Looming menace of malnutrition

The situation of child malnutrition in the country has deteriorated. It was far from satisfactory in the past but it worsened further between 2011 and  2013. This is indicated by the findings of a report - National Food Policy Plan of Action and Country Investment Plan - that was released recently by the ministry of food. It mentions that the child population, affected by acute malnutrition, was around 16 per cent of the country's total in 2011. This situation deteriorated further with the number of such children rising by two percentage points in 2013, despite efforts on the part of the government and non-government organisations to help tackle the problem of acute malnutrition. Although poverty has reduced over the years, an increasing level of malnutrition among the younger citizens signals a note of alarm. It overshadows much of what has been achieved in curbing poverty.

The rate of acute malnutrition among children, as the report notes, is alarmingly on the rise. It is affecting both the low-income and the relatively well-off families. While poor families cannot afford to meet even the basic dietary needs of their children, the well-off, as the report mentions, are unaware of the nutritional ingredients of the food they offer their children. It further says 15.4 per cent of the country's children from the well-off families and 21.1 per cent from the poor families suffer from malnutrition. The case of chronic malnutrition among children under six, according to the report, is most upsetting. It is likely to have a long-lingering effect on the future life of the victims, causing maladies that among others include growth retardation. This is already evidenced by the fact that a growing number of the country's young people are less than the normal height they should be. This, no doubt, is contrary to the trend in most parts of the world.

It is true that there are currently more societal initiatives than in the past to make the parents aware of the importance of nutritious food and the nutritional value of various foodstuffs. In this context, the worsening state of malnutrition among the country's children, as revealed in the latest findings of the official report, calls for a methodical approach to the problem in order to be able to identify the reasons of this growing menace. The report attributes the overall degradation of the country's nutritional situation to malnourishment of the mothers themselves, poor breast-feeding practice, jobless or poorly-paid parents, inadequate sanitation etc. All such issues are, however, too generalised in nature to be addressed, and hence there is the need to examine the situation from close quarters. This may require a scrutiny of the pattern of food intake in poor families in various zones of the country.

What the report has actually brought to light is that curbing poverty, though highly laudable in a country like Bangladesh with high population density and overpopulation, is not an end by itself. The reality remains that poverty reduction becomes meaningless if malnutrition persists, that too at the afore-mentioned rate, to cripple an entire population. Disturbing as it is, the report must be taken with all seriousness. Despite limitations on the part of the government, it is a matter of utmost importance that steps are in place to address the crisis that is on the prowl to frustrate many positive growth initiatives.