Former commerce minister Tipu Munshi once said, the standard of living of the 40 million people in Bangladesh is equal to that of the people of Europe. But do the public representatives have any idea about the 40 million people at the bottom, immersed in extreme poverty, who are struggling to get decent food?
According to BBS report, the average monthly income of a person in Bangladesh is Taka 7,614. The income of people in cities is much higher than that in villages. The average monthly income of an urban person is Tk 10,951. And for rural person it is Tk 6,091.
The average is calculated from the highest and lowest earnings. Suppose, if one person earns Taka 100,000 per month and the other earns nothing. Their average income is 50,000 taka. This does not mean that a man who has no income will get a share in the income of another man. Along with development, the income gap in Bangladesh has also increased. The richest 10 percent of people account for about 41 percent of the country's total income. The poorest 10 percent have 1.31 percent of earnings.
All the public representatives in the elections are rich. Some are super-rich. But most voters are poor or ultra-poor. In the past, some poor people were also elected. Now no poor person will even dare to contest elections. The deposit amount required to contest as president in the upazila elections has been increased to Taka 100,000 and for vice president to Taka 75,000. It is not possible for any poor person to accumulate so much money.