Bangladeshis' life expectancy goes up.

Thanks to the wider availability of health care and nutritious food and a successful immunisation campaign, Bangladeshis are living longer than ever.

Nurul Shikdar should have stopped working long time ago. But at 72, he is remarkably agile and looks much younger than many of his peers in Bangladesh.

• Aided by his son Billal, Nurul Shikdar saws a tree in his village of Manda in Munshiganj. At 72, he is still active and refuses to retire. Average life expectancy in Bangladesh has gone up by 30 years since it became independent 41 years ago. [M. Jahan/Khabar]

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The words rest or respite do not seem exist in his lexicon.

"I won't stop working until I go to the grave," Nurul told Khabar South Asia, taking a brief pause from sawing a tree with the aid of his son Billal at his village of Manda in Munshiganj, near Dhaka.

When asked the secret of his youthful vitality, Nurul replied sheepishly, "I've eaten only fresh vegetables and fish from Padma. Age could never touch me."

A father of five, Nurul defies expectations about aging in Bangladesh, where the official retirement age is 59 and anyone who reaches 60 is considered old.

But these days many people, like Nurul, remain active well past 60. Indeed, the life expectancy of Bangladeshis has gone up 30 years since the country gained independence 41 years ago.

According to official statistics, average life expectancy in 1971 was 39.93 years. It rose to 55.24 years in 1980 and to 60 in 1990. Published last year, the latest statistics show on average Bangladeshis now live up to 70 years of age.

"The primary reason for this success is the availability of affordable healthcare in most villages," Anup Kumar Saha, a professor at Sir Salimullah Medical College in Dhaka, told Khabar. Besides, he said, people have also become more health conscious than they were 40 years ago.

Advances against preventable diseases like diarrhoea, malaria, tuberculosis and cholera have also helped Bangladeshis live longer.

What has further boosted average life expectancy is the remarkable success of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), which has sharply reduced child mortality in Bangladesh. According to a Health Ministry report published in 2011, the mortality rate for the under-five age group has decreased significantly – from 89 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 47.8 in 2010.

Last year, official retirement age was extended by two years from 57 to 59, benefitting nearly a million government employees who can now earn two more years of income.

According to the 2011 World Bank report "Capitalising on the Demographic Transition: Tackling Noncommunicable Diseases in South Asia", the population of Bangladeshis aged 65 and older was 4.5% in 2000 and will rise to 6.6% in 2025.

Enhanced life expectancy is reaching all segments of the population, thanks in part to the greater availability of nutritious food.

"The widespread availability of nutritious food at an affordable price, changes in food habits and the expansion of the social safety net have largely benefited the poorer segment of the population," said AKM Nur-un-Nabi, a professor of population science at Dhaka University

Further, there is a direct correlation between life expectancy and poverty, he said. Bangladesh has proven that creating opportunities for the poor ultimately leads to better healthcare, nutrition and improved overall life expectancy.

Views By Shahriar Sharif for Khabar South Asia in Dhaka