AREDS Health Team resolved to ensure 100% vaccination to all eligible population in 4 Primary health centers in Karur District Tamil Nadu

Following the ravages of COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, the present Tamil Nadu government has been undertaking vaccination programme for administering vaccine to every adult in the state. There are widespread campaigns and visual advertisements on the importance of getting vaccinated are ongoing. Despite, many of common people in the state simply ignore them because of their ignorance and misconception about vaccines. Anyway, it will be risky to leave a death-defying pathological entity prevail on the earth just because of the lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of people. 

Therefore, AREDS decided to enhance the awareness of people in its operational area in Karur district on the detrimental effect of corona pandemic. Hence, it has launched a six-month programme for assisting the government’s effort for ensuring 100 per cent vaccination in the state of Tamil nadu. Accordingly, it has selected 196 villages that come under the healthcare of four Primary Health Centres (Panjapatti, Veppangudi, Innungur and Ayyarmalai) and 19 Habitat Service Centres  in Karur district.  Totally, the programme covers 73610 people. 

The PHCs and the villages which have been chosen for the programme are located in remote areas where people have less public transport facilities.  As many of the villagers are illiterate and poor economically, they pay less attention to their health and hygiene. So, AREDS undertook a survey on the health status and on the number of people who got vaccinated and who have not yet got vaccinated in the villages chosen at the outset. Diverse surprising reasons were put forward by the people, who have not had vaccination, during the survey. Here are some of the responses from them:

1. People have several ailments already. Corona vaccine may aggravate health issues.
2. Pregnancy and childbirth: corona vaccine may terminate pregnancy. It may produce complexities during childbirth. If lactating mothers get vaccinated, it may affect the infants.
3. Habitual drunkards shun vaccination because they have to lose the pleasure of drinking.    
4. If they get ill after getting vaccinated, they cannot work and consequently farming practices will be affected.
5. People are already afflicted with TB, Asthma and diabetes. Corona vaccine may complicate the health condition further.

Stimulated by the astounding statements put forward by the villagers during survey, AREDS organized a review meeting of volunteers to find out the ways and means to dispel the fear and misapprehension of people about vaccination. In order to build a collective responsibility to eradicate the spread of pandemic, AREDS decided to involve the elected representatives of panchayats in the campaign.  

Review meeting with volunteers

In view of that, AREDS organized two meetings with the elected representatives of panchayats, one in Pappakkaapatti and the other one in Ayyarmalai. AREDS also invited the respective Block Medical Officer to the meeting.

The panchayat presidents suggested various ideas for convincing the people on the need for getting vaccinated:

1. It could be made mandatory that only those who have had vaccination can get articles from ration shops.
2. Village Administrative Officers can certify only those who have had vaccination 
3. The list of people who have not got vaccinated must be handed over to the panchayat presidents so that they could persuade them to go for vaccination.
4. Making people understand the situation is very much essential. If they are convinced, they will convince many others who they know well. 
5. The panchayat presidents suggested various ideas for convincing the people on the need for getting vaccinated:

At the end of the meeting, the panchayat presidents asked the volunteers to give them the list of people who have not got vaccinated. Presently, they have the list in their hands and they will visit them door-to-door and persuade them to go for vaccination. Hence, collective responsibility has been built to promote vaccination programme of the government. 

The Block Medical Officer of Inungur presented a brief discloser, which was an eye opener for all those who shun vaccination because of irrational beliefs, in the meeting with the elected representatives of panchayats and the volunteers of the programme: “People think that they should not consume meat if or after they get vaccinated. Many people have strong immune system to bear the effect of vaccines. Very few people suffer the effect of vaccines. Likewise, for digesting meat, the body needs much energy. Hence, it is advisable to avoid eating meat on the day people get vaccinated for avoiding double burden. There are also drunkards among those who get vaccinated. If a drunkard slips down while walking, after getting vaccinated, people blame it on vaccines definitely not on the body condition deteriorated by the consumption of alcohol. People who have health complaints already and the elderly people and pregnant women should compulsorily get vaccinated. Vaccines do not have ill effects on people and they do not aggravate the ailments that are already there in human bodies. Therefore, it is our duty to convince them by explaining the facts.”   

