Strong rural economy key to stopping city-bound exodus

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FE Report
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, seeking support from lawmakers to empower local government bodies, said Tuesday administrative decentralisation would help stem the rural people's city-bound exodus.
He also acknowledged that the government channels only 2.0 per cent of allocation to local administrations, although it was 10 per cent during the British colonial period.
"It's better to have a slim central government," the minister told a seminar in the city dealing with urban poverty.
Mr Muhith insisted that strengthening of local government and creation of rural cluster habitats would help stop the rural people's movement to cities, seeking economic opportunities and employment.
Bangladesh is rapidly being urbanised and its urban population will be 51 million or 32 per cent of the total population by 2015. Dhaka has nearly 40 per cent of the urban population.
"We can eradicate begging if we are able to instil vibrancy into the rural economy," Mr Muhith said.
He said Dhaka's slums, mainly controlled by maastans, have become abodes of crime and drug peddling.
But he said the government can explore the option of building low-cost housing for the slum dwellers and the urban poor to be given on rent by providing basic services like water, electricity and sanitation.
Sarwar Zahan, a professor at BUET, said the government can earn profits by building flats on Khas lands.
Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), in a survey, said the number of slum population in six large metropolitan cities of the country was 5.4 million in 2005.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data show that in 2000, 36.6 per cent of urban population was poor compared to 53 per cent in rural areas.
Non-government Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and the World Bank jointly organised the seminar in the city, with its executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman moderating.
The finance minister also underscored the need for preparing the people for international migration to help reduce the pressure of urban migration.
Executive director of BRAC Mahbub Hossain, however, saw Bangladesh's increasing trend of urbanisation from a positive angle, saying dense settlement would help better address the urban poverty.
"Scopes for jobs are really scarce in rural areas. So you've limited window on opportunities to accommodate additional population in rural areas," said Mr Hossain.