The frequent changes in the government’s decision over Covid restrictions have plunged thousands of working-class people, mostly apparel workers, into immense sufferings on their way back to workplaces in Dhaka and its surroundings amid the spiraling Covid cases.
Thousands of people Saturday left their village homes for Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj in the absence of adequate public transports in fear of losing their jobs as the government on July 30 suddenly announced that the export-oriented industries and factories would remain outside the purview of the ongoing restrictions on public movement and businesses from August 1.
Earlier, there have been government announcements against the reopening of factories.
‘The ongoing restrictions will continue till August 5 as scheduled and we cannot accept the request of industrialists to allow operation of factories during this period,’ home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters at the secretariat after presiding over a high-level inter-ministerial meeting on July 27.
The home minister gave the message that the restrictions from July 23 to August 5 would not be relaxed and the factories would remain closed during the time.
Three days later, the Cabinet Division in a circular on July 30 announced that the export-oriented factories would remain out of the purview of the restrictions effective from August 1 apparently under pressure from the readymade garment industries’ owners despite public health experts’ concern over the reopening of factories amid the worsening Covid situation.
State minister for public administration Farhad Hossain said on several occasions that the factory owners had committed to the government that productions would resume with the workers staying nearby the factories and those who could not return after the Eid would join after August 5.
Many said that they were confused with the sudden change in the government decision couple of days after it had refused to accept the industrialists’ appeal for reopening the factories during the restrictions that resumed on July 23 morning after a break of eight days for the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr on July 21.
Most of the factory workers left Dhaka and other cities to celebrate the festival with their families in remote villages as the government for the first time shut the export-oriented factories during the ongoing restrictions.
Several people returning to workplaces said that the government should have kept in mind how the workers would reach their workplaces before allowing the factories to resume production.
They faced a similar situation in early April 2020 when their factories were also allowed to open during the restrictions, exposing them to Covid infections first detected in Bangladesh on March 8 in the year.
Asked for comment on the sufferings of people returning to the capital and other places after the sudden reopening of the export-oriented industries, Asaduzzaman said that the Cabinet Division was looking after the matter.
Though the Covid situation continued to aggravate, the government on Saturday evening again all of a sudden announced to allow public transports- buses and launches to allow workers to return to their workplaces till Sunday 12 noon.
On such short notice, neither the long-route inter-district buses nor the long-route lunches could resume services.
Again on Sunday, the decision was changed and the launches were allowed to operate till Monday 6:00am.
The health authorities earlier told the media that all activities except emergency ones should remain suspended with the extension of the existing curbs to prevent the Covid situation from spiral out of control.
‘Reopening factories will cause a further increase in infections,’ said Directorate General of Health Services DG ABM Khurshid Alam on Friday.
He said that factory owners were pushing for reopening their businesses, a move the authorities should not have heeded to prevent the pandemic from worsening.
Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad president Iqbal Arslan, also a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said that the poor factory workers were returning to their workplaces in Dhaka and adjacent areas amid fear of losing jobs.
He blamed a lack of coordination among the agencies concerned in taking decisions like the reopening of factories and implementing the decisions.
Socialist Labour Front president Razequzzaman Ratan told New Age that both the government and garment factory owners were responsible for the hasty decision.
They did not consider how they would return in the short time from their village homes when public transports were closed, he said.
Garment Sramik Samhati president Taslima Akhter said both the government and factory owners played once again a farcical drama by suddenly reopening the factories during restrictions.
Both the labour rights leaders said that the government gave in to the pressure of the factory owners without considering the safety and life of the workers, who were exposed to Covid infections during the two days’ nightmare journeys from villages to their workplaces.
Abu Jamil Faisal, a member of the Directorate General of Health Services’ advisory group, told New Age on Sunday that the government could divide the workers to return Dhaka based on divisions to reduce the crowd on their journeys.
