RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

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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 21
Socio-Economic Profiles of WFP Operational Areas and Beneficiaries cause of the nutrition gap. Maternal malnutrition (proxied by body-mass index less than the critical value of 18.5) remains high; 45% of mothers were malnourished in 1999/00 (Bangladesh PRSP, 2005). Education & Human Resources: Bangladesh has made considerable progress in recent years in expanding basic education. The overall adult literacy rate increased from 29% in 1981 to 39% in 1991 then to more than 60% in 1999. Most of this advance has occurred in the last few years. The gender gap in basic education is disappearing over time. In 1994, 35% more men than women were literate, but in 1999 that difference had declined to 26%. Underlying this progress in basic education is the rapid expansion of school enrolment at the primary level, which has increased from 59% of all school age children in 1982 to 96% in 1999. Gender parity has been achieved at both primary and secondary levels (Bangladesh PRSP, 2005; Bangladesh Human Development Report 2000; Finan et al., 2001). 22
Page 2 and 3: RURAL BANGLADESH SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRO
Page 4 and 5: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This socioeconomic
Page 6 and 7: Bibliography 97-99 TABLES & FIGURES
Page 8 and 9: Table 51 Dietary Diversity by House
Page 10 and 11: PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal P
Page 12 and 13: ♦ ♦ ♦ Household survey of 2,7
Page 14 and 15: households, who farmed on seven tim
Page 16 and 17: Water & Sanitation: Up to 97% of ru
Page 18 and 19: RECOMMENDATIONS The following recom
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Page 22 and 23: Methodology II METHODOLOGY The asse
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Page 28 and 29: Livelihoods in Rural Bangladesh: A
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