COVID-19 posed an impossible trade-off
between lives and livelihoods across the world,
especially for economically vulnerable people
with limited or no fallback option. According to
the International Labour Organization (ILO), 55%
of the world’s population do not have any form
of social protection. Most informal workers in the
Global South are in this group—they are generally
poor, have weak or no social protection, and have had to cope with the crisis on their own. For these
workers, their livelihoods are their lives. Domestic
workers form one of the most vulnerable informal
occupational groups in Bangladesh.
Estimates of the number of domestic workers in
Bangladesh vary between two and four million, but
it is generally agreed that the majority of them are
women. The entire sector belongs to the informal
economy and hence outside the purview of the
country’s labour legislation.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)