Under-nutrition costs BD over Tk 70b in lost productivity every year: Survey

FE Report | Published: December 01, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Under-nutrition costs Bangladesh more than Tk 70 billion in lost productivity every year and even more in health care costs, a survey said.
The country's 39 districts out of 64 have stunting rates above the WHO critical threshold level which is around 40 per cent and 55 districts are also above WHO critical level for underweight which is around 30 per cent, it said.
These were unveiled Sunday at the launching ceremony of 'Under-nutrition maps of Bangladesh 2012' at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
State Minister for the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning MA Mannan was present as the chief guest at the ceremony.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and UN World Food Programme (WFP) conducted the survey to aid policymakers, planners and researchers in decision-making on targeted and integrated nutrition-focused development.
In Bangladesh, about four out of ten children under the age of five are chronically undernourished; they are too short for their age, a condition known as stunting. The prevalence of stunting varies notably throughout the country.
The stunting rate is the highest in Bandarban district in Chittagong division, where 47.7 per cent of the children below five years suffer from stunting. At the other end of the scale, 34.2 per cent of the children in Dhaka district in Dhaka division are stunted.
At upazila level, 300 out of a total of 544 upazilas in Bangladesh have a stunting rate above 40 per cent. Among upazilas in the districts there are significant variations in under-nutrition rates.
Within Dhaka district, which has the lowest stunting rate in Bangladesh, the stunting rate varies from 28 per cent in Dakshinkhan thana to as high as 41 per cent in Keraniganj thana.
The state minister said: "The poverty status of Sylhet and Chittagong is far better than the counterpart of Khulna."
He said Sylhet is a well-off area. But the scenario of nutrition of Sylhet in the under-nutrition map is not good which is surprising.
The survey said nutritionally-challenged regions are not necessarily the poorest. While the eastern divisions of Sylhet and Chittagong fare better at poverty status than their western counterparts of Khulna and Rajshahi, the scenario reverses in the under-nutrition maps where stunting and underweight levels are highest.
In contrast, Khulna division which possesses one of the highest poverty rates has one of the lowest stunting rates.
BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal said: "In response to a considerable demand from policymakers, researchers and the development partners for under-nutrition estimates and maps at a more disaggregated level, we started the initiative in May 2013."
WFP Representative Christa Räder said the comparison of the under-nutrition maps with other key maps such as poverty, female education and child care practices indicates that the commonly identified causes for under-nutrition do not have a similar level of effect in all areas.
"Under-nutrition in children occurs when they are not fed adequately with nutritious food such as vegetables, eggs, fish, meat and dairy," said Country Programme Manager of IFAD Hubert Boirard.
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