The 'Hassans' with hunger

'Meet Hassans. Hassan's name is factitious, but the family is real.' Notes at the end of the book tells us that it is a narrative based on the detailed responses of one family to a statistically representative survey of 956 households collected by the IFPRI, BIDS and Institute of Nutrition and Food Science of Dhaka University.

Simple but substantial

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Admittedly, there are lot of books and research papers on the poor and poverty in the world and especially in Bangladesh. But for getting a glimpse of the profile of the poor, allegedly, most of the analyses anchor upon sophisticated statistics, unenduring econometrics and jawbreaker juxtaposition. Seemingly, they say something about the poor but not for the poor. And after the bout, the profiles of the poor peep at the end of the long and tiresome tunnel.

How do the poor in Bangladesh pose like? Beforehand, I could not concisely convey the profiles to my second year students. Now they can have some idea, if they like, by reading the book. However, in what follows, I shall resort to occasional paraphrasing to uphold the true meaning of the observations the authors wanted to make.

Farm endowments

We learn that the Hassan household includes a husband of 59, a wife of 44, two sons aged 14 and 11, and a grand daughter. An elderly invalid aunt also lives with them. The couples also have two other sons who have gone off to find work. Driven by utter destitutions, we suppose, the family is far from them, receiving no remittances either. The parents have no formal education but two sons are in eighth and fifth grade, respectively, in the order of age. " Like many such families, they have lost children to early death. One, a boy, died at two from tetanus, a terrible infection for which vaccination is common elsewhere in the world. A baby girl died after only seven days."

Poor though, the Hassans have few plots of inherited land but the total is tiny -- only 0.45 acres or 0.18 ha. The daily food needs of the family of six is met from these parcels. The unfriendly nature -- during monsoons -- often tells upon the tilling to add salt to Hassans' economic injury. Their home has a floor of packed earth and a thatched roof. The house is divided into three parts: one for the living of members, one for animals and another serves as kitchen. The kitchen is also used for keeping poultry birds at night. "Mrs Hassan cooks on the kitchen floor on a stove made of clay. Drinking water comes from a village well. Baths are taken in a nearby pond. Their toilet is an open pit".

Failing to feed six members from the land, Hassan picked up rickshaw pulling. Two or three passengers ride and Hassan paddles the three-wheeler. It is a job only for the poorest and the most uneducated in Bangladesh. In fact, this is the major source of the income of Hassans'; there is no surplus from the farm. Hassan works for nine hours a day, 25 days a month, and earns Tk.1200 per month. In addition to giving nine hours in pulling human and other cargo, he joins the family in tending the plots. Mrs Hassan, like another countrywoman, carries out household activities and farming but unlike many, works as a manual earth digger usually of public road improvement projects. It is periodical job. That brings for her and family Tk. 30/day. A small drop in the ocean of wants! The Hassans spend most of their time on farming throughout the year. "At harvest, Mr. Hassan takes away from his rickshaw, spending 14 hours a day harvesting and threshing. Mrs Hassan will spend 13 hours threshing in addition to time spent on household chores".

The family grows rice, wheat, jute and vegetables. Normally they are able to grow two crops on each plot each year. Mr. Hassan is mainly responsible for farming but Mrs Hassan provides a useful hand. All rice is stored for future consumption but they also buy from the market with the money they get from rickshaw pulling and earth digging. "Their largest harvests during the year were 269 pounds of rice grain and 352 pounds of rice straw from the rice crop planted during the monsoon season, which runs from June to September, plus 528 pounds of wheat and 369 pounds of byproducts raised during the dryer winter season (October-April), and 88 pounds of rice and 220 pounds of straw during the Spring (April-June)... The family picks and eats some 100 mangoes off a tree on their property each year. They own a goat and a chicken. They once owned a bullock but it died".

Asset and liability

For existence, the family has to spend on food, clothing, health, education, buying inputs, repairing the house etc. The main liability of Hassans in Bangladesh is to maintain a day's life. Some of them might have glorious past but all of them have a gloomy present. Future rests with God. All told, the family's yearly cash income is a little less than Tk 24, 000. Three-quarters of this comes from non-farm, rickshaw-pulling activity. By virtue of land endowment at 0.45 acres, they have access to NGOs and once they borrowed from a micro credit bank to meet farm expenses. They paid it back at 15 percent interest. Another time they borrowed to buy their rickshaw. The Hassans in Bangladesh have a good repayment record but, possibly, "too good" to access to public banks. The family also borrows from friends, relatives and moneylenders.

In one month, household costs were Tk.2,340. Food claimed over half and rice alone two-thirds of food expenses. Fish and vegetables a little over one-fifth. No milk or dairy products were purchased. Over six months, 12 percent of non-food costs went for medical services, clothing claimed 24 percent and roughly one-third went to sons' education and transportation, house maintenance and repairing. The seven-year-old grand daughter will someday need a dowry to be able to marry. This is future liability looming large for Hassan's family.

Hassan's hunger

In a typical 24-hour day, Mr. Hassan consumes 1,708 calories, Mrs Hassan 1,491 calories, the older son 1,491 calories, and the younger son 1,489 calories, their grand daughter 1,063 calories. The elderly aunt who is sick eats nothing, only 288 calories. By and large, the family has 7, 458 calories for six or 1,243 calories per capita, on average.

