Both experts and citizens alike have intensely debated the efficacy of how the lockdown has been enforced in Bangladesh. A quick scan of the plethora of opinions on this matter will convince you that Bangladeshi citizens view government performance around lockdown quite negatively. But there’s more to this than meets the eye. A nationally representative telephonic survey of 2750 people during January-February 2021 and supplemental surveys of 400 urban slum dwellers and 500 young people—all conducted by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)—give us a more nuanced understanding of citizen’s experience and opinion about the first lockdown. This survey shows that citizens do not have a generally negative opinion of how the government handled the lockdown. Instead, citizens made a more complex and pragmatic evaluation of its implementation—talking about the successes and challenges, as well as giving opinions on how it could be more effective.
Both experts and citizens alike have intensely debated the efficacy of how the lockdown has been enforced in Bangladesh. A quick scan of the plethora of opinions on this matter will convince you that Bangladeshi citizens view government performance around lockdown quite negatively. But there’s more to this than meets the eye. A nationally representative telephonic survey of 2750 people during January-February 2021 and supplemental surveys of 400 urban slum dwellers and 500 young people—all conducted by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)—give us a more nuanced understanding of citizen’s experience and opinion about the first lockdown. This survey shows that citizens do not have a generally negative opinion of how the government handled the lockdown. Instead, citizens made a more complex and pragmatic evaluation of its implementation—talking about the successes and challenges, as well as giving opinions on how it could be more effective.
