True freedom elusive as ever
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Political history is replete with multiple symbols based on creed, colour, class, language, indeed anything that is exploitable in one way or the other to advance particular ends. Many such manipulations have been mischievous, such as, the sowing of sectarian seeds here, there and everywhere. Over the past half century some potent symbols may have seen us through to freedom from a pseudo-colonial dispensation. But true freedom for the people at large, freedom from all kinds of insecurities -- unemployment, underemployment, poor purchasing power, malnourishment -- has remained as elusive as ever. Decision-makers thertefore ought not to waste time flogging symbols and sentiments any more, no matter how sacred these may be. They should rather look beyond the nose, beyond rhetoric, and confront the objective reality of Bangladesh and its people in the twenty-first century world.
Amartya Sen, in one of his essays on the critical role women play in development, marvels at "the gradual transformation of Bangladesh, which was seen not long ago as a 'basket case', into a country with significant economic and social success and much promise, .............. one illustration of the dynamic power of women's agency and the consequential correlates of gender equity." This positive picture, it may be mentioned, was drawn from the remarkable success of two of the best known development organisations, Grameen Bank and BRAC. Ordinary lives outside these showcases, however, would belie such optimism. [The founder of the former is currently getting unfairly mauled by a section of the national and international media] Bangladesh is in one of the world's most fertile riverine regions, but it harbours some of the most malnourished people on earth, thanks to decades of decision-making by self-seeking politicians and bureaucrats. Should not have 'self-rule' focussed, first and foremost, on the fundamentals of human resource development -- people's right to minimum nutrition and health care, meaningful mass edu cation, right to decent livelihood and shelter ? These needs have not received the attention they deserve, as is reflected in the health and productivity profiles of the people at large. What happened to all the supposed pro-people policies successive governments were supposed to have taken ? They are all there, enshrined in the constitution, in five year plans, and various other development documents ! Although we have officially been jumping on to every internationally/ multilaterally-initiated bandwagon for development, the end results have not been commensurate with the time and money spent on them.
There are of course many factors behind this inefficiency. One reason is, most of the past decades have predominantly been a playing field for plunderers of all shades, rather than for no-nonsense builders of an economically, educationally and politically healthy nation. Political parties have been functioning all through like questionable companies, with the civil and other bureaucracies, together with commercially important lobbies, behaving as if they were home-grown colonialists, or agents of un-named powers, lording it over the people, and marginalizing their legitimate needs and desires. Consider any one of the basic needs, food security, for example.
Governments have always tended to think that food security means silos bursting with buffer stocks of grain while other essentials that go into the making of a balanced diet are barely counted. Legumes or pulses, known as the poor man's protein, have gone beyond the reach of all but the well-to-do today. Fish and vegetables are flying after greenbacks, driving prices beyond people's reach at home.
Governments are often touchy about reports of hunger and refuse to recognise anything short of a spectacular famine. But the alarming news is that a silent epidemic of malnutrition has been stalking the nation persistently over the years even while grain stocks remained full. Although a World Bank National Integrated Nutrition Project has avowedly been trying to make amends since the mid- 1990s, its performance has not been anything to write home about. There has been more publicity than sustained raising of awareness and interventions about the crucial importance of eating a sufficient quantity of basic nutrients for the health of the mind and body.
A study by the Worldwatch Institute reported in 2000 that per capita consumption of legumes in South Asia has dropped more than 50 per cent in just 40 years, resulting in widespread micronutrient deficiencies among poor communities who ward off hunger with only rice and hardly any curry. Over the past few years the crises in essential food items have been becoming more and more unbearable for the majority of Bangladesh's people. Mache Bhate Bangali has really become a myth, as the traditional, affordable fish protein has almost disappeared from the daily meals of the poor, despite the fact that Bangladesh is home to one of the richest sweet water fish resources in the region.
