A harsh reality for urban slum children

FE Team | Published: July 16, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Slum is a word, a name that reflects the miseries of deprived people who have to struggle with poverty to survive in this beautiful planet. Slums are seen in every country regardless of developed or developing. Usually poor people migrate from village and very poor people of urban areas live in the slums, reports BSS.
Various reasons forced people to migrate to slum life. River erosion, uprooted, driven out, abandoned, meager income, insecurity, lack of job opportunity and other reasons are responsible for migration of people from rural areas to the cities leading to development of slum dwellings. A slum is a cluster of compact settlements of five or more households or a mess unit with 25 to 30 members of very poor housing.
These housing units grow very unsystematically in government owned or private vacant land. The physical and hygienic conditions of these houses are far below from the human habitation level. Socioeconomic reasons compelled these segments of distressed and poor people to choose this unhygienic condition of living.
Urbanisation is a sine-qua-non process of overall development of a country.
With this urbanisation the basic amenities grow and people get the benefits.
But these benefits or amenities are not equally enjoyed by all the people of fast growing cities. Majority people who are poor, shelterless, earn hand to mouth remain beyond the reach of this amenities. These people are urban slum people and children constitute a large number of them. The absence of basic utility services is a harsh reality for the urban slum children.
Bangladesh, as a developing country, has a rapid growing urban society. The city life attracts millions of people to migrate from rural areas for search of employment. As a capital city, Dhaka has become a very lucrative place for income generation and influx of people into Dhaka has increased tremendously. Next comes the city of Chittagong and Khulna. There are thousands of big and small slums in Dhaka and thousands of children and adolescents live in these slums.
The role of some non-government organisations has changed the lives of some of these slum children for better by supporting education health and hygiene and security. But this is not sufficient and most of the slum children live with less fortunate and appalling conditions.