Women suffered higher level of food insecurity during pandemic: Study

Females suffered a higher level of food insecurity in the later part of 2021 enduring substantial psychological distress and anxiety, a Brac study has said.

"In Bangladesh, there was a higher level of food insecurity, and particularly females suffered a higher level of food insecurity compared to men," a study by BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University has revealed this information on Monday at a programme at BRAC Centre Inn at Mohakhali. 

The study 'COVID-19 Gendered Risks, Impact and Responses: Research and Policy Guidance in Bangladesh' was conducted under the 'Gender and COVID-19' research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The first round of qualitative interviews of the study was conducted over the phone from 24 January 2021 till 10 March 2021. 

Initially, 40 people were interviewed, which included 28 women and 12 men. 

There were 32 respondents from Dhaka while the remaining  eight were from Bandarban, Rangpur, Barisal, Savar, Chattogram, Mymensingh and Noakhali. 

The next step was to purposively select a unit of 15 respondents (12 women, three men) from the initial samples, with whom two more rounds of interviews were conducted, between June and November 2021.

One of the researchers of the Study, Atonu Rabbani, Professor, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, said that most of the women were worried about starvation and how they would feed their children and families. The fear of death or worsening of their health conditions due to Covid were not their primary concerns. Rather they were more anxious about the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

The study said the women (13 out of 28) respondents also shared that they gave priority to their husbands and children when rationing food, often sacrificing their own food portions to allow the men and children to eat properly.

To cope with their unexpected economic hardship most of the women took loans to survive during the lockdown phase although they lacked the decision-making power.

In the quantitative study period, three rounds of survey were conducted: November 2020, March and November 2021 in Bangladesh as well as Kenya and Nigeria. The sample size was 1,822, 1,722 and 1,578 respectively in three rounds.

In her comments, Farah Kabir, country director, ActionAid Bangladesh said although men died more in Covid, women were the most affected. Generally, women sacrifice their foods, but it increased during pandemic while many women were victims to domestic violence during the period.