Lack of formal facilities forces coastal people to turn to money lenders

About 63 percent of poor people in coastal households took loans at high interest from local moneylenders due to lack of institutional credit facilities
Moreover, about 57 percent of households have had serious food crisis since the lockdown was imposed across the country, according to a recent research report.
The Monitoring and Research Department of the COAST Trust, a Bangladesh-based non-government organization, conducted the survey.
However, the research survey report also revealed that about 46% of the households experienced different forms of violence against women during the lockdown.
The COAST surveyed in eight coastal districts to know the impact on the livelihoods of poor people from the coastal areas because of the lockdown announced in the country to prevent the coronavirus infection.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Executive Director of the COAST, said the lockdown had a serious negative impact on the
coastal people especially on the poor people whose livelihood depends on their daily income.
Referring to a recent killing incident of a poor man by a local moneylender in Kutubdia, Cox;s Bazar, he said the poor man, the lone bread winner was killed as he failed to repay the loan he had taken.
The COAST Trust is the first organization that has so far conducted such research to understand the plight of low-income people who were rendered jobless during the lockdown period.  
However, this origination also has donated about TK 20 lakh from its fund to the relief fund of 9 coastal districts and 49 sub-district administrations to address the food crisis the poor people are facing.
According to the COAST Trust's Monitoring and Research Department, the survey collected data from 240 low-income families under 12 branches of the organization in six districts, including Chottogram, Noakhali and Barisal.
About 83 percent of respondents live in the villages and 17 percent in cities and 57.3 percent of respondents are women-headed families.