A study has found that about 69 percent of ready made garment (RMG) workers who used to send money to their families in villages have stopped doing so since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Seventy six percent of female workers and 61 percent of male workers no longer send money to their families, said the study by Innovation Consulting, a Dhaka-based international consultancy providing research, technical assistance, and project management services to multilateral and bi-lateral donor agencies.
According to findings, 97 percent of the workers may stop sending money to their villages if they do not get salaries for the month of April.
“The data is similar for male and female workers - 52 percent of the respondents reported that food consumption of family members in villages will be affected if the workers continue to refrain from sending money,” the study said.
Innovation Consulting conducted the study titled Deep Dive to assess the impact of Covid-19 on the livelihoods of low-income occupational groups in Bangladesh.
“We undertook a simple random sample survey on 84 garment workers from seven garment factories if Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Mymensingh,” the survey firm said, adding that the data presents the status of the workers in factories that can be termed as progressive.
These factories have been working with development partners on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), workers’ health, empowerment, and rights issues.
Innovation Consulting collected the data on April 7-9, which overlapped with the salary payment date of April 7. It used Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method for the survey. It also used KoBo Toolbox to collect data on tab through phone survey.
The study result provides in-depth insights on how the income and expenditure patterns of low-income groups are shifting as a result of shutdown, how the households are coping with the crisis, and what measures should be undertaken to support them.
According to the study, some 85 percent of the respondents said they have cash in hand to pay for expenses for some time.
“These respondents currently have Tk 3,686 as cash in hand on average. This can support their family expenses for 16 days,” revealed the survey.
All RMG workers reported that their factories are currently closed. 24 percent of the respondents had already returned to their village home, while 76 percent were still living in the premises of the factories where they work.
Higher percentage of male workers (33 percent) returned to villages compared to female workers (14 percent), the study noted.
Concerning food expenditure, the surveyed respondents said their expenses had reduced by 27 percent.
“Before the closure of their work, the workers used to spend on average Tk 266 per day on food consumption, which has been reduced to Tk 193,” it said, adding that reduction in daily food expenses is higher for the female workers (32.5 percent) compared to that of male workers (20.7 percent).
Concerning access to mobile-banking, some 79 percent of the respondents have mobile wallets. The figure is 83 percent for male workers and 74 percent for female workers.
Roughly 54 percent of the respondents are currently paid salary in cash, 33 percent are paid through mobile accounts, and 13 percent are paid through bank accounts.
