Why is Bangladesh falling behind in the hunger index?
Over a hundred years ago poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote ‘a hungry child does not look for autonomy, rather for a bowl of rice’. That was the British colonial period. But Bangladesh achieved freedom 51 years ago. Before that it was a wing of Pakistan formed by dividing British India. But even after this long time we could not move much ahead in the hunger index.
Out of 121 countries ranked in the Global Hunger Index-2022, Bangladesh was positioned at 84th, a fall by eight notches from the previous year. Bangladesh was ranked 76th in the Global Hunger Index-2021. The GHI is calculated taking into consideration four issues -- malnutrition, height of below 5 children, death rate and weight in comparison to height. Research is hardly required to know that many people in Bangladesh do not get nutritious and adequate amounts of food. Taking a look around is enough to know that.
Scoring 0 in the GHI means there is no hunger in the country while scoring 100 means there is severe hunger. This year Bangladesh scored 19.9, which was 19.1 in the previous report. This suggests we are not very far from the level of hunger that is “serious” (score 20.0-34.9). According to the GHI report, most of emaciated (in comparison to height) children and victims of malnutrition live in South Asia.
Of the eight South Asian countries, Sri Lanka and Nepal scored better than Bangladesh, which is marginally better positioned than India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is no scope to be complacent thinking we have performed better than India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Falling by eight notches in just a year is an ominous sign. It could be that the situation has worsened following the price hike of foodgrains globally due to Russia-Ukraine war.
Despite the government policymakers’ continuous claim of dispelling “manga” (seasonal famine) from the northern districts, they could not resolve the hunger crisis of a large number of people. Food production in the country has grown manifolds in the recent years but that does not mean it was possible to supply food to all the citizens.
The government must pay attention to meet the fundamental rights, especially providing food, to the citizens before anything else. But the list of the government’s important development projects does not suggest the policymakers are giving much importance to meeting the demands of food. And well-placed beneficiaries snatch away the rights of poor people.
The food situation became vulnerable as the supply system collapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the situation is vulnerable now due to the excessive price hike of food though the supply system has become normal. The inflation rate is high for the last few months though people’s income has not risen. As a result, though there is supply of food in the market, it is not possible for the poor and low income to buy that. That is why we see the queue of people is growing continuously in front of TCB shops and trucks.
In such a context, rather than making that tall claims of exporting rice after meeting domestic needs and that the country has become self-sufficient in food, the government should take effective steps immediately to ensure food safety for all the citizens. Growing or importing more food will not resolve the hunger crisis. Effective steps have to be taken to increase the purchasing capacity of the citizens.