India: COVID 19 follow up

We all welcome the India government’s announcement of aid package to the unorganized and vulnerable. It is the result of many organizations and movements, including ours, demanding pro-active programs and help to the unorganized and the most vulnerable. Now the entire media and political parties have joined in advocating for more concrete actions to halt economic loss for the unorganized. The Corona pandemic has shaken the world beyond all predictions and so-called progressive economies have almost come to a standstill, with a lot of uncertainty for the future.
We see a change in the attitude of leaders of fundamentalist parties and rightists who have also started demanding more budget to be allocated to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and the daily wage earners. The unpreparedness and the lack of listening to experts have created more problems for the internal migrants and the vulnerable in India. No transport facilities, no safeguards to make these people get back to their homes and no economic backup to meet their daily needs for food etc. The visuals we see in the news and in social media of police brutality and the type of punishments given to the so-called violators of the curfew is are inhuman and one wonders whether these police have been trained to assist and help or to escalate and cause more pain in already exiting sores. We see unorganized workers walking hundreds of kilometers to their homes. The pandemic has taken away almost all the working possibilities for unorganized and they lack safe shelters and food storages forces them to venture out and risk their lives.

Nepal: relief package for workers

The Government of Nepal responded to the demand of GEFONT and issued the following relief package to workers affected by Corana-virus pandemic on 29th of March 2020:

1. Government shall pay 31% of basic salary needed to pay to the Social Security Fund by employer and employee. Employer shall pay remaining amount only to the employees.
2. Employers should not cut the salary of employees during the pandemic-ensued lockdown.
3. Local government should manage and provide food during the lock-down to all daily waged and informal economy workers.
4. Unemployed people, migrant returnees and those who cannot fly to their country of destination due to the pandemic may join the Prime Minister Employment Program and get subsistence allowance.
5. Private school fees for this month may not be paid by workers.
6. 2,5 Million NPR insurance to the medical person, ambulance driver, garbage cleaners and other employee.
7. Subsidized electricity supply during the pandemic.
8. Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) shall be provided free of cost to the employees concerned.
9. The treatment for people infected by COVID-19 shall be done free of cost.

Corona virus in India shows need for universal social protection: WSM partners in India address an open letter to Prime Minister Modi

Unfortunately, India has not been spared from COVID-19. But WSM’s partners in India are doing whatever is in their power to prevent its spread and to keep the situation as human as possible. On the one hand, they wrote an open letter to the India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to ask for comprehensive and adequate social protection support measures, especially in these crisis times. On the other hand, they were already performing a lot of work on health care, which can limit the risks of contamination.

Since Tuesday 25th of March, India has been placed in lock down for a three-week period. This measure should curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The question remains how India, with 1.3 billion inhabitants and the second largest country in the world, will manage to enforce such a widespread lock down. As of 26th of March, nearly 500 infections have been confirmed. That number has clearly increased since last weekend and is probably a significant underestimation. 9 people have already died of the lung virus. According to Samy, founder of AREDS, the reply from the government came too late, because there was no screening at all of people coming to India. India still doesn’t have the required capacity to screen people with symptoms. Moreover, some travelers have taken to ingesting medication such as paracetamol to avoid being detected with fever and enter the country.

GK to develop Corona test for Bangladesh

Dr. Kadir is the Coordinator of Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK) in Bangladesh. GK provides health care and health insurance to vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. He shares with us his current impressions regarding COVID-19 in Bangladesh, which is one of the most populated countries in the world and has a very poor health system:

As of 18th March, there are over 10 confirmed cases in Bangladesh. Moreover, the government has recently started to quarantine people. Recent figures tell that there are 2.314 people in quarantine.  Furthermore, schools and other institutions closed since yesterday (17th of March). But still, I think the government is already too late in taking serious measures, which they should have done two or even three weeks ago.

Nowadays it’s flu season, meaning there are more patients at the hospitals than normal. It is not always clear whether it’s just a cold, a normal flu or the corona virus. Bangladesh's largest vernacular daily Prothom Alo reported that only 1,732 testing kits were available in a country of nearly 180 million people.

That’s why GK is developing a coronavirus testing kit, using the Rapid Dot Blot technique. We were recently joined by Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, a micro-biologist, who was also involved in the making of a similar test in Singapore during the SARS outbreak in 2003. This meant we have the necessary skills to develop a testing kit, as this is the biggest challenge in Bangladesh now.  We are 70% finished with the test kit and hope to be able to start mass producing them soon, now that government also has given the green light (link).

How much will your corona test kit cost? 
I think it’s important to make this testing kit available for as many people as possible. We want to use it in our own GK hospitals, as well as in other health institutions, so we will sell the kit at a very affordable price (200BDT), since we’re not trying to create any profit from it, our main goal is to avoid a massive outbreak.

Which populations are you especially worried about?
The garment workers are of particular concern to us, since this sector employs over 4 million people in Bangladesh and they are mostly, women working in very crowded and small confined spaces. The risk of contamination is thus very high. So far, all garment factories are continuing working and very few are taking preventive hygiene measures. That’s why in the factories GK is present, GK is mainly focusing on prevention measures, such as hand washing, producing hand sanitizers, mouth masks, posters etc.

Also elderly are an important at-risk group, with worldwide much higher mortality rates if they get infected. However, so far in Bangladesh, very few elderly have been diagnosed with the virus. This is a bit of a paradox: many elderly are living more isolated, since they don’t have a job or most often continue living in the rural areas, while the young go to the city to work. Since they often have problems of mobility, they are already more likely to stay at home. While this issue of isolation is currently maybe preventing them from getting infected, if the virus becomes a pandemic, this might be a very big problem for them, since these same factors will put them even more at risk.

25 March update: Bangladesh in one week time has had 20 reported cases and one death, of an elderly gentleman.

Bangladesh: NGWF demands six months maternity leave

In light of the International Women’s Day 2020 on 8th of March, National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) has demanded 6 months maternity leave in private sectors, including for the garment workers. The rally was held on Friday 6th of March 2020, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. M Amirul Haque Amin, President of NGWF, said that the government already declared 6 months maternity leave for the public sector, but the country’s private sector, including the garment industry, still has only 4 months maternity leave. NGWF also demanded the government of Bangladesh to ratify ILO Convention 190 to stop all types of violence and harassment against women. More than two hundred women joined the procession in front of National Press Club, carrying banners and festoons with demands of 6 months maternity leave and ratification of ILO Convention 190. The rally started in front of National Press Club and went to the High Court, Palton Circle including some other street and ended at Topkhana road.