Hunger in Bangladesh

Hunger in Bangladesh is one of the major issues affecting the citizens of Bangladesh, with 40% of its population falling under three categories: hunger, starvation and chronic hunger.^[1]

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and is home to more than 160 million people. It has developed considerably economically^[2] and in terms of the Human Development Index, particularly in the areas of literacy and life expectancy.^[3] However, its economic inequality has increased and about 32% of the population, that is 50 million people, still live in extreme poverty.^[3] The country still faces significant hunger with approximately 40 million people being close to starvation.^[2] Poverty has decreased considerably since 2010, falling from 49% to around 25% in 2016.

Following the war for their liberation in 1971, Bangladesh was faced with a multitude of problems, both physical and economical. Their economy was seriously lacking and they had to deal with trying to fix all of the physical damage that was caused by the fighting.^[4] In 1974, Bangladesh was hit by an intense monsoon that damaged most of the crops produced in that year.^[5] The monsoon, paired with existing issues, like the economic fragility resulting from the war and government mismanagement, caused a massively devastating famine throughout the country.^[5]

During the famine, the mortality rate of children and elderly people increased by 30%.^[6] The United States intervened by pressuring Bangladeshi politicians to provide aid for agricultural producers and by sending food aid to the population.^[6]

Hunger is an issue that has stagnated over the years, yet Bangladesh has shown efforts towards hunger reduction in the last couple of years, particularly during one of their hardest times during the late 1970s,^[6] although the early 2000s were also challenging.^[7] During this famine period, many farmers lacked knowledge regarding how to provide food given the land lacked nutrients due to aggressive farming.^[6]

Factors that contribute to the hunger crisis over the various states of Bangladesh include a lack of resources and education.^[8]

Food insecurity in Bangladesh is derived from extreme poverty due to under and unemployment, inadequate access to land for cultivation, social exclusion and natural disasters. In these endangered, poor populations, women and children are more affected by undernutrition and malnutrition.^[9]

Food insecurity and malnutrition between populations at risk are high. These are influenced by seasonality and the price of available foods.^[9]

According to Asia Times, food waste is a cause; across Bangladesh approximately 5% of food is wasted each year. Food waste is particularly large during Bangladesh's winter wedding season, which produces "tons of food wastage". Families of the bride and groom are expected to produce lavish meals, and the lack of RSVPs means caterers can't easily plan for guest numbers, so much food goes directly into waste bins.^[10]

Over the past two decades, floods, droughts and hurricanes have increasingly caused major economic losses and livelihood damage in Bangladesh. Agriculture is a major industry that accounts for nearly 20% of GDP and 65% of the labor force, and faces huge risks.^[11] Bangladesh's agriculture relies heavily on the specific conditions of the annual floods because they recognize that large-scale floods that occur infrequently can have catastrophic effects.^[11] Climate change is expected to reduce the output of rice, Bangladesh’s main crop, and increase the country’s dependence on other crops and imported grains. On the whole, due to climate change, Bangladesh's agricultural GDP is expected to decline by 3.1% per year. These will not only affect the agricultural sector, but also the entire food chain, right down to household consumption.^[11]

There are many consequences of hunger in Bangladesh, namely malnutrition, undernutrition in children, child stunting, and child wasting.^[1] Child stunting is defined as a child being two standard deviations lower than average height for their age and child wasting is a child who is two standard deviations lower than average weight for height.^[12] Data from 2008–2012 shows that underweight (moderately) occurred in 36.4% of cases, while stunting was at 41.3%, and wasting – at 15.6%.^[13]

Food availability can have perception and behavioral consequences.^[8] Micronutrient shortcomings lead to hidden hunger.

About 24 percent of women has a reduced weight and 13 percent are short of stature, which significantly increases the likelihood that their children are atrophied.^[9]

Hunger among the middle and lower class population of Bangladesh is growing at a fast rate compared to other south Asian countries.^[14] Of the 50 million people missing food security in Bangladesh, less than half have access to food security network programs^[9] Sacrifices in food consumption for the good of children's food, particularly in moments of scarcity, is highly disseminated. In most cases, it is an adult woman who has to make a sacrifice. The disproportionate poverty aimed at women and children comes due to the discrimination and traditions of exclusion, leaving them the most vulnerable.^[9]

Bangladesh has the highest rate of underweight children among all the countries in southern Asia.^[9] One of each two children under 5 is detained or stunted chronically, and 14 percent suffer from acute waste. WHO estimates two in three deaths under five are caused by malnutrition. About 25% of children's diets complies with food varieties standards in which a minimum of 4 out of 7 food groups is consumed every day.^[9] Children suffering from chronic hunger are dying every 5 seconds.^[15]

Food Security Nutritional Surveillance Project conducted studies vulnerable zones: coastal belt, eastern hills, hoar region, Padma chars, northern chars. In total there were 14,712 children from 6–59 months of aged who suffered from food insecurity.^[1] Majority of the children who suffer from hunger live in rural areas making up 94% of the experiment.^[1]

In Bangladesh, women are still discriminated and are seen as inferior to their male counterparts.^[16] In certain households, some members have reduced access to food because of gender preferences.^[17] In small villages where males are held at different standards, parents prioritize feeding their sons over their daughters.^[17]

The gender of the head of the household has a great impact in regards to the food consumption; a household in which the breadwinner is female is correlated with the household having less food.^[16] While 65% of the households suffering from hunger had a woman as head of the house, 35% were headed by men.^[8] Women make up 32% of the individuals under the poverty line.^[16] In some cases, if the women in the household are educated it reduces their chance of starvation by 43%^[17]

In recent years, women have mobilized, attempting to reverse this trend.^[16] Women in Bangladesh have arranged an organization comprising a total of 145,000 women in order to fight chronic hunger.^[16] Their goal is to reduce the number of uneducated women and promote self value, as well as to show that women are just as capable of providing for their household.^[16] Uneducated women are prone to earnining less than the average rate for women.^[16] Overall, these women are trying to eradicate chronic hunger among their children.^[16]

Seasonal hunger is known as "monga" in some rural areas of Bangladesh, specifically in the northwest.^[18] This region, also referred to as the greater Rangpur region, completely relies on a select few major rice crops.^[18] The issue with this comes from the fact that this limited number of crops only covers nine months out of the year, leaving the people of this region with an extreme food shortage for the months of September to November.^[18] A second, lesser "monga" happens annually a few months before the main and more damaging "monga" in the latter half of each year.^[19] The lesser "monga" lasts for roughly a month, occurring from mid-April to mid-March.^[19]

The population below the minimum level of energy consumption in the diet (also known as the prevalence of the undernourishment) shows the percentage of the population whose food intake is insufficient to continuously meet the requirements of food energy. The data shown as 5 represents a prevalence of undernourishment less than 5%.^[20]

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a system that measures hunger globally, regionally, and by country.^[21] It combines 4 component indicators, namely: the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population; the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from wasting, a sign of acute undernutrition; the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from stunting, a sign of chronic undernutrition; and the mortality rate of children under the age of five.^[22] In the 2020 GHI, Bangladesh was ranked as the 75th out of 107 countries. Bangladesh scores 20.4, which, according to severity scale, means that the severity of hunger is "serious".

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