"I will starve to death if I stay at home or die of corona if I don't."　Corona Prevention Guidelines and Life Experiences of Slum Dwellers in Bangladesh

Ranjan Saha Partha,  Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.

Abul Kalam, Research and Monitoring Manager, Helen Keller International, Bangladesh. 

The experiences of pandemic or pandemic are space, place and time specific. Although the pandemic or disaster impacts in all span of lives of human society are universal but the experiences, preventive measures and coping strategies vary according to people's social location including social class, sex, space and place. Recent impact of novel coronavirus (COVID019) is not exceptional in this regard. World Health Organization (WHO) has developed relevant guidelines of infection prevention and control of COVID-19 and these guidelines are being followed by all countries across the world. The messages and strategies that are being disseminated (by different government agencies, media, NGOs, social media etc.) to prevent and control of COVID-19 in Bangladesh (GoB) are targeted to the life style of richer people. In this context, this ongoing research[1] is trying to explore how slum dwellers, lower income group people, day laborers and lower income population perceive about these messages and guidelines, how these groups of people cope with and how they live this pandemic. This particular group of people are at higher risk, though they have different ideology, life style and religious practices. These differences of experiences were analyzed through case study approach. The study used qualitative telephone interviews as part of practicing social distance. However, the study critically examined the 'Social Distancing' in regards to the slum dwellers' experiences by following emic perspective and narrative approach. The study used explanatory model of medical anthropology and critical medical anthropological theories.

COVID-19 Situation in Bangladesh.

The official authority of Bangladesh confirmed first case of COVID-19 on 8 March 2020 and ten days later the first death reported on 18th March. As part of responding mechanism, the government of Bangladesh (GoB) started taking initiative by closing educational institutions (school, college and universities) on 16th March. As part of response mechanism, the government instructed the local administrations to stop social, cultural, religious, political and business gatherings all over the country to prevent the spread of coronavirus. On 23rd March, the government announced the closure of all public and private offices from March 25 to April 4 except emergency services including hospitals, kitchen, drug stores etc. The government also instructed to stay at home and discouraged to go outside except urgent needs. Interestingly, the inter district transportation was not suspended. As the government declared this shutdown as public holiday. As a result, many people including garment workers, day laborer, students, businessmen, government employee and temporary workers started travelling to their home.

The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) have been closely working with different bodies of Bangladesh as part of response mechanism. But interestingly, religious organizations were not included on their efforts until when a meeting held with Islamic Religious Leaders in Islam Foundation of Bangladesh on 29th March. After that meeting, the Imam (who lead the prayer) of all mosques over the country asked to sensitize the mass people about corona preventive measures including handwashing and maintaining social distance. Since then, the Imams and other religious leaders started sensitizing the mass on COVID-19 but their engagement restricted when The Ministry of Religious Affair imposed strict restrictions to limit the congregation of saying prayer in the mosques on 6th of April 2020.

Bangladesh armed forces also deployed during this time to help local administration to ensure social distancing and quarantine. As the number of confirmed cases have been increasing and the community transmission has begun, the closure of all public and private offices extended to 14th April 2020. In addition to that, the local administrations and law enforcing agencies locked down some areas which are considered as epicenter of spreading coronavirus.

A new decision has come out on 27th April to open in the ready-made garments. The garments owners asked to ensure social distancing and follow health measures for their staffs while working in the garments. Along with other public health professionals, Health Minister was not convinced to start the regular activities of the garments. However, another decision came out to open the shopping malls and markets across the country. Although, the authority of many big shopping malls decided not to open their shopping malls but a large number of small and medium shopping opened. On 22nd of May 2020, the authority has decided to relax travel restrictions. People can now travel through their personal vehicle. As a result, thousands of people started travelling to their village home desperately.

Bangladesh has passed 75th day as of 22nd May 2020. According to Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) out of 223894 tests, the number of total COVID-19 cases is 30,205 while the number of deaths is 432.

Lower income people's experience to COVID-19

The main purpose of locked-down are to stop spreading the coronavirus and ensure the containment of affected areas. Along with these efforts, the Government of Bangladesh has been disseminating different messages on hygiene and social behavior which are adopted from the universal guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO).

"Three or four months ago I got to know from television that a virus has been spreading from China. Hundreds of thousands of people go admitted into hospitals, thousands of people are dying. From a Bangladeshi television channel, I heard a news but they used many English term. But I understood that, the medicine of this disease has not discovered. The disease is infectious. And there is a possibility of death due to this virus. Other than that, I did not understand what they were saying to prevent this disease. I cannot remember about the name of medicine, but they advised to use it on hand. Beside this, they also told to wash hands with soap. They also advised many more, but I could not understand all. "- a research participants who is a rickshaw puller.

