Between 2018 and 2020, the number of people without food security in Bangladesh increased by 2.4 percent, to a whopping 52 million, according to a recent study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report further said that 31.9 percent of Bangladeshis experienced moderate to severe food insecurity during this time, which is concerning. People often face moderate food insecurity when they are uncertain of their ability to obtain food, and have been forced to reduce the quality and/or quantity of food they consume due to lack of money or other resources. Although the report doesn't directly refer to it, the pandemic-induced economic slowdown and its resultant effects were surely a major driver behind the rise in food insecurity.

Countless studies have revealed how harsh the effects of the pandemic have been on the lives and livelihoods of people. While thousands have lost their jobs due to the losses incurred by businesses, thousands more have had their salaries reduced and/or are now underemployed compared to before the pandemic. As a result, over the last two years, 31.5 percent of our population has had to face moderate to severe food insecurity. That nearly one-third of the country's population are struggling to meet their daily necessary food intake should be a major concern for the government. Among them, there are children whose growth will be severely hampered due to undernourishment. Stunting among children would likely increase as a result. And this would undo so much of the good work that Bangladesh managed to do in the years prior to the pandemic.

While people's capacity to purchase food has gone down, we have also seen prices of essentials go up for many months now. This is further reducing people's ability to afford enough quality food. Unfortunately, the government's policy to increase fuel prices and its inability to thwart the harmful activities of trade syndicates—which have been keeping the prices up artificially—has done nothing to ease people's sufferings.

Under the circumstances, there is a big chance that undernourishment among the people will increase in the days ahead—unless the government immediately intervenes. Given that Bangladesh is already all too familiar with the long-term costs of that, we call on the government to urgently address the matter.

The government should continually work to keep prices of the essential items affordable for all—something which it has failed miserably at. It should adopt policies that would help the economy rebound quickly so that the problem of high unemployment is resolved soon. The state-run social safety net programmes need to be expanded and made less wasteful. Most importantly, the government should provide direct food aid to the people who are facing severe food insecurity, and in order to identify those people, the government should involve NGOs in its aid programmes.