The problem of homelessness is confronting not only developing countries like Bangladesh but also rich and advanced nations such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The ugly contrast of poor mortals huddling under blankets in passenger sheds or on pavements right beside skyscrapers ---be it in Dhaka or Washington, New York or London---is indeed a disgrace to modern civilisation. Bangladesh has at least one excuse of river erosion and cyclones that render hundreds or thousands of families homeless overnight. The wealthy West hardly has excuses like this.
The other cause behind homelessness is pervasive poverty of people in contrast with mountainous accumulation of wealth in a few hands. Poor people become poorer, even sell their homesteads and are forced to move to khas or relatives' lands for temporary shelters. But the majority of them make the long trek to urban centres for a living. They are the worst homeless or floating people with no place to call their homes.
Bangladesh can take pride in the housing scheme Ashrayan, courtesy of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, under which around 8.8 million homeless families have been provided with homes. These are quite decent living accommodations built on government or khas lands. But unfortunately hostile climate is causing homelessness at a faster pace than before and yet 1.8 million people lived in slums and 22,125 people were homeless, according to the preliminary Population and Housing Census 2022 report.
However, this looks quite conservative. The five-yearly plan documents made a projection to the effect that the number of homeless people in the country would be 8.5 million by 2021. According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), there were 5.0 million homeless people at that time. If the Ashrayan scheme has provided for 8.5 million families, not people, the number of people enjoying the benefit would be many times more. This means there should hardly be any homeless people. Indeed, while celebrating the Mujib Borsho, birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the prime minister declared 12 districts and 123 upazilas free of homeless people. Her resolve to make homelessness a phenomenon of the past is highly appreciative.
However, the flow of homeless people to urban centres is still continuing. The figures of homeless people may be contentious but there is no controversy about the sufferings of the floating people, street children and some mentally unstable people rummaging through bins for leftovers right at this time of mild cold wave. Pictures carried in different newspapers are so pathetic that many hearts melt for these hapless people. Many of these shelterless people, children in particular, shiver from biting cold on pavements or open spaces before shopping malls, shops, ATM booths and office buildings. They wrap themselves with the scanty clothes, rags and even sacks. One picture that made quite an impression is the bond between a teenage boy and a dog, both of whom slept under a blanket with the two sharing each other's body warmth to fight the cold.
Charitable organisations and clubs distribute blankets. Some moneyed people may as well come forward to join such organisations in distributing warm clothes and blankets. In this country, there is no provision for sheltering such poor souls in government-run shelters. According to 2019 estimate of the Shelter, a charity looking after the homeless in the UK, there were as many as 280,000 homeless people in England. But only 12,300 of them slept in rough conditions which are much too adverse. Another 12,000 slept in bins, sheds, cars, tents and night buses. An overwhelming majority of the homeless people find their shelter in temporary accommodations and social homes.
No doubt, rehabilitation of the homeless under the pioneering Ashrayan scheme is better than any other welfare programme for such people. But the new arrivals in a city like Dhaka need some temporary shelters for several reasons including security of women and children. The government can make arrangements for such facilities before the poor are permanently rehabilitated.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com