Bangladesh accepts court ruling to cut state job quotas after unrest, eases curfew

Relative calm has returned for the second straight day in Dhaka and major cities. However, the army chief has indicated that security has not been entirely restored, following his aerial survey of the capital.

The government has announced an easing of the curfew, allowing people to shop for essentials and offices to reopen for limited hours starting Wednesday. i.e. between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to allow people to shop for essentials, with offices reopened between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

In response to the widespread clashes between protesters and security forces, Bangladeshi authorities had shut down mobile internet and deployed the army to maintain order in the country of 170 million people.

Reportedly 147 people have been killed in the violence with more than 1,600 arrested in the two main cities Dhaka and Chittagong. The protests tailed off after the Supreme Court ruled on Sunday in favour of an appeal from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government and directed that 93% of jobs should be open to candidates on merit.

“The government has acted in line with the Supreme Court verdict,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters, showing the official gazette notification to that effect. “The quota reform is done, now I hope the students will concentrate on their studies,” he added.

Hasina’s government scrapped quotas in 2018 that had reserved 56% of state jobs for various categories of people, including 30% for families of those who fought in the country’s 1971 war of independence. But a high court ruling reinstated the quotas last month, triggering the student protests.

Students were furious because quotas left less than half of state jobs open to merit amid an unemployment crisis, particularly in the private sector, making government sector jobs with their regular wage hikes and perks especially prized.

The unrest has posed a new headache for Hasina as her government has sought to fix the struggling economy after securing a $4.7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout last year.

(with agency inputs)

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