Surokkha app to incorporate distinct option to quick register apparel workers for inoculation

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to the Information and Communication Technology Division asking them to create an option in Surokkha app so that apparel workers could register en masse for vaccination programme.

Prof Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, Director General of Health Services said, “Regarding the letter of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), we have written to the ICT ministry to make an option in Surokkha App for registering apparel workers name who are seriously vulnerable at their work places.” He told Business Insider Bangladesh on Monday that his memo to the ICT Ministry also meant for registering other special groups via the app so that they could come under vaccination programme, soon.

Health Division is planning for inoculating export-oriented industry workers as soon as the app creates that function. After the completion of the registration, the Health Division will go for the jab programme in the garment factories.

The Vice President of BGMEA, Md. Shahidulla Azim, said, “We have communicated with the Health Ministry for vaccinating our workers on a priority basis. We hope the Ministry will confirm the matter by next week.”

The vaccination programme will be operated zone wise, by designating the factories under a zone.

He said vaccination has been started at some Gazipur factories without registration. Gradually, all factories across the country will come under vaccination.

Nazma Akter, a leader of apparel workers union, said, for the safety of the workers, the government and apparel industry operators are creating awareness among the workers about vaccination. Some of workers have already taken vaccines personally through registration, she said.

According to a study conducted in late April this year by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), only 2 percent garment workers out of 1,285 (sample size) were vaccinated in that month.

However, 22 percent of the workers wished to get jabs and 48 percent of the respondents were afraid of possible side-effects. The survey said some 65 percent of the workers were eligible for vaccination.

On the first day, 10,000 workers from four factories got doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Currently, nearly 4 million people work in the apparel industry and many of them are destitute women and young women from rural areas.

Most of the workers in the last 16 months--- after the country first detected COVID-19 in March 2020--- were out of vaccine coverage.

In response to a new wave of the global pandemic caused by Delta Variants of the coronavirus nearly 165 million people have been observing a stricter 2-week nationwide lockdown since July 23.