The story tells about the perception of key messages that are being disseminated as part of awareness mechanism to prevent coronavirus. Considering this context, using telephonic interviews and tracking mainstream media reports, we are undertaking a research aiming at understanding the key terminology of messages related to COVID-19. Specifically, "Social Distancing", "Stay at Home", "Quarantine", "Locked-down", "Hand Washing with Soap" and "Hand Sanitizing" are among widely used terms while disseminating the messages related to COVID-19. As part of our ongoing research, we aimed at understanding how lower income people perceive on those key terms, how they are responding to these messages, what are their experiences amid this pandemic and social stigma around COVID-19. In our study the lower income people are defined as those people who are living their lives in daily income. In particular, by lower income people we mean rickshaw and van puller, day laborer (skilled and unskilled), housemaid, garment worker, hawker, shoe-maker and other similar type of people. So far we have conducted 30 interviews.

Stay at home

Generally, home is conceptualized as a place of protection or shelter but it does not have any unitary definition. Rather, it involves with socio-cultural aspects, emotion and historical aspects of a particular place and space in different cultural context. The definition of home changes according to time, difference of characters and situation. In Bangladesh, home indicates residential arrangement and it is impossible to draw a sketch of home.

We tried to understand the concept "Stay at home"- a key messages, from an Anthropological perspective by exploring lower income people's social reality. 'Home' is a debatable concept in Anthropology discipline which is often expressed by "Chula", "Bari", "Khana" or "Roof". The idea of home is not homogenous depending on people's social and economic context. For example, in the urban space many people living in open space or footpath (homelessness), apartment, private space and slum should be considered while discussing this term whereas in rural areas 'Bari' is a symbol status, remittances and migration have changed this notion. The social reality of the people who are living on the street or footpath contradicts with the notion of home as because they do not have an arrangement in regards to the popular norm home. Open space or street or footpath is home for those people which is not similar to modern apartment, flat, rural 'bari' neither to slum. We should consider the term home from holistic manner.

Homeless People in Dhaka City. P.C @Hasan Ashraf

However, we tried to understand how lower income people perceive about this key term "Stay at home". Our study participants mainly depend on daily income for their living. If they unable to earn income then they have to starve. Although, government, NGOs, volunteers and other business organizations have been distributing relief (rice, pulse, oil, salt and sanitary kits) to those people, but the amount is not sufficient compare to their needs. One of our research participants said,

One day a group of people from a volunteer organization came to us. They gave us 5-kilogram rice, 1-kilogram dal (pulse), 1-liter oil and a liquid. They told us to use the bottle of liquid on our hand. Our food is finished. Now I have to go outside other than me and my family will starve.

Similar experience observed from other participants. The pandemic creates huge burden to the poorer people as it stopped regular economic activities. Further, the advice of staying home creates extra burden. This situation can be expressed by one participant. He said "I will starve to death if I stay at home or die of corona if I don't".

Women's experience to stay at home found to be different from their counterpart, men. In the patriarchal ideology it is thought that women should stay at home and men should go outside of home. Now it is strongly advised to stay at home, irrespectively men or women. The COVID-19 pandemic encourages us to rethink the construction of 'home' from gender perspective. In addition to that, this pandemic impacts on both men and women blindly but gender stereotypes or social and cultural construction of womanhood or manhood forces women to a vulnerable situation. The number of all forms of violence against women have been increased amid this pandemic. Moreover, women are suffering from extra pressure of work as they are widely considered as care worker of the family members. Along with their regular activities of the household chores they have to care the patients. Working women's condition is more severe. In one side, they are getting loss their job/work which ultimately impact on their empowerment status. On the other hand, they became burden in the family. Similarly, women headed households are suffering from severe economic crisis.

