Snapshot of Life under Lockdown in Bangladesh

By Nayema Nusrat and Mohammad Rakibul HasanReprint | |

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NEW YORK/DHAKA, Apr 2 2020 (IPS) - The Coronavirus pandemic is changing how we live our daily lives. The scale of the COVID-19 and its impact on our lives is unprecedented. When humanity gets past this, the world will be a very different place than the one we have known.

The changes will likely impact how we interact with each other and with family, how we work, study, eat, pray, love or play. The COVID-19 crisis has upended our lives. This novel virus is already reorienting our relationships with the outside world, our loved ones, dependence on each other, on technology, government and healthcare. What changes we might see in the future is uncertain. Global cooperation may be at stake although what we are hearing today is that we must all be together in this fight for survival against the virus. In the near future, we cannot rule out a scenario of fierce competition over resources, medicines and food.

Italy’s Ezio Mauro recently wrote in La Repubblica:
“… As we know, democracy is also a system of mutual guarantees which we take for granted because they are part of our civilisation – which is now threatened by the virus. Now we must relinquish parts of our freedom in the name of responsibility. … And even if politicians are not yet saying it openly, this is the real confirmation of the emergency.”

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, an award winning photojournalist from Bangladesh shares with us a set of images on the lockdown across the country. Workers in the garment industry, rickshaw pullers and hourly contract labourers in Bangladesh are hit with loss of income like no other in the face of COVID-19 crisis. In the garments sector alone, Bangladesh has lost around $1.5 billion in canceled orders by foreign brands, which has impacted some 1.2 million workers. Ever since the increase of COVID-19 cases in Europe and the United States, Bangladeshi factories are losing around $100 million per day.