Urban poor need immediate aid interventions

The second wave of the coronavirus coupled with the most recent round of lockdown, which took effect from April 14, has once again laid bare the extreme vulnerabilities faced by the urban poor in Bangladesh. According to an estimate from the BIDS, the countrywide shutdown last year had caused an 80 percent drop in income of people belonging to the labouring class in urban areas. A report in this daily yesterday details how the circumstances are likely to be the same this year, too. However, despite the severity of the situation, the government is yet to come up with a coherent plan to include these marginalised households into its social safety net schemes.

This lack of planning is particularly disturbing given the fact that a government survey in December had already revealed that the country's social safety net schemes fail to cover millions of urban people facing food insecurity. Despite having this information, why did the authorities not have the foresight to come up with programmes targeting the urban poor, especially since so many global health experts had by then already started issuing warnings about a second wave of the pandemic and the possibility of future lockdowns in order to stop transmission?

On top of lost income and depleted savings, the rising prices of essentials have created an unprecedented crisis for the urban poor. But the inefficient planning in terms of food reserves means the government will no longer be able to sell rice at a subsidised rate of Tk 10/kg through its OMS outlets either. As a result, millions of people will now face food insecurity and be forced to cut back on essential spending, such as on healthcare, in the middle of a pandemic.

The government needs to demonstrate its ability to govern and provide for the most marginalised citizens, taking coordinated actions on long-term policies instead of simply reacting in a haphazard manner when faced with a crisis. For now, there must be quick and transparent collaboration among relevant ministries, city corporations, local government bodies and NGOs to ensure that pandemic relief funds reach their targeted populations as soon as possible, and more allocations must be made for the urban poor.

In the long run, the authorities must listen to the experts and design a social security system for the urban poor that is free of incorrect targeting, leakages and lack of coordination. The importance of a comprehensive household database for this purpose cannot be stressed upon enough. It is extremely disappointing that the National Household Database, which was meant to be the country's first poverty registry, is nowhere near being finished even after seven years. The delay means that not only are poor households deprived of benefits, but that the data collected is now obsolete due to the fast-changing conditions of the pandemic and the creation of a "new poor". When projects such as this drag on, it does not only cost taxpayers' money but also, as the pandemic amply demonstrates, eventually cost lives. All because of inefficient planning and unnecessary delays. The authorities can, and must, do better.