| Sumari: | The social and economic impact of COVID-19 has been deep, wide-ranging, and multi dimensional. While anecdotal evidence of distress among the poor, particularly those with informal
occupations, has been widespread, effective policy response has required real-time, researched data
disaggregated for urban and rural populations and for various categories of the poor. The Power
and Participation Research Centre and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development’s four round panel survey during 2020–21 provides unique insights into how COVID-19 impacted
specific categories of the poor and vulnerable in Bangladesh, their coping strategies, and the extent
to which policy support materialized. While the poor as a whole demonstrated their agency in the
face of the crisis, their resilience has been as much about deepening vulnerability as about recovery,
representing an unfair burden of distress resilience. Informal workers, women, and the urban poor
have been disproportionately impacted.
|
|---|