Quarantine

Another key message of preventing COVID-19 is quarantine. If someone has symptoms of coronavirus, they have to live in a separate arrangement where they will use separate bed room and toilet. Access to such set-up is impossible for the lower income people who are mostly live in a communal. Moreover, the meaning of quarantine is not similar to everyone. If we consider urban mess culture, we can observe that, 3-4 members live in a same room having shared toilet and kitchen. In the urban areas, many college students and garment workers live in such condition. In the slum areas, a family consisting 4-5 members live in a room. Usually, three or four family share a common toilet, kitchen, and water facility. We need to consider how people living with set up can maintain quarantine once the symptoms arise. A research participant explained the situation,

"I was suffering from cold and cough; but unable to see a doctor. Then I discussed about my problem with a doctor over phone. The doctor advised me to start having medicine. And he also advised me to stay separate from my family members, use separate toilet. I bought the prescribed medicine but how could I manage separate toilet and bed room. Along with my 2 children and wife, I am living in a room where we 6 families share a common toilet. It is not possible for me to stay separate within this set-up, Allah knows better whatever happens to us".

Social distancing

Another frequently used term is Social Distancing which means keeping distance from one human to another. Specifically, keeping at least 6 feet distance from other people, not gathering in groups and avoiding mass gathering. The meaning of this term is mystical and inappropriate in Bangladeshi culture. Historically, the people of Bangladesh believe in social bonding in terms of religious, social, cultural and political activities whereas the term social distancing opposite this culture. Moreover, this term often explains with some negative social behavior like self-centric attitude or ostracism. In our study we also observed similar meaning from our study participants. One of the research participants was saying,

"Social distance mean expelling someone from the society. If someone has coronavirus, she/he should be ostracized from the society. She/he should not stay in the society along with others. Even if someone dies from coronavirus, then his/her funeral should not be performed."

The above-mentioned narrative is indicating opposite meaning of social distancing. This opposite meaning creates further complexity is responding COVID-19. We have observed many cases in the social media. In recent time, a nurse who used to work in a hospital in Dhaka. Her home town is in Gopalgonj - district under Dhaka Division. When she returned to her home, the local influential and neighbors denied her to enter her home. A temporary hut was made with palmyra leaves on the bank of a pond where she lived for 14 days. This incident indicates the inappropriateness of the term.

As much the concept of social distance is incomprehensible for the lower income people likewise it is incompatible with Bangladesh's culture. The people of Bangladesh historically prioritize 'social solidarity' in religious, social and political activities, here the concept of social distance acts as an opposition of cultural practices. It is also criticized by the social sciences' scholars. The concept of 'social distance' works as an adherent to the concepts of mind's 'negative' activities such as 'loner', 'ego-centric' (Foster, 2020). So when tackling a pandemic public should be inspired to use behavioural concepts such as 'sympathy', which can be "social solidarity in the time of physical distancing" (social solidarity in the time of physical distancing, holnes 2020).

The conceptual confusion regarding corona prevention instruction and the reason of incomprehensibility or not understanding the meaning of these concepts by the local people, many complications are arising. It was observed that due to the difficulties even the research informers reconstructing the meaning of 'social distance'. An informer named Rahman said,

"Social distance means excluding one from the society. It won't be reasonable to let one stay in the society who is ill. This disease is a consequence of sins for that reason no one agrees to participate in Janaja"

Because of these complications regarding the meanings many crisis are arising in the society. In Bangladesh this subject has emerged in newspapers and in mainstream Media in many ways i.e. treatment providing doctors, nurses, corona virus' sample collector medical technicians and other people who are involved with the treatment are being seen differently. The big reason for this attitude is that the virus could spread from them. As a result, landowners or neighbours are favouring to evict them from the house. Recently a nurse from Gopalgonj who worked in a hospital of Dhaka, when she went to her natal home, she was prohibited to live in her house by the local people. A temporary house for her accommodation was made from palm tree leaves far from her home at a side of pond. According to day labourer Lokman's speech corona is a consequence of 'sins'. He said,

Try to understand how much sins corona patients has, imams does not agree to participate in the janaja if even one dies. For that reason corona patients has to be kept separately. Why would we take the burden of their sins?

Genuinely no one wants to participate in janaja or burial of a person who died from corona. Even the families denies to take the body from the hospital. Children even leaves their elderly mother on the street for the suspicion of corona. During the time of corona these type of occurrence was seen in Bangladesh (source). Children or family members were not present during the burial of dead father or mother. Muslims performs Hindu funeral (mukhagni) (source). Local people resisted when proposal was given to build separate specialized hospital or quarantine centre by private and governmental organizations to treat corona patients.

