The people running the open market sales (OMS) operations of the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) on trucks run out of stocks soon after opening the shops every day. In order to make ends meet, urban poor and people of limited income stand in queues near the trucks to purchase kitchen items at relatively affordable prices. After the normalisation of the economic activities following the 18-month Covid restrictions, price hikes of essential commodities have put people of low-income groups in a tight situation to survive in the city and elsewhere in the country.
As many as 2.45 crore people have been pushed into poverty by the pandemic. This means as much as 40 per cent of the population in Bangladesh is living in poverty, up from 20.5 per cent before the pandemic. Although people have returned to work after the second wave of infections came down in August, the jobs pay less than in the past. The spiralling food prices in recent weeks, caused by higher prices in the global markets for demand and supply chain disruption, has made the queues for rationed goods longer than ever. The prices of soybean and palm oil soared more than 50 per cent over those of last year, while that of lentils has increased as much as 30 per cent. The price of onion has shot up by 50 per cent in the last month. Under the OMS operations, low-income people can buy soybean oil, sugar, lentil, and onions at a subsidised prices.
The long queues prove that there are many people who have fallen into poverty due to economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. Their condition has worsened by the recent price hikes of essential commodities. The government should expand the social safety net programme and provide direct cash assistance to needy people. More and more people are falling into poverty because their income is coming down. The government should strengthen market monitoring to check machinations of business syndicates and take effective measures to address the demand-supply mismatch.
