Reaching out to floating people in city
Ausma Akter Urmee | Saturday, 5 July 2008
Rashida lies on a dusty street outside Bangabandhu National Stadium with her small son asleep on her lap. Honking cars kick up more dust as the 30-year-old woman in a torn sari dozes taking break from her daily work of collecting trash and old papers from dustbins and sell those to buy food for herself and her kid. Both the mother and the son look malnourished.
Rashida, along with her son, work on the streets and sleep on pavements, usually close to the stadium. When she does not earn enough to buy food she begs. Restaurants at the stadium also help them occasionally offering them left-over food.
``I've nowhere to go,' says Rashida, who looks older than her age. 'I only worry about my son.'
Rashida, daughter of a day labor in Jamalpur district, was married to another day labor a few years ago. One day her husband disappeared for several days and returned home with another wife. Rashida was ordered to leave and return to her father's house. The father's family was unable to take care of Rashida and her infant son. She left for Dhaka, the capital city, with one of her neighbours and found herself working on the streets and sleeping on pavements.
She is one of the thousands of homeless and floating people who sleep on sidewalks in the capital city of 10 million people. Statistics available from government and unofficial sources put the number of floating population in the capital city as more than 32,000, a large number of them women with small children. Those who have no house to sleep in are categorized as floating people.
The poor people leave their poverty-stricken villages to flee hunger and hoping to get some work or food in the city, where most of the opportunities are concentrated. Migration from villages to the cities has been common in this country for many years. Even investment by NGOs in the rural areas - small loans provided to the poor -has not been able to stop such migration to the cities. It's not unusual in a country, where nearly 40 percent of its 140 million live below the poverty line.
S.M. Akash, a teacher at Dhaka University's Economics Department, explains the phenomenon this way. According to him there are two factors - push-effect and pull- effect - that bring rural people the cities. The push-effect means the poor people are driven out of their villages by extreme poverty and the pull-effect means wealth and work in the cities attracting the rural people there.
Akash does not see any pull-effect in the cities. ``The poor are coming to the cities in search of work and food which are not available in villages. Unfortunately, the cities no longer offer much job, especially after the closure of many industries in a move prescribed by the IMF and World Bank.'
For the poor migrants the situation is like escaping a frying pan to fall into the fire itself. The migrants survive mainly driving rickshaws, collecting trash and begging. Many are forced to resort to stealing or begging. Crimes thrive among the floating people making them target of police and other gangsters. The floating people also endure constant harassment of police, they allege. Children are most vulnerable to crimes such as drug peddling. Some of the floating people take to drug addiction to try to bury the pangs of hunger and other deprivation.
Says Dr. Nazrul Islam, a Dhaka University teacher who researches on urban development: 'The extreme poor from districts like Rangpur, Jamalpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Mymensingh and Barisal usually migrate to the city in search of work and food. Many of them take shelter in rail stations or on pavements.'
According to him adolescent girls are worst sufferers. Such girls are more vulnerable to prostitution.
The floating population suffer themselves and may cause difficulties for others also. They have no access to water and other utility services. They defecate in the open and litter on the streets polluting the environment. On the other hand they have little access to drinking water and thus become afflicted with water-borne diseases like diarrhea.
Nazrul believes that the government can reach out to the floating people. It can build toilet for them and make sure that they get pure water. ``What we need is a little bit of sincerity,' he says.
Such sincerity can make a big difference in the life of homeless young people like Shahidul Islam, a 20-year-old porter at Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway station.
Shahidul earns about 50 takas a day and can somehow pass the day. But he, like others, feel that no one cares about their plight.
According to Nazrul the government must take urgent measures to solve the problems of the homeless people before they spun out of control.
Rashida, along with her son, work on the streets and sleep on pavements, usually close to the stadium. When she does not earn enough to buy food she begs. Restaurants at the stadium also help them occasionally offering them left-over food.
``I've nowhere to go,' says Rashida, who looks older than her age. 'I only worry about my son.'
Rashida, daughter of a day labor in Jamalpur district, was married to another day labor a few years ago. One day her husband disappeared for several days and returned home with another wife. Rashida was ordered to leave and return to her father's house. The father's family was unable to take care of Rashida and her infant son. She left for Dhaka, the capital city, with one of her neighbours and found herself working on the streets and sleeping on pavements.
She is one of the thousands of homeless and floating people who sleep on sidewalks in the capital city of 10 million people. Statistics available from government and unofficial sources put the number of floating population in the capital city as more than 32,000, a large number of them women with small children. Those who have no house to sleep in are categorized as floating people.
The poor people leave their poverty-stricken villages to flee hunger and hoping to get some work or food in the city, where most of the opportunities are concentrated. Migration from villages to the cities has been common in this country for many years. Even investment by NGOs in the rural areas - small loans provided to the poor -has not been able to stop such migration to the cities. It's not unusual in a country, where nearly 40 percent of its 140 million live below the poverty line.
S.M. Akash, a teacher at Dhaka University's Economics Department, explains the phenomenon this way. According to him there are two factors - push-effect and pull- effect - that bring rural people the cities. The push-effect means the poor people are driven out of their villages by extreme poverty and the pull-effect means wealth and work in the cities attracting the rural people there.
Akash does not see any pull-effect in the cities. ``The poor are coming to the cities in search of work and food which are not available in villages. Unfortunately, the cities no longer offer much job, especially after the closure of many industries in a move prescribed by the IMF and World Bank.'
For the poor migrants the situation is like escaping a frying pan to fall into the fire itself. The migrants survive mainly driving rickshaws, collecting trash and begging. Many are forced to resort to stealing or begging. Crimes thrive among the floating people making them target of police and other gangsters. The floating people also endure constant harassment of police, they allege. Children are most vulnerable to crimes such as drug peddling. Some of the floating people take to drug addiction to try to bury the pangs of hunger and other deprivation.
Says Dr. Nazrul Islam, a Dhaka University teacher who researches on urban development: 'The extreme poor from districts like Rangpur, Jamalpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Mymensingh and Barisal usually migrate to the city in search of work and food. Many of them take shelter in rail stations or on pavements.'
According to him adolescent girls are worst sufferers. Such girls are more vulnerable to prostitution.
The floating population suffer themselves and may cause difficulties for others also. They have no access to water and other utility services. They defecate in the open and litter on the streets polluting the environment. On the other hand they have little access to drinking water and thus become afflicted with water-borne diseases like diarrhea.
Nazrul believes that the government can reach out to the floating people. It can build toilet for them and make sure that they get pure water. ``What we need is a little bit of sincerity,' he says.
Such sincerity can make a big difference in the life of homeless young people like Shahidul Islam, a 20-year-old porter at Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway station.
Shahidul earns about 50 takas a day and can somehow pass the day. But he, like others, feel that no one cares about their plight.
According to Nazrul the government must take urgent measures to solve the problems of the homeless people before they spun out of control.