The Daily Prothom Alo of 18 September published another report under the headline "Mother said, 'no food, eat poison'; the haughty girl did so." As the story goes, Motalab Matubbar of Hajikandi village of Madaripur district left home six months ago in search of work. His wife, Chandra Banu, has been supporting the family of two daughters and a son by working as a maid in neighbours' houses. During the recent incessant rain, Chandra Banu could not work and get any food for her children. In Shibchar Hospital, the mother told the newsmen that for the last two days she had no food to cook. Starving Rumana asked her for food. Frustrated, she told the girl to take poison. That night Rumana drank pesticide to take her life.

The above incidents represent the most cruel and ultimate solution to hunger. However, such incidents are not common, although there is a commonality in them. The commonality is that girls and women usually take their lives because of hunger, boys do not. Boys normally have other options -- other than committing suicide.

It is not surprising that girls or women face cruel deaths in the face of hunger. Because of the prevailing patriarchal mindset, women are the poorest of the poor, hungriest of the hungry and most powerless among the powerless. Deprived throughout history, women suffer most in any calamity, whether natural or manmade. The society has also accepted it. For, most of us -- in our thoughts and actions, beliefs and attitudes, consciously and unconsciously -- are intolerant to women and some are even against women.

Deprivation of women is almost as old as human history. Our sayings and our folklores are full of stories of marginalisation and dehumanisation of women -- which obviously reflect the conditions in the society. Even the sculptures found in historic Mohastangar depict the story of mistreatment of women by men. These clearly indicate that over centuries men spent a great deal of their creative energies on humiliating women.

Along with physical and mental tortures, the society has also created an image of "ideal" women which does not serve them well. Women have been severely depriving themselves while trying to be perfect women and perfect wives. To meet these illusive images, they have been silently enduring mistreatments, compliantly accepting deprivations, and even eating last and the least. Such is the life of the women of Bangladesh -- discriminated against from the cradle to the grave. The consequence of this dehumanising condition can be truly fatal in poverty stricken societies. The cruel deaths of Mitu, Moni and Rumana is a blunt reminder of it. Yet we do not seem to get it!

Even though such suicidal deaths seldom happen, people -- especially children -- regularly die of hunger. Causes of deaths of the Moni's are visible, but more devastating is invisible or silent hunger. According to the World Food Programme, worldwide 24,000 of our fellow human beings die of hunger everyday. By the estimates of the World Bank and UNICEF, 600-700 people die of hunger-related causes in Bangladesh per day. Victims are usually children, mostly girl children. These deaths have been happening day after day, week after week and year after year.

According to UNICEF's State of the Children 2004, a total of 3,23,000 of Bangladeshi children under the age of five suffered from malnutrition in 2002. They suffered from invisible or chronic persistent hunger. Invisible hunger is a silent killer. The immune system of malnourished children does not fully develop. As a result, children die of diseases like diarrhea, which is not viewed as a fatal disease. Over 2,50,000 of our children die of diarrhea every year. However, diarrhea accounts for only 19 per cent of hunger related deaths. Others die of other hunger related diseases. For example, chronic respiratory infection kills 19 per cent, measles 7 per cent, malaria 5 per cent, perinatal 18 per cent and other diseases 32 per cent. Although the apparent causes of these deaths are different diseases, malnutrition is the hidden cause.

Hunger related deaths are most unwarranted. There is no natural calamity behind them. Nor there is man-made conflict. Such deaths in a sense represent a "genocide," whose cause is invisible or chronic persistent hunger. In an increasingly prosperous world, hunger related deaths are a great affront to the humanity.

Visible deaths hit the sensibility of the people harder. Even a few deaths reported in the media affect people more than the innumerable deaths occurring silently every day. However, it is time to give serious attention to chronic persistent hunger. The wide and aggressive consequences of such hunger must be duly recognised and urgently redressed.

Even though malnutrition is a silent killer, its sources are not unknown. There are three important sources of malnutrition: lack of calories, lack of protein and micronutrients, and worms. According to nutrition experts, an adult needs about 2,200 calories per day. However, those who do more physical labour, need more calories. If a person does not get enough calories from food intake, she/he is bound to suffer from malnutrition. In spite of taking enough calories, a person may still suffer from malnutrition, if the foods do not contain the required amount of protein and micronutrients such as iodine. In addition, worms consume part of the food eaten, causing malnutrition, especially among children.

The prevailing widespread malnutrition in Bangladesh has created a vicious "circle of malnutrition". Women are the unwilling conduits. Women are deprived from their childhoods. At infancy, they get less food and attention than the boys. At puberty, most of them get confined within four walls. They are denied of education and healthcare. Their development is thus thwarted. Before they reach adulthood and are physically and mentally ready, they are married off. Soon they become mothers, giving birth to children of low birth weight. Most newly born girls also go through a similar cycle of deprivations and despair. This is how the malnourished and marginalised women keep the cycle of malnutrition going, the consequences of which fall upon everyone over generations, irrespective of gender.

The whole nation pays dearly for the persistence of malnutrition. According to available statistics, the average height of Bangladeshi boys decreased 7 per cent during 1930-82. Because of low birth weight and malnutrition, children become physically weak and their mental growth is severely hampered. Consequently, the nation becomes deprived of their productivity and contributions -- some of them even become burdens on the society. In 1998, UNICEF claimed that if the incidence of malnutrition was not arrested, Bangladesh would loose $2.300 crore over the next 10 years. According to a recent World Bank estimate, Bangladesh looses about $1 billion worth of productivity per year because of chronic malnutrition.

Throughout history, mankind has been fighting persistently and valiantly against hunger. Yet hunger and hunger related deaths persist. It is clear that there is no easy solution to this challenge. Nor there is any magic formula. The solution will, among other things, require the very difficult task of changing the basic economic and social structure that keeps hunger in place. However, one critical area where we can make a big difference, if we are serious, is to change the condition of deprivations of and discriminations against women. We can also create opportunities for girls and provide an enabling environment for their growth and development. Such changes greatly depend on us as individuals and families. Truly, unprecedented new possibilities can unfold with the transformation of our patriarchal attitudes and mindset.

We look forward to the day when all of us can work together for building a society where the Dukhimon's and Chandra Banu's would not have to hand out poison to their beloved children; the little Moni and Mitu's would not have to disappear in oblivion even before they had a chance to blossom; and adolescents like Rumana would not have to seek freedom in death. We all have the responsibility to create such a society. Inculcating that sense of responsibility is the purpose of the National Girl Child Day, celebrated on 30th September each year.

Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is Global Vice President and Country Director, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh.