77% of new poor gets no govt’s relief in 2nd wave of Covid-19: Study

More than 77 percent of the new poor did not get the government’s relief in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, says a study.

The study was conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in collaboration with Oxfam Bangladesh collecting samples from 26 thanas.

The data showed that 77.3 percent of the new poor were kept out of relief support because the relief was distributed based on old data.

And 60 percent of rural and 43.3 percent of urban relief seekers did not receive the support while the same person got relief more than once due to lack of data, it said.

The findings were revealed at a webinar on ‘Corona Relief Programme: How Effective Was It?’ in Dhaka on Thursday.

CPD Distinguished Fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman presented the study at the event.

The government provided Tk 2,500 as cash support to each of 36 lakh poor families hit hard by the second wave of coronavirus. Last year, the government gave them the same amount of money during the first wave.

A representative of the Society for Development Initiative (SDI) said about 60,000 families did not get any relief support in the second wave of coronavirus in Sandeep area.

Another representative from Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service complained that five persons from the same family got cash aid and several poor families were deprived in the area. “Even, dead persons’ names were found on the list,” he said.

Jahanara Begum of Pollisree, an NGO in Nilphamari, said sometimes the list was made after the distribution of the relief programme.

CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said to make the relief programme, transparent community-based organisations should be engaged to address the voice of marginalised people.

Most importantly, data should be updated regularly, he said.

Sometimes, 10-year-old data is used in the distribution of the government’s aid, said Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief AB Tajul Islam.

State Minister for Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Mohammed Enamur Rahman said apart from some irregularities, this time the government has distributed the cash aid among the poor successfully.