Food is an important element of human life. National food security is a big challenge for our country Bangladesh. There are many contributing factors to the food security problems of Bangladesh. Among them are population growth, environmental degradation, land scarcity, and lack of access to nutritious and safe food. The constitution of Bangladesh considered access to adequate, safe, and secure food a fundamental principle of state policy after independence in 1971. Also, as of date, there exist at least fifteen other laws, policies, and regulations apart from the constitutional provisions to ensure food safety and security. The paper finds food insecurity is primarily caused by insufficient supply and improper distribution of agricultural resources among other contributory factors. The gamut of the present paper is to review the current status of food safety and security in Bangladesh analyzing the legal and other relevant available literature. This research also aims to find out the problems, reasons, and prospective solutions to the present food safety and security in Bangladesh. The paper finally concludes by recommending some policies to better the present scenario of vailing the right to food for Bangladeshi citizen by ensuring safety and security in their daily consumption.
A major challenge for Bangladeshs food security is ensuring nutritious food without being adulterated. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bangladesh is one of 45 countries that require external assistance for food due to their lack of resources to the deal with critical problems of food insecurity. There are many reasons why Bangladeshi food is not secure. First, the country is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including floods, droughts, and other weather-related disasters. Second, there is limited access to resources including arable land and water, making it difficult to produce enough food to feed the increasing population. In addition, foodborne illness is becoming an ever more serious issue in Bangladesh.
Many people have been facing the health problems derived from consuming contaminated foods. Conta-mination and improper handling of processed edibles make a substantial contribution to the prevalence of such sicknesses (Jubayer et al., 2020). The number of people in Bangladesh had totaled 160 million by 2015. According to the forecast, this population is expected to expand to 186 million by 2030 and reach 215.4 million by the mid-point of the century (Kabir et al., 2015). However large the size of the population is, it is the sacred duty of the country and fundamental right of the citizen to enjoy right to life that is ensured under Article 32 of the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. To ensure right to life, it is obligatory to ensure food safety and security of the citizen as it is common knowledge, without food safety and security it is impossible to think human survival. Securing food for the citizen is designated to be the fundamental res-ponsibility of the state under Article 15 of the Cons-titution.
As it is the countrys fundamental responsibility to secure food among other essential standard of living, for the gradually growing population food must be grown at a safe level. Safety level means nutritious food and consumption of adulteration free healthy food. Food security is a significant issue for our country that needs to be addressed in order to achieve a healthy Bangladesh in future. In this paper, we have tried to show the understanding of right to food and food security, the constitutional and other legal frame-work of food safety and security and the legal steps taken by Bangladesh with a view to ensuring safe and secured food for Bangladeshi citizen.
Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to find out the legal status of right to the food and food safety in Bangladesh. For the purpose of achieving this funda-mental objective of the study, the following objectives are synchronized:
1) To review the concept of right to food and food security;
2) To identify the constitutional dimensions and provisions on right to food and food safety in Bangladesh;
3) To overview the legal framework on right to food and food safety in Bangladesh;
4) To find out the legal steps of Bangladesh in ensuring safe and secured food avoiding conta-mination.
The methodology used in this paper is qualitative approach with a view to achieving intended objectives. The materials used in this paper include the legal documents, such as the laws, regulations, and court decisions related to right to food and food security in Bangladesh as well as academic articles, books, and reports that provide insights into the right to food and food security in Bangladesh. The data collection for this study involved a review of the legal documents and secondary sources mentioned above. The legal documents were reviewed and analyzed to identify legal status and principles relevant to right to food and food security in Bangladesh.
Concept and Status of Right to Food and Food Security in Bangladesh
The right to food is a fundamental right in our country. Every citizen is legally entitled to adequate secured food. The concept of the right to food involved avail-ability of enough safe and secured food resources that are free from adulteration. Food security is a compli-cated issue by its very nature. From 10 million retail of rice in 1971 to over 32 million retails today, Bangla-deshs rice production has tripled since its indepen-dence. According to Bangladesh Agriculture Statistics, 2013, there are 8.44 million hectares of irrigable land, which is more than seven times the number in 1990 (Bishwajit et al., 2014). However, there are a lot of developments of food resources after 50 years of independent Bangladesh; even food security is not ensured for so many reasons. According to the head of FAO, poverty is the primary reason for hunger, and a global movement is needed to eradicate hunger (Prose-kov & Ivanova, 2016). Around the world zero hunger is a big challenge and United Nation (UN) fixed a target for 2030, but still, it is not walking on accurate way and malnutrition is accelerating day by day in poor countries.