To prevent coronavirus in social awareness related programs concepts such as 'social distancing' are used those are direct translation of WHO's instructed massages which is really difficult to comprehend for the low income people. These concepts fails to recognize social realty or the dimension of social relations of Bangladesh. In this case two problem can be seen - firstly: avoiding instruction due not understanding the meaning of the concepts and secondly: getting involved in such work which can increase social crisis. Socially excluding the patients, blaming and neglecting health workers, obstructing in setting up treatment centre. Mainly: these are continuation of not understanding the meaning of the instructions. Through conceptualizing 'physical distance' as 'social distance' mainly: a tendency of socially excluding patients or people related with disease is visible. In this regard an imam said,

Society is not only body but a mixture of mind and thoughts. The word social distance pushes away not only the human's body, but also the relations which conflicts with our country's cultural and religious ideology. In pandemic it is necessary to have physical distance but to deal with it social solidarity is necessary, otherwise chaos and crisis will increase in the society.

At present crisis it is necessary to ensure physical distance along social solidarity. For the reason of social solidarity the aristocrats provide assisting hands to the lower income people, seek out to know about their wellbeing and provides jakat's money. During Ramadan month many provided assisting hands to the poor populace, as some landowner rushed tenants to provide rent likewise many landowner pardoned rents of day-labourers for losing job due to coronavirus which came into light through information provided by few informants during the time research. Which is reconstructing social solidarity by maintaining social distance.

Because no medicine has been invented for the corona infected disease many specialists consider prevention measures effective. Along with other heath precautions it is suggested to eat nutritious foods (i.e. milk, vegetables, eggs, fruits, fish or meat) that prevents diseases. Even in normal situations when the wheels of the economy are in motion people with low income can't afford to consume these foods. In addition to that during general holiday or especial confinement day-labourers have to spend their time in unemployment. It is important to consider if it is viable to suggest nutritious food into the diet of those who are dependent upon relief due to being in the zero income category. The instruction that were given since the announcement of general holiday from March 26th are not compatible with the realities of the day labourers. A rickshaw puller named Rahman said,

Let alone Fish-meat there is no way of eating rice with salt. Can't drive rickshaw from where would I buy rice? We don't have foods like fish-meat. There is no benefit of saying those to us. Don't know if we will live or die from not eating, and fish-meat.

Many day-labourers are providing foods to their family by collecting relief. Generally in relief rice, lentil, soap and oils are provided. Foods that are designated as nutritious food are not included in the relief packages provided by the government and volunteer organizations. So one day labourer said,

Government said to eat fish, meat, and fruit but gave rice, lentil and salt. What they provide can't be consumed after eating once, and eating well. Those are food of rich peoples. Where would we find those? People who speaks on the TV are rich, lives in cold room, eats fish-meat, and gets governmental salary. They gets salary even if they stay at home, is there anything for them to worry about? Don't say these to us. Even if they had got out we could have pulled rickshaw, they don't even come outside. Easy to say these form home. How would those food come when there is no income?

General Holiday or confinement is reconstructing existing social inequality, people of low income who lost their jobs are being classified as 'new poor' (BIGD, 2020). It is being said in the classification of 'new poor' that they are eating one third less than what they used eat. Rate of nutrition has reduced 23 percent in urban areas and in rural areas 15 percent. From the experience of informers it came into light that, these 'new poor' category of people where they used to eat 3 times a day, now lost the abilities to eat 'salt-rice' 2 times or in some cases 1 time or in full stomach with their family. For that reason the suggestion of eating nutritious food which is essential at preventing disease is unsuited here.

Locked-down

Another frequently used term is locked-down. As part of response mechanism, the government locked-down those areas where there is COVID-19 patients. Along with other armed forces and civil administration, Bangladesh Police Force have deployed to ensure locked-down. We wanted to understand how lower income people perceive and practice locked-down. Sohel - a 24 years aged young man described locked-down in the following way,

"Locked-down means not going in front of the police during this pandemic. If we go there, police will arrest us, therefore we have to run and hide before they capture us. If anyone has to go outside for emergency for example for buying medicine, then they have to wear mask. Locked-down also means we should be careful prior to going outside so that police cannot see."

Another 19 years young man explained this way,

"During locked-down, everyone should stay at home, no one should go outside for roaming or passing time. How could young generation like me spend time at home. During this pandemic the pharmacy or medicine shops are open. So, me and my friends go to a medicine shop and spend time by gossiping. To me, this is locked-down."

The above-mentioned narratives indicate that, the meaning of locked-down is not appropriate according to the social reality of lower income people.

