69pc RMG workers want Covid jabs: Survey

Abdur Razzak Sohel

As many as 69 per cent readymade garment workers want to receive coronavirus vaccine but 31 per cent are unwilling to get the jab, finds a survey.

Findings of the survey, jointly conducted by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and the Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) on ‘Garment Worker Diaries: Vaccinations and Lockdown’, were revealed on Sunday.

The telephonic survey was conducted on 1,285 RMG workers from different areas including Dhaka, Chattogram, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Savar.

Among those unwilling to be vaccinated, 48 per cent were afraid of side-effects, falling ill or dying and 23 per cent did not feel the necessity to receive the vaccine. Seventeen per cent of them were of the opinion that the divinity would protect them.

Thirty-six per cent of the respondents thought that they were eligible to be vaccinated, 28 per cent said they were ineligible, and 34 per cent were not sure of their eligibility.

Sixty-five per cent of the respondents who were not sure of their eligibility to be vaccinated said that they would not get the vaccine even if they were eligible to be vaccinated.

Only four per cent of the workers got factory provided transport to reach the workplace after the Covid-induced lockdown was imposed in April this year to tackle the second wave of the virus, found the survey.

Seventy-six per cent of the surveyed workers reached their workplaces on foot, 10 per cent by rickshaw, 6 per cent by auto-rickshaw, 2 per cent by bus, and 2 per cent by autorickshaws.

Covid-19 vaccination began in Bangladesh on January 27 and 58,20,015 people got the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Administering the first dose of the vaccine was suspended on April 26 after the Indian Serum Institute failed to supply it.

As of Sunday, 42,09,33 people received the second jab of the vaccine.

Administering the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine began on May 25 and till Sunday 2,162 people got its first jab.