Economy

Fatema Tuj Johora

Bangladesh is a developing country in South Asia Region having a population of 164,689,383 (as of mid year of 2020), among them around 49.42% (as of 2019) are women. It is observed that, active perticipation of women in the mainstream of the economy helping it to develop in various ways.

In recent years we have seen a large number of women started their own businesses with their own capacity in producing various kinds of products as we need everyday.

The socio-economic empowerment of women has initiated the overall development pathway of Bangladesh. Women’s participation in Bangladesh’s labor force has increased over time, from 24% in 2000 to 36% in 2020, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Of the women in the labor force, the majority (60%) work in the agriculture sector, with 24% in services, 17% in industry and 15% in manufacturing.

As COVID-19 pandemic spreads out all over the world and causing negetive impacts on the livelihoods of people in different ways, some people were able to continue their income opportunities. But there a large amount of people had no options but to depend on relatives or others for living.

The intensity of the pandemic has affected women in the labor force, already being one of the most vulnerable groups owing to their nature of work and social status, excessively.

How COVID-19 affecting women entrepreneurs

We see a large number of women entrepreneurs and self-employed, owners of cottage, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (CMSMEs) in recent days. They work in several sectors including handicrafts, agriculture, jute products, garments and accessories, retail, tailoring, beauty, health and related services, electronics/IT and software, online businesses etc.

The challenges facing the women entrepreneurs are multi-dimensional and hence cannot be analyzed in an isolated approach. The very challenge lies down like their businesses.

She said that, it was running well, but as COVID-19 arrived last year, several kinds of restrictions and lockdowns just killing her business.

She is trying so hard to fight, but the recent lockown before Ramjan and Eid-Ul-Fitor possibly will left no way to survive. Because almost all kinds of business available in Bangladesh, expects something small or big profit in this season.

The same thing happened last year too, the first lockdown started before Ramadan and lasted till Eid-Ul-Azha. And Covid-19 national technical advisory committee already advised on Friday for a two week full lockdown from April 14.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including cottage industries would get Tk20,000 crore as working capital. The premier said a mechanism would be devised to reach the amount to the SMEs as low-interest loans through banks, which identically will disburse amounts to the SMEs on the basis of bank-client relations, while the government in this case would bear the greater share of the interest amount.

But unfortunately most of the CMSME and SME enterpreneurs did not get the said loan, some of them accused that only ruling party closers were preferred to get the loan. Nobody never helped them and not helping, that makes them to belive nobody will help also.

Government should take care if there any technical or other related problems causing, and how to make it quick, these enterpreneurs are very important and helpfull to the overall economy.

The entrepreneurs who produced or traded items like cloths, handicrafts or were providing services like beauty parlors or tailoring could not cope to continue with their businesses as their products had no demand at all during the pandemic as people had limited income and chose to spend only for the prime needs.

As a result, many entrepreneurs had to temporarily stop their operations. For example, most of the beauty parlors entrepreneurs reported that they had no income during the time and Some of them had to shut their businesses.

Many women entrepreneurs could not bear the fixed expenses like rent, the salary of the employees etc. anymore and had to shut the business. Some entrepreneurs looked for alternative works for earning a living.

The entrepreneurs also informed that they had to keep a lot of products in their inventories, which they could not clear and liquidate their investments since shops and markets were closed for a long time.

The online delivery mechanism is not popular in areas outside the capital and hence, businesses of women entrepreneurs could not take benefit of this much. Moreover, restrictions of transportation during the pandemic also made barriers to make smooth delivery of non-essential products through online business channels.

Coronavirus has accentuated the burden of household work, including care work. Violence against women has also increased.

They voiced their uncertainty about how the situations would be overcome soon. The pandemic came without any sign and there was not much they could do to survive.

Case Study 1:

Tithi Sarkar, a women entrepreneur who is involved with beauty services, feeling helpless in recent days because of the restrictions applied to health control. She said that, 'after the death of my father, I started a beauty parlor named Geepis Beauty Parlor by my own with a little amount of money saved my father left for me'. As it was running well, she opened an another branch.

But due to the sudden arrival of Corona, her business suffering a lot. She could not manage to continue the expenses for her businesses as her beauty products had no demand & the shop has to be closed for a few months at all during the pandemic.

Basically, most of the people earning a limited income and has to chose to spend for the primary needs first, that also becoming tough to them in these days. As I said, she could not bear the minimum expenses like rent, government utility bills, salary for the employees etc. She laid off some employees despite her reluctance. At present, she is trying to recover from the loss of her business.

Case Study 2:

Shejuti Akter Nawreen works as a teacher in a very reputed school. But as the school was closed due to pandemic, she is now thinking about how to spend this lazy time.

At first, she started offering to his friends and relatives and gradually she got a good response.

Financial Access

The announced allocation by Prime Minister of 5% of the Tk. 20,000 crore SME stimulus package for women entrepreneurs, will be available from commercial banks at 9% interest, with 5% interest to be paid by the government and 4% by the borrower.

However, access to finance has been a concern. Even though the central bank has issued guidelines to expand credit facilities to women entrepreneurs, many women are not getting the loan, the key barriers being collateral requirements and the mindset of bankers towards women entrepreneurs.

Most of the women started their business with a help from family or their savings. They do not have enough assets to show as collateral to banks. This has historically been a problem, so there is a high risk of women losing their businesses.

There is also an important thing and that is information gap. Many women entrepreneurs are unaware of the stimulus package. Even those who have heard of it did not apply for those loans. One important reason for not attempting to do so is that many women are not familiar with the procedures to apply for loans, and others find the process complicated.

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