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The rising cost of living has forced lower- and lower-middle-income people to make difficult choices regarding food consumption and health and education expenses.
The exorbitant prices of daily essentials and regular hikes in the prices of services made the fixed-income group distressed as their income remained stagnant.
Economists and market experts said that when people were having difficulty buying their daily necessities due to a decline in real income and the index of per capita income was rising, it only served to highlight the country’s growing inequality.
They said that lower-middle-income people were withdrawing their savings to maintain their living costs while lower-income people were lowering their consumption.
The rising cost of living is feared to have a medium- and long-term impact on a segment of the population’s health, nutrition, and education.
The latest round of price increases for essential commodities ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, has made lower- and lower-middle-income groups even more vulnerable.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the prices of atta increased by more than 61 per cent, Soya bean oil by 14 per cent, lentils by 23–47 per cent, potato by 23 per cent, garlic by 189 per cent, ginger by 150 per cent, fish by 33 per cent, broiler chicken by 37 per cent, sugar by 49 per cent and eggs by 27 per cent in the past year.
In early January, commerce minister Tipu Munshi assured that the price of essentials would not rise further during Ramadan if the dollar rate did not fluctuate.
He made the remarks on January 4 following a meeting with commodity businesses over the price and supply situation of six essential commodities—edible oil, sugar, red lentil, gram, onion, and date—ahead of Ramadan.
Despite his assurance, the prices of the commodities, except for onions, kept rising in the local market, although the dollar price remained stable.
‘I am forced to cut consumption of foods in significant quantities to manage the living costs with our income. I have asked the milk suppliers to stop supplying it to my house from January,’ Musharat Jannat, a private service holder in the city, told New Age.
Musharat and her husband maintain a four-member family.
‘The daily expenses of my family have increased by more than 30 per cent in one year, mainly due to the excessive price hikes for most essentials,’ she said, adding that her house owner increased the rent of the flat as a result of rising commodity prices.
Musharat said that they had no luxury in their lives and were forced to reduce the consumption of meat, eggs, milk, and fruits as their incomes did not increase.
‘Nearly two months of this year have gone but we could not provide a private tutor for my school-going daughter. Most probably, it will not be possible for us to appoint a private tutor this year,’ she said.
Ripa Akter, a readymade garment factory worker, said that recently her elderly mother had to join work for crashing brick at a construction site as they had been facing difficulties to maintain family expenses with income from her factory job.
‘We were used to buying broiler chicken and tilapia fish every week, but now we can buy the items twice a month,’ she said.
Ripa said that she had to maintain a five-member family in the Mirpur area of the city and also pay a share of her wages in loan instalments.
‘My husband does not live with us and does not contribute to the family. It has become very difficult for me to maintain my family on my income,’ she said.
Ripa said that she almost stopped buying fruits for her sixth-grader daughter due to a lack of money.
‘The prices of commodities have been increasing every day, but our income has remained unchanged. To cope with the growing living costs, I do some other work on my holidays,’ she said.
According to Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, the immediate impact of rising living costs was that some middle- and lower-middle-income people were withdrawing their savings to maintain their living standards, while lower-income people were reducing their consumption.
He said that people had been decreasing their nutritional intake, cutting costs for the education of their children, and skipping medical checkups due to the rising cost of living.
Mustafiz believes that the government must take the initiative to control inflation, or else it will have a medium- and long-term impact on health and education.
He also stressed inclusive development, saying that the recent rise in living costs had exacerbated inequality in the country.
Mustafiz urged the government to ensure decent wages and implement living wages.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman said that the exorbitant living costs would usually affect health and education and increase malnutrition.
The high prices of commodities and services would hurt the livelihoods of many people, and it might create social instability, he said.
When the real income of people is decreasing, the per capita income of the country is increasing. It means inequality is rising, Ghulam Rahman said.
Mohammad Selim, a driver of a privately owned car, said that his salary remained the same at Tk 15,000 for the past four years, and now it has become difficult for him to maintain family costs with his income.
‘Recently I engaged my son, who is 17, in work to survive,’ Selim said.
He said that after skipping beef and mutton, they had to skip eggs and chicken because the prices of the items had almost doubled in the past year.
One of the mid-level employees of a non-government organisation, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that he had been feeling sick for the past month but was not visiting a physician considering the treatment costs.
‘I can pay the fee for the physician, but I am sure the doctor will advise me some medical tests, and I have no way to bear the cost of the tests amid the soaring living costs,’ he said.
Nazma Shaheen, a former professor at Dhaka University’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, said that acute malnutrition had taken place among a segment of women and children due to the income loss of a large number of people, and the situation might repeat itself as good numbers of people were taking a compromised diet due to the increase in living costs.
The price of food increased all over the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and it became difficult for low-income people in the country to consume animal protein and other good quality foods, she said.
Nazma said that the impact of the high prices of foods would be felt in the future.
The CAB in its annual report on January 21 said that the highest average inflation in Dhaka city stood at 11.08 per cent in 2022 for general people.
Food inflation in the report stood at 10.03 per cent while non-food inflation was at 12.03 per cent for general people in the year.
(NA)