Presently, our volunteers, with the statistics obtained, have started motivating people by visiting them door-to-door to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, people, who have not at all had vaccination, go for the first dose of vaccination and those who have had the first dose of vaccination go for the second dose of vaccination. It gives dazzling ray of hope that we could assist the government’s effort to achieve100 per cent of vaccination in the villages that come under four PHCs and 19 HSCs.   

Now, the government has announced that children aged 15 to 18 can get dose of corona virus vaccine from 3rd of January 2022 onwards. Therefore, we could help the government’s effort to get the children vaccinated. 

Taking Collective responsibility with the government, members of grassroots governance and the civil society organizations will ensure health to all.

Covid-19 vaccine survey: vaccination rate among workers in Bangladesh is negligible

Bangladesh Occupational Safety Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) conducted a rapid sample survey among 60 workers at 6 working sectors (readymade garments, leather, ship breaking, construction, waste recycling and home based work) under the district of Dhaka, Gajipur and Chittagong. It found that only 27% workers received  the COVID-19 vaccine and 73% of workers have not yet received any vaccine from the government. The survey was carried out by OSHE foundation between 15 August to 10 September 2021.  

The analysis showed that 47% workers surveyed already registered through the government designated app (Surokkha) as managed by the Department of Health, but most have been waiting for a long time to receive a date for the first dose of the vaccine. 30% workers from the survey informed that they missed to register through the Surokkha app due to lack of know-how, lack of access to internet, lack of required registration related support from concerned employer, any relevant government agency, local health service provider or community based organizations.

According to a sector wise analysis, only 3% workers in the RMG sector received COVID-19 vaccine,  5% workers in the construction sector, 3% in leather, 8% in waste recycling sector and only 7% of home based workers. 

The vaccination rate among the ship breaking sector was found to be nil. Vaccination rate among female workers was found to be only 12% of the total number of workers. None of the workers from any sector reported any infection with the corona virus while only 8% of the workers had gone for covid-19 testing at local government facilities in the past.

Lessons learned from India 2nd wave of COVID-19

Daily cases of Covid-19 and death keep on hitting a new global record as more than 400.000 new cases reported daily adding to the total number of infections to more than 20 million peoples. Positivity rate stays between 18-20 percent. At least 1 out of every 3 new cases around the world is being recorded in India. India recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 4.000 deaths a day, adding to the more than 215.000 people’s dead. Some city’s crematorium overflowed with dead bodies. Parking lots and open spaces have been changed into makeshift crematorium working for 24 hours a day. According to Reuters, 1 person is dying of Covid-19 every 5 minutes in India. The WHO describes the situation as ‘beyond heartbreaking’. 

People have been left to die outside of the hospital they cannot get into, due to lack of beds and facilities. Hospitals around India are reporting dying patients because of oxygen shortages. Few incidents happened; oxygen tanks leaked, and fire broke out in a hospital ward. Doctors and health workers are exhausted, overwhelmed by sudden increase of patients. They are having traumatic experiences as they must make life and death decision and turn away patient in the fact that people are dying who could otherwise be safe. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) reported that 747 doctors have died of Covid-19, the highest number were from Tamil Nadu (89 deaths), West Bengal (80 deaths) and Maharashtra (74 deaths). Healthcare workers are over-worked not only during their working time at the hospitals but also supervising many patients that stay at home without proper medical supplies. Healthcare systems are on the brink of collapse.

India’s swift decision to have two-months-long national lock-down to contain the first wave has sparked a huge exodus of millions of migrant workers who headed home to their villages and put about 100 million people out of work in a matter of days. As an impact, about 230 million Indians fell into poverty with women and children bear most of the brunt. After the first wave, the government was relaxing health protocol and allowing sport-social-religious gathering turn into ‘super-spreader events.’ Thousands or millions of peoples allowed to have gathered in one place without social distancing and mask-wearing. The impact of that decision is devastating. 

