Metabolism to Avoid Peril: Who’s blame? -Josim Uddin

The world today is in a state of stagnation. No war, no conflict, no political riots, a simple microbial virus (2019-nCoV) has placed a blueprint of terror on the face of the earth. No country can escape from this terror. Even, Bangladesh cannot escape too. Already, the first wave of the corona epidemic has gone. And now the second wave is spreading in the chest of Bangladesh. Day by day, the number of infections and deaths in Bangladesh is increasing.

If we overlook the picture of the transmission of the first and second waves, so we find out that now the rate of transmission of the coronavirus has fatally increased from the first wave to the second wave. Experts said it is a red alert for Bangladesh. It’s really that cause of, we know in where the transmission rate above 10% is marked as a high-risk area, and according to this scale, Bangladesh currently has a rate of over 28%. Can you imagine? So far Bangladesh’s highest infection rate is 28.27% and the death rate is 1.59% by COVID-19 in the period of the second wave. But be aimed estate is that at the end of the first wave, on February 3, the infection rate in Bangladesh was only 2.92%.

Corona pandemic is undoubtedly a destructive peril for us. why not.
l Asia pacific research exchange showed that by the Covid-19 pandemic the textile industry of Bangladesh has been completely derailed from its growth trajectory. From March 2020 to May 2020, RMG exports fell by 54.8% to USD 3.7bn from USD 8.2bn over the same period of 2019.

l IMF, WB and ADB have already forecasted the GDP growth of Bangladesh. They said, GDP growth of BD has been revised downward from 7.8%-8.2% to a range of 2.0% to 3.8% for FY’20.
l Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has predicted that the poverty rate in Bangladesh would rise to 40% from 20% due to the impact of COVID-19.

l Bangladesh Education Development Unit (BEDU) estimates in their report that the child marriage rate rose by 44% (2020) in Bangladesh for the COVID-19 epidemic, compared to 2019.
l The total of 98.5% of students in all fields of education in Bangladesh are facing learning disabilities due to the pandemic. Experts say, 5% to 10% of students will drop out of education in the pandemic.
l And lastly, Coronavirus has already claimed almost 15 thousand people live in Bangladesh.
Now you think, is it not a destructive peril for us? Answer: Obviously.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, there are increasing the rate of people who’re losing their jobs, man’s affordability is minimizing, man’s income is the downfall, Business is spoiling, the production of goods is decreasing and revenues, export and tax income; everything is going down in Bangladesh. Today Bangladesh’s economy is down; poverty up. Many people can’t buy daily essential commodities, they are in fast day after day. So, they are now running on the need level avoiding the lockdown. They are not following hygiene. So, observing all these circumstances, many more questions are arising in my mind; How so many infections have increased in a few days in Bangladesh & What’re the reasons behind this? Why the general people are in fast after setting forth lockdown? What does the present government do there? Why Bangladesh is facing so many detriments? And who’s blames for those; the general people or the present administration?
I think that the general people & the present administration are both blames for those directly or indirectly. Let’s start explaining the thought of why I give blame to both of them.

Blames the general community:
The general people undoubtedly are responsible for increasing the transmission of COVID-19 today. Because their faith or belief is so downcast that they don’t want to think, there is such a thing as coronavirus in Bangladesh. They think especially illiterate people, it is a political trick to house arrest us. So, they do not follow hygiene to prevent coronavirus. They are travelling aimlessly from here and there despite lockdown without mask. And even they are washing other people’s brains with the rumor that there is no such thing as coronavirus in Bangladesh. This is the unconscious public, it’s to be one point of repeat corona transmission.

Blames the Present administration:
n Corruption in the Health sector: Corruption is nothing new in Bangladesh. It has existed since the beginning of the country and still exists. But, during the Corona period, corruption seems to have taken a difficult stage, especially in the health sector. The irregularities/corruption in the only health sector is so increased that Bangladesh has dropped two places to 12th in the global corruption index-2020, which was 10th in the previous year.

There are some facts below about corruption in the health sector:
l During the corona pandemic, the director of the health department (planning) Prof. Dr Iqbal Kabir came up with irregularities in the purchase of 900 crore taka of CMSD. But no corruption case has been registered.
l The Central Pharmacy (CMSD) bought medical equipment and safety equipment worth about Tk 350 crore last year. But no action was taken there either.

l Motazjarul Islam Mithu looted hundreds of crores of taka in the name of purchasing various types of machinery including MRI machines in some hospitals, is currently in America. But No case was filed against him.
There have also been big scandals such as mask scandals, fraud involving covid tests, JKG and Regent Hospitals. All in all, due to all these irregularities and corruption, the Corona epidemic has been humiliated as usual. That’s why we fail to prevent coronavirus and the rate of coronavirus’ infection is being increased today.

n Corruption in govt. relief programme: The government is providing a lot of relief during the Corona pandemic. According to government estimates, in April last year, the government allocated 65.96 tons of rice for relief assistance and Tk 25 crore in cash & for baby food Tk 3 crore in cash. But it is a matter of regret that this large-scale relief assistance is never given to the general people. The middle sectors annex the whole relief little by little and at one time completely embezzle it. That’s why the poor or helpless people ignore the hygiene for hunger without getting this relief, they are not following the lockdown, they are roaming freely in search of food. As a result, the eradication of coronavirus is far from over in Bangladesh. So, the rate of infection has doubled in recent times. That’s why we can say that our administrative management is responsible for this.

Absence of solid monitoring in the market system: The daily market system has a great impact on our daily life. And if that market system is uncontrolled, then there is no question. Rich and poor alike suffer from unwanted prices hike of commodities. That’s why Th general people fall into economic crisis effortlessly. So, they are forced out of the quarantine to earn money avoiding lockdown & hygiene. That’s why many people are infected with coronavirus and they also play a leading role in increasing the infection. And this is happened due to our uncontrolled market system and enigmatic market supervision of the administration.

Therefore, only if we can solve the problems mentioned above, it is possible to eradicate coronavirus from Bangladesh and return to normal life easily. So, keep high expectations, we will set a shining example on the world map to prevent coronavirus too fast.

The writer is a student of the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka.