Even at this time of the ongoing countrywide emergency and near lockdown, production of some manufacturing and industrial units has to be maintained on a war footing. If health-service providers are frontline fighters, those engaged in production of an array of medical outfit and equipment without which a contagious disease like Covid-19 cannot be dealt with have to work overtime. In Bangladesh, as many as 76 industrial areas under the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) have been busy producing the essential items including personal protective equipment (PPE), masks, hand sanitizer, disinfectant and oxygen. Production of all such items in adequate numbers and quantities alone can ensure that doctors, nurses and other health workers can safely handle and treat Covid-19 patients. The report carried in this newspaper's Sunday issue does not mention another most important medical equipment called ventilator without which the critical patients in intensive care hardly stand a chance for survival. If technology is lacking, foreign collaboration could be sought. The good news is that oxygen cylinders are getting readied at Gazipur's BSCIC industrial area.
It is against this backdrop, some of the BSCIC units have been assigned the task of producing poultry feed, fertilizer, insecticide and other agricultural goods. Understandably, all such items have nothing to do with the treatment of Covid-19. But when production of such items has remained suspended in factories and industries supply of such essential items must not dry up altogether. If poultry farms, for example, run out of feed the already hard-hit sector will totally collapse. Now the prime minister has issued the directive to continue operation of BSCIC units on the premise that in its specialised zones the units are well organised to maintain order and discipline without compromising the medical rule of social distancing.
It may be the case if the workers have separate living quarters and under no circumstances are required to come in contact with outsiders. But employees of lower ranks can hardly afford such luxuries. Now that theirs is an emergency service, they should be taken well care of including fulfilment of their and their families' basic needs. They are also putting in extra labour in order to meet the great demand of their products under these challenging circumstances. Regular health check of all those engaged in this emergency service should be carried on.
Quite rightly, the BSCIC chairman has sent letters to medical colleges and hospitals and similar other facilities in the BSCIC areas concerned for providing employees of his industrial units with required healthcare. Surely those people serving the nation from behind the scene deserve all the medical attention they need. But such a general appeal may not be enough to produce the desired results. Better it would be to form a few medical teams which would be responsible for a number of units in a particular zone. Only such teams can ensure regular health checks, suggest further follow-ups in hospitals or rest for the workers working under trying conditions.