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Life
and Death in Bangladesh
The
country now known as Bangladesh was for many years part of the British
empire. Under British rule, what is now Bangladesh constituted East
Bengal, whose population is majority Muslem. West Bengal, whose
capital is Calcutta and whose people -- like the majority in Bangladesh
-- speak Bengali, is part of India. Bangladesh later formed part
of Pakistan (as East Pakistan) until 1971 when, following a series
of events culminating in a war of secession and involving complicated
manoeuvres by both imperialist blocs as well as India, East Pakistan
broke away from Pakistan and formed Bangladesh.
The
capital city is Dhaka, with over 3 million people. Except for city-countries
like Hong Kong or Monaco, Bangladesh is the most densely populated
country in the world: over 90 million people live in an area about
the size of Czechoslovakia. It is also one of the youngest countries
in the world (half the population is under the age of 17), and one
of the poorest.
A
sense of what imperialist and semi-feudal domination means for the
people of Bangladesh can be glimpsed from the following few statistics.
The corresponding figures for West Germany are given as a basis
for comparison.
| |
Bangladesh |
West
Germany |
| Life
expectancy at birth |
47
years |
73
years |
| Per
capita income |
$140 |
$10,171 |
| Infant
mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) |
133 |
10 |
| Physicians
(per 100,000 people) |
8 |
230 |
| Daily
caloric consumption |
1,877 |
3,652 |
| Literacy |
29% |
99% |
| Sources:
Encyclopaedia Britannica Yearbook 1985 and World Almanac 1982. |
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