Mr.Hassan is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 104 pounds. Mrs. Hassan is 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs 78 pounds. Mr. Hassan's body mass index (BMI)-a widely used measure of adult nutrition-is 17.5, Mrs. Hassan's 16.8. Both are far from the normal BMI of 18.5-25. This means, they suffer from chronic undernourishment, as do other members. Based on nutrition recommendation for India, Mr. Hassan's recommended daily allowance (RDA) would be 2,800 calories for moderate work and 3,900 for heavy work such as rickshaw pulling and farming. Thus, his actual calories intake is 61 percent of the recommended dose for moderate work and only 57 percent of that for hard work. Mrs Hassan's RDA is 2,200 calories for moderate work and 3,000 for heavy work, such as earth digging. Her intake is 68 percent of the recommended for moderate work and only 50 percent for hard work.

Whereas the hard works are usually the hired works. A deficiency in calories in this respect would amount to a deficiency in the demand for their labour in the market and hence a lower wage. The nexus between calorie/nutrition and wage is evident. However, the older son's RDA is 2,500 calories and the younger son's 2,100 calories. The grand daughter's is 1,800 calories. Their diet is also deficient in many essential vitamins, minerals and proteins. The FAO's recommendation for South Asia is, 1,780 calories and they are below that.

The average price of rice means that it costs Tk.24 or 40 cents a day to satisfy the total of 7,458 calories for the family assuming rice is all they eat. Meeting FAO calories need would cost 70 cents a day, nearly all of the 72 cents that Hassan earns by pulling rickshaws, leaving only 2 cents for other expenses. Economists talk about the "subsistence margin"; for the Hassan's there is no margin left.

Hassan recently suffered from fever, and was unable to work for five days. "Now the family must borrow money or sell assets, perhaps even their land, to make ends meet. Poor nutrition makes them easily sickened, reduces their ability to work, and affects the children's physical development. We cannot measure what hunger does to their mental state".

How many 'Hassans'?

At the start of the twenty-first century, more than 800 million people are estimated to be chronically undernourished and food insecure and that some 1.2 billion live on the equivalent of less than a dollar per day. "Like the Hassans they eat too little to work and remain healthy, and they are hungry because they are too poor to afford enough to eat". Hassans are swelling the societies, more in South Asia. "Today, in much of the world, the hungry are rarely seen, hidden by the growing prosperity furnished by global economic expansion and increases in agricultural productivity. They are hidden, like the Hassans, in hamlets and slums in regions barely touched by the glitter of modernity. But they exist-living and dying in a state of want". (Critics say: sometimes they appear as a 'guinea pigs' in the research for poverty alleviation. The Hassans get poorer but the researchers get richer!)

The Hassans and the hopes

The authors of the book argue that Hassans need not endure this bleak existence: chronic hunger can be banished. From a discussion on the hypes hovering around the Hassans, they tend to project some hopes. Suppose it is 25 years from now. What could happen to the Hassans, their sons and granddaughter? First, consider a silver lining on the horizon. Bangladesh benefits from sustained economic growth stimulated by high exports, a boost in business climate (both foreign and domestic) and a rise in real wages along with productivity. Also suppose that -- leaving the performance of the last 25 years in store -- Bangladesh substantially improves upon governance, education (both quantity and quality), health and nutrition. Creeping corruption is seriously contained; Bangladesh witnesses a robust growth in rural paved roads and electrification to lower poverty (by say two percentage points a year as observed by 62-village survey of IRRI); investment in agriculture focuses small holder with appropriate arrangements; agricultural research and technology continue to contribute more to increased food production; missing markets are managed well etc. Last but not the least, suppose communication and information technology reach the rural areas at a much faster pace than it is now.

Pari passu the positive developments, farmers have become more prosperous while business and jobs throughout the countryside have flourished. Bangladesh has witnessed a surge in more productive non-farm activities fueled by the rapid growth in agriculture. Costly kerosene oil has been replaced by cheap electricity to help studies for longer hours, perform processing activities and have access to news and views and entertainments etc. The ripples of the "revolution" have reached the Hassans. One of Hassan's sons completed technical school and is now a computer programmer in the city. The other son is selling celluar phones in the nearsest village markets. Both sons are married and have two children. Hassan's granddaughter has finished teachers' college and now teaches in a village school. As the status of women improved during the last 25 years, dowry is not needed. Women's movement against dowry already created awareness in villages -- thanks to NGOs and other organizations -- and Hassan's granddaughter is leading the women's empowerment movement in her area. The new generation of Hassans still has rice as the staple food but many more vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy products and poultry are affordable. The children are well nourished.

Eye on 'I's

Seems dreamy? Certainly not. This could only be realised if the synergies between three 'I's -- investments, innovations, and institutions -- take place. There are ample instances where the dream came true within that span of time, even for much shorter life. Politicians and policy makers who vow to eradicate the Hassans' hunger within the next 25 years, must take serious note of the 'I's and draw policy instruments towards that direction.

But the fate may lie in store if they are not. Destitution may await the Hassans' children and grand children. There is another side. If the world gets into recession, if war breaks out, if terrorism plagues the world, if reforms come to a stand still, Bangladesh will slide backward. "Poorer, more crowded, and ecologically ravaged, racked by increasing political instability and civil unrest, the Hassans' village will be an even more desperate island in the storm than it is now".

Abdul Bayes is Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.