If the month of Ramadan is a time for self-abnegation, its all-inclusive impact on the population far surpasses most people's imagination. When the number of rickshaw-pullers in the cities and towns, particularly in the capital, goes up, according to conservative estimates, by at least one and a half times, mobility for income generation for a short period receives a boost. Indeed, it is not the rickshaw-pullers alone, there are other seasonal professionals who come to the city conundrum for extra incomes. Beggars, footpath vendors, hawkers of all types start crowding the city in the hope of making money. Even a good number of the city's inhabitants give a try to some choice enterprises like culinary expertise keeping an eye on the demand for some off-the-track iftari (foods with which people break their fasting) items.
A section of big businesspeople follow their theories -fair or foul -to make more profit than they do for the rest of the year. But here the small entrepreneurs starting from labourers to rickshaw-pullers to broomstick binders to carpenters to weavers to artisans make it a point to make the most of their endeavours. Even the village women who prepare fried or beaten rice for sale during Ramadan can hope of making some profit they cannot think of, during the rest of the year. There is an all-round burgeoning financial activity everywhere.
Because the month of prayer and self-denial leads to the greatest festival of the Muslims, the Eid-ul-Fitr, there goes all along a preparation for its celebration. And the preparation starts long before the arrival of the holy month. This is what actually provides a Midas touch to the country's economy. Now that there are people who have enough money to spare for the festival but there was a time when the economy was in a moribund state and yet the enthusiasm for the occasion was not lacking.
What is so remarkable is that people at the grass-roots level have to do without much help from outside. Many of them are poor people but some of them display amazing skills and entrepreneurship to move up the social ladder. Quite a few of them actually manage their small capital for starting a business venture or other economic enterprises from their savings they collect during this month. Services and commodities with greater demand at the lower level of society follow their own economic rules. The roadside amateur iftari preparer-cum-seller with a small capital has his/her poor customers who cannot afford items at a posh and costly outlet. Yet at the end of the day, the iftari seller has a handsome margin of profit. For an entire month, this is how economy receives a shot in the arm even at the lower rung of society.
It is this economic activity in the area of what is known as an informal sector that can be revealing. People in general become generous in parting with money because it concerns their religious ethos. Even the most miserly one will not mind spending a few bucks on alms or on any act of piety during the month. Surely there are genuine needy and not so needy who would like to cash in on this extra generosity. Salaried people who receive bonuses also feel they should part with a small fraction of the extra money to help their law-paid staff or others. All this is in addition to the mandatory zakat religion has made it incumbent on people for giving away to the poor.
Sure enough, all this does not qualify to be the entire macro-economy but certainly its engine is greatly oiled and fuelled by the festival economy. There lies the significance of a kind of unintentional economic distribution even though if it is far from perfect. The governing motto here is religion but the businesses involved surely have their ramification in people's mundane life as well. It is this consideration that has worked very well all across the globe.
Festivities also bring out the spendthrift in some of the people. They become compulsive spenders on anything their eyes can catch. In a country like Bangladesh, fuelling consumerism however makes little sense. But a section of the moneyed people is so obsessed with material possessions and luxury that the money it spends goes drained out of the country. And this is not a small amount either. This money does not beget money but the money those at the low end of the economy spend on this occasion surely does. Productivity pays not only for immediate consumption but also for investment in new businesses and enterprises -- however small they may be.
What is still more unacceptable is that big businesses are prone to hoarding commodities and artificially pushing up prices without any valid reason. Their sole motive is to fleece the public, using the religious occasion as a pretext. It is the other way round in most other countries where commodities are released at a cheaper rate. Outlets and traders count on small profit but on greater volume of sale. Here there is no such business or religious ethics when it comes to trading in commodities. The worst sufferers are the poor, low- and middle-income people. Economic rules are convoluted with the sole purpose of making outrageous profit. Had this not been the case, economic justice could be better dispensed with in this society.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
When low end of economy pulsates
Nilratan Halder | Published: July 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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