Hunger in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the densely populated countries in the world; a home for more than 160 million people. It progresses immensely in human development, particularly in the areas of literacy and life expectancy, but economic inequality has increased and about 32%, i.e. 50 million people still live in extreme poverty. Hunger in Bangladesh is one of the major issues that affects the citizens. In Bangladesh 40% of the country falls under three categories: hunger, starvation and chronic hunger. There are many consequences of hunger, namely malnutrition, under nutrition, child stunting and child wasting. According to UNICEF , there are three main outcomes: underweight (moderately) 36.4%, stunting is at 41.3%, wasting is at 15.6%. Child stunting is defined as a child being two standard deviations lower than average height for their age and child wasting is a child who is two standard deviations lower than average weight for height. Hunger is an issue that has stagnated over the years, yet Bangladesh has shown tremendous efforts towards hunger reduction in the last couple of years, particularly during one of their hardest times during the late 1970s, although the early 2000s were also challenging. During this famine period, many farmers  had no idea how to provide food given the land lacked nutrients due to aggressive farming. Causes. Factors that contribute to the hunger over various states of Bangladesh is lack of resources and education. "BMC Public Health" defines hunger as "Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways". History. Following the war for their liberation in 1971, Bangladesh was faced with a multitude of problems, both physical and economical. Their economy was seriously lacking and they had to deal with trying to fix all of  the physical damage that was caused by the fighting. Later on in 1974, Bangladesh was hit by an intense monsoon that wiped out most of the crops for that year. The monsoon, paired with existing issues, like those caused by the war for liberation, created a massively devastating famine. Statistics. Hunger in Bangladesh middle and lower class population is growing at a fast rate compared to other south Asian countries and hunger is still an issue. Bangladesh has improved economically but still faces national huge hunger problem with approximately 40 million close to starvation. Global Hunger Index is ranking system  that measures hunger globally, regionally, and by country. Bangladesh currently ranks 90 out of 118 countries. Children suffering from chronic hunger are dying every 5 seconds. Children. Food Security Nutritional Surveillance Project conducted studies vulnerable zones: coastal belt, eastern hills, hoar region, Padma chars, northern chars. In total there were 14,712 children from 6–59 months of aged who suffered from food insecurity. Majority of the children who suffer from hunger live in rural areas making up 94% of the experiment. Adults. Hunger and malnutrition not only effect the children but also older individuals; a study in Matlab which is located  55 km south east of Dhaka 850 elderly people greater than 60 years of age were part of the survey data. During the duration of the experiment 63 died due to hunger and 11 individuals migrated. The results showed that due to hunger women were more likely to develop chronic illnesses. The chronic illnesses that were developed were tied to the malnourishment they had as children. Locational data. Seasonal hunger is known as "monga" in some rural areas of Bangladesh, specifically in the northwest. This region, also referred to as the greater Rangpur region, completely relies on a select few  major rice crops. The issue with this comes from the fact that this limited number of crops only covers nine months out of the year, leaving the people of this region with an extreme food shortage for the months of September to November. A second, lesser "monga" happens annually a few months before the main and more damaging "monga" in the latter half of each year. The lesser "monga" lasts for roughly a month, occurring from mid-April to mid-March. Historical data. The population below the minimum level of energy consumption in the diet (also known as the prevalence  of the undernourishment) shows the percentage of the population whose food intake is insufficient to continuously meet the requirements of food energy. The data shown as 5 represents a prevalence of undernourishment less than 5%. Global Hunger Index. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a means of calculating and tracing hunger and undernutrition at global, regional, and national levels. GHI combines 4 component indicators. Bangladesh GHI. In the 2020 GHI, Bangladesh secures 75th position out of 107 countries. Bangladesh scores 20.4 , which is, according to severity scale, the level of hunger is "serious". Impact. Food availability can have perception and  behavioral consequences. Trials were held in Gaibandha District in northwestern Bangladesh to study a household's food insecurity ranking. Certain domains were established within 6-month period to measure food insecurity. Results were that 65% of the households were suffering from hunger had a woman as head of the house; 35% men were the head of the household. Gender bias. In certain house holds , there are gender preferences on feeding their members. In small villages where males are held in a different standards, parents will feed their sons over their daughters. Apart from effects of mother nature, it has also  been recorded that the head of the household has a great impact in regards to the food consumption. In Bangladesh women are still discriminated and are seen as inferior. Household where females are the bread winner is correlated to less food on the table. Women make up 32% of the individuals under the poverty line. In some cases if the women in the household are educated it reduces their chance of starvation by 43% In recent years women have mobilized to try reverse this trend. Women in Bangladesh have arranged an organization to fight chronic hunger; a total of 145,000  women. Their goal is to reduce the number of uneducated women and promote self value and show that women are just as capable of providing for their household. Uneducated women are prone to earn a less than the average rate for women. Overall these women are trying to eradicate chronic hunger among their children. During this hard time, the number of children and elders who have passed away has increased by 30%. It wasn't until the United States pressured Bangladesh politicians to help their farmers. Impact of Climate change on food security. Over the past two decades, floods, droughts  and hurricanes have increasingly caused major economic losses and livelihood damage in Bangladesh. Agriculture is a major industry that accounts for nearly 20% of GDP and 65% of the labor force, and faces huge risks. Agriculture is a major industry that accounts for nearly 20% of GDP and 65% of the labor force, all are at risk. Adaptation to climate change and its alleviation are the core issues of sustainable development and food security in Bangladesh.Bangladesh's agriculture relies heavily on the specific conditions of the annual floods because they recognize that large-scale floods that occur infrequently can  have catastrophic effects. Climate change is expected to reduce the output of rice, Bangladesh’s main crop, and increase the country’s dependence on other crops and imported grains.On the whole, due to climate change, Bangladesh's agricultural GDP is expected to decline by 3.1% per year. These will not only affect the agricultural sector, but also the entire food chain, right down to household consumption. Bangladesh on SDG 2 (Zero hunger). Due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, poverty and extreme poverty are coming back to people lives, who had overcome themselves from the curse of poverty prior to  this pandemic. The reasons include but are not limited to: unemployment, quarantine, and lockdown. People who live on poverty margins cannot buy food, and have a hard time gaining access to nutritious food. The government must play a pivotal role in this difficult period by providing food or guiding different groups to collect money to guarantee that nobody is hungry in this critical situation. To achieve this intricacy, we must strive sustainable agriculture. Action against hunger. What should be done? According to the World Bank, Bangladesh loses about 1% of its agricultural land annually. This leads to scarcity, as  not all land is arable.