Tag: digital

Is Coronavirus Bringing the Virtual World

Is Coronavirus Bringing the Virtual World Even Closer to Reality?

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A quarter of the world’s population is under lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. It has pushed hundreds of millions of people to go online for communications and entertainment as digital technology-based communication has emerged as the most viable alternative to the physical equivalent.

The New York Times reported, stuck at and working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have been spending more time online. As a consequence, total internet hits have surged by 50-70% and streaming has also jumped by at least 12%, a Forbes report found. Vodafone’s internet usage has surged by up to 50% in some European countries.

Like everywhere else, a majority of the Bangladeshis, particularly in urban areas, have been maintaining social distancing and staying at home for more than a month to avoid spreading the coronavirus. Because of social distancing and the shift to online applications, services, and tools, internet usage and data traffic suddenly increased. According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the number of information and communication technology (ICT) users has been growing at a higher rate for the last two months. The use of Robi’s internet data rose by 21% during the time of shut down, as per an official source.

And the internet use is increasing at a faster rate as most of the urban educated, middle- and upper-class population are working from home and using the internet for work, socialisation, and entertainment. They have increased the use of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Facebook. Additionally, the use of digital communication platforms, such as Google Meet, Hangout, Zoom, and Skype, has skyrocketed among these people for conducting official meetings and conferences and for maintaining personal relationships. Different events are also being organised online, like online advice and discussion programs, online yoga classes, online fun and entertainment programs, and online chatting. For instance, webinars on mental health for young people are organised by the UN’s Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. People are joining these events from different parts of the world and sharing their experiences of and coping strategies for the COVID-19 crisis. These novel types of online social activities are also creating new kinds of social solidarity.

Globally, organisations are depending on ICT and allowing their staff to work from home. Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, conducted a survey with 800 global HR executives on March 17 and found that 88% of organisations have encouraged employees to work from home. Facebook, Google, and Amazon have implemented working from home policies for many of their employees around the globe. Twitter has made working from home mandatory for all workers globally.

In Bangladesh, all non-essential staff out of a total 2,000 employees of BRAC head office are working from home. Telecom companies, like Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, and consumer goods companies, like Nestle, have asked their staff to work from home.

And because of this technological privilege in the time of global crisis, people are feeling that they are also contributing through their work to fight the pandemic.

Like millions of professionals in Bangladesh, currently, I am also working from home and have got an opportunity to become a part of a research about the experience of adolescent slum residents in Dhaka during the crisis. This research is a part of Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE), a nine-year (2015-2024) research study. For me, it is a new kind of experience. I am familiar with traditional anthropological research methodology—in-person participant observation techniques, for example. For the first time, I am using digital communications for my anthropological research.

Like my work, my personal communication is also now completely dependent on ICT. I am connecting with my friends, relatives, and colleagues through technology. The new, virtual connectivity is helping me cope with the crisis and have a normal life.

Social media, like Facebook, Instagram, are very popular in Bangladesh, where people express their opinion and views. Now, most of the social media posts are carrying people’s views, hope, and stress about this Corona crisis. Sometimes those posts are also a reaction to the government’s actions on COVID-19.

We can say that even in Bangladesh ICT has, at least to some extent, replaced the social spaces are with virtual spaces, which is also helping people to maintain social distance, while maintaining their livelihoods.

But it is helping only a particular social class to maintain social distance without disconnecting with others. But poor and marginal people cannot work from home and as a consequence, experienced a 70% drop in income because of the lockdown, according to BIGD’s recent survey on Livelihoods, Coping, and Support during COVID-19 Crisis. Government help is not sufficient and the relief distribution mechanism is not systematic.

A large number of marginal people do not have direct access to ICT. BIGD’s recent national rural survey on Digital Literacy shows that almost 30% of rural mobile phone users cannot read SMS. In this context, a large number of people in our country are outside the radar of COIVD-19 communication. Thus, people connected with the pre-existing digital ecosystem is digitally resilient and can cope with the emergence like COVID-19 pandemic, while people without such infrastructure and connectivity become more vulnerable. They face connectivity and capacity limitations at the same time.

A combination of virtual and physical measures needs to be considered to include this group of people with the ICT-based coping mechanism during this global pandemic. The government and responsible authorities need to work to include the poor and vulnerable with ICT-based services. Digital financial inclusion can be used to help the poor and the vulnerable. Online financial services can be used to provide emergency aid support which will reduce middleman interference and this can really shape the support mechanism which will be suited to their needs and help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taslima Akhter is a Research Associate at BIGD.

Fear Of Uncertainty An Unexpected Common Ground

Fear Of Uncertainty: An Unexpected Common Ground

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Young researchers from the GAGE program realise they are in the same boat as their adolescent peers from the urban slums of Dhaka—but they are not facing the same storm.

