City slums haunted by deprivation

When we reached Haji Nurunnabi Colony in Chittagong city, it was midday --- sunny and highly humid. Due to the day being the first working day of the week, we were prepared to find hardly any to have conversations. We, however, expected to see children attending school as the final examination was to be held next month. As women are the most significant participants in our project, we should have some discussions with them. It became a little uncertain as we were quite late reaching the colony. But shortly afterwards, we were proved wrong. We found hundreds of people living there were ready to welcome us at the colony gate. Children were playing around, with some, especially girls, busy with household works. After a while, it became clear to us why these people were waiting for us. We discovered that they had been eagerly waiting to tell their stories, those of deprivation from their fundamental rights. At this point, a brief look at the country's urbanisation process in the context of slums needs to be taken.
Bangladesh, predominantly a rural population-based country, is undergoing urban transformation at a remarkable pace. Its urban population has grown at a yearly average rate of 6.0 per cent since independence, at a time when the national population growth was 2.2 per cent. As a result, the urban population has grown six-folds compared to the 70 per cent increase in the rural population. Currently, around 40 million people in Bangladesh live in urban areas, out of which 21 per cent live below the poverty line (UNDP, 2014). Urbanisation has been more concentrated in a few large cities of Bangladesh. The accommodations include many slum areas. More than half of the urban population lives in four largest cities of the country: Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna. It leads to immense burden on the cities in ensuring supply of basic utilities, better standard of living and proper education for the new generation.
As per a 2005 survey, total 5233217 people are living in slums in the six major divisional cities of the country. The actual figure is unknown and the number jumps higher if all the cities are taken in the list. Dhaka still occupies the first position when it comes to dwelling in slums. The rate is 64.6 per cent. Chittagong has secured the second position. It is a rapidly expanding city, which is now regarded as the 'commercial capital' of Bangladesh. Currently a total of 1814 slums exist (CUS, 2005) in Chittagong with a rate of 20 per cent increase from 1997, while 1032 people live per acre.
Both the slum numbers and their dwellers are going upward with an increased rate of migration of the rural poor to the urban areas in Chittagong. It is affecting the infrastructural set-up of the city. Along with this, there is lack of planning to accommodate the poor. The population comprising the new arrivals in Chittagong, the port city, is creating pressure on sanitation, electricity, transportation, education, health, nutrition and environment. The migrants are also endangering the city life by indulging in anti-social activities, which start from slums and spread to the large urban area.
We enquired about how many of the slum people have migrated from different parts of the country, and what the reasons are. During discussion, the slum residents said majority of them had migrated from elsewhere. A research conducted by Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) in 2005 agreed with this view. The research detected eight reasons behind the rural people's migration to urban slum areas. It has found 39.53 per cent of slum households have migrated to search for jobs, 17.2 per cent due to river bank erosion and around 20 per cent for inability to survive with a low income. Traditionally weak job sectors in rural areas also push them into the cities.
In the city slum areas, the main problems include inadequate and insecure houses, serious crisis in ensuring hygienic sanitation and water facilities, difficulties in accessing employment etc. These are 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 lack of proper attention from the authorities, scarcity of resources etc. Education facilities in the slums are not available; higher tuition fees put a barrier to slum children's going to privately-owned schools outside the area. Our field survey reveals only two tube wells and three common bathroom serve 152 households with more than 800 people at Haji Nurunnabi Colony in Chittagong. The hygiene aspect comes up as a burning issue in the slum areas as there are limited scopes to defecate. Most of the toilets are linked to adjacent canals or rivers, and the human wastes merge with flowing water. The slum dwellers are using this water for cooking, washing their clothes, utensils and bathing.
The education situation offers a dismal picture. It has been found that hundreds of children are moving around during their school-time; no one is bothered about it. According to a UNESCO report (Global Education Monitoring Report, 2010), education figures for slums in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka are among the worst in the South Asian country, while the scenario is similar, or to some extent worse, in the other cities of the country. Childhood immunisation in Dhaka slum households has been reported at 51-76 per cent. The report reveals some non-formal schools run by non-government organisations (NGOs) play an important role in slums in Bangladesh. Community leaders and parents point finger at the unavailability of government primary schools in the slum areas for this. Lack of awareness among the guardians about sending their children to school, the unavailability of means to protect them from kidnappers and engage them in work are among the major problems that affect slum children.
With one of the highest urban populations in the world, the development of slums in Bangladesh has not received proper attention from the authorities. Therefore, the condition continues to worsen for an increasing number of urban poor living in increased numbers of slums and colonies leading to serious crisis in having the basic needs met. Dysfunctional mechanism in waste management results in the cities' air pollution exposing them to many hazards. Another key factor in any discussion on slums is land ownership. The numbers of slums on government lands are decreasing over time, with private slums spreading faster. Maybe, due to this, living conditions vary enormously across different slums, even when average incomes are similar.
In this context, comprehensive and integrated efforts are required both from the government and the NGOs, with the involvement of stakeholders from city corporations, other service providing agencies, even the slum dwellers, in order to strengthen capacity of these urban poor people. They should be made aware of their rights, given support to the efforts to have access to basic needs of water, sanitation, and education, as well as developing a comprehensive waste management mechanism, and protecting their children from violence and exploitation.
Slum dwellers are the rightful citizens of the country and their rights are protected by Bangladesh Constitution. The slum people also nurture hope for the future. Their dreams are similar to those of others in every segment of society.
The writer is National Urban Coordinator at World Vision Bangladesh. [email protected]