Pandemic and Governance in Bangladesh: Case of Field Administration

Abstract

Currently, countries around the globe are simultaneously fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Bangladesh has already taken and implemented several policies to control the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, in building public awareness, the central and field administrations have implemented several policies such as lockdown strategy, isolation, home quarantine, obligatory use of masks, ensuring social distance, etc. Conversely, due to Bangladesh's being a densely populated country, most of the rural people in Bangladesh are not aware of the threat of COVID-19. In this regard, field administration (Upazila Administration), i.e., UNO (Upazila Nirbahi Officer), has been playing a significant role in making rural people aware from the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. But in some cases, the Upazila administration faced some limitations. The study has identified the different roles of UNO in building public awareness at rural levels in Bangladesh. The study was conducted based on a quantitative approach of exploratory nature. The findings of the study demonstrated that a large group of rural people, i.e., 71%, had knowledge about the threat of COVID-19, but 53.6% of rural people did not use masks, and 9.10% did not have faith in the physical distance that can eliminate the risk of COVID-19. As well, 50% of respondents argued that UNO played a significant role in enhancing rural people's awareness amid the pandemic. In particular, 38% and 32.70 % of respondents argued that implementation of the "No Mask, No Service" policy and "monitoring initiative" was an effective mechanism to increase public awareness, respectively. Thereafter, the authors offered several suggestions to enhance the rural people's awareness amid the pandemic in Bangladesh.