An e-Seminar on ‘COVID-19: Social Tension, Cohesion and Response in Bangladesh’ was held on 14 January from 6.30 pm till 8.30 pm on the Zoom platform.
The e-Seminar was organised by the Centre for Genocide Studies (CGS), University of Dhaka, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In a culmination of the series of seminars held among journalists from eight divisions of the country, the overall picture of the country that was mapped by the Bangladesh Peace Observatory (BPO) facility was presented vis-à-vis the pandemic by the Director of CGS, Professor Dr Imtiaz Ahmed. He demonstrated data trends on rumours, COVID-19 symptom deaths, social stigma, protests, fine/penalty, resilience associated with the COVID-19 pandemic from COVID19graphics, an infographic report regularly published by BPO. He also depicted the major data trends on sexual assault, violence against children, suicide and land-related violence during the pandemic, and focused on the power of data through an open-source facility.
Sudipto Mukerjee, Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, graced the occasion as the chief guest and spoke extensively about how the United Nations is responding to the evolving threat of COVID-19 and attempting to build forward better.
One of the key discussants, Shyamal Dutta, Editor of Bhorer Kagoj, focused on the bird’s-eye view of the pandemic and how trust deficit among the public can be countered with knowledge.
Another key discussant, Farida Yasmin, President of the National Press Club, expressed her deep respects for the 38 journalists whose lives were lost to the onslaught of the pandemic and opined that in addition to the specialised hospitals, a generalisation of the novel Coronavirus must be exercised by all the hospitals.
The final key discussant, Shishir Morol, Special Correspondent of Prothom Alo, focused on the logical and credible decision-making process in preparing the priority list for the vaccination programme so that no one feels left behind by the upcoming decisions.
Around 80 participants attended the enriched session where journalists from all eight divisions of the country were present.