The government of India ignored warnings from the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genetics Consortium (INSACOG) about the new variant of B.1.617 first detected in early March 2021. Different with the first wave, this time India is faced with a ‘double mutation’ variant of the Covid-19 which is attacking younger populations with severe infections. There are growing fears about the spread of infections to rural areas where health infrastructure is limited or not exist. In the countryside, people die at home without medical attention and these deaths are vastly unreported. The second wave of Covid-19 crisis is expected to add 75 million people more to poverty with incomes of less than 2 USD a day. 

As the health system becomes inaccessible, people desperately turn to social media searching for oxygen, ventilators, plasma donations and medical supplies for their loves one to survive. Civil society turns into activists by helping each other through sharing information on social media, verifying news, providing oxygen, medical supplies, and food for free. However, criticism on how the government is handling the crisis is not permitted on social media. Unsurprisingly, the social media companies like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have been requested to remove all posts criticizing the Government of India. For these social media companies, access to the huge India’ market with 400 million users is more important than the rights of the Indian people for free speech. 

The response of various Indian states to Covid-19 will differ as the poorest states have the weakest capacity to deliver health services. Some states will be in far worse shape than others. Maharashtra state is one of the states that has been hit hardest by Covid-19. Over 17.975 health workers have been infected with Covid-19, and 175 have died. According to experts, there are several reasons why Maharashtra recorded the highest number of cases. First, Maharashtra state has the 2nd biggest population in India. Secondly, Maharashtra has more densely populated cities caused by urbanization, like Bombay, the Nation’s financial hub. Third, the new variant of B.1.617 was first detected in early March 2021 in Maharashtra. Fourth, Maharashtra has relatively better Covid-19 recorded tests than other states. Fifth, after the first wave, the government allowed ‘super-spreader events’ where thousands or even millions of peoples participating without respecting health protocols. And lastly, the vaccine roll-out is slow across India. 

When it comes to vaccine, India is a paradox. Serum Institute of India is the world largest vaccine manufacturing and produces half of the world’s vaccines. Now, the Serum Institute is struggling to meet even the demands of its home country. Nearly 10% of Indians have received one dose, and only 2% have received both. This is happening because India is depending on the United States to obtain raw materials needed for manufacturing vaccine. ‘America first’ policy of the US is prioritizing the use of raw materials for producing vaccines for their own peoples. The Serum Institute had promised to supply COVAX with 1,1 billion vaccines doses. Unfortunately, the Serum Institute could only deliver 19,6 million vaccines doses to COVAX before it stopped in February 2021 as they also prioritize India’s domestic needs.   

The world has seen a moral deficit as Covid-19 Vaccine are being rolled out. Approximately 216 million peoples have been vaccinated against Covid-19 globally, but only 8,4% of these are in low and lower-middle-income countries. Wealthy nations have failed to prevent this tragedy happening in India and failed to contain the spread of global pandemic as they are almost exclusively prioritizing their own vaccinations and pile up stocking of vaccines for their own populations. Lower-middle income and poor countries are depending on World Health Organization initiative of COVAX vaccines which mainly come from India’ Serum Institute. Indirectly the wealthy nations are raising vaccine prices and squeezing lower-income countries out of vaccination race. For example, South Africa paid double what the European Union did for the AstraZeneca vaccine. If this trend continues, we will see vulnerable people in poorer countries continue to die needlessly.

This ‘vaccine nationalism’ is a very bad policy as it is self-defeating while it opens the possibility of new more-life-threatening variants of Covid-19 mutation to emerge somewhere in a poorer country. It is very risky to rely on production of vaccine from only a few manufacturers to supply vaccine to the rest of the world when cases of pandemic occur. Therefore, we welcomed the support of US and EU to waive the vaccine intellectual property (IP) rights proposed by the government of India and South Africa. It would allow other countries with the manufacturing capacity to produce and scale up production of Covid-19 vaccines. We expect there is not even one country among the 164 members of WTO which will vote against a waiver, because then that initiative would fail.

