Sixty-seven-year-old Jalal Uddin and his 60-year-old wife Lal Banu became homeless nearly 2 years ago and had been leading a miserable life since.
They stayed at the residences of their relatives for some days. Later, they started living under the open sky on footpaths in Savar.
“I was a street food vendor but the pandemic took everything from me. The income was not enough for maintaining all expenses, including house rent. Our two sons left us five years ago after their marriages. We lost our home and led a very miserable life,” said Jalal Uddin as he shared his bitter experiences of life with Dhaka Tribune.
Now, the government’s Ashrayan Project has appeared as a heavenly shelter for the couple as they got a two-room semi- pucca tin-shed house of their own like thousands of other homeless people. Through this, a dream came true for Jalal and Lal Banu.
As part of the government’s campaign to bring all landless and homeless families under housing facilities, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over a total of 65,474 houses under the third phase of the Ashrayan 2 project.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, the houses will be officially handed over after Eid-ul-Fitr.
The prime minister had undertaken the Ashrayan project in 1997 and 3,733,562 houses have so far been given to homeless and landless families under the project administered by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Ashrayan 2 Project Director Project Director Abu Saleh Mohammad Ferdous Khan said the structure of the third phase was more sustainable compared to the first and second stages. Expenditure had been increased so that the houses would be strong and durable.
64 families to get new houses in Savar
The Project Director said a total of 40 families would get houses under phase 3 while 24 families would get houses under phase 2 at Gohailbari in Shimulia under Savar upazila.
He said: “As per the prime minister's directions, we have strongly monitored and built these houses which will provide enough protection during natural disasters and provide modern living facilities.”
The beneficiaries have been given semi-permanent houses with land in the first and second phases under the Ashrayan 2 project. It has a kitchen and a toilet. There is also a place for raising poultry and growing vegetables in the yard.
Tofazzal Hossain Mia, Senior Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, said: "We are talking about the issue of shelter for struggling people to move forward through Sheikh Hasina's model for inclusive development. A total of 182,803 families will come under this program in the current financial year.”
As of the current fiscal year, Tk 3,971 crore has been allocated for the construction of the houses, according to the Ashrayan factsheet.
He said it was the largest and only project in the world to improve the living standards of so many families.
The government prepared a list of 885,622 families in 2020. Of them, 293,361 families are landless and homeless and 592,261 families have 1-10 decimal land but no housing facilities.
A total of 69,904 houses were handed over under the first phase of the project on January 23 last year on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Another 53,340 houses were distributed under the second phase of the project on June 20.