More and more people in Myanmar are relying on charity for their daily meals as prices skyrocket and unemployment worsens, say locals.
The cost of basic commodities has doubled and, in some cases, tripled since the 2021 coup, with experts blaming the military regime’s economic mismanagement.
The situation worsened recently when prices for the country’s main staple, rice, began surging. A one pyi (2-kilo) sack of quality rice that cost 6,000 kyats (around US$ 2.86) in July is now priced at 7,000 kyats. The same quantity of low-quality rice has risen from 2,500 kyats to 3,800 kyats.
As incomes drop and prices soar, more families are going hungry.
Households in Yangon townships such as North Dagon, South Dagon, Thingangyun, Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar are increasingly reliant on food donated by charitable groups and individuals.
The head of a Yangon charity group said people are braving long journeys and queueing for hours to receive food that they can distribute back in their townships.
“We are seeing paralyzed elderly people with walking sticks, mothers holding newborn babies, children and the disabled waiting to take the food. When we distributed food before the coup, we rarely saw these kinds of people. It shows how people are struggling in their daily lives,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Founded seven years ago and funded by public donations, the group distributes simple meals of rice and curry to grassroots residents in need.
“If there are five people in a family, all of them come and take the meals. Before, we only handed out food to 500 or 600 people but now we have to serve more than 1,000,” he said.
Unemployment and lack of income have left people struggling to find their next meal, a situation exacerbated by soaring food prices, he added.
The World Bank reports Myanmar has suffered weak employment growth since 2017, with the dual shocks of Covid-19 and the military coup likely to have partially reversed previous growth. A World Bank survey in May found that 48 percent of Myanmar’s farming households worry about not having enough food to eat, up from about 26 percent a year earlier. The bank’s June report said high food inflation and reduced incomes mean that food security and nutrition worsened further during the first half of 2023.
The Aladdin Fashion Shop, which offers discount prices for food in Thingangyun Township, said it has been overwhelmed by thousands of people queueing to buy rice and eggs.
The shop sold one sack of rice for 100 kyats and 10 eggs for 100 kyats to more than 500 people on Aug. 27. However, more than 2,000 people traveled from Hlaingtharyar, North Dagon, South Dagon, and the city’s outskirts to buy the cheap supplies, with some queueing for seven hours.
“We have never seen such a large crowd. People queued because food prices are so high,” a shop representative told The Irrawaddy.
The shop has held the special food sale twice in the last year to help people amid growing hardship, he said.
“Before, if we had supplies for 700 people, only 900 came. [On Aug. 27] we got 2,500 people even though we barely had enough for 500. It was a lot,” he told The Irrawaddy.
A resident from South Dagon township said she always looks out for food donations as they are a lifeline for her family.
“Sometimes, we can’t buy ingredients to cook curry because we have to spend all the money on rice. So, my children and I are happy when we hear there are food donations,” she said.
