Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh never sleeps, approximately 30 million people live in this mega city. As the consequence of COVID-19 spread, the government has locked down everything, no one is out or on the street unless they have an emergency to go physically somewhere.
Bangladesh is not indifferent towards the name of industrialization instead of making a comfort zone for treating its citizens with equity and assurance of peace, happiness and social equilibrium. The country has a burden of 170 million people; many of them do not even have any access to safe drinking water.
The fight against the deadliest Corona Virus is a curse, and there is huge shortage of medical professionals, hospitals, testing kits and labs. Also, more people will starve and die by hunger in comparison to getting infected by the viral infection. The upcoming economic recession may lead a silent famine throughout the year across the globe especially in the countries which are poor in terms of resources and wealth and are affluent with corruption as per global index of corruption.
This isolation might be a temporary one, but the isolation inside every human being will be reopened with thousands of questions – “the purpose of life”, “how to behave with nature” and “what is our priority list” for the betterment of the world.
A transgender couple kisses during the COVID-19 outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The third gender population is socially excluded, locally they are called “Hijra”, who typically encounter socio-cultural deprivation from the mainstream society. As they are not entitled to any fixed income, the coronavirus epidemic has locked down them in their home and put them in a financial hazard as most of the people from their community have been facing shortage of food and daily needs.COVID-19 outbreak red alert has been taken seriously by public in Bangladesh. No one is out for anything except those who do not have home to go. Roads and highways are empty, no sign of life on the street.The day before the shutting down all inter-city buses, many people are moving to their home towns as the Dhaka city is locked down and there is an uncertainty of extension of longer days of lockdown as there is no sign of exact treatment for COVID-19 positive patients nor any vaccine has been invented yet.Dhaka City Corporation has initiated to spry disinfectant in public places to reduce the risk of outbreak of COVID-19, the deadliest virus.During the lockdown of Bangladesh due to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak, many street people have no choice to live on open air. The virus is airborne according to World Health Organization that can become active for three hours, and even can alive on different type of surfaces for 24 hours.COVID-19 outbreak has locked down one third of the population across the globe. Bangladesh is densely populated country that has increased high risk for contamination of deadly virus as many homeless sleeps on the street in Dhaka who are less aware of corona viral disease.People are going to their destination to get them locked down due to emergency declaration of Bangladesh government to prevent viral contamination.A transwoman calls to her ex-boyfriend at the time of long isolation and lockdown in Dhaka, Bangladesh due to the outbreak of COVID-19.Mehrunnessa lives in an ‘old age home’ in Dhaka, Bangladesh who is already in a form of isolation but the COVID-19 outbreak has made her more detached from her relatives who used to visit her frequently. She asserted that the whole world is now suffering, and God is kind enough to eliminate the evil disease soon.All sort of gathering, including saying prayer in the mosque during this COVID-19 outbreak has been prohibited to ensure public safety, but some religious people are still going to the mosques and saying prayers fearlessly.City railways stations are always crowded with thousands of people every moment but the virus outbreak news declared by the government has been taken seriously by citizens of Bangladesh. Everything is locked down and no presence of human on the stations has made locality a drastic shift of emptiness.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a Dhaka, Bangladesh-based documentary photographer, filmmaker, visual artist, and art educator. His work explores human rights, social development, politics, the… More »