One report has it that children in Bangladesh have been getting shorter than their parents on average while it is the reverse in Japan and other nutrition-secure countries. It is not just the body that is at risk due to inadequate food but the brain as well fails to cope competently with the challenges in life. Should we then allow the unlimited export of fish, for example the much-loved Ilish, to earn foreign exchange ? Isn't it tantamount to robbing Bangladesh's poor the pleasure of eating this delicacy as often as they used to a decade or two ago at a reasonable price?
We hope decision makers, sooner rather than later, will tailor our nutrition policy to suit the people at large. It is unthinkable that a country with so much micro and macro level malnutrition should give away its wealth of God-given essential nutrients for 'foreign exchange' while spending a great deal of the same to import countless consumer items or raw materials in the name of food and beverages. One loses count of all the junk being imported or churned out in Bangladesh and the indiscriminate advertising to catch lifelong consumers . These packages are of very little or no nutritional value and certainly make a bad situation worse. Even the remotest villages today are found to serve many brands of low-nutrient, high calorie soft drinks rather than the traditional lebur shorbot to guests!
Policy makers ought to internalize the well-known fact that people go hungry not because food is scarce but because they do not have the means to buy enough, or the freedom to choose balanced meals. The prevalence of widespread nutrition-related health problems, ranging from mild to severe stunting and wasting in children, multiple diseases in young and old alike, are all manifestations of both macro and micro-nutrient deficiencies. Do our worthies understand the full import of this situation ? By pretending all is well with regard to people's access to balanced food, we are crippling the nation irrevocably. This is how one health scientist warns unthinking decision-makers: " When a people's diet takes a vicious path of its own impoverishment, it causes a graver mischief than any act of cruelty inflicted by an alien power."
Our policy makers should go back to school if they must, to rectify gaps in their understanding of human nutrition. In fact a comprehensive course in health science/human biology should be introduced as a core subject in all schools, as a first line of defence against diseases of malnutrition and poor hygiene, which actually account for some 80 per cent of the disease burden in Bangladesh. Such a course would begin to pay dividends as students learn how to take care of themselves and their environment, leading to better health and productivity.
Obviously, buffer stocks of rice, wheat or maize alone cannot ensure food security. A balanced diet should include other essentials --- sufficient proteins and vegetables that are kept affordable and accessible for the majority. This is the most promising single input, the first vital step, for human resource development. The second step, compulsory universal education, will work better if the health and happiness of communities who are handicapped by widespread ill-health and disease is improved through better nourishment. Negligence and corruption in this sector should therefore be dealt with as the worst kind of crime.
Amartya Sen, in one of his essays on the critical role women play in development, marvels at "the gradual transformation of Bangladesh, which was seen not long ago as a 'basket case', into a country with significant economic and social success and much promise, .............. one illustration of the dynamic power of women's agency and the consequential correlates of gender equity." This positive picture, it may be mentioned, was drawn from the remarkable success of two of the best known development organisations, Grameen Bank and BRAC. Ordinary lives outside these showcases, however, would belie such optimism. [The founder of the former is currently getting unfairly mauled by a section of the national and international media] Bangladesh is in one of the world's most fertile riverine regions, but it harbours some of the most malnourished people on earth, thanks to decades of decision-making by self-seeking politicians and bureaucrats. Should not have 'self-rule' focussed, first and foremost, on the fundamentals of human resource development -- people's right to minimum nutrition and health care, meaningful mass edu cation, right to decent livelihood and shelter ? These needs have not received the attention they deserve, as is reflected in the health and productivity profiles of the people at large. What happened to all the supposed pro-people policies successive governments were supposed to have taken ? They are all there, enshrined in the constitution, in five year plans, and various other development documents ! Although we have officially been jumping on to every internationally/ multilaterally-initiated bandwagon for development, the end results have not been commensurate with the time and money spent on them.
There are of course many factors behind this inefficiency. One reason is, most of the past decades have predominantly been a playing field for plunderers of all shades, rather than for no-nonsense builders of an economically, educationally and politically healthy nation. Political parties have been functioning all through like questionable companies, with the civil and other bureaucracies, together with commercially important lobbies, behaving as if they were home-grown colonialists, or agents of un-named powers, lording it over the people, and marginalizing their legitimate needs and desires. Consider any one of the basic needs, food security, for example.
