IT is a stunning disclosure at a seminar that about one-third of Bangladesh nationals are still deprived of adequate meals. It is sad indeed when the government claims a phenomenal success in development and improving the living standard of people. Why then so many people become unable to meet their fundamental demands: food, clothing, shelters, healthcare, and education. The government is implementing mega projects but the poor are getting poorer. The ever-widening income gaps and spreading corruption help the vested quarters to become richer while the people in lower strata of life are only falling back.
A study, conducted jointly by BRAC University and Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia, said that one-third people in the country consumed less than 1,800 kcal a day. In other words, a third of our people do not have enough food to eat. The country’s nutritional status is improving but it has a long way to go for ensuring nutritious food for all. Economists said the government’s plan-gent growth is basically centered to create some roads and highways in the cities but the real development in terms of employing people and distribute the dividend of growth is largely absent.
The latest government survey told us a fourth of the country’s people are poor and over half of them live below lower poverty line. Poverty restricts their access to food and those having access to food are not sure about the quality of food they are eating. There will hardly be any security as long as the food is adulterated. Nutrition-based poverty index has always been higher than income-based poverty in the country, indicating a lack of knowledge about nutritious food among the people.
Besides raising awareness about nutritious food and balanced diet, the government needs to ensure that foods available for consumption are safe. Horribly, the number of the overweight population has increased by nearly 2 percent in last five years. The situation may be the result of people’s dependence on one crop – rice – as the main source of their energy. International Food Policy Research Institute revealed that 71 percent of energy comes through consumption of rice in the country and most of the farmers in the country produce only one crop – rice. The trend is changing but in snail pace.
We ask the government to invest more in food and other basic demands instead of wasting taxpayers’ money in building concrete jungle or in spending in corruption. It is the basic obligation of the government to establish a society where all people get minimum foods and other basic needs.