Hand sanitizing

Like many other popularly used terms, hand sanitizing another popularly used term while disseminating key messages for hand hygiene. It is advising that alcohol-based hand sanitizer is effective to kill the virus. Interestingly, people of lower income group do not understand how to sanitize hand or how much sanitizing liquid is required or how to use it. One of the research participants said,

"I got bottle of liquid along with food. They (volunteer group) advised me to use it on my hand. They did not tell how to use it or how much liquid should be used. Considering this situation, I am not interested to use it."

Moreover, the majority of the people of the country is Muslim while there is a strong Islamic belied not to touch alcohol as alcohol is considered as Haram. Considering this context, alcohol-based sanitary kits are not culturally appropriate for the Muslim believers. One of the Islamic religious leader (Imam) said,

"It is strongly advised to use based hand sanitizer to clean the hands. The sanitizers are alcohol-based and sanitizers with 70% alcohol are effective to kill coronavirus. Many people asked us if Islam approves using alcohol-based sanitizers or not. Usually, I advise that Islam has alternative options like using soap or soapy power."

As soap or soap powders are easily accessible or convenient to use, it is important to consider the cultural appropriateness. Promotion of alcohol-based sanitizers is inappropriate in Islamic culture and Muslim believers. In this regard, we should consider global political economy of promoting alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

The experiences of pandemic or disaster are space, place and time specific. Although the pandemic or disaster impacts in all span of lives of human society are universal but the experiences, preventive measures and coping strategies vary according to people's social location including social class, sex, space and place. Recent impact of novel coronavirus (COVID019) is not exceptional in this regard. World Health Organization (WHO) has developed relevant guidelines of infection prevention and control of COVID-19 and these guidelines are being followed by all countries across the world. The messages and strategies that are being disseminated (by different government agencies, media, NGOs, social media etc.) to prevent and control of COVID-19 in Bangladesh (GoB) are targeted to the life style of richer people. The people of Bangladesh are living with different socio-cultural experiences, diversified life style, variation in the level of education and with different type of positive and negative economic transaction.

Social Stigma and Fear Around COVID-19

Currently we living with two viruses; one is coronavirus and other is social stigma and fear. While health agencies try to identify the modes of transmission, strategies for spreading containment and provide care services, spread of social stigma around COVID-19 making it difficult to manage the overall response mechanism. Stigmatization of COVID-19 has been emerging at the very beginning of the spread of this disease. In Bangladesh, stigma around COVID-19 cane discussed in two way: pre-infection and post-infection context. Pre-infection stigmatization started when people came to know about this virus. At that time, Bangladeshi people tended to blame Chinese nationals for spreading this virus as Chinese are great lover of wild animals. Moreover, few Islamists proactively claimed that, this is a punishment from Allah as China government oppressed Muslim community (Uyghurs) of China. A few numbers of people also started to believe that COVID-19 is a weapon from Allah for Muslim stop the oppressions against Muslims and Muslims will not be affected by this virus. This type norms fueled the non-Muslim phobia.

Post-infection situation is more complex. When the government reported COVID-19 case in Bangladesh, the post-infection stigma started. At that time many immigrants, particularly from Wuhan (China), Italy, Singapore or other COVID-19 affected countries, started to come back in Bangladesh. People tended to blame the immigrants as the source of spreading coronavirus and disease spillover. As a result, many local people raise red flag in those houses where immigrants were living. After that, when the community transmission begun and the number of cases started increasing, the frontline health workers (including doctors, nurses and other health workers who are involving with COVID-19 patients care and the medical technologists who collect virus sample), and patients with COVID-19 and their family members were stigmatized. In Dhaka city, many health workers asked to leave the house by the owners along with neighbors. In some cases, they were threatened and physically assaulted. Similar incidents observed to the patients with COVID-19 and their family members. Even, patients with COVID-19 were stigmatized by their own family members. In our study we also found that COVID-19 is a punishment of curse works.

Blaming lower income people is another form of stigmatization. When the government decided to open the garment factories, many garment workers came to Dhaka and started working in the garments. That time many people marked them as a source of virus spreading. Moreover, many lower income people lost their works due to locked-down. It became difficult for them to survive with minimum food support from the government and private sectors. Therefore, they had to leave their homes to seek alternative livelihood options. Many of them started pulling rikshaw, selling vegetable or looking for other options. At that time many other people marked them as 'crazy poor'. This type of identification itself is a stigma as because it is perceiving that these 'crazy poor' are the potential bearer of virus.

