No abstract

BackgroundBangladesh urban population is expected to overtake rural population by 2040, and a significant part of the increase will be in slums. Wide disparities between urban slums and the rest of the country can potentially push country indicators off track unless the specific health and nutrition needs of the expanding slum communities are addressed. The study aims at describing the individual, household and community determinants of undernutrition status among children living in major urban strata, viz. City Corporation slums and non-slums, in order to understand the major drivers of childhood undernutrition in urban slum settings.MethodsData are derived from Bangladesh Urban Health Survey conducted in 2013. This survey is a large-scale, nationally representative of urban areas, household survey designed specifically to provide health and nutrition status of women and children in urban Bangladesh.ResultsData showed that 50% of under-5 children in slums are stunted and 43% are underweight, whereas for non-slums these rates are 33 and 26% respectively. In terms of severity, proportion of under-5 children living in slums severely underweight or stunted are nearly double than the children living in non-slums. Logistic analyses indicate that mother’s education, child’s age, and household’s socio-economic status significantly affects stunting and underweight levels among children living in the urban slums. Logistic models also indicate that all individual-level characteristics, except exposure to mass media and mother’s working outside home, significantly affect undernutrition levels among children living on non-slums. Among the household- and community-level characteristics, only household’s socioeconomic status remains significant for the non-slums.ConclusionsPoor nutritional status is a major concern in slum areas, particularly as this group is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years. The situation calls for specially designed and well targeted interventions that take into account that many of the mothers are poorer and less educated, which affects their ability to provide care to their children.

Stock assessment is necessary to understand the status of fishery stocks. However, for the data-poor fishery, it is very challenging to assess the stock status. The length-based Bayesian biomass (LBB) technique is one of the most powerful methods to assess the data-poor fisheries resources that need simple length frequency (LF) data. Addressing the present gap, this study aimed to assess the stock status of three sardines (Sardinella fimbriata, Dussumieria acuta, and D. elopsoides) in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), Bangladesh using the LBB method. The estimated relative biomass for S. fimbriata was B/B0 < BMSY/B0, indicating the overfished biomass, while the assessed B/B0 > BMSY/B0 for D. acuta and D. elopsoides indicates healthy biomass. Additionally, for S. fimbriata, the length at first landing was smaller than the optimum length at first landing (Lc < Lc_opt), indicating an overfishing status, but a safe fishing status was assessed for D. acuta and D. elopsoides (Lc > Lc_opt). Therefore, increasing the mesh size of fishing gears may help to ensure the long-term viability of sardine populations in the BoB, Bangladesh.

The anadromous tropical Hilsa shad formed the largest single-species fishery in Bangladesh, making the highest contribution to the country’s total fish production (14%) and nearly 83% of the global Hilsa catch in 2018. However, increased fishing pressure made the fishery vulnerable, and hence, information on the stock condition and its response to the current degree of removal is essential to explore the future potential for sustainable exploitation. This study carried out a rigorous assessment based on three different methodological approaches (traditional length-frequency based stock assessment method for fishing mortality and exploitation, Froese’s length-based indicators for fishing sustainability, and a surplus production-based Monte Carlo method-CMSY, for fisheries reference points estimation) for the best possible estimates of the Hilsa stock status in the water of Bangladesh. The present findings revealed that the stock is likely to be overfished due to over-exploitation. Depending on the outputs, this study recommended a lower length limit for the catch (> 33 cm), distinguished a selectivity pattern (mesh size limit ≥ 8 cm), and proposed a yearly landing limit (within the range of 263,000–315,000 tons) for the sustainable management of the Hilsa fishery in Bangladesh.