US embassy cable - 05DHAKA5633

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 005633 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2015 
TAGS: EAID, EAGR, ECON, PGOV, TBIO, BG, AGR, CARE, CDC 
SUBJECT: MONGA - CYCLES OF POVERTY AND HUNGER IN NORTHERN 
BANGLADESH 
 
Classified By: Economic Chief David Renz, reason 1.4(d) 
 
1.  (U) SUMMARY: Each fall and winter, the northern rural 
agricultural districts of Bangladesh experience "monga," a 
period of severe food insecurity coupled with high seasonal 
unemployment as a result of natural gaps in the normal 
planting season on which these regions depend.  Government 
food programs and rice subsidies are designed to mitigate the 
effects of monga.  This year's monga has been particularly 
bad due to unusual flooding in September and October. 
Opposition leaders are pursuing their perennial tactic of 
blaming the government for an inadequate response.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (SBU) According to a draft report by CARE Bangladesh, the 
monga this year is particularly bad.  CARE cites unusual 
flooding in September and October as the most significant 
factor, noting that the floods destroyed houses as well as 
nutritionally critical standing crops of rice and vegetables. 
 There is virtually no demand for wage labor at this time, 
when need for extra household money to repair damage to homes 
and buy food is at its highest.  Many families have already 
begun a routine of eating a single, poor quality meal a day, 
leading to chronic malnutrition and, in some cases, 
starvation. 
 
3.  (U) The central government and some Union Parishad 
authorities have begun some actions to alleviate this year's 
famine in the northern regions.  The Vulnerable Groups 
Feeding (VGF) Program has been increased to reach out to more 
of the hard-core poor.  Unfortunately, there are anecdotal 
reports, both from local government sources in the north and 
the news media that there is no systematic approach to the 
manner in which the assistance is being distributed.  A 
recent news report alleged widespread corruption in the VGF 
Program.  In some localities, army staff members have been 
deployed to monitor the distribution of aid and the response 
of the local government. 
 
4.  (U) Opposition leader Sheik Hasina is trying to make a 
political issue out of alleged government failure to manage 
this year's monga.  During the SAARC Summit, she traveled to 
monga-affected districts to highlight the plight of the poor. 
 
 
5.  (U) Monga occurs in the northern region of Bangladesh 
because the soil there is naturally less fertile and the 
natural disasters and climate are more severe than in the 
rest of Bangladesh.  Instead of the three harvests typical to 
the rest of the country, Northern Bangladeshi farmers can 
generally only eke out two.  The poorest of the poor, the 
"hard-core" poor, depend on agricultural wage labor.  When 
there is no harvest, there is no food and no work. 
 
6.  (U) Pregnant and lactating women, children, the elderly 
and the disabled are the portions of the population most 
vulnerable to malnutrition during monga.  Babies are born 
underweight and begin their lives in a cycle of malnutrition 
and micronutrient deprivation that generally continues 
indefinitely.  Growth and development are stunted.  The rate 
of disease rises.  Unrest, crime, domestic violence, begging 
and the migration of men and boys to cities and richer rural 
areas all increase at this time. 
 
7.  (U) These migrating men and boys leave behind female 
family members who are unable to engage in the market economy 
or to move about due to social norms.  Many feel 
discriminated against by their neighbors and their 
families-in-law.  The women and children left behind are thus 
often unable to meet their most basic needs. 
 
8.  (U) The poorest, already deprived of many of their assets 
in these latest floods of 2005, are being compelled to sell 
what remains in order to buy food.  With houses destroyed, 
some land eroded and no money to be earned, many families are 
forced to higher ground where they must live in the open. 
Every year in this season, newspapers report deaths from 
exposure due to the cold fog that rolls in the Northern 
region and the already severely undernourished and weakened 
state of the people forced outside. 
 
9.  (U) The hard-core poor also fall deeper into the cycle of 
debt during monga.  Labor pledging is a common phenomenon. 
Men will promise to work without pay during the normal season 
in exchange for food or money during the famine time.  People 
with no alternatives will also take out usurious loans from 
local moneylenders.  When the harvest season returns, it is 
impossible for a poor family thus indebted to get ahead and 
prepare for the next season of deprivation. 
 
10.  (C) COMMENT: Although invited to the 13th SAARC Summit 
in Dhaka, Hasina instead sought to embarrass the government 
by visiting the monga districts and criticizing the 
government's response.  In doing so, she avoided even a token 
acknowledgement of the government's successful conduct of 
this year's summit, and provided another example of the often 
petty nature of politics in Bangladesh.  END COMMENT. 
CHAMMAS