Mapping Out the Food Insecurity of Urban Floating Labour in Mega City of Dhaka: a Qualitative Study

This study intends to assess the food security status among the vulnerable urban floating laborers in Dhaka City. The study used a qualitative study method, where 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted. We used Nvivo-12 software to analyze data and develop the central theme. Our study found that floating laborer’s households have food unavailability due to their socioeconomic situation. They cannot buy food even when there is no food at home. They only purchase food when they have the working opportunity and earnings. Furthermore, due to lack of work and earnings, they, especially elders, often reduce the number of meals a day and food variety. They eat bare for survival, with little concern for quality. They buy half-rotten daily necessary food items, e.g., onion, potato, vegetables, at a cheap rate. They maintain an imbalanced food chart, so, they suffer from malnutrition, which brings substantial adverse physical health outcomes. Though it is unhygienic, they prefer eating street food at a cheap rate rather than clocking at home, because cooking at home requires buying raw food and fuel, which ends up being expensive. We found floating workers have very little access to government support or aid. Due to the continuous price hike of necessary daily commodities, the access to food in these communities has been shrinking. However, the findings will be an important guiding principle for policymakers, aid organizations, and development practitioners to prepare development policies to ensure food security among vulnerable floating workers in developing countries like Bangladesh.