Home ›› 16 Feb 2023 ›› Front
It has become intolerable for Khabir Uddin.
On the evening of February 8, the 35-year-old readymade garment worker was returning home from work. He lives in a small room on a narrow alleyway, which remains damp most of the time, with his wife and two children in the Konabari area of Gazipur. They share the toilet and kitchen with six other families.
His house is nearly two kilometres from his workplace. Yet, he regularly commutes by walking to save money. His January salary was Tk 12,800, including overtime. But his regular salary is Tk 9,600.
“Today is like Eid day because I got my salary and will buy some delicious food, such as chicken and fish, for my family,” he told The Business Post.
He said his family was eagerly waiting for him. For the past few months, it has mostly been ordinary items on the everyday menu for the family, including different types of bhorta (mashed items), egg fry, vegetables, and red lentil, due to high inflation. Khabir thinks the rate at which essential commodity prices went up in the recent past is tantamount to torture on low-income people like him.
Like Khabir, 17-year-old Tumpa is also a garment worker. Her father is a rickshaw puller, but he has been unable to work for the last six months due to illness. That is why she started working at an undergarment factory for a monthly salary of Tk 9,000-10,000. Her mother also works at an apparel factory in Gazipur and earns Tk 12,500-13,000 per month.
“It is difficult to bear the expenses of our four-member family with my income alone. That is why my daughter dropped out and started working. But we are still struggling to meet our basic needs due to the recent hikes in commodity prices,” Tumpa’s mother Hasina Akter told The Business Post.
She said their hopes are dashed and dreams are shattered as they are now struggling to just survive. “We do not know what is waiting for us, but we know that we have to live in the city by any means because we have nothing in our village home in Tangail.”
The Business Post recently talked to many low-income people like Khabir and Hasina. Most of them are day labourers. They said life had become tougher since last year due to skyrocketing inflation. They also said they are now struggling to just put food on the table every day and have put their dream of a better life on the back burner.
Many even stopped sending their children to school. As they cannot afford good food, many are suffering from malnutrition. Paying for healthcare has also become a great challenge amid the current situation.
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, told The Business Post labourers and low-income people are mainly affected by inflation and generating more jobs is usually prescribed to tackle this problem.
“Although the global crisis is one of the reasons for high inflation in Bangladesh, syndication in our market should mainly be blamed. A few enterprises control the commodity market, and they increase prices illogically to make hefty profits.”
He further said, “The problem is not new, and we know who are behind this. But the authorities do not take the right measures to dismantle the syndicates.”
The economist also questioned why the import market should be dominated by only a handful of importers.
Middle class affected too
At a time when Bangladesh, like many other countries, was recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic fallout, Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. This severely disrupted the global supply chain, leading to high inflation worldwide. Bangladesh was also affected, with the prices of almost all kinds of goods and services soaring since mid-2022.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country witnessed 7.48 per cent inflation in July 2022, 9.52 per cent in August, 9.1 per cent in September, 8.91 per cent in October, 8.85 per cent in November, 8.71 per cent in December, and 8.57 per cent in January this year despite the government setting the FY23 inflation target at 5.6 per cent in the national budget. The August 2022 inflation was the highest in 11.3 years.
Apart from the low-income people, the middle class is feeling the pinch as well. Many middle class people told The Business Post they are struggling to earn a decent living amid the country’s ongoing economic crisis and have also been forced to cut back on various expenses.
Many factories and companies have given their employees a pay rise, but the latter says it is not enough in the face of rising expenses. That is why they have to make compromises in different areas of their lives.
Pritam Chakraborty, production officer at a dyeing factory, said, “Due to the increase in expenses, I have got a roommate so that I can share the rent. I also cut all unnecessary expenses, but still it is an uphill battle for me.”
How labourers are coping
Khabir said he used to earn Tk 13,800-14,500 a month early last year, which has declined to Tk 13,000 on average since the middle of 2022. “But my expenditures have increased.”
He said his house rent was Tk 3,000 last year, which rose to Tk 3,500 from this January.
“Early last year, I used to spend Tk 4,000 on groceries per month on average, but now I need Tk 5,000. I now spend at least Tk 3,000 per month on vegetables, fish, and chicken, up from Tk 2,000-2,200 just seven to eight months ago,” the garment worker explained.
“My wife has been severely sick since last year, and the doctor has suggested she take nutritious food. But how will I buy such food when I do not earn enough? Besides, my daughter had to stop studying due to financial problems,” he lamented.
He continued, “Sometimes my children demand good food, but I cannot afford that. I cannot remember the last time I bought beef. Sometimes I cry secretly. I tried to increase my income but failed.”
Khabir further said his daughter is now 10 and has demanded a separate room citing privacy. But the family lives in a one-room house, and it is very painful for Khabir that he is unable to fulfil his daughter’s demand.
Garment worker Jahidul Islam from Tongi said he earns Tk 14,000 per month but that is not enough to run his family considering the current inflation rate.
“I have a newborn, and that is why my wife needs highly nutritious food. To buy that, I reduced my other expenses,” he added.
Fall in income
According to the BBS Labour Force Survey 2016-17, the country had 9.09 million people (14.9 per cent) in formal employment while the total workforce was 61 million.
It said export-oriented sectors accounted for nearly 60 per cent or more of formal employment. The textile and apparel sectors making up nearly 87 per cent of the total export earnings employed nearly 50 lakh people.
The entire export sector has been facing trouble since the middle of last year due to the global economic crisis. Most of the major sectors, including apparel but excluding leather and leather goods, witnessed negative earnings at least for a single month during the last seven months, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.
Utilisation Declaration (UD) permissions, which indicate export order trends, have declined sharply for local apparel exporters, which is evident by the fact that the first half of FY23 witnessed only a 2.5 per cent year-on-year growth. The rate was 7.27 per cent during the first six months of FY22.
The crisis has severely impacted the economy. As a result, most workers in the formal and informal sectors have been affected. Some have even had their income decline.
Mahfuzur Rahman, an apparel worker in Gazipur, said, “We had regular opportunities for overtime in the past, but now it is down to 10-12 days a month. That is why my income has markedly declined, which has made my life difficult.”
Md Asaduzzaman, a tea stall-cum-grocery shop owner in front of PN Composite Ltd in Gazipur, said, “Due to commodity price hikes, workers of the factory are not shopping as much as they used to. That is why my earnings fell.”
His average sales were Tk 5,000 or more per day in the past, which has now come down to Tk 3,500-4,000. In addition, his profit margin decreased due to price hikes.
Inflation rate controversy
Experts have often raised questions about the BBS inflation data. They have been saying since last year that actual inflation has hit double digits, but the BBS is hiding that.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Fahmida Khatun told a press briefing in 2022 that the CPD does not know whether the BBS would release accurate inflation data.
“Besides, we have no idea whether they [the BBS] will apologise for misinforming people this way,” she said.
She also said a new consumption basket should be formulated to calculate inflation based on rigorous research on consumer behaviour and expenditure patterns.
Another research organisation, the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, also said in February last year that the overall inflation rate was more than double the BBS figure.
