When I talked to the Headmaster of the Bangladesh Government School in a poor area of Chittagong, he totally denied the assertion of the slum dwellers. “Without any discrimination we encourage all the children to come to this school and get education. Besides, we have students from different communities and social status, but most of them come from very needy families,” he says, while requesting that his name be omitted from this article.  “We treat the entire student body equally so that children who come from really poor backgrounds do not feel themselves ‘inferior’ to others.”

Whether the slum dwellers are telling the truth about their children being barred from the “Education for Food” programs, or the Headmaster correct about the accessibility of his school, poverty prevents most slum-dwelling children from attaining an education.  “Even if I want to send my children to school, I don’t have the ability,” says one slum-dwelling father.  “In this slum you will find people who do not have any interest in sending their children to school, and also there are people who want to send their children but cannot afford it because of their inability.”  The father is referring not only to the inability of the family to afford tuition, but also more importantly their inability to lose the income brought in by working children. “I am incapable as a father,” he sadly adds, reflecting on his inability to guarantee his children a life better than his own.

Social prejudice can also get in the way of education.  “If slum children live with parents who have little or no education, they may tend to undervalue education. This can have a negative impact on children,” says Varuni, the psychologist from the Asian University for Women.  Too often, parents are forced to focus on keeping their children alive from day to day.  “I still remember when I last came to Bangladesh,” says Guldan, the nutritionist from Tufts University, about her experience working as a nutritionist in the slums of Chittagong.  “I asked one mother, ‘What do you want your child to be?’ She didn’t reply with anything. She was just looking at me with blank eyes.”

Without hope for education or nutrition, children in Bangladeshi slums are most vulnerable to a lack of food.  They become sick and weak, are unable to attend school and lift themselves out of poverty.

“Please, take my child with you,” says Rahima, the mother of two children from the sprawling slum on the outskirts of Chittagong.  Her skinny two-year-old is fidgety and bored with this interview.  I can’t imagine what her four-month-old baby at home looks like.  Her toddler appears ignorant of the difference between where he lives and where I grew up; unaware of how hard he will have to fight to reach his mother’s age.  But he is painfully conscious of his hunger for food, clean water, and other essentials.  “At least he will get food to survive.”