Government food aid far from adequate to meet hunger, nutrition
Food being distributed as relief by the government among the poor is far from adequate to meet the demand for food and nutrition as the recommendations of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council are ignored.
The disaster management and relief ministry secretary Shah Kamal told New Age that they failed to meet the nutrition value as they were focused on meeting the hunger of the needy.
But several upazila-level officials involved in relief distribution told New Age that the food they were distributing among the people was not enough for a family to survive over a month, as a result they were urging the local rich to extend their support.
‘It is true that we are failing to meet the nutrition value as we are focused on alleviating hunger,’ Shah Kamal said.
He also said that a guideline to ensure food nutrition was sent to the local administration as they were collecting food items from the locality based on need and availability.
Some upazila nirbahi officers confirmed New Age that they did not get any nutrition guideline since Sunday.
BNNC director general M Khalilur Rahman told New Age that the authority made a special food aid package considering the COVID-19 crisis and it was sent to the relief ministry.
He said that the package was made following the request of the ministry concerned.
On March 12, with the request from the ministry of disaster management and relief and the ministry of health and family welfare, an 11-member technical/expert committee headed by Khalilur Rahman was formed.
The committee was asked to assess food requirements for different age and target groups, review the items and contents of the current dry food basket for relief and to recommend nutrition-balanced food basket for different age and target groups in consideration of the cost of the food, nutrition value, safety, availability, accessibility, transportation, distribution, storage facility and food preparation and current complexities of the COVID-19 situation, said health ministry officials.
Dhaka University Institute of Nutrition and Food Science professor Nazma Shaheen, who worked as a member of the committee, told New Age that the committee submitted their report with the ministry in early April.
In its recommendation, the committee recommended 14.25 kg rice, 1.5 litres fortified vegetable oil, 1.5 kg lentil, 1.5 kg onion, 0.25 kg salt, 7.5 kg potato, 0.25 kg curcuma longa, 0.25 kg coriander, 5 kg tilapia fish, 0.75 kg green chilli, 0.25 kg dry chilli, 3 kg borboti, 3 kg sweet pumpkin and 3.75 kg red spinach for 10 days of a five-member family.
She said that they recommended the ministry to provide rice, lentil, oil, onion, potato and salt centrally and asked the local administration to include the rest of the items form the locality or give each poor family Tk 1,300 in cash so that they could buy those items.
She said that they made the food package following the guideline of the World Health Organisation.
Ramganj upazila nirbahi officer Muntasir Jahan told New Age that she was distributing five to six kg rice and some other food items including potato and oil among the jobless people.
She said that she urged the local rich people to help the poor as government’s aid was not enough for the poor families.
Chirirbandar upazila nirbahi officer Aysha Siddika told New Age that she was trying to arrange food aid from non-government sources also for some families as there was scope for providing food aid to a family twice.
She said that the government aid would help a family to survive for five to six days.
The committee report said that the food supplied to the poor can meet the demand of a five-member family for only 5.5 days.
A healthy man or woman needs 2,100 kcal energy every day and the food from the government can meet the demand of the five-member family for only 5.5 days, said the report.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