Food security means ensuring safe feeding with proper nutrition for everyone (FAO, 2022). Maintaining di-verse diet plays a unique role in promoting babies and childrens rapid mental and physical development (Lyman et al., 2010). But, among poor populations in developing countries like Bangladesh, a diverse diet is rare. However, even though Bangladesh has tried to rise from that position, but it has not yet reached the target level of providing completely safe and nutritious food. Also, the life expectancy of the people of a coun-try depends on its food security (Macrotrends, 2023). There are two main reasons why Bangladesh remains concerned about livelihoods and food security: first, the heavy reliance on agriculture for employment by the majority of its population, and secondly, a large number of the under-nourished people spend a large proportion of total income for their food, and many of them live below the poverty line (Bishwajit et al., 2014). Yet, Bangladeshi peoples main feeding ingre-dients are rice, wheat, and fish that are cultivated in our country. In addition, Bangladesh enjoys fertile soil and a huge water supply from upstream flow, rainfall, and groundwater. In turn, agriculture has grown and expanded throughout the country (Dev et al., 2016). But, there is no certainty about how long the culti-vation process and nutrition-based feeding system is sustainable because water resources are misused and the use of chemical fertilizer is on the go (Parvez, 2022). In 1971-72, the country produced 10.46 million metric tons of rice and wheat. In 2021-22, rice pro-duction alone is expected to reach 127.93 million metric tons which are twelve times better than before. Still, about 40% of Bangladeshs population falls under three categories: hunger, starvation, and chronic hunger. FAO reported in 2013 and estimated that around 75 million more people were at risk of star-vation due to the price hikes, indicating that illegal market control was responsible. In the report of the World Bank 2014, poor people invested 50-60% of their income on getting adequate food properly (Baki, 2015). In the current time, many factors have contri-buted to the price increase throughout the world. One of the main reasons is covid-19, while another is the Russian and Ukrainian war. As a result of the war, fuel prices have increased and food production goods have led to a rise in production prices (Editorial, 2022).
In Bangladesh, food insecurity is primarily caused by people moving away from safe food places due to rising commodity prices. The reasons include loss of jobs due to COVID-19, reduced income, expenses incurred as a result of natural disasters, and lack of an increase in income. While food price is generally increased if price hike happened throughout the world, it doesnt decrease as much in Bangladesh even if they decrease in different countries around the world. As a result of the dishonest management of the country internally, providing safe food has become difficult. Bangladesh is more likely to the experience food insecurity due to the expected increase in commodity prices. The combination of higher prices of products, lower household incomes, and lower agricultural pro-ductivity ultimately results in a decrease in the house-hold consumption of the agricultural commodities (Hossain et al., 2022).
