RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Livelihoods in Rural Bangladesh: A Secondary Review of the Socio-Economic Context
was wide variation between districts, ranging from a maximum per capita intake of 2,470
kcal in Dinajpur to a minimum of 1,819 in Bagerhat.
‘Very high’ food insecurity has been documented particularly in the northwest and along the
major river systems, which are prone to drought and flooding at different times of year.
Riparian areas are subject to the additional risk of riverbank erosion. Approximately ten
million people live in close proximity to the major rivers in extreme erosion- and floodprone
conditions. At least half of the land surface is subject to inundation. Even in a normal
year, thousands of people lose their homes and lands to flooding, affecting approximately
2,400 km 2 each year. Between 1982 and 1992, Bangladesh suffered a net loss to river
erosion of 87,000 ha of mainly agricultural lands. Accreted lands do reappear further
downstream as chars, but it is impossible to identify where the new land came from, and
establishing title is a matter of power and influence, rather than compensation for loss.
Informal settlers on char lands are among the poorest and most oppressed in the country.
Half of all agricultural households are now classified as ‘functionally landless’, and it is
estimated that over half of the rural landless in Bangladesh lost their land to riverbank
erosion. Coastal communities, where cyclones and tidal waves are a regular threat to lives
and livelihood assets, and the low-lying flood-prone haor areas of the northeast, are also
amongst the most vulnerable regions of the country (Gill, 2003).
Food security is characterized by gender bias – women are more food insecure than men –
and by ethnic bias. Poverty and deprivation are substantially higher among the ethnic
minority who populate the Chittagong Hill Tracts than among the mainstream population
(Sutter, 2000). Perhaps surprisingly, it is also higher among the Muslim majority than among
members of minority faiths. The proportion of Muslims living below the upper poverty line
is 50.2%, compared with 45.9% for non-Muslims, while the corresponding figures for the
lower poverty line are 34.4% and 27.6% respectively (Gill, 2003).
Nutrition: Anthropometric measures for child nutritional status suggest that significant
numbers of children in Bangladesh continue to suffer from malnutrition. The stunting rate
for children in the age group 6-71 months declined from 68.7% in 1985/86 to 49% in
1999/2000 and 43% by 2004. The proportion of underweight children in the same age group
has seen a parallel decline from 72% to 51%. Notwithstanding these improvements, the
absolute level of child malnutrition remains a critical developmental challenge. Seventeen
percent of children throughout Bangladesh are severely stunted. The prevalence of stunting
increases with age from 10% of children less than six months old to 51% of children aged
48-59 months. Thirteen percent of Bangladesh children are considered to be underweight for
their height or wasted and one percent is severely wasted. The wasting peaks at age of 12-23
months at 24% and is 10% for children aged 48-59 months. Forty eight percent of children
are considered underweight (low weight for age) and 13% are classified as severely
underweight (BDHS 2004).
Additionally, there are considerable rural-urban differences: 47% of rural children are
stunted compared to 35% of urban children. Approximately half of the population live
below the upper poverty line (2,122 kcal per day) and a third below the lower poverty line
(1,805 kcal per day). Although food consumption among the poor is increasing,
undernutrition indicators remain alarmingly high, and the rich-poor gap is growing. Women
and girls are distinctly disadvantaged: the female-male gap for the severely stunted has
increased from 10% in 1996/97 to 16% in 1999/00. Intra-household discrimination is one
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