Patent waiving of IP Rights is just a first step. The fact is producing and distributing vaccine is complicated and takes time. We basically cannot wait for months or years before those patent waivers give impact for boosting global vaccine productions. What we need urgently is boosting production capacity of existing manufacturers and reducing restrictions on the export of vaccine and raw materials to make them. Equitable access to vaccines for all people and a global vaccination strategy will lead to global herd immunity. 

As the crisis deepened, international aid is coming from around the world, sending vaccine, oxygen, medicines, diagnostic tests, protective gears, etc. It is helpful, but too little, too late. It is becoming clear that what happened in India is not only catastrophic to India, but also to the rest of the world. As distribution of vaccine being halted, we will be expecting outbreaks to happen soon in other countries. Imagine if the virus reached a state like Myanmar. This country has a very poor health system affected by years of armed conflict and violence. With 1.600 km porous border, thousands of internally displaced persons and political refugees from Chin state of Myanmar flee and seek safe havens in the Mizoram and Manipur districts of India. 

What is already obvious is the spill-over of the virus to Nepal. Six provinces of Nepal share a porous border of about 1.850 km with 5 states of India, mainly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. An estimated 6 million Nepalese live and work in India. With sudden increase of cases up to 9.000 a day, the fragile health system of Nepal is on the brink to collapse. 2 out of 5 people tested now return positive. More than 3.500 peoples have died, and 400 of them in the past 2 weeks alone. Nepal is just two weeks behind India towards similar catastrophe. Closing the borders is too little too late, as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also reporting spikes of cases. Very soon the center of global Covid-19 cases will move to South Asia. 

Along with the raise of cases in India, more and more countries decided to close its border for peoples coming from India. Discrimination against Indian peoples is increasing in many countries. The government of Australia has taken disproportionate and very punitive laws, which criminalize their own citizens coming or returning home from India. This policy is obviously racists against India-Australians people and civil society organizations should pressure the government of Australia to immediately withdraw this policy.

The worst has yet to come for India. India urgently needs to provide oxygen for patients, roll out vaccines, build temporary hospitals, isolation center and vaccine centers in a short period of time, while providing proper personal protective equipment and safe environment for health workers. People must know that the current vaccine should be seen as preventive measures rather than treatment, which means that those people who were vaccinated can still be infected by the virus and infect others. Research at this point only demonstrated that the vaccine alleviates the symptoms, which is already a huge step forward. Scientist do not know yet for how long the current vaccines will maintain antibody immune system against Covid-19. Therefore, people must respect and implement health protocols everywhere, anytime. Hopefully, anti-viral medicine and booster vaccines that can anticipate new variants and serve to stimulate the immune system to recognize a new variant in a longer lasting period can be developed.

Health has never been a major issue in the general election in India. However, the Covid-19 pandemic should change this . It is now time to raise health care as a prominent campaign. Healthcare spending in India remains just a little over 1% of the Gross Domestic Product, as opposed to the National health Policy which stipulates 2,5%. The budgetary allocation on healthcare as percentage share of the total budget remains at 1,98%. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the health of the people by providing universal quality healthcare which is accessible and affordable. We should make sure that government manifesto regarding health do not end up mere rhetoric and window dressing. The government must involve people in policy development of the healthcare system, its monitoring and evaluation, because health has always been the primary concern of people. All people have equal rights to universal quality healthcare. 

The longer the virus can spread rampant in India, the more people it will infect and the more likely it is that further mutations will emerge. Many people do not yet realize the severity of what lies ahead. What happens in India is vital to what will happen next to the world. While the UK variant was detected in January in the northern state of Punjab, the Indian variant B.1.617 has now reached at least 17 countries. The battle against Covid-19 seems to be a long one. The India case is an alarming reminder of how the virus can spike when precautions are lifted and health protocol ignored. Unless we keep being cautious and learn from experiences like the one from India, we cannot win this battle.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ARE WORKERS’ FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS - INSP!R INDONESIA

Press Release 28 April 2021 Commemorating International Occupational Safety and Health Day

According to data from BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (Social Insurance Body on employment), cases of work accidents in Indonesia continue to increase from year to year. In 2017, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan recorded as many as 123,040 work accident cases in Indonesia (with a claim fee of IDR 971.95 billion), which increased in 2018 to 173,415 cases (with a claim fee of IDR 1.22 trillion) and increased again in 2019 to 182,835 cases (with a claim fee of IDR 1.57 trillion). Of these work accident cases, over 4,500 people died and more than 2,400 caused disabilities.