As a developing country, Bangladesh faces many chal-lenges. As we look back on history, the country was unable to provide enough food for nearly two decades after independence. The current state of food security in Bangladesh must be assessed and the drawbacks identified, particularly regarding access, utilization, and stability of food (Roy et al., 2019). However, in the current context, even if food supplies are sufficient, the effectiveness of the right to food that Bangladesh has constitutionally granted can be gauged by ensuring that it is safe (Parvez, 2022). Utilization of food refers to the use of food correctly, which includes imple-menting proper food storage and processing practices, understanding nutrition, caring for children, and providing adequate medical care (Coates et al, 2006). As a developing country, Bangladesh faces many chal-lenges to make it zero hunger nation. The Bangladesh Global Hunger Index has declined from 36.1 (alar-ming) to 25.8 (serious) over the past several decades, demonstrating the substantial progress in reducing hunger and improving its growing populations well-being (Moghayer et al., 2023). As we look back on history, the country was unable to provide enough food for nearly two decades after independence. Food research by FAO from 1961 to 2013 showed that nutrition-based food consumption had increased after the liberation war of 1971 when people began to consume nutrition-based food more than ever before (Hasan et al., 2019). The largest grain produced in Bangladesh is rice, which accounts for 94% of all food grain production annually. Approximately 40% of the countrys total employment and 48% of rural employ-ment are generated by the rice industry (Mohajan, 2018). However, by 2021-22, rice production alone is expected to reach around 127.93 million metric tons. There is possibility that Bangladeshs crop production will decrease due to climate change. It is a big problem indicating the lack of food availability and the loss of the right to adequate food. If no action is taken to lower the temperature, wheat production in Bangla-desh is anticipated to decrease by 32% by 2050, as other crops may also be affected as well (ADB Ins-titute, 2011). But still now, Bangladeshs agricultural resource is aimed to increase rice production by more than 25% by 2050. Malnutrition is especially harmful to the children and women because their nutritional needs are higher. Bangladeshi diets are seriously imbalanced, with inadequate fat, oil, and protein con-sumption, and more than 80 per cent derived from cereals, in addition to the calorie deficit (Hossain et al., 2005). A significant improvement can be seen in chronic malnutrition levels, which fell from 42% in 2013 to 28% in 2019 (UNICEF). But, some-times during the pregnancy period, the mother did not consume enough nutrition-based food; as a result, the child is born with malnutrition. Similarly, the mother did not provide her children with sufficient nutrition after giving birth. Further, acute malnutrition is also on the rise (weight-for-height z-score +2) from 10% in 1999-2000 to 17% in 2007, far above the critical mark which necessitates a public health intervention (Ahmed et al., 2012). The nutrition level must be increased in order to diminish malnutrition. The right to food can be secured either by producing it oneself or acquiring it by exchanging money. In order to facilitate home-generated yields, farming equipment and agricultural items are readily available. Additionally, sourcing cash becomes essential to procure appropriate nutrition; therefore, a convenient location is necessary for consu-mers to acquire currency although rice and paddy cultivation in Bangladesh ranked third in the world in the FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database) record for 2020.
Constitutional Provisions on Food Security in the Bangladesh
It is clear from Article 15(a) of the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh that food is a basic necessity for human survival. This basic need is protected by the state in its Constitution by ensuring food security and ensuring everyone has access to food. For the state to ensure the right to food, it will be its responsibility to create planned economic growth and increase productivity. The Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh recognized right to food under fundamental principles of state policy which is directive in nature and not as enforceable fundamental right. Nonetheless, food, shelter, educa-tion, and medical facilities, as well as promoting better nutrition and public health, are considered to be a primary duty of the country in order to secure the citizens of the state (Chowdhury, 2014). Other laws, policies and regulations should be crafted in accor-dance and in consistence with the Constitution in order to ensure safe, secure and adequate food for the people because constitutional laws take precedence over other laws regardless of what other laws contain and cannot easily be revoked, so they are stronger than other laws (Faruque, 2014). The agrarian revolution and the development of the agricultural sector are discussed in Article 16 and the importance of increasing appro-priate nutrition through food is discussed in Article 18. However, we note that Article 32 of the Constitution speaks of the right to life, where food is one of the elements of right to life. Although food is not yet recognized as a fundamental right, it is the right to life that matters. Without food, life cannot fully survive, so the right to food can be considered a constitutional right in this instance (Mia, 2016). The Constitution of Bangladesh requires the government to ensure proper nutrition and food safety. Malnutrition is one of the most serious problems that cannot be prevented without an adequate food supply (Siddique, 2017). In article 18(1) of the Bangladesh Constitution, it is explicitly stated, "The State shall consider improving public health and nutrition to be among its primary responsibilities.” According to a national nutrition sur-vey of the Bangladeshi population, nutrient intake has declined in recent years. Therefore, a healthy and wealthy life requires high nutrition levels (Mannan, 2003).
Food is essential for life, so the right to food can be considered a constitutional right in this in-stance. The Constitution of Bangladesh requires the government to ensure proper nutrition and food safety. It is impos-sible to prevent malnutrition without an adequate supply of food (Mia, 2016). There are many ways to supply adequate food, but expanding agricultural production is one of the most important. In Article 16 of the Bangladesh Constitution, the agricultural revo-lution is progressively promoted. There has been a rapid rise in agricultural production, but safety and quality is not certain with the production and consumer relationship (Salehin et al., 2020).
