What happens when a violence or disaster takes place leaving thousands of people in humanitarian crises? In case of such emergencies, we always find some humanitarian activists extending their cooperation and support with a great deal of dedication and devotion to minimise the plights of the people hit by the misfortunes. While rendering hazardous services with the intent of protecting these vulnerable people, they are more likely to embrace the risk of injury or death. The Global Humanitarian Overview 2020 report says that in 2018, 400 attacks carried out against aid workers claimed 131 lives while in the first nine months of 2019, 171 deaths were registered against 825 attacks on health workers.

To pay homage to the humanitarian activists including those who were killed or injured during their work, the UN General Assembly declared August 19 as World Humanitarian Day to be observed worldwide, in the memory of the martyrs who were killed in a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad on this day in 2003.

This year, the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a big challenge to the accessibility of health and aid workers to the people in humanitarian crises. Due to lockdowns and restrictions on movements imposed by governments across the world, health and aid workers are facing hurdles in providing health treatment and food for the destitute, creating safe spaces for women and girls, delivering babies, running refugee camps etc. Therefore, this year's World Humanitarian Day is dedicated to those real life frontline heroes who are showing a great commitment to saving and protecting the people in need of humanitarian assistance, defying all odds hurled at them by the pandemic.

Globally, the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance is increasing in proportion to human-induced and natural disasters, including conflict, violence, climate change and infectious diseases. In some cases, human-induced disasters coupled with natural disasters are intensifying the crises.

Armed conflicts are ousting people from their homes, taking students out of schools, putting women and girls at risk of sexual or gender-based violence, early or forced marriage and human trafficking, and limiting the access of the humanitarian workers to the people in need of aid. They are taking a heavy toll on civilians and children, with a record casualty rate. In 2018, more than 12,000 children were killed or maimed because of armed conflicts, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2020 report. The people who survive the conflicts often undergo mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. In the conflict areas, health workers are being threatened, injured or killed and healthcare facilities like hospitals, clinics and ambulances are being vandalised. The attacks on the healthcare system as well as health and aid workers are denying millions of people the care and aid they badly need.

Due to climate change, some countries are experiencing long standing floods, extreme rainfalls, protracted droughts, unexpected cyclones etc that severely affect the lives and properties of the people and put their food security at risk. In Bangladesh, we have been hit by Cyclone Amphan this year, followed by heavy seasonal floods that have affected hundreds of thousands of people across the country. In these situations, humanitarian workers from across sectors, including government and NGO, have gone out of their way to reach essential aid and healthcare to flood victims.

People in different parts of the world are also grappling with infectious and contagious diseases and malnutrition problems on top of the pandemic. Even before coronavirus arrived, armed conflicts and climate change were displacing and dislocating millions of people from their homestead and making them refugees. People with disabilities and old age infirmities are becoming the worst sufferers amidst these crises. Economic shocks and rising debts are further adding insult to their injuries. In 2019, 56 million of people who were in need of humanitarian assistance were living in countries laden with debt.

No matter what the causes of their sufferings are, we have witnessed international organisations, government agencies, NGOs and volunteer groups standing by their side when these affected people are in dire need of humanitarian responses. Very often, they have to work for the people while facing great risks. During the pandemic, these risks have doubled, since frontline workers are also facing the added risk of contracting coronavirus in the line of duty. 

During this period of Covid-19, doctors and health workers are fighting with an unseen menace as frontline soldiers, often with inadequate protective gear and limited medical resources. As such, a significant number of healthcare professionals are getting infected by the virus; many of them have succumbed to their infection. The pandemic has not only created a medical emergency but has also negatively affected the global economy, impacting the livelihoods of the masses. Business has slowed down and many have became jobless following the lockdowns declared by governments across the world.

This situation has also led to the requirement of humanitarian responses to the vulnerable people who are now struggling to make both ends meet. To save them from starvation, government officials, police and military forces, public representatives, politicians and volunteers have worked collaboratively to distribute relief from door to door. They also took the responsibility of ensuring the proper burial of the unfortunate people who have died of the viral infection, some of whom were abandoned by their near and dear ones out of panic. In doing so, many of these humanitarian workers came in direct contact with the virus and some of them even lost their lives.

In these trying times, we see a huge number of humanitarian workers dedicating themselves to the cause of the people who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Even the death threat of Covid-19 could not dampen their indomitable spirit and make them deviate from the path of humanitarian activities. World Humanitarian Day is the perfect occasion to pay homage to these stalwarts of humanity, who are showing us the path of altruism. It is also an opportunity to encourage people around the world to work for humanitarian causes.

Quazi Saleh Mustanzir is Additional District Magistrate in Pirojpur. Email: [email protected]