DHAKA/TOKYO -- Shahidul Islam, a poor farmer in Bangladesh's western district of Natore, called a hotline last month for a food handout. The request went down very badly when a senior local official -- who also belongs to the ruling Awami League -- took it as a personal smear. His response was to assault the peasant -- a by no means isolated incident.
Despite stellar economic growth over the past decade, many Bangladeshis have no safety nets and economic survival outweighs COVID-19 concerns. © Nikkei montage/Source photos by Getty Images, Reuters
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