Legal Framework on Right to Food
Bangladesh faced many challenges after achievement of liberty from Pakistan in 1971. There was a big chal-lenge afterwards to face a tenuous famine for unavail-ability of safe and adequate proportion of food in meal. But Bangladesh government tried hard and rescued from the famine but still food security had not been fully ensured. The National Food Policy 2006 states that all people of the country should always have reliable food security (Hossain, 2015). The objectives captured the three dimensions of food security, namely availability, access and nutrition, as outlined in the World Food Summits definition. In 1996 it was declared that food security is achieved when all people consistently have access to safe, nutritious food that is sufficient for their dietary needs and enables them to lead active and healthy lives. Nutrition Policy of 1997 aimed to improve nutritional status of people, parti-cularly vulnerable groups including the elderly, and thus contribute to improvements in quality of life and socio-economic development (BNCC, 2020). This standard not only covers the current nutritional state of an individual but also considers potential future short-ages of inadequate sustenance, surveillance systems. For lack of safe and secure food, foodborne illnesses are usually reported to medical professionals. Among children in low-income countries, linear growth falters in the first 18-24 months of life, which can be pre-vented in part by postnatal interventions where in developed countries, people and governments are very concerned about newborns. According to the number of undernourished children under the age of five, rural children suffer from more undernourishment than urban children, with around 2.2 million children not growing properly. There is an extremely high mortality rate for these children, about half of whom are mal-nourished (Mohajan, 2014). However, in many deve-loping countries, foodborne illnesses are not reported at all. The most common cause of morbidity in under developed countries is foodborne illness. In addition to illnesses caused by 31 major foodborne pathogens, there include cases caused by unknown or unidentified pathogens. This is because most people in these countries do not have access to medical professionals or they do not know how to report a case of foodborne illness. Bangladesh has established 15 laws to ensure food safety throughout the country to reduce food-borne diseases. These regulations help maintain a high standard for food safety in Bangladesh. The laws include provisions for food labelling, food safety inspection, food safety education, and food safety research (Majed et al., 2016). A positive change in Bangladeshs food safety could lead to a decrease in food-related illnesses and diseases. The Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Act, (2005) aims to protect the public from health hazards and fraud associated with food preparation, sale, and use, among other things (Ahmed, 2019). The government of Bangladesh has taken several steps to curb food adulteration, such as issuing the BSTI Ordinance in 1985 and the Pure Food Ordinance in 2005. These measures are moni-tored by mobile courts on a regular basis. The Act includes regulations on fake licenses, adulteration of food, checking food packaging, expiry of food, counterfeit products, food quality control and market control (Rahman et al., 2015). To ensure the safety of food in our country, formalin has been used in illegal food reservations, which are very harmful to human body. The Formalin Control Act (FCA) 2015 enacted a law that controls the use of formalin in such cases. There are several strict punishments for non-licensed manufacturing, shipment, transport, inventory, distri-bution, and use. For non-licensed shipment, proc-essing, or hoarding of formalin, the maximum penalty is life imprisonment and Taka 20,000,000 (Supti, 2019). Consumers have the right to access adequate adulterating-free food, and there are many laws that punish food safety violations. However, the most important thing that consumers need to know is that they have a right to food protection. In 2009, the Consumer Rights Protection Act was passed to ensure consumers food security. For consumer rights to be protected, the best solution is for consumers to become aware of their rights, collaborate with the consumer organizations, stand up against exploitation, and seek the redress for their grievances. Developing a self-vaccinating culture will yield the best results from Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 (Islam et al., 2016).
