Soaring stationary, study material prices make students vulnerable

Staff Reporter :
Prices of stationary items, study materials and books have increased by 30-70 percent before the new academic year.
Parents are struggling to cope with the sudden surge of study materials prices as they have already burdened with rising cost of daily essentials as well as cost of living.
Sharp rise in price of stationary items, and paper also made university students vulnerable.
Traders in Dhaka’s Nilkhet market, one of the biggest stationary, books and study materials hub, said that prices of stationery items and papers went up by 30 percent since October this year. The price of a binding notebook went up to Tk 80 from Tk 50. The costs of books and Xerox photocopy have almost doubled within few months.
Hossain Ahmed, who works at a stationery shop in the Nilkhet area, said prices of all types of papers have gone up significantly in the last couple of months. A 500-page pack of offset photocopy paper now costs Tk 380, which was Tk 280 in September.
Md Nazrul Islam, who runs a stationery shop in the same area, said they now charge Tk 2 for photocopying each page of a book or note, which was Tk 1 in the first week of July.
Speaking about price hike of study materials Rizwan Islam Redoy, a student of University of Dhaka (DU), said, “My study expenditure to the head of notebook has increased by Tk 300 due to sharp rise of paper. Besides, prices of book have doubled by this time.”He added, “Our food expenditure was Tk 3,000 six months back, but now it costs Tk 5,000. Other expenditures like living cost, medical, travel cost are also rising rapidly. Like me, other students are also facing hardship to continue study, he added.
Anik Karmokar, A student of DU’s Fine Arts Department, said, he is passing through tough times due to soaring prices of study materials. Because of extra expenditure of study materials he has no choice but to cut expenditure on food, cloth and entertainment.