“If people are stuck in their home then they won’t be able to eat properly. Even missing a month’s work is a huge deal for us poor people. People like us have to go outside and work hard to earn money, right?  If this continues, we’ll just have to starve to death” (Female, age 19)  

Over the last two months, the pandemic has spread into Bangladesh and morphed to the community transmission stage, with the number of cases rising at an alarming rate.  COVID-19 spares no-one; it does not heed the socially constructed bindings that separate us by gender, status, age, education or wealth. However, even at the hands of this nondiscriminatory disease, the least privileged are the ones suffering the most.

As researchers, we have the privilege of working from home, living our lives as routinely as possible. We’re worried about the world and our loved ones, some facing the mental health issues that come with being stuck at home. However, people without a stable income or formal employment are at an unfair disadvantage that is far worse. For these vulnerable populations, they have to deal with tension and stress on a day-to-day basis. While we bemoan our boredom and ‘Instagram’ our work-from-home struggles, the working-class population can’t ‘afford’ to be bored or take their mental health into consideration.

In the narrow alleyways of the slums in Dhaka, basic utilities are rare. If some houses are lucky enough to have access to electricity, gas or water, the services are rarely uninterrupted. The idea of social distancing is almost laughable in these settlements, where families of six or eight are packed into single rooms. With several households sharing a common bathroom and kitchen, quarantine and isolation is an alien concept.

During the pandemic, adolescents in the GAGE programme are experiencing a different reality compared to their privileged peers. These adolescents are having to grow up far too soon, fast-forwarding through a critical phase of development. The impact of COVID-19 on their education and mental health is of great concern.

Our local team of researchers embarked on a journey to tackle this issue, focusing on adolescents facing the COVID-19 pandemic, located in low-income settlements in three areas of Dhaka – Rupnagar, Gazipur Sadar, and Mohammadpur. We had a list of 31 contacts from a baseline study conducted in 2018, from which we reconnected with 16 adolescents. This research was different for us, given the circumstances. However, we made the best out of the situation by utilising digital tools to coordinate remote working, using services such as Google Sheets, WhatsApp and Google Hangouts.

We thought we wouldn’t have much time during our phone interviews with each of the adolescents – leaving only a narrow window in which they could open up. However, to our surprise, most of the respondents were quite eager to talk, as they already had a rapport with the researchers from the previous baseline study. One challenge we did face during the interviews was finding a separate space devoid of external interruptions and noise, as ‘private space’ is not a “choice” but a luxury that most of the respondents could not afford. However, we tried to make the interviews as accommodating for the respondents as possible, keeping the questions simple and short.

The older adolescents we communicated with were quite well-spoken and aware of the COVID-19 pandemic. They knew that it was an infectious disease, and that they needed to maintain hygienic practices to prevent it. In contrast, the younger ones did not seem to understand the situation at all and were just following their parents’ instructions. One female adolescent (age 16) expressed her annoyance about not being able to go to school, “I don’t like staying at home all day because I can’t talk with any of my friends.  My neighbours are boys, so I cannot interact with them either since it is not accepted in our house. If I was attending school or coaching classes now, I would have fun and hangout with my friends. But the lockdown has made everything boring.”

Nearly all the respondents expressed their frustration and anxiety about the situation, worried about how their families would stay afloat in this economic crisis.  Being stuck at home for so long, not meeting their friends, is taking a toll on their mental health. They were also stressed about their families’ health, and felt quite helpless. A 15 year old boy told us, for example, how anxious he feels about his family members leaving the house. He said, “Every time my brothers come back from the bazaar, I panic. What if they catch the disease and it spreads to the family? They maintain hygiene, but they go out frequently and don’t always wash their hands every time. My mom and I keep telling them, but they say nothing will happen. I feel annoyed during these times, because they aren’t taking it seriously.”

Most of the respondents’ families were completely dependent on the income earned by their parents or siblings, which had come to a halt. Three of the adolescents in our sample had started to work after dropping out of school, but were compelled to stop due to the lockdown. This means that buying groceries, paying rent and getting by in the upcoming months is going to be very difficult. Although the government has been distributing aid, most of the respondents stated that help was yet to reach their households. One of them even shared concerns about corruption, referring to cases of local government representatives distributing relief only to their relatives.

Most of the respondents were getting information related to COVID-19 from the TV and through local “miking”, with few relying on online sources like Facebook and YouTube. Some of the adolescents stated that they did not have access to the internet at all, and not everyone in their class had a phone. Previously, school or extra classes were their only form of interaction with peers. In fact, none of the respondents were happy about schools being closed or exams being postponed. They are stressed about not being able to study, falling behind in their work, and performing poorly in their exams.