Religion and COVID-19

While religious norms and practices are core human life and philosophy but religion has been relatively absent in responding this epidemic in Bangladesh. There have been many discourses arising between spreading of coronavirus and religion amid this crisis. The culture of blaming religion for spreading COVID-19 seen during this pandemic in South Asian countries including Bangladesh. Taking example from the Muslim religious practices, India Tablighi Jamaat was highly criticized for spreading coronavirus from an event in Delhi. Similar situation observed in Malaysia. In Bangladesh, a huge crowd took participate in a funeral event of a Muslim religious leader in Brahmanbaria district in Bangladesh. These gatherings highly criticized in the social, electronic and other medias. There criticisms put coronavirus infection against the religious norms which is widely discussed in religion versus public health proposition. Moreover, there was denial tendency observed among the Bangladeshi Muslims and religious leaders when government of Bangladesh imposed limitation in saying prayer with congregation. This opposite attitude put religion against science or faith versus facts. But it is not a good strategy to exclude religion from public health intervention in the context where religion has vital role in the political economic context of South Asia including Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, religion-based, particularly Islam, education system is prominent both in urban and rural setting. Islam based education system can be divided into two categories; 1) Madrasah Education Board and 2) Qwami Education Board. According to a recent statistics 1.4 million students are studying in 14000 Qawmi Madrasahs while near about 30000 Madrasahs are enlisted under Madrasah Education Board. Most of the cases, the Madrasah authority arranged residential facilities for the students. The students and teachers do not have access to the mainstream media including television. Similar situation observed for the followers of Tablighi Jamaat who spend their times in the mosque. Therefore, it is difficult to reach them with different critical messages including COVID-19 preventive awareness or sensitizing activities. Therefore, an alternative approach is required to include this group of people during this pandemic.

The normative teachings of cleanliness across different religions are very relevant in preventing and responding COVID-19. Culturally, religious norms on cleaning is critical for this pandemic when frequent handwashing with soap is one of the preventive measures to stop COVID-19 infection. Taking example from Islamic "sacred-profane" concept, the Muslims have to clean their body prior to saying prayer. Similar norms observed among other religions including Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism. During Ebola pandemic in West Africa, the religious actors played significant role in stopping the spreading the virus. If we look at historical evidences of Spanish flue or plague or chicken pox pandemics, the religious institutions and religious leaders played a significant role.

Religious institutions or praying places are not only place for practicing religious rituals but those have social and cultural value. If we take example from Muslim culture, mosques are considered as important social institutions during health, natural and other crisis or disasters. In Bangladesh, for example, during expanded program on immunization (EPI) events mosques are playing important role in conveying messages to the mass people. In recent times, it was also observed that, mosques were playing role as important source of information for disaster when other mediums were unavailable due to different reasons. Moreover, during the weekly Jummah (on Friday) prayer, the Imams usually discuss different everyday life issues among the attendants. In addition to that, culturally and socially, the Imams are very influential and acceptable group to mass people at national, regional and local level. Interestingly, this influential institution and group of people were not included in the COVID-19 response mechanism in Bangladesh from the starting point of this crisis.

Response from NGOs and development sector

The national and international organizations were closely observed the situation when coronavirus impacted in Wuhan, China. In Bangladesh, after the confirmation of first cases, the international and national organizations allowed their staff members to work from home and limited the implementation of field level activities. As part of government's declaration of closure, stopping public transportation, and maintaining social distancing to avoid human to human contact, the field activities of donor funded development activities and programs also postponed. However, a number of organizations are responding COVID-19 by distributing relief, sanitary kits (soap, mask and sanitizer) and disseminating key messages to the lower income people.

Conclusion

The people of Bangladesh are living with different socio-cultural experiences, diversified life style, variation in the level of education and with different type of positive and negative economic transaction. In this context, this research conducted to explore how slum dwellers, 'lower class' people, day laborers and lower income population perceive about these messages and guidelines, how these groups of people cope with and how they live this pandemic. Analysis revealed that, people have different perceptions on the preventive and control guidelines which is beyond biological understanding. The results on slum dwellers' experiences of pandemic and disaster also revealed that, the sufferings are social and economically constructed. Those people are at highly vulnerable whose socio-economic condition is not suitable to respond in the pandemic crisis. This particular group of people are at higher risk, though they have different ideology, life style and religious practices.

[1] This ongoing research is supported by 

ILCAA Joint Research Project "Ethnographic Studies of Muslim Society in South Asia, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan. 

JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)[19H00554], JSPS Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research: Fostering Joint International Research (B)[18KK0024].

This particular project Socio-cultural impact of Covid Situation in Bangladesh has been started from April 1, 2020. The final report will be submitted on October 2020.