Monga vulnerability in the northern part of Bangladesh

Abstract

A study on vulnerability of ‘Monga’ a Bengali term referring to the yearly cyclical phenomenon of poverty and hunger was conducted in the northern part of Bangladesh. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the factors promoting the causes of Monga taking place in a particular area and in a lean season of the year and also to assess its vulnerability. The study area included five northern districts of Bangladesh where Monga affected people were mostly concentrated. Multistage and stratified random sampling procedure was followed for selecting 900 households from all the five districts where 900 household heads were interviewed from March/2009 to November/2009 by the researcher himself. About 69.76% of the respondents opined that Monga happens in the greater Rangpur region because of frequently occurring natural calamities and having no work opportunity in the lean season. Over 60% viewed that the timing of Monga commences in mid September and ends in mid November and it happens almost every year. About 86% of the respondents reported Monga either as ‘moderately vulnerable’ or ‘most vulnerable’ and 62% noted it as ‘increasing’. Almost 50% of the respondents could manage only one meal a day during the Monga period and 60% had to remain in occasional starvation very frequently because of lack of purchasing capacity. As a result, most of them adopted a number of coping mechanisms like taking loan, eating less, government relief etc. to encounter with Monga. Key words: Monga vulnerability, lean season, natural disaster, coping mechanism.