Governments have always tended to think that food security means silos bursting with buffer stocks of grain while other essentials that go into the making of a balanced diet are barely counted. Legumes or pulses, known as the poor man's protein, have gone beyond the reach of all but the well-to-do today. Fish and vegetables are flying after greenbacks, driving prices beyond people's reach at home.
Governments are often touchy about reports of hunger and refuse to recognise anything short of a spectacular famine. But the alarming news is that a silent epidemic of malnutrition has been stalking the nation persistently over the years even while grain stocks remained full. Although a World Bank National Integrated Nutrition Project has avowedly been trying to make amends since the mid- 1990s, its performance has not been anything to write home about. There has been more publicity than sustained raising of awareness and interventions about the crucial importance of eating a sufficient quantity of basic nutrients for the health of the mind and body.
A study by the Worldwatch Institute reported in 2000 that per capita consumption of legumes in South Asia has dropped more than 50 per cent in just 40 years, resulting in widespread micronutrient deficiencies among poor communities who ward off hunger with only rice and hardly any curry. Over the past few years the crises in essential food items have been becoming more and more unbearable for the majority of Bangladesh's people. Mache Bhate Bangali has really become a myth, as the traditional, affordable fish protein has almost disappeared from the daily meals of the poor, despite the fact that Bangladesh is home to one of the richest sweet water fish resources in the region.
One report has it that children in Bangladesh have been getting shorter than their parents on average while it is the reverse in Japan and other nutrition-secure countries. It is not just the body that is at risk due to inadequate food but the brain as well fails to cope competently with the challenges in life. Should we then allow the unlimited export of fish, for example the much-loved Ilish, to earn foreign exchange ? Isn't it tantamount to robbing Bangladesh's poor the pleasure of eating this delicacy as often as they used to a decade or two ago at a reasonable price?
We hope decision makers, sooner rather than later, will tailor our nutrition policy to suit the people at large. It is unthinkable that a country with so much micro and macro level malnutrition should give away its wealth of God-given essential nutrients for 'foreign exchange' while spending a great deal of the same to import countless consumer items or raw materials in the name of food and beverages. One loses count of all the junk being imported or churned out in Bangladesh and the indiscriminate advertising to catch lifelong consumers . These packages are of very little or no nutritional value and certainly make a bad situation worse. Even the remotest villages today are found to serve many brands of low-nutrient, high calorie soft drinks rather than the traditional lebur shorbot to guests!
Policy makers ought to internalize the well-known fact that people go hungry not because food is scarce but because they do not have the means to buy enough, or the freedom to choose balanced meals. The prevalence of widespread nutrition-related health problems, ranging from mild to severe stunting and wasting in children, multiple diseases in young and old alike, are all manifestations of both macro and micro-nutrient deficiencies. Do our worthies understand the full import of this situation ? By pretending all is well with regard to people's access to balanced food, we are crippling the nation irrevocably. This is how one health scientist warns unthinking decision-makers: " When a people's diet takes a vicious path of its own impoverishment, it causes a graver mischief than any act of cruelty inflicted by an alien power."
Our policy makers should go back to school if they must, to rectify gaps in their understanding of human nutrition. In fact a comprehensive course in health science/human biology should be introduced as a core subject in all schools, as a first line of defence against diseases of malnutrition and poor hygiene, which actually account for some 80 per cent of the disease burden in Bangladesh. Such a course would begin to pay dividends as students learn how to take care of themselves and their environment, leading to better health and productivity.
Obviously, buffer stocks of rice, wheat or maize alone cannot ensure food security. A balanced diet should include other essentials --- sufficient proteins and vegetables that are kept affordable and accessible for the majority. This is the most promising single input, the first vital step, for human resource development. The second step, compulsory universal education, will work better if the health and happiness of communities who are handicapped by widespread ill-health and disease is improved through better nourishment. Negligence and corruption in this sector should therefore be dealt with as the worst kind of crime.