As of January 2021, the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) recorded 504 health workers died due to COVID-19. They consist of 237 doctors, 15 dentists, 171 nurses, 64 midwives, 7 pharmacists and 10 medical laboratory personnel. This number still excludes support staff such as cleaners, hospital staff and health volunteers who died or were exposed to COVID-19 due to their work. The death rate of health workers in Indonesia is the highest in Asia and the fifth largest in the world.

Every worker has the FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT to live and be healthy, avoiding work accidents or occupational diseases. Law number 1 of 1970 concerning Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) lays down the basic principles of implementing OSH. The OSH management system must be implemented in all workplaces, without exception, including the requirements for health protocols, personal protective equipment, OSH training, supervision, prevention, and treatment. Social security, especially death and work injury insurance, must be implemented in all workplaces.

The high number of deaths and disabilities continues to increase due to accidents and diseases in the workplace, among others caused by:

1. Law no. 1 of 1970 concerning Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) can no longer answer current challenges and problems, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic
2. The government has not made OSH a priority issue, so education and socialization regarding the regulations and importance of OSH are not optimal, especially for contract workers, seasonal workers, digital platform workers, informal workers, domestic workers, migrant workers, and workers with disabilities.
3. The weak role of labor inspectors and law enforcement to ensure that OSH provisions are carried out properly according to the provisions, as well as the ineffective role of the OSH tripartite institutions at the national down to the company level.
4. Weak awareness of employers to comply with legal rules on OSH. There are still many employers who consider OSH as a cost or burden, not an investment in human resources that can support workers productivity.
5. There are still many workers who have not been registered with the employment Social Security program, especially women workers in the informal sector, contract workers, seasonal workers, digital platform workers, domestic workers, migrant workers, and workers with disabilities. As of February 2021, the number of active participants in Work Accident and Death Security benefits from groups of wage earners was 19.26 million, migrant workers were 350.000, construction service workers were 5.46 million people and participants who did not receive wages were 2.68 million people.
6. The process of claiming work accident or occupational disease benefits is carried out by the company, while often the company is reluctant to report a work accident or occupational disease in order to maintain its 'zero accident' status. This is detrimental to workers, especially for workers who are exposed to diseases but are no longer working in the company.
7. Apart from the problems above, currently BAPPENAS (National Planning Body) and DJSN (National Council of Social Security) are initiating a merger of the JKK (Work Injury Program) and JKN (Health Care Program) so that later curative financing due to occupational accidents and occupational diseases will be managed by BPJS Kesehatan (Social Security Body for Health). This plan will certainly be detrimental to workers who have received work accident insurance services in the form of curative, rehabilitative, and unemployment benefits, to vocational training.

To that end, we, International Network for Social Protection Rights Indonesia (INSP!R Indonesia), representing 13 civil society organizations, part of the International Network for Social Protection Rights (INSP!R), are demanding the Indonesian government to:

