Irrawaddy Businesses Feed Hungry Beggars
By Network Media Group
Monday, September 12, 2022
Businesses in the Irrawaddy Region have reported that people in the area have recently started begging for food. In the townships of Kyaung Kon, Laputta, Yay Kyi, Myaung Mya and Ma-U Pin, groups were seen going to shops and rice mills to ask for food.
“They’re are begging for rice and they have been given some to take away in their own bags,” an anonymous person who is a friend of the owner of a rice mill in Laputta Township has told NMG. He said that in early September, 15 people begged for rice at the mill on the outskirts of the town of the same name.
Another man, who also asked not to be named, told NMG that a group showed up at his grocery shop in Wet Chaung in Kyon Pyaw Township at night in late August, begging for rice, cooking oil and uncooked noodles. These people, who came from another village, were very poor and he gave them what they wanted because he was afraid they might become violent.
According to locals, theft has increased in Pathein town, the capital of Irrawaddy Region.
“The cost of basic foodstuffs is rising every day and many people do not have regular jobs…That is why people go out and beg for rice and other food,” said a retired police officer on condition of anonymity.
The cost of rice and seeds rose dramatically in August and now cost twice as much as before last year’s coup. Cooking oil, chilli, onions, garlic and potatoes have tripled in price.
September is harvest time in the Irrawaddy Region, but due to political instability, inflation and increased fuel costs, rice production is lower than last year.
