Amid the prolonged lockdown across the country, middle class people have been put in a severe financial hardship due to the unprecedented negative impact of coronavirus on industries, trade and commerce.
These people with fixed income are much worried about whether the employed company will pay the salaries and allowances properly as everything has remained closed for more than a month due to the lockdown.
In this time of unemployment, the middle-class people are struggling to meet their basic needs. Many are leaving the capital, as they cannot bear the burden of expenses due to lack of income.
They are trying to survive by sending family members to village homes. Corona's outbreak has put the middle class in a crisis.
However, there is no exact statistic available on ever changing middle class peoples.
While many social and non-government organisations are distributing essentials to the needy, people belonging to the middle class claim they are among the worst sufferers as they are not in a position to accept donations publicly. Because of their social status they cannot go and beg for food. As a result, they suffer in silence during lockdown.
Reportedly, the number of middle class in Bangladesh is about 4 crores. However, a significant portion of them is the lower middle class. They are dependent on small private jobs, small businesses and daily work. Due to the lockdown of the country, their income source is now closed. They worry about food and house rent.
Golam Moazzem, research director at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told that ‘Those who earn US $ 1.9 to 3.8 per day are middle class. 55 percent of the total population of the country belongs to this category. Their chances of saving are less.”
“It is very difficult for them to survive in the current idle time. No jobs and salaries are guaranteed in this jobless environment. Loans can be arranged for the middle class to resolve this,” he added.
Earlier health experts spoke that people living in congested city slums are at higher risk of speedy contamination while also pose threats of greater community transmission of coronavirus,.
They said that low awareness, lack of protection and overcrowding in their community are major threats to speedy transmission of the deadly virus that could also contaminate other neighboring communities adjacent to their cluster homes.
The major clusters of such slums are located in city’s Vashantek, Kalyanpur, Porabosti, Beguntila, Mirpur, Sattola, Bashabo, Mohammadpur and Mohakhali. The slum dwellers seem to be most ignorant about corona protection as they have little knowledge on the risks of the transmission.
On Friday, Bangladesh witnessed the highest number of deaths in a day due to coronavirus as record 24 more people died from the virus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the death tally to 432.
During the period, further surge in coronavirus cases was recorded as 1,694 new patients tested positive, raising the total cases to 30,205.
Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana came up with the disclosure at its daily online briefing.
In the last 24 hours, 47 coronavirus testing laboratories across the country tested 9727 samples, she added.
