HEALTH AND NUTRITION STATUS OF RURAL PEOPLE (A CASE STUDY ON JHILERDANGA AND BARODANGA)

1.1 Background of the study:

While the world is moving towards for persuading better society and better living environments, then the people of this country are still fighting for their basic needs, health care facility is one of them. According to WHO, “health means the condition of complete physical mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (physical and mental health).Nutrition means the process by which living things receive the food necessary for them to grow and be healthy and malnourishment refers to lack of deficiency of particular nutrients, like proteins, vitamins and minerals.

 During the last few decades, although significant improvements have been made in the health sector, yet less than 40 percent of the population have access to modern and affordable primary health care facilities and in rural area the situation is more worse. For the low level of awareness and education they are not aware about the nutrition and health care facility. So, a huge number of the people especially the children less than 5 years and pregnant women suffer it most. They suffer from different diseases like cholera, typhoid, polio, blindness etc. That makes the high mortality rate of child and mother in the rural area.

Jhilerdanga and Borodanga are two villages which are in Gutudia union, Dmuria upazilla in Khulna district. The total population of the area is about 450, most of them are farmers. There is only one primary school, a community clinic but no hospital or dispensary. People have to go nearest Koa bazaar to visit doctor and for medicine. For emergency and vital problems they have to go Khulna General Hospital or Dumuria Thana Hospital which are 10 and 2 kilometers approximately. There is only one field health adviser who gives his service to women and children in certain days but not medicine. People depend on “Gher” for fish and vegetables and they can only practice cultivation when the sweet water comes. Sometimes they have to do other supplementary jobs to support the family. There are about 20 deep tube well which is the source of the drinking water. People use pond water for household use and there is pit latrine in every house.

To promote from the recent situation food habit, food availability, availability of local health service, level of awareness about nutrition, immunization etc should promote. Then we will be able to get a healthy generation which must be our asset.

1.2  Statement of the problem:

Most of the rural people of our country don’t aware about their food habits. They think that the rich foods are the only source of nutrient foods but they don’t know there are huge amount of indigenous, cheap and common foods which can mitigate the nutrient status of rural people. They also don’t aware about hygiene, treatment of diseases, extra care of mother and so on. This unawareness of rural people ultimately is increasing the death rate of our country everyday.

1.3 Objectives of the study:

1. To explore the existing food habit of the rural people
2. To compare this food habit with a recognized standard of our country and make a relationship it with poverty line
3. To measure the contribution of the food items coming from own production and markets
4. To explore the health facilities in rural areas provided by governments and NGO’s

1.4 Justification of the study:

Bangladesh is a developing country and a large number of the people of this country live below the poverty line. Most of the basic needs of the people of our country are hardly satisfied. Food and health are the most important basic needs of human being. But very few people can meet with the standard of food nutrition and existing health facilities are not enough for serving all the people of our country.

Development of any country depends largely upon the physical well being of the people of that country. Unhealthy and people affected by malnutrition are assumed as burden not as assets for a nation.  Standard of living also depends upon existing health and nutrition status of the people of any nation.

As about 80% people of our country live in rural areas and they are less aware about nutrition and health because of poverty and ignorance. So, it is very important to make a comparison of nutrition and health status of the people of rural areas with the standard to discover the actual situation. And it is also necessary to find out the reasons behind malnutrition, indigenous sources of nutrition, mitigation measures of food crisis, required health services to meet with the standard of nutrition and health. And in this way it becomes possible to make rural people aware about their health and nutrition status.    

    

1.5 Scope of the study

Bangladesh is a poor country with a huge population and most of the people here live in the rural area. Total development and social uplifting is totally impossible without the involvement of the rural people. To attach themselves with the main stream of development basic services and needs should be available to them. Because, people of broken health always is a burden for a country and they are not able to give the country desired return. This study will help us to evaluate food habit, awareness level, hygienic use, nutrition system, immunization etc of the rural people of that are which is scenario of the rural area of Bangladesh. So, it will help to make decision in police making for health facilities for the area. It also helps to further study on the topic health and nutrition condition in rural areas.

1.6 Literature review

‘Sustainable livelihood approaches (SLA) in fisheries education and research’ edited by Nazmul, A.M. (July, 2004) funded by support for Universities Fisheries Education and research (SUPER) project, DFID/UGC this workshop paper discussed about different methods of sustainable livelihood strategies.

Tutu, A.A. (2001) in his study ‘Industrial shrimp cultivation and related issues in respect of South-West Region of Bangladesh’ has focused the social and environment problems of the shrimp cultivation in the coastal region of Bangladesh. In this publication, he focused on the social imbalance, land conflicts, increasing poverty, social insecurity and social inequity. He describes the History and background of shrimp culture in the South-west coastal region of Bangladesh.

