Extreme Poverty and Hunger in Bangladesh Today

EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Like India, more than half of Bangladesh's population live below the national poverty line with the majority living on less than $1 a day.

Women are still being oppressed and children abused in Bangladesh. Women remain inferior to Men and under-represented. Poverty and Hunger in Bangladesh is so extreme that about half of the children in Bangladesh are underweight and malnurished.

According to FAO, currently about 45% population in Bangladesh are below the poverty level while around 20% are hardcore poor. The population is predominantly rural, with about 85 per cent of its 135 million people living in rural areas.

For their livelihoods rural people depend mainly on land, which is both fertile and extremely vulnerable. Most of the country is made up of flood plain, and while the alluvial soil provides good arable land, large areas are at risk because of frequent floods and cyclones, which take lives and destroy crops, livestock and property.

Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries with 150 million people, 49 percent of whom live below the national poverty line.

In addition, child malnutrition rate of 48 percent is the second highest in the world, a condition that is tied to the low social status of women in Bangladeshi society. About 20 per cent of rural households live in extreme poverty. Chronically poor people suffer persistent food insecurity, own no cultivable land or assets, are often illiterate and may also suffer from serious illnesses or disabilities. Another 29 per cent of the rural population is considered moderately poor.

They may own a small plot of land and some livestock, but while they generally have enough to eat, their diets lack protein and other nutritional elements. This segment of the rural population is at risk of sliding deeper into poverty as a result of health problems or natural disasters. Injury or crop failure caused by unexpected and severe weather conditions frequently ruins the livelihoods and the hopes of many Bangladeshis.

Small-scale farmers may subsist at either of these levels of poverty. Their livelihoods are precarious, because of the seasonal nature of farm income and natural disasters such as floods and drought may periodically destroy their crops and livestock.

Women are among the poorest of the rural poor, especially when they are the sole heads of their households, such as widows or wives of men who have migrated in search of employment. They suffer discrimination because of their gender, they have scarce income and their nutritional intake is often inadequate.

Poverty reduction is the central challenge for Bangladesh. The integrated activities of the government, NGOs and people can alleviate poverty and then we may achieve our desirable digital Bangladesh

I am doing a research about poverty and hunger in Bangladesh. I will post my results here once I am done with the research. thanks very much for sharing!

Living in a country like Bangladesh constantly forces me to redraw the lines around my mental conception of poverty. A factory worker seems hard done by until you meet the construction worker. The construction worker earns your sympathy until you see the child collecting trash. The child is then outdone by a disabled beggar... When I was not immersed in this reality it was easy to treat them all as poor, to condemn all of the conditions they faced as equally bad. But in reality the poverty here is extremely complex and it isn't realistic or meaningful to treat each person's poverty as if it were the same.

With an estimated 80% of the country surviving on less than $2 a day, Bangladesh is sharply divided between those struggling to survive and those living it up. Being rich, in Bangladesh typically means being insulated and detached from the tragedies that fall upon the country.

The rich tend to congregate in Dhaka City where they live in up-scale apartment complexes and homes. These are strategically built on higher ground, in gated communities, with their own backup generators and reserve water tanks. Most of the urban rich do not have to worry about driving, cooking, or cleaning as it is relatively inexpensive for them to hire chauffeurs, cooks, and maids. Having lived in this country for the past six months, I have observed that the typical routine for rich Bangladeshis is to stay sheltered at home during floods, riots, and curfews and then - when it is all over - resume daily activities as if nothing has happened.

Bangladesh is really poor. I had a friend in school who was very opened about matters concerning his country and he did a very good paper about the extreme poverty and hunger level in Bangladesh in our history class. According to the paper, Bangladesh has no better future and that if things continue this way Bangladesh could be gone in the next 500 years.

Originally Posted by Mona Lisa

Bangladesh is really poor. I had a friend in school who was very opened about matters concerning his country and he did a very good paper about the extreme poverty and hunger level in Bangladesh in our history class. According to the paper, Bangladesh has no better future and that if things continue this way Bangladesh could be gone in the next 500 years.

Yes i agree with you Bangladesh is under development country but i do not agree that Bangladesh is extremely poor country. If you see past 10 years history of Bangladesh you will see a massive changes happening everyday. And the subject matter ["Extreme Poverty and Hunger in Bangladesh Today"] of this conversion is also disappointing for me as a Bangladeshi citizen.