Over 42% children under five are stunted in the country and more than half of them come from the poorest households while 27% from the richest groups, according to a new survey.
Eastern districts show higher stunting rate with Meherpur having the least and Netrokona the highest proportion of stunted children, according to the survey titled 2012-13 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey released yesterday in the city.
The survey indicates that a wide disparity still remains between households from different geographical regions, rural and urban areas, and those with different wealth and education level of mothers.
The survey covered 79 social indicators, of which 16 are Millennium Development Goals.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics with technical assistance from UNICEF conducted the survey in all 64 districts from December 2012 to April 2013, engaging a total of 224 field survey personnel who collected data from 51,895 households.
The report shows that while 43.5% of births are attended by a skilled health personnel during delivery, mothers from the poorest households get the services in only 26.5% cases compared to 72.8% of mothers from the richest households.
Though deliveries attended by skilled health personnel are in general more prevalent in western parts of the country compared to the eastern part, Feni and Bandarban, both from Chittagong division, show respectively the highest and the lowest proportions of such deliveries attended by skilled personnel.
Prevalence of child marriage continues to be high with about 52.3% of women between 20 and 24 years of age getting married before 18, while 18.1% before the age of 15.
For women between 20 and 49 years of age, every three of five women are married before age 18 (62.8%) while almost one in four is married before 15.
The country’s 77% population use improved sanitation facilities and only about 4% practice open defecation.
There are, however, significant differences in the use of improved sanitation facilities between the richest (95.9%) and the poorest households (45.6%).
Among the districts, Madaripur in Dhaka and Bandarban in Chittagong divisions, are the best and the worst districts respectively in this regard.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the survey result will be released every year and it will help the government take proper initiative to formulate development plan based on the up-to-date information.
UNICEF Representative Edouard Beigbeder said the results clearly show remarkable progress made in Bangladesh over the last few years in improving conditions for children.
The survey also highlights important disparities that need to be addressed, added Edouard.
