, so too has the national lockdown. As the Bangladeshi economy opens once again Bangladeshis are entering a critical time in the pandemic timeline. One can only hope that the hardest hit groups can safely and carefully go back to their jobs to sway from starvation.

Now more than ever the Bangladeshi government needs to increase their efforts for a more robust program to safeguard impacted communities from further financial woes and provide proper safe working conditions. They need to work with local authorities and civil society on a coordinated effort to develop a sustainable plan for the upcoming weeks as further restirictions are eased. Low income households cannot suffer another prolonged set back like this. It is imperative that the fallout from the pandemic not become more unbearable than the pandemic itself.