maruf: Food Price Increasing

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Food Price Increasing

An Audio Diary (02) in Outlook, BBC, London

Today I went to the market to buy some rice for my family.

The cheapest rice is still 35 taka per kg - that's the lowest price in the market. For this price you get the worst quality rice. 6 months ago for half the price – around 17 taka - you could have bought the best quality rice.

We heard on the TV news that the new harvest of rice has been arrived at the market and the price has decreased to 150-200 taka (2-3 $) per quintal (100 kg). But I found no evidence of that today in the market. The retailers were arguing that they had not received the new rice yet.

Everyone like me is waiting for the new harvest. We know that the international price is also increasing so our only hope is the new harvest. It is like a panic. Everyone is thinking what if the price never decreases, then what will happen? We are looking for good news.

This is now Bangla New Year, 1415. Generally Bangla New Year brings good news for us, it brings harvest. It brings rice (Boro) with different types of fruits (Mango, Jackfruit, Lichies, Black Berries, Water Melons etc.) But this year we are simply panicking. Maybe it’s a false alarm and there is no need to panic. Maybe, everything will be normal again. But no one is convinced. They are trying to stock up on foods and this creates buying competition in the market which helps the sellers to hike up the price.

The price of vegetables is also very high in the market. Actually, this is not a good season for vegetables as it’s the winter. The prices of various vegetables are not static at all. If you buy any of them at 20 taka per kg in the morning, you have to pay 25 taka in the evening.

Edible oils are now out of reach to some families. Last year the highest price of Soya bean was 60 taka per litre and now it is 110 taka and increasing daily. Yesterday it was 108 and today it is 110 taka per litre.

The story was submitted to Outlook on 24 April, 2008.

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My films

‘Mandrita Kansat’
A Film By Counter Foto

Directed By Aminul Akram, Saiful Huq Omi and Barkat Ullah Maruf

Kansat was known for its mangoes, which grow in plenty there. Now it’s known for something else- a place for an unprecedented struggle. After the war of independence in 1971, the longest ongoing protest and struggle took place in Kansat. And it was the bloodiest too. It started in August 2005 and ended in April 2006. 17 dead, thousands injured.

Among the services provided by the state –electricity is probably the most important one for the mass people. But the use and need of electricity could not be understood just by looking at the big cities where it is mostly used for individual’s own comfort or by looking at the big shopping malls. The agro economy in Kansat is highly dependent on electricity as it is used for driving the water pumps for irrigation. But villagers have to buy the electricity at double the price than the city people. It is because they have to buy it from a privately owned company instead of buying it from the state.

In 2005, there used be 20 to 22 hours of load shedding in Kansat everyday. Due to which no farmer could plough his crop. They went to the to the Rural Electrification Board in Kansat and demanded for uninterrupted supply of electricity. But they did not do anything to fulfil their demand. On the top of everything, even when they were unable to supply electricity to the existing customers the authority doubled the number of customers from twenty-four thousands to fifty-six thousands. As a result the power supply situation got worsen everyday. Things became very clear to the Kansat people; to them it was nothing but robbery. They were paying 105 taka each month as the meter charge but they were not receiving electricity worth even 5 taka.

The people in Kansat demanded uninterrupted power supply to the higher authority and to the local MP. It came out that the higher authority did not even have the information of the increase of the number of customers. And their demand for uninterrupted electricity was not fulfilled.

After all peaceful process failed, the people in Kansat came out on to the streets. In that demonstration thousands of people joined. In the name of maintaining peace and law and order, the police open fired on the demonstrations. From January to April 2006, in four different occasions police killed 17 men. Among which there was a boy who was just eleven years old and even a seventy years old man could not escape from the bullets.

Until people die in numbers the people of Kansat failed to be on the headlines of the news. They were in the news for the first time on the 3rd of January 2006 when police killed three of their men. Eventually they were on the headline of all the newspapers and electronic media but they had to pay a big price for it- they lost 17 men.

Kansat has set up an unprecedented example of how to protest against all oppression, how the subaltern consciousness can prevail over the power structure and how to win and gain their own rights at the end. Kansat tells us a new political story- the birth of new era in Bangladesh. This is the story of how without the presence of any big organized political force people mobilize themselves, make their own structure, and create their own leadership. And at the end it gives us a great hope against the political frustration creepng over all most everyone’s minds- people can win if they are united in favour of the common mass’s interested.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Food Price Increasing

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