‘Sustainable rural livelihoods’ edited by Carney. D. (1998), published by Department for International Development (DFID), produced guidelines on how best to romote improved and sustainable livelihoods framework for the rural communities and discussed of different key issues and factors which is influencing the role of aquatic resources in rural livelihoods.

K. T. Achaya, in his study ‘Standards for protein based foods in developing countries’ has focused on food standards for India. Various types or grades of protein level, fiber content, and appropriate antinutrient level has also been discussed here. He said, proteins from various sources may enter products such as protein mixes, weaning and toddler foods, biscuits, “vegetable” milks, and offspring of the latter like yogurt, ice cream, and reconstitutable powders.

Mr. Azhar H. Chowdhury (1994) in his book “Poverty Education and Social Changes” discussed about the poverty situation in Bangladesh. He found among poor life expectancy is 52 year, Adult literacy is 32.2% and perception income US $ 170. He also compared that there situation are worse than India and Pakistan.

1.7 Definition:

Poverty

Poverty status can be illustrated in many ways. Poverty can be divided in terms of income levels, food security, quality of life, asset basis, human resources capabilities, income erosion vulnerabilities and so on. According to World Bank, ‘Poverty is inability to sustain a minimum standard of living.’ It has identified ‘full poverty’ and ‘hard core poverty’ on the basis of percapita calorie intake with K.cal 2122 and 1805 respectively. It has also fixed up levels of extreme poverty and general poverty in terms of percapita annual income of US$ 273 and US$ 375 respectively. UNDP determines poverty in terms of Human Development Index-HDI and Human Freedom Index-HFI. The concept of HDI and HFI together with the percapita income faithfully measures the true state of poverty. HDI means life expectancy, adult literacy and purchasing power into a single measure. Grameen Bank defines the term ‘poor’ as a person (house hold) who has less than one acre of land holding or poverty of equivalent value.

In this study poverty status of the people has been compared with the annual per capita income of the people. 

Housing

Housing means to provide shelter for protection against wind rain and other natural calamities which is afford to provide maximum utility, safety, comfort and convenience with a background of.

Standard

Standards are important in urban planning and development, which determine the adequacy and quality of services and facilities provided. Here Standard is used for the minimum level of foods, by taking which a people can live a healthy life.

Food crisis

It is the crucial moment when the available food can’t fulfill the demand of present people and the people don’t have sufficient money to buy it. People need food but the production can’t support them. The demand is high but the supply is low. On the other hand people have no money to buy food for fulfill their demand.

Slack season

It is the season when all production is stopped. The farmers have nothing to do. No agricultural product will produce. It is for environmental reason or for economic reason.

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Location of the Study Area:

The study area is Jhilerdanga and Barodanga village in ‘Dumuria’ thana which exists to the southern part of Khulna city.

 2.2 Selection of the Study Area:

The main objective of this study is to identify the food habits and health facilities of the rural people. As Jhilerdanga and Barodanga village area is nearest rural area which satisfies all the criteria of our study it has selected as the study area for this study. There are also some other reason:

• Easy transportation system

• Easy accessibility of rural environment

• People of this area is very helpful
• Proper population and health service data can be found easily

 2.3 Data collection:

Primary Data collection:

For evaluating the existing nutrition and health status of rural people several information like existing health services, satisfaction level of the rural people, awareness level of them, food habit, expenditure for buying foods, market availability, information about own production, food crisis season, indigenous item mitigating food demand etc were collected through a structured questionnaire from the rural people.

Secondary Data Collection:

Total population of that village area, no. of health centers provided by the govt. and NGO’s and their services, standard of nutrition etc were collected from the secondary sources.

2.4 Sample size determination:

In this study the sample size has been determined as 40 household and random sampling method for selecting respondents was used.

Table: 2.1 Main variables of the study:

Variables	Objectives
Food habits of the rural people	1
Nutrition standard of our country	2
Amount and type of own production	3
Place of  food production	3
Indigenous items mitigate food demand	1,3
Market availability and expenditure for buying foods	3
Food crisis season	2
No. of health centers (Govt & NGO) & no. of population of the study area	4
Provided health services	4
Precaution of health	4
Awareness level about health and nutrition of the rural people	1,2,4

Table: 2.2 Data and data sources:

Objectives	Data sources
Objective:1	Questionnaire survey to the local people & Observation survey
Objective:2	Secondary data sources, Questionnaire & Observation survey
Objective:3	Questionnaire survey
Objective:4	Questionnaire survey & Secondary data sources

2.5 Data Processing and Presentation:

All the collected information was accumulated in a tabular format. Several computer based software like SPSS, Microsoft Excel etc were used for analyzing and graphical presentation of data. At last all the outcomes of analysis were presented with necessary text documents.