Bangladesh should immediately enact the Right to Food Act and implement it to ensure self-sufficiency in food and required nutrition for the poor and extremely poor people in the country, speakers observed at a dialogue in the city on Sunday.
"Enactment of the Right to Food Act is a demand of the time," said Mohsin Ali, general secretary of the Right to Food Movement.
Arshad Hossain Siddiqui, lobby and advocacy expert for South & Central Asia Region at ICCO Cooperation, a global non-governmental organisation, echoing Mohsin Ali said: "An act on the right to food and safe food has to be formulated. The constitution guarantees the right to food. Now it should be legally established."
Jointly organised by the Right to Food Bangladesh and the ERF, the dialogue styled "Need to Enact a Food Right Act and the Role of Media" was held at the conference room of the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) in the city.
In Bangladesh, the poverty rate is 21.8 per cent, what means of the country's total 163.6 million people, 35.5 million are under the poverty line.
The extreme poverty rate is 11.13 per cent, or about 20 million of the total population, said Mohsin Ali, quoting the Planning Commission data.
About 25 million people are suffering from malnutrition, he said.
Ali, also the executive director of the Wave Foundation, said the access to adequate food is seen in the light of a right. The United Nations also declared it as human rights.
The first two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also address poverty and hunger.
He said Bangladesh has made impressive progress in economic and social sectors.
"Now nobody dies from hunger. But there are seen slow death and early death for not having access to required amount of food and nutritious food for years after years," he observed.
Mohsin Ali urged the government to take measures to provide skill training, fund and employment opportunities to the people belonging to the extreme poverty group, so that they can graduate from their current position.
Siddiqui of ICCO Cooperation said as Bangladesh is marching towards a middle income country, the right to food should be legally established.
About 20 million people either go to bed unfed or do not have adequate food, he said.
"Bangladesh's graduation to a middle income country will not be meaningful, if we can't improve the condition of this group of people."
The event was organised in association with the Christian Aid and the ICCO Cooperation.
ERF General Secretary SM Rashidul Islam moderated the discussion.
[email protected]
