Speakers at a workshop Thursday said informal sector workers, mostly domestic workers, were the ones to lose their jobs first during the pandemic as no households allowed them to work over the fear of the spread of the virus. Also, people working in the services sector, including construction and the ones working independently, lost their work opportunities due lockdown, they said. The speakers made the observations at the workshop on "Promoting decent work and women's rights in the backdrop of Covid-19" which revealed the findings of a study on the job situation in the informal sector during the pandemic. Read: Bangladesh to finish amending labour law by mid-2023, Law Minister tells ILO The study report was conducted by the Workers Resource Centre (WRC), a labour rights organisation with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Japan. "Support from the government and others from social organisations did not reach these poor and most vulnerable groups. Also, they were deprived of relief support from their local authorities," the study said. Read: Bangladesh considers labour rights related recommendations from US, EU, ILO with due importance: PM's Adviser "Women workers had to suffer from more hardship and insecurities at the workplace than male workers during the pandemic. At that time, many incidents of violence and harassment were reported," it added. Md Moslem Uddin Sadeque, consultant of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Shusuk Oyobe, programme manager of PRS, Gunjan D Dallakoti, ILO official, Saif Mohammad Moinul Islam, senior program officer at ILO Dhaka office, spoke at the programme.

Cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise (CMSME) affected by Covid-19 will now be eligible to avail term loans under the collateral free credit guarantee scheme of Bangladesh Bank as part of the government-announced stimulus package.

Even though restaurants are open amid the ongoing general holidays aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus, stakeholders say business is in shambles and they are worried about paying bills and their staff.