The government of Bangladesh given its slightly relaxed way of handling health regulations has gone a bit further than before but not enough during this lockdown. It’s obvious from the way it’s generally disregarded that even if the GOB had a plan it’s weak and if they were implementing it, it isn’t efficient. One doesn’t know if it costs anything or not. But suffice to say that the purpose behind such campaigns is ignored at will.
Wearing masks is a good example. Its social behavior so the issue is not a threat based activity but value addition or loss motivated. It’s a big loss if not followed or a big gain if followed. That message has not been followed.
What it now needs is community mobilization to convince people that it should be done. However, since the evidence of compliance is so low, we have to assume that no such plan exists. And if done it was not of quality and if of quality, the intent of implementation is low.
At no time did Bangladesh society face such a massive health threat and at no time has it remained so passive about it. It causes a great deal of perplexity as to how this can be ignored till we realize that the public at large is not really threatened by corona as yet.
So what can make people comply? Obviously, its fear of death and devastation which has however till date has not affected many. Most ordinary people think they are safe because most of them are found working. It should be remembered though that this is the impact of the first wave which in South Asia was relatively weak but the second wave which is now hitting India is a very different number. By the time the authorities woke up there it was too late.
In our society, we have layers of social leadership and we saw that in display when the vaccination programme was first announced. There was resistance for long and some still continues even till today. The initial resistance was so high and the demand was so low that the Government had to lower the age bar to attract enough people to the centres. But, many people did use social media to announce their vaccination, social and political leaders publicly took vaccines and so on till the people gained some confidence. Today there is demand for it.
In the case of masks, the Government is making general appeals and not specific leadership based ones which will provide role models and champions. Punishments can only go so far. The Government should select and appoint for example 5000 mask champions who are social leaders who shall then inspire and convince others to use it. The idea is to socialize the idea and not wait for society to act after seeing corpses.. That will happen when their community leaders act, not when police orders.
Excluding people while managing corona is not a successful strategy as evidence shows.
