Approaches Adopted by Disadvantaged Groups to Cope with the Pandemic Fallout

The spill-over effects of the pandemic have been different for the marginalized groups, i.e., the traditionally ‘left behind’ and the newly ‘pushed behind’ communities in Bangladesh, given their poor resilience against shocks. The chapter seeks to assess the strategies adopted by marginalized households to cope with the fallout of the pandemic, the process of recovery from financial hardships, and the effectiveness of public policy support. A household-level survey of 1600 disadvantaged households, including 13 disadvantaged groups and focused group discussions (FGDs), has provided the database of the study. Using both Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Probit regression models, the study shows that these households adopted 31 different combinations of coping strategies, whereby borrowing and selling assets were featured most significantly alongside a cut down in food and non-food expenses. Moreover, at the margin, government support complemented the households’ coping strategies to offset the pandemic-induced adversities.