Hours after a devastating fire tore through Bangabazar Complex in Dhaka's Gulistan yesterday morning, Abdur Rahman, the owner of an apparel outlet in the area, was found lamenting his losses at the market intersection amid a frantic effort by firefighters to douse the blaze.

The 27-year-old had invested around Tk 15 lakh, of which Tk 8 lakh was borrowed, in hopes of doing good business ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations later this month.

However, the fire which started at around 6:00am razed his store to the ground.

"I have lost everything. Both my parents are paralyzed and depend on my income," Rahman told The Daily Star, adding that he was never before in such financial danger.

Having started his business as a wholesaler of denim pants some three years ago, Rahman was only able to save about Tk 1.5 lakh worth of goods.

In response to a query, the businessman said he would not find himself in this present danger had he insured the shop.

Speaking with 15 shop owners in the area, it was found that none had any form of insurance even though insurers provide coverage for even the smallest outlets

"In fact, I didn't give insurance much thought before," he added.

However, Rahman is merely one of around 5,000 shop owners who sell various apparel items for both wholesale and retail buyers to have suffered losses due to the fire at Bangabazar, according to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

After speaking with 14 other shop owners in the area, it was found that none had any form of insurance even though insurers provide coverage for even the smallest outlet.

It was also found that one shop owner will likely get some form of compensation as he had taken bank loans to cover operating expenses. This is because banks include the provision for insuring loans when approving disbursals.

Still, the interest among small and medium businesses to insure their property and thereby reduce the risk of losses from incidents such as fire is very low.

"We feel the importance of insurance only after a devastating incident," said Md Khaled Mamun, managing director of Reliance Insurance Ltd, a leading non-life insurance company in Bangladesh.

He then said that although banks attach the provision for insurance while lending, many small and medium businesses do not continue with the scheme after their loan tenure comes to an end.

Besides, the lack of awareness among general people regarding the risks of being uninsured is a major reason for the poor penetration of insurance schemes such as property insurance.

In addition, not all insurers show interest in providing coverage for small and medium businesses because of their poor risk management standard.

Shops are at high risk of disaster but risk management by market authorities is poor, Mamun said.

So, it appears that 98 per cent of shops in the country do not have any property insurance even though the amount of premium charged is meagre, he added.

And the store owned by Abdul Latif Biplob, another businessman at Bangabazar, is one of them.

The shop owner could not recover a single string from three of his stores, where he had a total of around Tk 2 crore worth of clothes.

"Nothing is left now. All I had made in life has been burnt to ashes. I don't have anything else," said Biplob, who rushed to the spot from a hospital where he was admitted for four days due to illness.

"My shop was not insured. My parents and sisters depend on my income. What should I do now?" he asked helplessly.

Several insurers said insurance coverage had helped dozens of shop owners who suffered losses from a fire at a kitchen market of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) in Gulshan-1 on March 30, 2019.

They got compensation for insurance taken against their bank loans.

Tarik Ur Rahman, a consultant of the Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd, said he paid insurance benefits to 29 shop owners at the market following the fire, when he was at Pioneer Insurance.

Echoing Mamun of Reliance Insurance, Rahman said there a perception that insurance is a waste of money. As such, the demand for insurance products is low.

Rahman went on to say that they offer special rates for small stores that fall in the small and medium category.

"But shop owners are not interested," he added.

Sheikh Kabir Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Insurance Association, said affected shop owners will receive compensation if they had any form of coverage against their properties.

He then said insurance coverage is low in Bangladesh and it should increase.

"So, the government should issue a directive to bring everything under insurance," Hossain added.