We reached Hazi Nurun Nabi colony, at the very tail of Chittagong, at noon on a hot, humid, sunny day. The day being the first of the week, we expected the men to be away at work, children attending their schools. As women are the most significant participants of our project, we wanted to talk to them specifically.
But soon we were proven wrong. We found hundreds of dwellers ready to welcome us at the colony gate. Children were playing around, some of them engaged in their household works. As the time went by, it became clear why all these people were waiting for us. They were eagerly waiting to tell their stories: their story of deprivation from fundamental constitutional rights. Before telling their story, a brief look is required on the urbanisation process and the slum situation in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, a predominantly rural country, is undergoing a transformation toward urbanisation at a remarkable pace. Its urban population has grown at an yearly average rate of 6% since independence, at a time when national population growth was 2.2%. As a result urban population has grown six-folds compared to 70% increase in rural population.
Currently, around 40 million people in Bangladesh live in urban areas, out of which 21% live below the poverty line (UNDP, 2014). On the contrary, urbanisation has been more concentrated in the few largest cities of Bangladesh.
More than half of the urban population live in the four largest cities of the country, e.g. Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna, resulting in immense burden on the cities in terms of ensuring available supply of basic utilities, standard living condition, and proper education for the new generation.
As per a 2005 survey, total 52,33,217 people are living in slums in the six major divisional cities of the country. While the actual figure is unknown the number becomes much higher if all the cities are counted for.
Dhaka was still occupying the first position in terms of living slum household, which was 64.6%. Chittagong secured the second position among other divisional cities. Of these, Chittagong is the most densely populated and rapidly expanding cities in Bangladesh, turning into the commercial capital of the country over time.
Currently, a total of 1,814 slums exist (CUS, 2005) in Chittagong with 20% increase rate from 1997. 1,032 people live in per acre compared to 94 persons in other parts of the city.
The trend of slum numbers and dwellers, both is upward; the increased rate of migration of rural poor to urban areas is affecting the infrastructure of the city while there is a huge gap in planning to accommodate them.
This excess population is creating pressure on sanitation, power, transportation, education, health, nutrition and environment of the city. The migrants are also endangering city life with an increase in anti-social activities which starts from the slums and spreads to the whole city.
How many have migrated from other parts of the country, what are the reasons behind their migration? During discussions, the dwellers replied, majority of slum dwellers and floating people belong to the group that has migrated from elsewhere to Dhaka.
A research by Centre for Urban Studies (CUS, 2005) proved the statement. The research found eight reasons for migration to slum areas. While 39.53% of slum households are migrating for jobs, 17.2% due to river bank erosion and around 20 % for meager income. Weak job sectors in rural areas are also pushing them to the cities.
In slum areas, the significant problems consist of inadequate and insecure houses for the dwellers, serious crisis in ensuring hygiene, sanitation and water facilities, difficulties in accessing employment, made worse by having little or no social protection, particularly of the children.
The slum people have very limited access to adequate health services and education opportunities due to proper attention by the authorities, scarcity of resources, unavailable education facilities adjacent to the slums. The high costs bar access to private schools for education.
Our field survey reveals that only two tube wells and three chamber bathrooms serve 152 households with more than 800 people at Hazi Nurun Nabi Colony in Chittagong. Hygiene issue comes as a burning point in slum areas with many of the slum dwellers defecating in open spaces.
Most of the toilets are linked to adjacent canals or rivers so that the human waste can merge with flowing waters; meanwhile, dwellers are using this same water for cooking, washing their cloths, washing cooking pots and bathing.
The education scenario is the most devastating among all other basic needs in slums. It was found that hundreds of children are moving around aimlessly during school time with no one there to ask them to go to school.
According to an UNESCO report (Global Education Monitoring Report, 2010), education figures for slums in Dhaka are among the worst in the South-Asian countries. The scenario is either similar or worse in all other cities of the country.
Childhood immunisation in Dhaka slum households has been reported at 51-76%. The report reveals some informal schools run by non-governmental organisations playing an important function in slums in Bangladesh. As reasons for the inaccessibility to education, the community and parents cite unavailability of government primary schools in the adjacent areas of the slums and the cost barrier to private schools.
Among many others, lack of awareness among the guardians to send their children to school, concern to protect the child from kidnapping, and children engaged in work are other major reasons for the high rate of out of school children in the slum areas.
With one of the highest urban population, the development of slums did not receive proper attention from the concerned authorities. Therefore, the situation continues to worsen for an increasing number of urban poor, increased numbers of slum and colonies, serious crisis in basic needs, undisciplined mechanism in waste management which ultimately affects the whole of the cities.
The tendency of considering the slum dwellers “unrecognised” downplays the whole problem although the slum dwellers are rightful citizens of the country. Another key factor is land ownership. The number of government-owned slums are decreasing over time while privately-owned slums are increasing; accordingly, living conditions vary enormously across the different slums, even when average incomes are similar.
In this context, comprehensive and integrated efforts are highly required, both from the government and NGOs involving stakeholders from city corporation, other service providing agencies, slum dwellers and the house owners in order to strengthen capacity of the dwellers, make them aware of their rights, facillitate access to basic needs of water, sanitation, and education, develop a comprehensive waste management mechanism, protect children from violence and exploitation.
Slum dwellers are rightful citizens of the nation and their rights are protected by the constitution of Bangladesh. Slum people hope for better lives; their dreams are similar to those everywhere. Many of the families shared they don’t need any charity or special programmes; they have the talent to compete with everyone.
Slum dwellers expect to have recognition of their existence and their contribution to the city. As we, the urban people, cannot imagine even a single day without having a rickshaw on street, grocery at the roadside, house servants helping us every busy morning, it is high time to count them, help them in getting their basic needs. To achieve this, a clear urban sector policy is the next critical step.
