Reframing urban informality: Gendered impacts of COVID-19 in Bangladeshi slums

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced disproportionate gendered impacts. These impacts, which are most visible in urban informal settlements, are however, not well analysed in the scholarly literature. This paper examines the consequences of COVID-19 on gendered relations within urban informal workers' groups in Bangladesh, by focusing on how and why this coronavirus has led (or has not led) to urban social crises among informal working-class men and women. Using a systematic review of the literature, the paper demonstrates that the COVID-19 lockdowns have caused significant psychological distress including depression, fear, anxiety, and increased levels of loneliness, and that these impacts are disproportionately higher in women than in men. Moreover, COVID-19 has created severe economic crises for female-headed households living in these informal settlements, by creating sudden unemployment, and by rapidly diminishing the livelihood sources required to support these households. The psychological distresses together with sudden economic downturns have led to a deterioration in gendered relations, creating estrangement within informal workers' families. Furthermore, the existing COVID-19 plans and policies of Bangladesh do not take into account these disproportionate and gendered impacts in the informal settlements. This paper argues that in order to protect these informal settlements against future pandemics in Bangladesh, it is critical to develop plans and policies which include gender and psychological considerations.