1. Immediately revise Law no. 1 of 1970 concerning Occupational Safety and Health to answer the latest OSH challenges, and to make OSH a fundamental right for every worker, equally for men and women, without exception, in all workplaces, including OSH for contract workers, seasonal workers, digital platform workers, informal workers, domestic workers, migrant workers and workers with disabilities. Hereby, INSP!R Indonesia supports the position of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia to include OSH as a fundamental right of workers at the ILO 110th Session of the International Labour Conference in 2022.
2. Increase the role of supervision and law enforcement of OSH regulations, as well as ensure the effective role of the OSH tripartite institutions in companies, particularly the implementation of Health protocols in all workplaces.
3. Conduct education and socialization on OSH to all workers, with budget support from the APBN / APBD (National budget/ District budget) and BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (Social Security Body on Employment).
4. Encourage the Ministry of Manpower and BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (Social Security Body on Employment) to open an effective space for reporting, complaints and claim benefits for work accidents and occupational diseases, including for persons with disabilities.
5. Expand the participation and benefits of the Work Injury Security and Death Security Program for contract workers, seasonal workers, digital platform workers, informal workers, domestic workers, migrant workers and workers with disabilities.
6. Strictly reject the plan to incorporate the Work Accident Insurance into the National Health Insurance because it will undermine benefits of programs for workers.
7. Support the implementation of the “Independent” COVID-19 Vaccine, with strict rules and supervision without burdening workers at any cost.

Please maintain Health protocols.

List of member organizations of INSP!R Indonesia:

1. KSBSI (All Indonesian Trade Union
2. Confederation)
3. BPJS Watch (Social Security Watch)
4. KPI (Indonesia Women Coalition)
5. PJS (Association of Mental Health Indonesia)
6. JBM (Migrant Workers Network)
7. TURC (Trade Union Research Center)
8. Flower Aceh (Aceh Women Organization)
9. Gajimu.com (Platform on Wage)
10. LIPS/TPOLS (Sedane Labor Institute)
11. GARTEKS (Trade Union Federation of Garment, Textile, Leather and Shoes)
12. REKAN (Indonesia Health Volunteer)
13. KAPRTBM (Coalition of Domestic workers and migrant workers)
14. JAPBUSI (Indonesia Workers Network on Palm Oil)

As the pandemic closed their doors on Bangladeshi garment workers, trade unions step up

The Garment Workers’ Federation NGWF focuses on labour standards and social security for the 2 million Bangladeshi textile workers, mostly women. Over 2.600 workers joined the trade union, and almost 250 received training regarding labour rights and collective bargaining. Over 1.000 workers received legal aid and more than 600 publicly advocated for better working conditions in Bangladesh through rallies, hunger strikes, human chains, memoranda handovers to the government, etc.). Over 200.000 workers were sensitized regarding social security schemes through posters and leaflets and 150.000 workers were reached through their media releases regarding the situation and rights of garment workers. 

Khadija, 26 year old, came to Dhaka in 2015 and started work as an Assistant Operator with 5,300BDT salary. She is from an impoverished family and struggled financially during her life. When she joined in her job in 2015, she didn’t know anything about her rights, about her different types of benefits i.e. work hours, overtime benefits, maternity leaves and benefits, workplace health and safety issues, gender violence etc. As a result, she suffered different types of abuse by factory management who used slang and sometimes beat her. When becoming a member of NGWF, she regularly attended the meetings and training programs relating to Gender Training, Workplace Health & Safety Training, Collective Bargaining Training, Labour Rights Training. Afterwards, she started participating in public demonstrations. This not only helped her improve her working conditions and wages, she shared her knowledge with other workers, got more members and formed a factory union which got registered in November 2020. Khadija is now getting her wage properly and can better support her family. She is very motivated to continue organizing and her goal is to strengthen the union to ensure decent wages and also to stop gender discrimination.

Bringing health services to over 10.000 Bangladeshi people amidst a pandemic in 2020: GK

In 2020, besides offering vocational skill courses to 79 people, GK also offered access to health amidst the pandemic. Over 10.000 members (67% women, 69% young workers) received medical advice or health insurance on preventive care with drug essentials, specialized health camps, grants for destitute groups, HIV/AIDS Screening. 162 people (85% women and 93% young) are provided with basic training on traditional birth attendants, rapport building and communication for paramedics, gender workshops and disabilities. 

