The influence of Covid-19 in transforming people’s behaviour: Bangladesh context

Abstract

COVID-19 has greatly impacted on people and transformed their behaviour from traditional to a new order. People’s behaviour in Bangladesh has got different dimensions in myriad ways in terms of adoption and responses during this pandemic. The article aims at identifying the areas and dimension of behavioural transformation of Bangladeshi people and analyzing how COVID-19 and its effects influence them. The study analysed following a qualitative approach based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from ten informants based on checklist, while secondary data were collected from journal articles, various reports, books, and newspapers. The study found that this behavioural change took place at different levels such as personal, organizational, societal, and state level because of fear, unknown effects of coronavirus, mental insecurity, uncertainty of proximity, chances of infections, family frailty etc. People acted to respond to the needs of people and reacted to the rapid changes as well. They extended hands to the vulnerable community and initiated steps to aware them about the effects of coronavirus. On the contrary, they emphasized their own safety, avoided people’s gathering, imposed restriction on community movement and denied attending social programmes including funeral, which contradicts the traditional culture practiced in Bangladesh.