Volunteerism and Civic Engagement during COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper investigates the patterns and impact of volunteerism during the COVID-19 period. Bangladesh’s economy toiled hard during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its nature as an informal economy. The nation, which is on the trajectory of becoming a middle-income country, is faced with the dual challenge of imposing strict lockdowns on economic operations to stop the spread of the virus and moving the economic wheel for economic growth at the same time. In the fight against the pandemic, people are seen to extend help for others' causes. As economic activities shrank, the people living below the poverty line were inappropriately affected, and the government had limited capacity to extend help. The paper, through content analysis, has found that volunteer activities at the community level play a significant role, along with government initiatives to extend health support for the pandemic and provide food for the poor in emergency situations. This research identified three types of volunteer activism during the pandemic time in Bangladesh: spontaneous individual volunteerism, activism of volunteer organisations, and community collaboration with NGOs and corporate organizations. Observations indicated that all three types of community activism were considerably functioning as volunteerism in the fight against COVID-19 by reaching the most vulnerable individuals with basic necessities and providing basic health services for the pandemic. In the process of volunteerism, social media plays a significant role in communication among the volunteers and receivers. However, there is another side to the story. It has been observed that several fraud events under the guise of volunteer activism deceived people due to inadequate monitoring of government administration.