Hunger on the retreat

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Shamsul Huq Zahid Bangladesh has improved its ranking in the Global Hunger Index (GHI), prepared jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. It has scaled its position up by 10 steps to secure the 58th position in the list. The GHI takes into cognizance three factors---under nourishment, child underweight and child mortality--- to count the scores and rank countries on a 100-point scale in which 'zero' is the best score, meaning no hunger and 100 the worst. What is more important is that Bangladesh is one of the 10 countries that have made significant improvement in reducing hunger since 1990. The improvement has been very much in line with the reduction in poverty in Bangladesh between 1990 and 2012 notwithstanding the fact that the rate of poverty reduction has slowed down in recent years. The improvement in hunger situation, however, leaves no room for complacency on the part of all concerned since with its current ranking Bangladesh is still placed in the group of countries where the prevalence of hunger is considered 'serious', if not 'dangerous'. Hunger is one factor that is not visible in naked eye. If one desires to know its prevalence in a given area, one has to make an extensive survey of the population, their food habit, their daily nutritional intake, body weight of children and child mortality rate. Children remain a target group of this kind of survey because they are the obvious victims of food shortage in a family. There is no denying that in most poverty-stricken families parents try to feed their children first, at times skipping their own meals. Yet undernourishment, underweight and high rate of mortality among children are the obvious signs of hunger which is again a product of poverty. Poverty has been synonymous with this part of the world for decades, even long before the creation of independent Bangladesh. In fact, poverty was uglier in 50s, 60s and 70s. So was the extent of hunger. Villages across the country wore a shabby look with thatched houses dominating the landscape. In the 60s, for instance, the population was less than half of the present one. Yet the percentage of malnourished and rickety children among the 0-5 age group was far more than that of today. Children and women of poverty-stricken families used to crowd the houses of the relatively affluent people seeking alms or foods. The annual lean period, locally known as 'kaitanis' or 'monga' was one of the most dreaded things as those used to claim a few lives every year. Many families failed to find work and hence food. There was no shortage of food, though. Many families had no source of income to buy food. Attempts, at times, are made to portray a 'happy and prosperous' country of the past. But the reality is that if not happiness, poverty and hunger, two interlinked factors, have their reduced presence now than before. In fact, even three to four decades back, there prevailed a silent famine in many pockets of the country. After a long gap, mostly for man-made reasons, the silent famine had suddenly turned visible and claimed lives of thousands of people and the administrative response to such catastrophe had always been highly inadequate. Famine in this part of the world has now become a thing of the past because higher food production, alertness on the part of the administration and improved communications system. But still there are millions of hungry faces across the country. Most of them are children. Their families do not earn enough money to buy adequate food to meet their nutritional requirements. That is why many children of the poor rural families have stunted growth and many of them are found suffering from various diseases. However, one has to recognise the fact that the country's apparel industry has saved millions of families from dying of starvation in Bangladesh. The remittance money does have a role in buoying up the rural economy, no doubt. But its benefits do not usually percolate down to poor and very poor families. Hundreds of thousands of garment workers live a difficult life just to save a part of their paltry earning and send the same to their families in villages. This money in particular has helped an innumerable number of rural families to remain afloat somehow. The men in power do often talk about guiding the country to the middle-income country status with an increase in per capita income. But will it eliminate poverty and hunger? Unlikely. There are countries that have gained the 'coveted' status of a middle income country. But they still have a substantial percentage of their population living in abject poverty. They have millions of hungry people. So, reduction, if not total eradication, of poverty and hunger does require fair and equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, generation of adequate employment opportunities and make available education and healthcare facilities to the poor at the grassroots level. [email protected]