Legal Steps to Ensure Food Security in Bangladesh
Food safety laws and policies in Bangladesh have been enacted with a view to the properly regulate safe and secure food supply. The formulation of the Food Policy 2006 laid great emphasis on the food security, particularly the provision of adequate safe & nutritious food, increasing peoples purchasing power, increasing access to food, and ensuring access to the adequate nutrition for all. According to the Food Composition Table (FCT), food safety, nutrition, and initiative, all contribute to good health. Among the nutritional information provided by FCTs are calorie content, protein, fat, carbohydrates, essential vitamins and minerals, and beneficial components such as anti-nutrients and phytonutrients (Shaheen et al., 2013). In Bangladesh, food adulteration is widespread and it exists in all levels of the supply chain of food starting from food production to retail sellers who sell to the end customer. The WTO and FAO are working to ensure food safety around the world, from production level to the end consumer. Bangladesh has a number of laws and regulations to prevent the adulteration of food, including the Bangladesh Standards Testing Institute (BSTI) Ordinance of 1985, and the Pure Food Ordinance of 2005. As well as these regulations, a number of other issues are covered, including food adulteration, impurities in food, incorrect packaging, expired products, and licenses (Rahman et al., 2015). The implementation of the Bangladesh New Food Safety Act 2013 has been bolstered enforcement and oversight to guarantee compliance with food standards. Insufficient enforcement causes many foods to be sold without standard-bearing seals or with counterfeit seals, which can harm the consumers (Talukdar et al., 2021). BSTI oversees the standardization of services and products in the country, as well as the certification of products and the monitoring of quality control. In addition, BSTI works to promote quality assurance and standards throughout the country. The BSTI banned 54 products from being marketed to consumers for adulteration in 2019 (Staff Correspondent, 2019). The report shows that about 30 million Bangladeshis become ill every year due to the food-borne diseases, especially diarrhea, dysentery, and malnutrition, be-cause of their consumption of the adulterated food (Khairuzzaman et al., 2014). Due to the food adult-eration problem in Bangladesh and the existing system of food adulteration control by the Mobile Courts Act, 2009 and the establishment of Food Courts under the Food Safety Act, the Mobile Courts have the authority to issue prompt sentences for food adulteration control (Chowdhury, 2009). Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 was adapted to the safeguard consumers rights against adulteration, price increases, and food avail-ability, which were not effectively controlled by the previous laws. The action was successfully started with the mobile court, but it is not commendable that the Court does not hear individual complaints unless it has written permission from the Director General of the Consumer Rights Protection Department (Azad, 2013).
Food safety chart with production after independence in Bangladesh
This chart shows the level of food production in the Bangladesh after liberation. Immediately after 1974, the Bangladeshi government began reducing lack of food by taking many steps to increase food production. We can see from the table that food production between 1974 and 1975 was extremely low. As a result, the government basically focused on agricul-tural sectors. However, in 1972 Bangladeshs GDP was $6.288 billion USD and per capita income was merely $94.GDP is very connected with safe goods and a countrys living standards. After 52 years of indepen-dence, Bangladeshs GPD recorded 460.75 billion USD and per capita income is 2,687 USD. But how many changes brought for food safety? The food production shown on the table is very nicely grown and according to the production ratio, the food production is effectively changed. So, there is a very great opportunity to supply enough nutritional food to consumers. But, according to the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS), diarrheal diseases are primarily caused by the unsafe foods. Approximately 18,000,000 people suffered from diarrhea between 2003 and 2009. The unhygienic state of food and malnutrition are largely responsible for this situation. The use of formalin, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), toxic colors, or other forms of adulteration within the food can also cause enteric diseases, sleep disorders, heart diseases, and neurological diseases (Noor & Feroz, 2016). The Pure Food Ordinance of 1959 stipulates that adulteration of food includes anything which is combined with it that is potentially hazardous to health, as well as dyes or coatings used on food which is not safe to consume (Khan, 2013). The Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI) ordinance 1985 designed the provision to control adul-teration, license, food testing, food experiment period etc. However, in reality, a large number of small businesses began operations without obtaining any sort of authorization and did not possess documentation such as certification by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution to try their goods. What is more worrisome is that they resorted to utilizing hazardous elements such as the formaldehyde, acid, dye, and a variety of additional toxic items for making food products that are dangerous for human consumption and can even bring about ailments like cancer.
