For wage-earning people, their main workplaces have become the “piecemeal economy,” including rickshaws, battery-operated rickshaws, buses, trucks, CNGs, tempos, hotels, restaurants, and small to large shops. Most work is temporary, irregular, and poorly paid. A national minimum wage is still a distant goal. Wages and salaries in almost every profession, including labourers and teachers, rank among the lowest in the world.
High expenses for education and healthcare place a significant portion of the population at great risk. Many people are driven into bankruptcy trying to provide medical care for relatives or education for their children.
For these reasons, social class inequality has intensified sharply. Ninety per cent of the population now has a reduced share of the GDP, while income and wealth have become concentrated in the hands of the top ten per cent, most of which is further controlled by the top one per cent.
As a result, the country’s vast resources have been plundered and siphoned off, national sovereignty has been violated, and the nation has repeatedly been trapped under the grip of authoritarian rule. Uncertainty, deprivation and oppression continue to dominate the lives of the vast majority of people.
Another major aspect of social inequality is gender discrimination. Over the past few decades, women’s participation and visible activity have increased across all sectors. The presence of women as wage labourers in both urban and rural areas is now comparatively much higher. Even girls from middle- and lower-middle-class families are increasingly participating in income-generating work.
Although girls see a higher rate of success in education, they lack continuity in this progress. The reasons behind this fall back or dropout are social barriers, restrictions and deeply-entrenched misogyny. Legal frameworks also remain discriminatory. Barriers still exist regarding property and inheritance rights, there is a lack of proper access to sports and employment, and freedom of movement is often restricted.
In both rural and urban areas, the number of displaced people deprived of land, work and shelter is increasing, with women and children in these groups being particularly vulnerable. Gender diversity faces serious threats. Alongside attacks and intimidation by groups opposed to women’s mobility and activism, incidents of sexual harassment and rape, both at home and in public spaces, remain a major concern.