During any national and international calamities, GK always tries to respond as early as possible through medical services, reconstruction of damaged houses, and food distribution, including safe drinking water. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, GK was working 24/7 across the board. Efforts included various preventive measures in the hospitals and at the community level, including the development of a rapid test kit to detect COVID-19 named GR COVID-19 Rapid Dot Blot, raising fund for an Emergency Food Distribution Program, taking steps to increase social awareness about COVID-19 using social media and distributing leaflets to the general public, establishing a Designated Flu Corner at the Savar hospital and organizing a COVID-19 Call Center to provide telemedicine support and advice (report here).

WSM partner in Bangladesh, Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK), the largest health provider after the Bangladeshi government, is one of the oldest non-profit, non-governmental, and national-level organizations in Bangladesh. GK is a people-oriented healthcare-based organization that provides services in health care, women's empowerment, education, disaster management, emergency relief, nutrition, water & sanitation, agriculture, basic rights-based advocacy, and research. Over the past five decades, GK has expanded its services to cover approximately 1.67 million people in 1,017 villages. GK serves mostly vulnerable and low-income groups in rural areas, mainly through its 44 rural sub-centers and six referral hospitals.

2020 COVID context in Bangladesh

In terms of COVID-19, Bangladesh is the second most affected country in South Asia, after India. The Bangladeshi government declared a lockdown from 23 March to 30 May. Throughout 2020, routine testing was never adopted in Bangladesh. Even though garment factories were allowed to continue operating under the country's lockdown, an estimated one million garment workers, or one-quarter of the workforce, were laid off due to declining orders for export. In April, hundreds of garment workers marched in Chittagong demanding factory owners pay them last month's wages following delays after over 500 garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong had been shut down for a month. In 2020, a total of 7.781 deaths were registered in Bangladesh because of COVID.

Amidst COVID-19 and labour reforms - work from WSM partners in India 2020

 Labour law reform

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the central government pushed through with the biggest labour law reform since independence in 1947, to amalgamate and codify 44 existing labour laws into 4 codes in order to simplify the labour legislation in India: a code on wages; a code on industrial relations; a code on occupational safety, health and working conditions; a code on social security. While the central government and some state governments maintain that the labour law reform is necessary in order to boost productivity and to provide greater flexibility to employers to conduct their business, while expanding the social security to both gig workers as inter-state migrant workers. The reform however triggered a serious backlash from trade unions and other labour movements, claiming it as being ‘anti-worker’ and ‘anti-labour’, resulting in a massive general strike held across India on 26th November 2020 in which they claim 250 million workers took part, a majority of them non-unionized and non-organized workers. The main concerns of the broader labour movement are the extension of maximum working time from 8 to 12 hours per day, the introduction of  restrictions on the right to strike effectively making industrial actions impossible, and the increase of a threshold for collective layoffs from 100 to 300 workers without prior government approval. The workers’ strike was followed by a march of tens of thousands of farmers to New Delhi to protest against the liberalization of the agricultural sector, which could mean the end of government-controlled wholesale markets and minimum support buying prices for agricultural produce.

Coronavirus and lockdown in India

Just like other countries in the world India was struck hard by the COVID-19 virus. On 24th March 2020 a nationwide lockdown was imposed until 14th April and eventually extended until 30th September. This created a lot of chaos as workers, most certainly those in the informal economy (the majority of all Indian workers) could no longer go to work or keep open their business. It led to a collapse in economic activity in the whole country. Due to the loss of income and work, many workers living in the city went back to their family in the countryside, thus contributing to the further spread of the virus. International flights were cancelled and the country’s borders closed, preventing many Indian migrant workers to return home, trapping them for a long time without salary being paid due to the closure of their factory or construction site. Also intrastate travelling became very complicated. 

During the first lockdown, partner organizations took the initiative to help the workers and their families in the relief effort, informing them about the nature of the virus and the health risks, distributing personal protective equipment such as masks and hand gels, raising awareness about the importance of quarantine and social distancing, distributing food and medicines.

