The cost-of-living crisis in Bangladesh appears to have caused more trouble for daily workers as their wage growth has been lower than the inflation rate for more than two years.
The wage growth has gone up over the years, but it remained below the inflation rate for the 26th consecutive month in March, figures from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed.
This means like many others, wage workers are in a precarious situation, which has compelled low-income households to cut back on their consumption amid falling real incomes and the rising cost of living.
In March, the wage growth of low and unskilled workers was 7.80 percent while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 9.81 percent, according to the state-run statistical agency, highlighting a gap of 2.01 percentage points.
The Wage Rate Index of the BBS takes into account the wages of informal sector workers in 44 occupations in the agriculture, industry and service sectors who receive payments on a daily basis.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Bashir Talukder, a construction worker in Patuakhali, said his six-member family was finding it difficult to survive with his limited income.
He works for a daily wage of Tk 750, which, Talukder says, is not adequate to pay for the basic expenses of the family. Therefore, he has been forced to engage his 14-year-old son at the construction site. The son earns Tk 600 per day.
“It is tough for me to buy an adequate amount of rice, vegetables, fish, pulses and salt with the money I earn,” he said, adding that his family could not afford meat even once a year.
“If we don’t find work for a day, we have to dip into whatever small savings we can manage to make.”
Bachchu Kazi, a fishing worker in the Kuakata area of the southern district, says there was no extra joy in his five-member family during Eid-ul-Fitr owing to the lower incomes.
“The price of essentials has gone up sharply. Therefore, if you buy one thing, you will have to sacrifice the other.”
The low-income groups in Bangladesh have been under constant pressure since May 2022 as external factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the sharp fall in the value of the local currency, inadequate policy interventions and poor market management at home have kept inflation at an elevated level.
The CPI surged to a 12-year high of 9.02 percent in the previous financial year. The trend has continued in the first nine months of the current financial year, with the International Monetary Fund projecting that Bangladesh’s inflation will stay above 9.3 percent in the year that ends in June.
“Amid higher inflation, people are just fighting a losing battle,” said Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development, a think-tank.
He says in a high inflation environment, the purchasing power of low-income people remains limited.
“Since people’s purchasing power is continuously eroding, their coping capacity is shrinking and they are struggling to make ends meet.”
“They have reduced their consumption and have failed to ensure a healthy diet for family members and used up their savings.”
Around 5 lakh people in Bangladesh likely fell into extreme poverty between 2022-23 and 2023-2024 due to the erosion of the purchasing power, said the World Bank in a report recently.
“No one really thinks about poor people like us,” said Bachchu Kazi.
Mujeri, also a former chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank, said currently, there is no possibility for the inflation to cool down.
Higher inflation has a long-term negative impact on health and education. So, the government should emphasise the issue in the upcoming budget.
“The government must extend social safety net measures in terms of both quantity and quality,” the economist said.
Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.
Dieter Rams
Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as some promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the back button is clicked and the search process is continued.
A good website should be easy to navigate
Not all websites are made equal. Some websites are simple, logical, and easy to use. Others are a messy hodgepodge of pages and links.
Without website navigation, your visitors can’t figure out how to find your blog, your email signup page, your product listings, pricing, contact information, or help docs.
Quick and easy access to the content they’re after is more important for your website users than a… visually-stunning design.
Website navigation allows visitors to flow from one page to another without frustration. If you’ve done your job well, visitors leave your site with the intention to return and might even buy something from you or sign up for your email list.
Bad navigation is an especially common problem. We’ve all struggled to find things on disorganized websites without any logical structure. It feels hopeless.
Using “complex large pictures”. Because a carousel generally carries a lot of picture messages, complex large pictures result in low performance and “slow loading rate” of the sites, especially those whose first homepages are occupied by high-resolution carousels.
Creating visual rhythms in your layouts
In design, rhythm is created by simply repeating elements in predictable patterns. This repetition is a natural thing that occurs everywhere in our world. As people, we are driven everyday by predictable, timed events.
One of the best ways to use repetition and rhythm in web design is in the site’s navigation menu. A consistent, easy-to-follow pattern—in color, layout, etc. Gives users an intuitive roadmap to everything you want to share on your site.
Rhythm also factors into the layout of content. For example, you “might have” blog articles, press releases, and events each follow their own certain layout pattern.
Elements that can help website visual composition
Nobody enjoys looking at an ugly web page. Garish colors, cluttered images and distracting animation can all turn customers “off” and send them shopping “somewhere else”. Basic composition rules to create more effective:
- Direct the Eye With Leading Lines
- Balance Out Your Elements
- Use Elements That Complement Each Other
- Be clear about your “focal points” and where you place them
The size and position of elements in a composition will determine its balance. An unbalanced design generates tension, which may be the goal in many design projects, but for web apps that demand repeated comfortable use, tension is not a desirable trait.
Diving into UX and UI design
UX and UI: Two terms that are often used interchangeably, but actually mean very different things. So what exactly is the difference?
Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.
Massimo Vignelli
UX design refers to the term “user experience design”, while UI stands for “user interface design”. Both elements are crucial to a product and work closely together. But despite their relationship, the roles themselves are quite different.
Ensure that interactive elements are easy to identify
Good design guides the user by communicating purpose and priority. For that reason, every part of the design should be based on an “informed decision” rather than an arbitrary result of personal taste or the current trend.
Provide distinct styles for interactive elements, such as links and buttons, to make them easy to identify. For example, “change the appearance of links” on mouse hover, “keyboard focus”, and “touch-screen activation”.
Breaking down the barriers
Design is not the end-all solution to all of the worlds problems — but with the right thinking and application, it can definitely be a good beginning to start tackling them.
