Price & pain

The urban poor have been hit hardest by soaring prices



The price of vegetables and fruits have more than doubled this season. The brunt of such price rise falls disproportionately on the poor, especially the urban poor—the most vulnerable group to soaring prices. For the rich, who spend only a tiny portion of their income on food, such price rise is just a matter of statistical change. The rich and the middle class may gawk at the statistics, may even fume for a while, but move on with their life as usual. The rise in prices of food and vegetables doesn’t significantly affect the way they live and spend. It’s the poor for whom the change in prices of basic commodities often becomes a question of life and death. Soaring market prices can have crippling effects as they spend almost everything they earn to feed the family.



The life of the urban poor, who don’t have a permanent source of income and run from post to pillar for daily wage, the despair that price rise brings needs no exaggeration. Not that the rural poor are not hit hard but at least with a rudimentary support system, life is more predictable in villages. True, they live a subsistence life, most of the time eating what they produce, but they don’t have to worry about daily wages. For urban poor, there are other disadvantages as well: They are worse off than their rural counterparts with regard to shelter and sanitation, and live a less healthy life.



Whenever it comes to the issues of price and poverty, often the first instinctive reaction is to demand state intervention. There is no denying that the state cannot shy away from its responsibility of providing basic necessities. But it’s easier said than done. Prices are often beyond the control of the state. Take for instance, the present case of vegetable prices: The production went down this season, pushing the prices upward. But what the government should do is, bust market cartels and discourage hoarding. The inflation rate, overall index of price rise, in Nepal still remains in two-digits though it has dropped to a historic low in India. Given the past trends that have shown Nepal’s inflation moving along with India’s, it’s clear that collusion of cartel interests have played a role this time around. If the general inflation is kept low, it eases the lives of the poor on many fronts, providing them with some breathing space to cope up with the rise in the prices of food and vegetables.

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