The New Nation - Internet Edition

BANGLADESH'S attainment of the Millennium Development Goal to halve extreme poverty by 2015 may not be possible due to rising inflation along with soaring food prices both locally and globally as indicated by recent statistics and trends. According to media reports, the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line may have risen to around 50 per cent from the 2005 level of 40 per cent making it difficult to achieve its target of bringing down the proportion to 29 per cent within the time-frame.

Almost 50 per cent of the families have to borrow money to buy required food items, and 47 per cent of the families have to borrow food if guests come to their homes, as stated in a recent study carried out by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. The percentage of extremely poor people has gone up to 50 per cent now because of the price-hike of food items along with others that has not been balanced by increase in real wages or sustainable employment. According to a research scholar, poverty has increased by 5-7 per cent and more alarmingly; the severity of poverty has been heightened as the nutritional status of the poorer segment has deteriorated in recent times. Similarly, some economists apprehend Bangladesh will not be able to achieve the goal of halving poverty and hunger unless domestic food prices could be offset by massive job creation for income generation for the poor. The government's safety net programmes have covered only 8-10 per cent of the population, whereas the percentage of the poor is much higher. In fact, there is no latest study on rural poverty, especially on the effects of the food price-hike on the poor. Food price index rose by nearly 40 per cent in 2007, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN.