World of hunger

“We have terrible hunger here.” This sentence was uttered by a coachman of a horse-drawn carriage in a story Baire (Outside) by Hasan Azizul Haque. A group of urban tourists came to visit Shilaidaha Kuthibari probably to do a little practice on Rabindranath along with the attraction of hunting birds and enjoy picnic. The coachman cooked rice and chicken. As the group sat down on the lawn to eat huge crowd of hungry people surrounded them. As they sat down to eat a huge crowd of hungry people surrounded them. In front of their hungry gaze it became impossible for the urban party to enjoy the taste of smelling food. While reading this story the reader feels how another Shilaidaha appears tearing the well-known Rabindra atmosphere. No sound but hard rock of reality hits the chest of readers that cannot be moved nor removed and denied.

Hunger still haunts the world. In June, 2021 Stephen O'Brien, the UN Security Council's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement that hunger and famine are major threats to more than 40 million people in 43 countries around the world. Without collective effort people would die of starvation and disease. He called for immediate release of 4.4 billion dollar emergency fund for Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northern Nigeria. He also called for an unhindered and safe humanitarian operation to protect the four countries from the catastrophic conditon.

Around 6.5 million people in South Sudan are under extreme famine which is basically man-made, caused by a long-running conflict between two groups there. Similarly, 50 per cent (62 lakh) Somalians population are suffering from malnutrition and are under threat of death due to hunger and disease. 2.7 million people in Kenya are under deplorable condition. This number was apprehended to reach 4 million by April, 2022. In a statement issued in June, 2022 the agency informed that due to violence and lack of alertness to climate change global hunger situation has been deteriorating since 2016. About 89 crore people in the world go to bed with hunger every night. World Bank says that 1/3rd population of Afghanistan do not get minimum food.

Meanwhile, price hike of basic food items have made food security and hunger situation more fragile. The agency also expressed concern about the number of people dying from malnutrition in the world. An emergency 600 crore dollar fund has been demanded to help these countries (report -Al Jazeera).

Amid such terrible backdrop worldwide position of Bangladesh is relatively good. According to report published on 5th December 2021 Bangladesh has made one-step progress in fight against hunger. According to the World Hunger Index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Bangladesh's score has come down to 19.1 points from 20.4 last year. As a result, considering the level of hunger, Bangladesh has risen from severe to tolerable. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) or World Appetite indicator is prepared on 4 standards – rate of malnutrition, rate of underweight children below 5 years in comparison to age, rate of underweight of children of 5 years and rate of mortality of children below 5 years.

The best score on this index is 0 (zero) and the worst is 100. If the score increases hunger situation worsens and vice versa. Position of countries in this score is grossly divided into 5 steps to indicate the food and nutrition situation. 50+ score - extremely dangerous, 35- 49.9 dangerous, 20-34.9 – severe, 10 - 19.9 –tolerable (Bangladesh is within this range), below 9.99 - critical. Bangladesh has improved in appetite index also securing 65th position out of 108 countries in 2020 which was 76th out of 116 countries in 2021.

International Food Policy Research Institute has reported that Bangladesh has made significant progress in hunger index since 2012.From severe (26.6) Bangladesh has improved to 19.1(tolerable). Child malnutrition rate has also dropped in recent decades from 51.1 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2019. The report says, "These improvements have been made possible by the government's firm commitment, determination and action to tackle malnutrition as part of Bangladesh's way to achieve the status of a developed country by 2041."

In terms of score in 2021, Bangladesh is ahead of neighboring India (26.5) and Pakistan (24.8), equal to Nepal but behind Sri Lanka (18). Similar to earlier year, Sri Lanka is at the top among the South Asian countries in hunger index. War-devastated Afghanistan (28.3.) is at the bottom.

Bangladesh is in the middle position in this list. India is placed at risk along with Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, the Central African Republic, Yemen, Burundi, Comoros, South Sudan and Syria. This information has been given in an index published on Thursday (October 14). The index was created by the Irish charity Concern World Aid and the German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe.

Famous writer Hasan Azizul Haque, passed away in last November, has artistically picturised this shattered and disastrous humanity in his story. Long ahead of it Kazi Nazrul Islam, in his poem Amar Kaifiat (My Defence, compiled in 1926) wrote –“a hungry child does not want Swaraj, he wants only some rice and salt, his tiny belly burns with hunger.” This is the hard reality that without food everything is futile. Teenage poet Sukanta Bhattacharya wrote that to a hungry man the full moon is just like a half-burnt bread. Apart from these there are many quotes on hunger but removing hunger is a prime duty of state and society.

Statistics may provide an apparent satisfaction for state authority but it does not remove hunger. We must remember that hungry men are angry men and angry men do not remain silent for long time. Once they turn violent. Violent men are dangerous men and dangerous people can cause any disaster. Its evidence are abundant in history, past and recent.

The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes. He can be contacted at chinmayprasunbiswas@yahoo.com