The squeezed middle class

When the anxious citizens are waiting to see some peace prevail after a peaceful election in which the Al-led alliance won, they are witnessing an upsurge of violence, a steady worsening of the economy and polarisation of the society.
Despite the pledges made by successive governments, the expectations of a country free from poverty and exploitation have remained unfulfilled. Apprehension, despair and despondency hang over the country as the people ponder over the hardship in the days to come because of the crippling state of business, price escalation of essentials and non-functioning industrial sector.
The economy of the country is in recession. Unemployment is surging. An ominous addition is that out of about 10 million Bangladeshis working abroad, several lakhs have come back because of job squeeze in those countries. This also indicates a hard time for a good number of families who were enjoying prosperity and comfort on the remittances from these earning members.
There is a feeling that buildings and superstructures that are springing up in the big cities do not actually reflect the economic situation. Although the wealthy are doing somewhat better, most Bangladeshis, especially the middle class and the lower middle classes, feel squeezed. Compounding the problem, the sudden big rise in the price of petroleum products has pushed them to the brink.
The government handout explaining the rationale of price hike as a bid to save the exchequer of the subsidy burden appears somewhat logical, but transferring the burden so quickly on to the people already living on the margins is a very unkind gesture to salvage a sinking economy. The transport sector will bear the brunt of the price hike of fuel most. The optimistic note sounded by the policy makers that transport owners will not increase the fares disproportionately and small increase will have a negligible impact on the cost of living is wishful thinking.
Contradicting the government estimate of the poverty situation, leading economists revealed in a seminar at the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh that the actual percentage of people living below poverty line may be about 83% and not 32% as the official
handout reveals. According to a leading research organisation in the country, because of the increase in the price of the fuel of all varieties by about 40%, inflation now hovering around 11.29% will go up by about 2%. Consequent upon the fuel price hike, expenditure on house rent, education, and medical treatment has shot up.
Since the 1980s, Bangladesh has been mostly dependent on agriculture gradually supported by technology. But because of our failure to give proper thrust to agriculture, the rural landscape unveils a shocking litany of poverty, joblessness and deprivation that continues to drag the country down. The oft-vaunted growth has hardly made any dent on poverty.
Our approach to poverty alleviation often seems to be illogical and perverse. We attack poverty through subsidies, along with many schemes and programmes that are only palliative. If the amount spent in such haphazard ways was invested in public works, such as irrigation canals, or wells, small dams, water-harvesting projects, rural roads, and above all houses for the rural poor, it would have multiplier effect and transform the economic landscape. Alas! We do not invest money, we only spend it.
Government policies toward poverty elimination look good on paper, but implementation remains highly flawed. The economic boom or spate of development, if there has been any, has not distributed its benefits evenly. In the past decade, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and those in the middle have gotten squeezed.
Bureaucratic red tape and official lethargy are matched by the increasing cynicism of the political class and falling standards of public life. Politicians are interested in the people's votes, but not in their well-being. To make liberty and democratic ideals meaningful, the government has to concentrate on those basic needs that have eluded millions of Bangladeshis -- education, healthcare, housing.
Only when we have ensured access to those requirements to the largest number of people can we claim prosperity for the entire nation. Economic growth is meaningless unless it leads to social development and social security, as the prime minister emphasised in a recent meeting. True prosperity is that which benefits the last man in the last row. The big questions that nudge us today are, can we leave behind us forever the horror of hunger and the darkness of illiteracy? Can we create a society free of discrimination in any form? We can if, as a nation, we can rekindle the hope that suffused the people and revive the determination that drove this nation 40 years ago.
The stark reality is that the poor are getting poorer with each passing day. Evidently, while the rich have made gains, incomes of the middle class have been barely sufficient, and the poor seem to be worse-off than they were 10 to 15 years ago. The present government has to identify the pitfalls and governance failure that continue to drag the nation down.
We have failed to create employment opportunities for the teeming millions. The saddest part is that 33 lakh investors, mostly young men without jobs belonging to middle class and lower middle class, invested all they had in the stock market, but the continued fall resulting from the scam last December has taken away their capital.
Paradoxically, regardless of the size of its majority in the parliament, the Al-led government ran out of steam to govern the country seemingly because of lack of moral force and commitment to the cause of the people. Fortune seekers masquerading as party adherents or politicians or bureaucrats have brought the country almost to the brink of a disaster.
With most of its members falling prey to poverty, the middle class seems to be becoming extinct. For many people it takes more than one job to earn enough to get by. What is most alarming, the schooling of the children puts the middle class under ever-increasing strain. Many families have more than one child in educational institutions. How can they make both ends meet in such a desperate situation?
Life is simply getting harder for middle class citizens, and the condition of the poorer classes beggars description. Today, the soaring prices and the diminishing value of our currency have eroded even the minimum standard of life. The middle class spans the whole country. Given proper incentives, good conditions of employment, better housing, and schooling facilities for children, they can provide steady support to national development and economic growth.

The writer is a Columnist of The Daily Star. E-mail: [email protected]