60pc women at risk during pregnancy
For having nutritionally inadequate diets, around 60 percent of Bangladeshi women between ages 19 and 49 years are at risk of pregnancy complications and of having underweight babies, said a nutritionist of Helen Keller International (HKI)-Bangladesh.
Meredith Jackson-de Graffenried also observed that for having such a diet, around 30 percent of girls aged between 10 and 18 years were stunted and 40 percent underweight.
Moreover, some 24 percent of married adolescent girls and women are undernourished and 13 percent stunted, she said citing the government's “Food security and nutrition surveillance project-2012”.
She was addressing a discussion, “Institutionalizing gender in nutrition and agriculture intervention”, HKI-Bangladesh and World Fish jointly organised in a hotel in the capital marking International Women's Day, observed on Saturday.
Women's diets lack diversity resulting in malnourishment and birth of undernourished babies, she said, adding that underweight babies are more susceptible to morbidity.
Admiring the decline in Bangladesh's maternal mortality rate, Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Heather Cruden said adolescent girls were unable to remain in schools for, among others, being undernourished and subjected to harassment and violence. She, however, stressed that the government must remove barriers to women's health and nutrition which are ultimately hindering progress in achieving Millennium Development Goals.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki, Spring Bangladesh Country Manager Aaron Hawkins and HKI-Bangladesh Country Director Erica Roy also spoke.
HKI also presented an award on Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha journalist Selina Sheuly for her reporting on women's health last year.
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