Many people these days, in their struggle to cope with the high commodity prices, start queuing in the early hours, even at midnight, braving the cold weather to buy subsidised rice and atta from open market sales points that begin selling the items at 9:00am.
Already distressed due to exorbitant prices of all food and non-food items, poor and low-income people try to get some relief by having the two staple items at subsidised rates.
During visits to some OMS points in the capital in the early hours recently on Monday, Mohamamd Alam, 68, a resident of Shahidnagar in Lalbagh area, was found marking his spot in a queue with sacks at about 4:00am at an OMS point near Azimpur Chhapra Masjid.
‘I came here to have a place in the line for buying rice and atta at lower prices. Many people have already marked their spots in the queue much before me… I have a four-member family and my wife, too, works — as a housemaid — so that we can manage our son’s study costs,’ Alam told New Age.
He said that it had become very tough for him to meet his family expenditure due to sharp rises in the prices of all essential commodities.
‘Say, if we earn Tk 10, our expenditure is Tk 15… We need to spend Tk 40–50 to buy one kg of vegetables and Tk 20 to buy one kg of potato. The prices of all food items shot up over the past two years and it has now become difficult for poor people like us to survive,’ Alam explained.
Many like Alam said that although they came in the wee hours for a place in the OMS queue, there was no guarantee that they would be able to buy goods as they were still quite behind in the queue.
‘It is inhuman that people try to ensure their spots in queues at midnight and in the wee hours for saving some money ignoring such a cold weather. The government should make lists of people living below the poverty line and provide them with food assistance without any hassle and sufferings,’ Dhaka University economics department chairman Professor Mahbubul Mokaddem Akash said on Tuesday.
He further said that local ward councillors and union parishad chairmen could hold a general assembly in order to make lists of new poor and people living below the poverty line in their areas.
‘It is a shame for us that the government has failed to prepare such lists yet,’ he said.
On Monday, many people, mostly lower- and lower-middle-income ones, were found thronging a designated OMS point at Azimpur in the middle of night to ensure their slots in the queue with sacks, bricks and pieces of wood while people in Mohammadpur Town Hall area were found receiving their serial numbers written on their hands a little later than midnight.
Nazmul Hoque, a security guard at Comprehensive Holdings Limited, came opposite Shaheed Park at Mohammadpur to have a spot in the OMS queue there at about 4:30am on Monday.
‘I have a master’s degree from Rajshahi University and had a somewhat good job. But I lost the job during the Covid period in 2021. Later, I joined the present low-paid work to support my five-member family. So I have no option now but to come here to have rice and atta at subsidised rates,’ Nazmul said.
He disclosed that he now earned Tk 9,000 in salary per month from his work at the company.
Economists termed the condition as subhuman and said that the situation demonstrated how the lower-income groups were struggling to have the minimum quantity of essential items due to the unbridled price hike.
People can buy a kilogram of coarse-variety rice for Tk 30 and a kilogram of atta for Tk 27.5 from the OMS programme while the average price of such rice is Tk 58 and of wheat is Tk 69 on the open market.
Former Bangladesh Institute Development Studies director general Mustafa K Mujeri told New Age on Tuesday that the government should increase the supply of such goods to reduce public sufferings and avoid chaos.
‘We have to think about alternative means to reach the needy in this digital era. We can make lists of poor people through public representatives in their localities. There should be some mechanism so that if any household becomes new poor it is included in the list and if any household’s financial condition improves, it is removed from the list. But if some household’s condition remains the same, it will remain in the list,’ he explained.
The food ministry is providing rice at 2,393 outlets across the country, of which 911 also sell atta, said the ministry’s public relations officer Md Kamal Hossain.
‘The ministry usually runs the programme for five months in two phases — from September to November and from April to May,’ he said.
Rina, a woman living at Rasulbagh in the capital, was found marking her slot in an OMS queue with sacks at about 3:30am on Monday.
Asked, she said, ‘Previously, I did not get goods even after standing in the queue for six long hours. I went home empty-handed three times. Even at this hour, many are coming to book their spots.’
On Thursday, near Mohammadpur Town Hall, many people were still seen in a queue at the OMS outlet at about 11:00amand some of them said that only 25 men and 25 women obtained atta in addition to rice there while many went back home empty-handed.
Anwar Hossain, a private firm employee standing in the line, said, ‘Only 25 men and 25 women received subsidised atta while many others went back without the item,’ adding that the government should see to it that people could get the items in a disciplined manner.
He went on to say that it was difficult for him to spend five–six hours to buy OMS goods.
‘I have to maintain a five-member family with my Tk 15,000 monthly income,’ he added.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman said that people, mostly the lower- and lower-middle-income groups, were leading a very miserable life due to high inflation.
‘The prices of most products we import, including the fuel oils, have come down on the global market, but the prices of such goods are still high in Bangladesh due to the depreciation of taka against the dollar. We have thus to pay higher for purchasing goods and essential commodities,’ he said, adding that the income of people has not increased compared to the high prices of essentials.
Md Shah Alam, who was delivering rice and atta to customers from an OMS truck at Azimpur on Monday, said that many middle-income people, too, thronged there.
‘Some of such people came to me and said that they needed some rice as there was no rice in their houses. I gave them. If you stand here for some time, you can too identify them,’ he added.
Food secretary Md Ismiel Hossain told New Age on Thursday that they had increased the number of OMS trucks to 70 from 50 for Dhaka city in December considering the demand.
Acknowledging that people returned home empty-handed from OMS lines, he said, ‘We usually do not give rice and atta at OMS points between December and February. The government is now continuing the service providing high subsidy. We, too, heard that people went back without receiving goods, but the number of such people is few.’
He further said that many unemployed people stood in queues, who could earn about Tk 200 selling the rice and atta they bought from OMS points to others.
One can buy five kg of rice and two kg of packaged atta from the Azimpur OMS outlet while five kg of rice and five kg of unpackaged atta at Mohammadpur.
