Unemployment, food prices spur growing hunger in Bangladesh in the coming years
DHAKA, 22 July 2010 (IRIN): Rising unemployment and food prices and a sluggish economy are taking their toll on Bangladesh, where a growing number of people are struggling to survive.
– If I do not get work tomorrow or become ill, all my family members will go hungry, said Nur Islam, a 45-year-old Dhaka resident who hauls a rickshaw around town for 3 US dollar (17,50 DKR) a day to feed his wife and three children.
About 40 percent of Bangladesh’s 160 million people live on less than one dollar (5,80 DKR) a day and are food insecure, according to government figures. On top of that a rapidly expanding population – combined with rising unemployment, inflation, the economic slowdown and unpredictable weather-related disasters – is leading the South Asian country deeper into a food crisis.
– In recent years, devastating cyclones and floods, the dramatic increase in food prices in 2008 and the global recession have all impacted economic growth in Bangladesh, which in turn has led to a deterioration of food security and the nutritional situation in the country, Emamul Haque, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Bangladesh, told IRIN.
According to WFP, the number of people who consume less than the minimum daily recommended amount of food rose from 47 million in 1990, to 56 million in 2005. Following floods and Cyclone Sidr in 2007, that figure peaked in 2008 at 65 million.
Too poor to buy food
Nearly 60 percent of food insecure households said they were going hungry due to insufficient income, according to a study by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
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