Although the partner organizations were able to adjust quite fast to the situation, the pandemic and lockdown resulted in the cancelling of many of the originally planned activities. Mainly trainings in groups could not take place or had to be postponed. The partner organizations successfully started to make use of online meetings to stay connected to their members and each other, which became a (less than ideal) alternative for the normal meetings. Most of the partner organizations (except for AREDS) made use of the possibility to reorient 20% of their annual DGD – budget to aforementioned COVID-19 related actions. The partner organizations took this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the grass root activities by collaborating with different stakeholders and State departments like the police department ( to create awareness), the welfare departments (to give access to welfare/social security schemes to the informal workers), by mobilizing and supporting public distribution of rations and provisions. By involving these different actors and departments, the partner organizations could analyze how government machineries are responding to shocks, how informal workers and grass root level communities were affected by these measures. This helped them to advocate with different trade unions and national platforms and to mobilise for strikes against the Central Government to protest the new labour codes and farmers’ laws.

Aside from the regular DGD – program funds, WSM also channelled funds to the National Domestic Workers Movement from the Music for Life solidarity action and the Brussels Region International (BRI), which has sistered with Chennai, a city in the southeast of India and capital of Tamil Nadu State. BRI supported the NDWM Tamil Nadu branch in supporting domestic workers and their children who have been evicted from the Chennai city center slums and had been relocated 40km away, causing many to lose their jobs and lacking schools. In the second half of 2020, BRI also provided 50.000€ for relief aid to NDWM and 3 other local Chennai organizations. With the support of Belgian organisation Familiehulp, NDWM was also able to start up and develop domestic workers’ cooperatives in six states.

New Oxfam report on the need for USP in times of COVID19 'Shelter from the Storm"

Oxfam launched the report “Shelter from the Storm. The global need for universal social protection in times of COVID-19”. As 2020 draws to a close, the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating. Without urgent action, global poverty and inequality will deepen dramatically. Hundreds of millions of people have already lost their jobs, gone further into debt or skipped meals for months. Research by Oxfam and Development Pathways shows that over 2 billion people have had no support from their governments in their time of need.

Our analysis shows that none of the social protection support to those who are unemployed, elderly people, children and families provided in low- and middle-income countries has been adequate to meet basic needs. 41% of that government support was only a one-off payment and almost all government support has now stopped.

Decades of social policy focused on tiny levels of means-tested support have left most countries completely unprepared for the COVID-19 economic crisis. Yet, countries such as South Africa and Bolivia have shown that a universal approach to social protection is affordable, and that it has a profound impact on reducing inequality and protecting those who need it most. Read more here.

Looking back to look ahead: A rights-based approach to social protection in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery

The UN special rapporteur for Human rights recently issued a report on how the many measures governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are in line with a human rights based approach. From the two page summary:

"In this report, submitted in response to resolution 44/13 of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur argues that the world was ill-equipped to deal with the socioeconomic impacts of this pandemic because it never recovered from the austerity measures imposed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. The legacy of austerity measures is severely underfunded public healthcare systems, undervalued and precarious care work, sustained declines in global labour income shares, and high inequality rates coupled with average decreases in statutory corporate tax rates." ... 

"With public services in dire straits, one-off cash transfers are a drop in the bucket for people living in poverty, whether in developed, developing, or least developed countries. Maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty, the new wave of social protection hype must hold up to human rights scrutiny. This report identifies eight challenges that must be addressed in order to bring social protection in line with human rights standards."

You can read the full report here.

Development cooperation - Wil we keep chasing catastrophies or will we invest in better social protection?

We all know that strong social protection makes a country and its population more resilient to shocks. It is therefore undoubtedly better for people to receive a decent replacement income than to depend on emergency aid. Yet no less than 55% of the world's population does not benefit from any form of social protection and 71% is insufficiently protected throughout their life. COVID-19 and the measures taken to contain the virus make the shortages painfully clear. WSM analysed the development cooperation expenditure in Belgium and the EU for humanitarian assistance and social protection. We notice a lot of good intentions, but in practice (and budgets), the policy seems to have missed the right track with a lot more budget for the short term, (reactive) response than for the long term (proactive), stronger social protection. 

Read the full article here.