South Asia, comprising 1.5 billion inhabitants, mostly in India and Bangladesh the worlds most crowded nation has endured food rationing for a long time. Straining to ramp up food grain harvesting in order to assure proper nourishment to its rising population, tackling food inadequacy has charted as a constant preoccupation of official effort since the nation won freedom in 1971. In the aftermath of the liberation war, Bangladesh faced a serious food shortage. Rural people and entire Bangladesh faced big crises since many of the rural people did not have enough money to buy appropriate food for every meal. Our country, however, overcame that situation and the cultivation sector improved. Now, enough food is produced to meet the needs of our countrys people and to export abroad. Despite this, there are still a lot of problems with ensuring food safety. Food is still a main source of illness-causing organisms for lack of food security. Generally, experiences with food contamination-often inaccurately referred to as "food poisoning"- are not reported properly. Ordinarily, sickness stemming from contaminated food may only cause mild effects that dissipate shortly; though more troublesome occur-rences, such as the hepatitis A common in public consuming places, can emerge sometimes. Outbreaks brought about by infectious ingested foods usually present suddenly, making individuals feel unwell within 6 to 24 hours of consuming affected (Bishwajit et al., 2014). On the other hand, adulteration of food had become a significant issue in the last several years and the substandard handling of foods jeopardizes their safety & cleanliness. Furthermore, consuming debased the consumption adversely affects our bodies through serious illnesses such as cancer, diarrhea, asthma and gastrointestinal upset. At large, dilemmas caused by food adulteration also heavily impact farmers/ pro-ducers & processing plants/enterprises & exacerbate cases for both consumers (FAO, 2022). In this present scenario, Russia and Ukraines war-affected world trade. For that reason, food prices have gradually risen, and local people faced problems to the ensure food security for middle and lower-class people. Bangla-deshs food price is now higher than two years ago.
Food security in the Bangladesh is a complex and significant issue, requiring a multifaceted approach that takes into account both the economic and social factors. There are enough food resources and laws in Bangladesh to guarantee food security, but there are a number of unprofessional gaps that should be bridged to improve the food security. These factors include poverty reduction, agricultural development, access to markets, and education of the local communities. To ensure food security in Bangladesh, increased invest-ment in sustainable agricultural practices, greater access to health & nutrition services, increased support for smallholder farmers, and other initiatives that can lift the population out of poverty are needed. It is possible to secure food security by regularly moni-toring the marketplace, consumption and production processes, and by ensuring international trade laws when food needs to be imported. For food security, the access to safe and secure food must be available and easily accessible to everyone.
The world commodity price is high but Bangladeshs dishonest middle businessmen illegally created prices high, and there are a lot of the leaks about marketing monitoring systems. On the other hand, few business-men illegally stored food for simulated lack of food price high, which is a lack of accurate monitoring. In this way, this paper finds out many problems which threaten food security. So, to overcome such heinous situations, the authors recommend the following:
1) A mobile court system is operated by the Bangla-desh government throughout the year through-out the country. Violators who get their orders from this court can only face two years of imprison-ment. But under the cover of the Consumer Rights Act 2009 and Food Behavior Act 2013, seizure prisoners can be jailed for up to 5 years and can be punished excessively. So, the punishment must be increased to prevent food offences.
2) Adulteration is a very big threat to food; firstly there should be control and monitor whether food is being adulterated. So, the government should regularly inquire to control food adulteration.
3) Monitoring to testing food by the govern-mental office. Whenever a new product enters into the market and the food producer does not send it for testing, the government should take measures to test it and take legal action as soon as possible.
4) Russia and Ukraine war has been affecting goods crises in the international marketplace. So, our government should reach out for alternative ways to control crisis situations.
5) Before being sold at the marketplace, all types of food must be assessed to determine whether it provides enough nutrition and if the components are used in an appropriate way.
6) The food factory must monitor how the food is processed in an actual way. Also, the concerned officers should reach out to the duplicate and adulterated food production factories to stop their production. There must be given an instant punish-ment for future awareness.
The authors would like to extend their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the editorial team of the Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Legal Studies and anonymous reviewers for cooperating in the publication process of the present paper.
The authors declare no conflicting interest in the paper.
Academic Editor
Dr. Antonio Russo, Professor, Dept. of Moral Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, University of Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.
Sikder MR., and Islam S (2023). Right to food and food security in Bangladesh: an overview, Asian J. Soc. Sci. Leg. Stud., 5(4), 125-134. https://doi.org/10.34104/ajssls.023.01250134