Due to the corona epidemic, natural disasters, Russia-Ukraine war and various international crises, the economy of the whole world is in turmoil. In this case, the suffering of the people of developing and underdeveloped countries has increased manifold. Due to the instability of the global economy, prices of daily necessities have increased in almost all countries. In some countries the prices of daily commodities are becoming unbridled. In our country, the violence of a class of unscrupulous traders always increases with the increase in the price of goods. People’s lives are crushed by the poison of black market of unscrupulous traders.
In keeping with the increase in the price of any product in the global market, the price of the product in the country also increases – this is normal, but surprisingly, sometimes the price of everyday products in the country market is not consistent with the world market. In other words, the price of that product increases at a higher rate in the country’s market. Even more surprising, sometimes the price in the world market falls, but the price does not change in the country’s market! Even once the price of a product has gone up in the local market, there is no sign of the price of that product coming down. One of the reasons for this is lack of market surveillance and artificial crisis created by unscrupulous traders. If you observe a little, it can be seen that every year in the month of Ramadan, a kind of unstable situation prevails in the market of our country. By capitalizing on consumer demand, the prices of goods are inflated several times by deliberately creating an artificial crisis. Although the increase in the price of products due to lack of sufficient stock, increase in cost of production, loss of crops at the field level, more demand than production etc. are relevant, none of these factors are responsible for the increase in prices in the month of Ramadan. But unfortunately every year during the holy month of Ramadan the prices of goods increase at an unreasonable rate. In addition, dishonest traders do not stop their violence only in the black market, but in the hope of more profit, they mix various chemicals in the products, which are very harmful to the human body.
Recently, the use of various harmful chemicals has been observed in the storage of all types of products including perishable products. Hotel restaurants do not follow minimum hygiene standards for food preparation. It also appears that the authorities are not aware enough to ensure the quality of food. It is important to put an end to all such mismanagement of food products. Due to food adulteration, people are constantly suffering from various incurable diseases and are deprived of normal life. As a result of consumption of adulterated and contaminated food, the risk of suffering from various types of complex diseases including kidney, liver function, asthma increases. Besides, due to adulterated food, allergy, asthma, skin disease, vomiting, headache, food poisoning, anorexia, high blood pressure, brain stroke, kidney failure, heart attack etc. are affected. According to a statistic, about 3 lakh people are suffering from cancer every year in the country just because of consumption of junk food. As a result, the terrible picture of food adulteration is clearly visible in our country. This is undoubtedly an ominous sign on the way to building a healthy and prosperous nation. It must be remembered that there is no alternative to consuming pure and balanced food in building a prosperous nation. But in the reality of our country, ensuring pure food has become a big challenge today. On the other hand, due to the increase in the prices of goods, the low income people of the country are being deprived of their basic right of food. This threatens their physical development and ability. Attention should be given to these matters. The government should take adequate programs so that the low-income people of the society, starting from the grassroots, get the opportunity to consume balanced food as per their needs. It should be ensured that only the truly disadvantaged groups get this benefit. Various NGOs can play a leading role in this regard. Awareness should be raised at the individual level about the dangers of consuming contaminated and adulterated food. On the occasion of upcoming Ramadan, it is expected that the relevant quarters will play a strict role in the proper implementation of the existing laws to stop the violence of dishonest business syndicates besides imposing strict control on the market.
Author: Student, Dhaka University
Tags: Market management upcoming Ramadan