Most of the underprivileged adolescents had not been given any work at home and were trying to study by themselves. However, they all stated that they could not concentrate due to the pandemic, with thoughts of people dying and worries about the future. Moreover, most of the school-going adolescents do not have any support or guidance from their teachers. None of their family members are educated enough to help them with their studies, although their families are quite supportive.

Although we were offering a Tk.100 phone top-up to respondents as gratitude for giving us their time, we realised that simply getting the chance to open up about their anxieties was a much needed release for them. This was when we felt like the researchers and respondents were in the same boat, but fighting different storms. Perhaps, the acknowledgement that on some level, we shared the same hopelessness, despair, and fear in the face of a global disaster is what made the rapport building easy.

We are facing unprecedented times due to this pandemic. Researchers worldwide are conducting remote research, acquiring real time insights on the impact of the virus. As we continue our fight against COVID-19, we must always keep in mind the vulnerable adolescents who continue to bear the brunt of the crisis.

*This blogpost was originally written for the GAGE Programme*

Photo credit: “Mitaly” by Ricci Coughlan/DFID under CC BY-NC 2.0 license

COVID-19 Lockdown Speeding up the Entry Into the Fourth Industrial Revolution

COVID-19 Lockdown Speeding up the Entry Into the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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The COVID-19 pandemic forced Bangladesh, like many other countries, to enforce an extended country-wide lockdown to ensure social distancing and scale down the potential spread of the virus among the people. This long shutdown of the country made organisations in Bangladesh and around the world realize that the traditional office culture of face-to-face coordination and communication is not a viable model to run an office during this pandemic. Soon enough, most of these organisations, even if resentfully, closed the physical office infrastructure and started working remotely.

This is a novel experience for the world, especially for a developing country like Bangladesh. It is almost as if we have teleported to another universe where everything runs on a digital system and the traditional way of life is out of fashion. Moreover, with borders and airports closed people are staying at home much more than they have ever had. But they are neither idle nor isolated. From their own homes, people are assigning and performing remote office work, running business and operations, and maintaining intensive social contacts through virtual media. Schools and universities have also switched to virtual learning methods. This lockdown is also positively influencing people’s attitude towards online shopping, as more and more people are buying their everyday essentials from various online retailers. Managers and leaders of big to small industries and organizations, some of whom were often reluctant to use digital platforms, are learning and adopting digital tools and technologies to manage and oversee remote work and maximize productivity.

This opportunity of continuing office and economic activities during this period of lockdown and social distancing has been made possible by the existing advance technology and functioning telecommunication infrastructures. People today are realizing that a significant part of the office and economic activities can be done from anywhere with more flexibility, and sitting behind the office desk, direct communication, and physical meetings are not as necessary to do things decently as they were thought. Moreover, going to schools and universities physically to gain knowledge is perhaps also not mandatory. This digital style of working during the lockdown may be considered as a forced entry into the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The 4IR is characterised by a range of new technologies that fuse the physical, digital and biological worlds, changing society as we know it. The 4IR could unwrap endless possibilities for billions of creative and capable people connected by digital devices. By digitising business and economic operations for all these people, 4IR has the potential to accelerate our economic growth. This global crisis is driving the world to take that leapfrog what many traditional-minded business leaders and directors were unwilling to do until now. This unintentional, unprepared, and forced entry into the framework of 4IR and temporary acceptance of the digital process of remote work may have a long term impact on the office work culture and economic activities in the post-coronavirus world.

There may be some tentative vital managerial and behavioural adaptation of this crisis period. Employers should realize the effectiveness of working from home and organisations may opt to adopt the concept of remote working. Organisations can start running their operations on digital platforms and perform many business activities like negotiations and business meetings through video conferencing and telecommunicating rather than traditional direct physical meetings and travels, saving both time and cost. Women may enjoy considerable benefits if the virtual work environment becomes a reality as it will enable them to work while fulfilling family responsibilities; this may also uncover new employment opportunities for them. The work and family life balance shall be easier for both female and male professionals.

The scarcity of facility-based health services during this pandemic has increased dependency on telemedicine and virtual medical services. The realization of the utility of online medical services will expand its scope in the coming days. Many diagnostic and pathological tests in future shall be made out through remote terminals at reduced prices. There is a possibility of a revolutionary change in education systems. It may get more flexible and convenient if the use of digital processes can scale down the requirement to go to educational institutes for instructions. If ready-made garments (RMG) industries can also utilize digital platforms to sell their products during this lockdown, the loss in profit they are currently experiencing may turn into thriving business opportunities.

It is hard to predict when this pandemic will end, but it is almost certain that the utilization of technology will get more prominent after this pandemic and dependence on telecommunication and virtual platforms may become standard. It is now expected that the introduction of the 4IR may become a reality after this COVID-19 pandemic.

Sayada Jannatun Naim is a Senior Officer – Training and Communication and the Assistant Director of Executive Development Centre (EDC) of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University. 

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash