Malnutrition still a big challenge

Numerous children and adolescents in Dhaka are suffering from malnutrition due to poor living conditions in slums and consumption of unhygienic street food, said the speakers at a session yesterday.

They made the remarks at a roundtable titled "Rapid Urbanisation Effects on Nutrition Transition; Challenges and Possible Solutions for Proper Nutrition Service Coverage", organised by Dnet and supported by Nutrition International, held in  Dnet's office in the capital.

"Despite housing a large share of urban population, slums are underdeveloped. In addition, people who live in urban regions frequently prefer to buy food rather than prepare it, as their professional lives are hectic and demanding," said Saiqa Siraj, country director of Nutrition International.

"National Nutrition Policy 2015 and the National Urban Health Strategy 2020 focused on rural health but overlooked the urban nutrition system. Thus, slum dwellers have poorer nutritional status in comparison to rural area residents," said Prof Dr Nazma Shaheen of Institute of Food and Nutrition, Dhaka University.

Dr Md Khalequzzaman, associate professor of BSMMU, Dr Sabrina Rasheed, scientist at icddr,b; Dr Nusrat Jahan, deputy director of Bangladesh National Nutrition Council; Rowsan Ara Begum, food safety officer at Bangladesh Food Safety Authority, and Dr S M Mustafizur Rahman of World Bank, also spoke at the discussion.