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Amartya Sen, Fad and the 1974 Famine in Bangladesh: a Closer Look

Khandakar Qudrat-I Elahi*
Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Finance, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Bangladesh, a traditionally food-deficit country, suffered a gruesome famine in 1974. It is popularly believed that this famine was instigated by substantial decline in food supply resulting from a combination of factors including floods, lower import and disruption in the flow of food aid. Amartya Sen however has taken an exception of this general impression. He argues ‘food availability decline’ cannot be the cause of this famine, because, compared to previous years, levels of rice production and foodgrain availability were higher in 1974. This paper cross-examines Sen’s statistical information and concludes that hisclaim is both analytically and empirically weakfor at least three reasons: First, the quality of statistics used in the study is questionable. At independence, Bangladesh had no centralised statistical bureau responsible for collecting and compiling data. Second, data generated through sample surveys and experiments were basically guesstimates. Additionally, the year of independence is the study’s base year when little official activities could be performed. Finally, the correspondence between the times of starvation and rice production is weak, because data are annual/monthly.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Famine 1974, Amartya Sen, FAD, Entitlement approach.

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Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Evaluation

Objectives:

This study, therefore, focuses on examining the reliability of data used in Sen’s study as well as the quality of inferences that follows from the analysis. Second, it examines exclusively the validity of Sen’s argument that there was no food shortage during the famine year.

Methodology:

This study included the following topics and sub-topics: I. INTRODUCTION, II. SEN’S ASSESSMENT OF THE 1974 FAMINE IN BANGLADESH, Floods and Famine, Food Imports and Government Stocks, Food Availability Decline?, III. Sen’s analysis of the Bangladesh famine: a cross-examination of evidences, IV. CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS.

Source of Information: Bangladesh J. Agric. Econs. XXXVIII, 1&2 (2016-2017) 17-33

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Achievement/Findings:

However, this paper examines only the empirical aspect of Sen’s famine philosophy.But, the theoretical aspect - which asserts that famines at all times and all places occur due to ‘entitlement failure’ – is intellectually more interesting. This is indeed an innovative idea in the poverty analysis and for that reason Sen was well rewarded by awarding the 1998 Nobel Prize along with his other contributions in economic sciences. Unfortunately, this award- winning idea had come under serious criticisms soon after it was introduced in the academic world. And these criticisms have remained unsettled because Sen apparently has not succeeded in satisfying those critics. An in-depth research therefore deems important to resolving this decades-old academic controversy. However, in the context of this paper, another study is needed to examine the remaining sections of the concerned chapter of Sen’s Book in order to assess his contention that the 1974 famine was caused by ‘entitlement failure’. This study will complete the inspection of Sen’s contested comment on the 1974 Bangladesh famine and would perhaps make an illuminating contribution to the world-wide debate on Sen’s entitlement approach to famine analysis.

Knowledge Management: Journal