COVID-19 versus Hunger 24/7

It was about 10 or 15 years ago that the Reader’s Digest had published a true story about two young men who travelled around the entire United States without purchasing a single item of food or drink. They didn’t beg or accept gifts, nor did they pick fruit from the trees or vegetables from the fields. They didn’t steal either. So how did they survive? On trash.

Trash? Yes, that was the whole point of their trip around America. They were horrified by the waste they saw around them, how consumerism was consuming the society. People were buying much more than they needed and were throwing out good food simply because it was surplus. Yet in the same country, there were poor and homeless, begging on the streets for survival. These two young men ate whatever they could find in trash cans, but nothing unclean or unhygienic. They only ate sealed, wrapped food which had not reached the expiry date. They not only survived, but ate hale and hearty every day! They proved their point.

Such is the human race. Gluttony on the one hand, and poverty on the other.

Alas, eating from the dustbins is not a novelty or a socioeconomic experiment here in Bangladesh. It is reality. In summer while the rich people in their air conditioned drawing rooms debate the merits and demerits of Lengra, Fazli, Himsagar and Amrapali, the street urchins scavenge in the garbage dumpsters outside, sucking on discarded mango seeds. Luckily the ‘sophisticated’ consumers only eat carefully chilled cubes of the sweet fruit and so there is quite a lot left on the seeds, unless a crow has got there before kids. Remember Ranabi’s Tokai?

A harsh juxtaposition but all too real.

We are prey to a dangerous virus, COVID-19. The poor have always been prey to a dangerous virus, Hunger 24/7.

And with the outbreak of coronavirus, hunger looms all the more larger.

The debate of lives versus livelihood continues, but is that really a debate? Can anything be more precious than a human life?

Using this line of livelihood 'logic', most of readymade garment factories have opened. On one the hand they lament that they have no business as all orders have been cancelled, on the other they say that they have to open up to meet their buyers’ demand and fulfill the orders. A contradiction that will cost lives.

With the opening of the factories, hordes of men and women have rushed en masse from their village homes, social distancing be damned. The garment industry-wallas say they are ensuring the safety of their workers by providing them with soap and water, making them maintain a ‘distance’ from each other at work on so on. Fine, but once the factory hours are over, then? The workers stream back to their ‘homes’, the congested messes where 8 or 9 live together in one small room. Soap? The slums hardly have water, forget about soap!

Whatever benefits could have been attained by the government-enforced general holiday, have been totally negated by the opening up of these factories. Already seven readymade garment workers have tested coronavirus positive in Savar. That, obviously, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Irate at the complacence of these industrialists, a resident of Dhaka city lashes out in anger, “Do they care? Let the workers get infected! Let the poor people die! They are only cattle. There will be many more coming from the villages to take their place.”

Indeed, they are as disposable as the one-time-use disposable masks worn by their wealthy ‘maliks’.

And surely the garments workers are not the only stomachs in Bangladesh. What about the cha-walla on the street side? What about the little girls selling flowers, the shop assistants, the vendors on the footpaths and in the markets, the rickshaw-pullers, the CNG drivers, the transport workers and so many more?

What about the other businesses, ceramics, tanneries, furniture, tourism, toiletries, construction, real estate… the list is endless. Do they not need to survive? Do their employees not have families to feed?

COVID-19 is not going to disappear overnight and by the time it dwindles and disappears, jobs will have been lost. Offices and industries will have been forced to lay off employees. And that insidious virus called hunger will creep into the bones and marrow of the poor, and even of the not so poor.

So when it comes to the COVID-19 versus Hunger 24/7 battle, there can be no question of priorities. Both must be dealt with simultaneously.

Bangladesh has been riding high on an enviable economic growth curve, it had achieved food autarky, poverty levels had plummeted and a large number of social indicators has shot way above those of us South Asian neighbours. Now is the time to actually cash in on that economic development.

The prime minister has said we have no shortage food, and indeed we do not. It is just a matter of getting it to the people. Not an easy task, but not impossible either.

Of course, the government, NGOs, the private sector, voluntary organisations and individuals are coming forward and doing what they can to help. Vital now is coordination, careful planning and more help from those who can afford it. That can make all the difference.

We have survived wars, natural calamities, political mayhem and other foes in the past and have proved our resilience against all odds. But this time we must be more than resilient. We have to be pragmatic, powerful and prove that nothing can daunt us. Not even that spiky germ called COVID-19.