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Title: ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN AND SOCIAL-MOBILIZATION PROGRAM FORREHABILITATION OF THE URBAN POOR OF DHAKA CITY, BANGLADESH
Location:
Categories: Human Rights
Status:
In Planning
Timeline:
December 1 08 to September 15 09
Description:
An Advocacy campaign and social mobilization
program towards rehabilitation of the urban poor of Dhaka city.
Objectives:
Undertaking due measures to rehabilitate the urban poor through proper recognition of their contribution to the city life and national economy of Bangladesh.
Project Objective(s):
The broad objective of the proposed proposal is to find out and highlight the expectation made by the urban poor in regards of their habitat issue. The specific objective(s) are as:
„
Needs:
Dhaka alone accounts for 40 per cent of the country's urban population. In 1995, Dhaka, with a population of 8.5 million, was the 23rd largest city in the world. By 2015, Dhaka will be the 5th largest city after Tokyo, Bombay, Lagos and Sao Paulo, with a population of 19.5 million. While population grows at 1.5 per cent a year in the rural areas, Dhaka's population marks a 5.6 per cent annual increase. The credit goes to the constant influx of rural migrants. Rural-urban migration happens for many reasons. Dhaka is the Capital City and administrative center of the country. Factories are largely located in Dhaka. There are about 2,000 garment factories in the city. Besides the garment factories, there are many other industries located in Dhaka. The demand for skilled and unskilled labor is high and thus remains the major reason for people migrate from the rural areas to the city. Another reason for people to come to the city is to escape flooding in the rural areas that has eroded banks of rivers and the land on which they have lived for decades.
The people in the slums and squatters are vendors, drivers of rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, factory workers, garment factory workers, daily laborers, domestic servants etc. They make a major contribution to the economy and welfare of the country in general and the city in particular. The urban poor are the prime contributors to the urban informal economy. Without their participation; city transport, bulk of daily trade, supply of all kinds of urban labor force, as well as the normal urban life must be hampered at a great extent. But the rest of the city dwellers hardly recognize this contribution. The urban poor keeps the city transport smooth by pulling rickshaws, driving baby-taxi¡¦s, tempos etc. They are even operating all the katcha markets to supply us the whole daily foods. In case of trade, the urban poor operates the whole informal trade in the city, which is the major source of shopping for the city dwellers. They even keep city roads clean by managing the scattered garbage throughout the ways. This project is going to undertake an advocacy campaign & massive social mobilization program towards rehabilitation of the urban poor of Dhaka city, through recognition of their contribution to the national economy and the city life.
Much of the land of Dhaka is government owned, and most slum dwellers are illegal squatters on this land. Due to the unofficial nature of slum and settlements, providing the basic services to these squatters is quite problematic. The Government agencies, who provides the basic services, only provides to landowners, on presentation of a 'holding number' related to their land/plot ownership. Slum dwellers therefore fine themselves outside the official system, unable to access services, which other city dwellers take for granted. They are then forced to rely on illegal vendors, sometimes established by the landlords who control slum housing (who themselves usually do not own the land or the few legal services which are also controlled by he landlords). The cost of thee services is rather high, either in cash terms, as the services is usually sold by the people who control the sources, or in terms of time, as to find an operable service source from which to collect services can be a lengthy process.
Apart from the foresaid problem, threats of eviction are encountered very often violating the High court verdict. Not only the Government takes adequate measures to rehabilitate the slum dwellers but also steps taken to evict them from their habitat. No one can deny the urban poor's contribution to keep the wheel of our daily life as well as our national economy.
Realizing the problems related to the habitat rights of the urban poor, an initiative has been undertaken to address the whole issue, through conducting a study on URBAN POOR¡¦S PARTICIPATION TO THE CITY LIFE, DHAKA, BANGLADESH.
(this study proposal already been submitted to the ¡§ Center on Housing Rights and Eviction-COHRE¡¨, of its Asia-Pacific desk for support).
After the completion of the said study, SHELTER has planned to start implement immediately this project to create political, moral & social-physical pressure on the policymakers, political leaders, lawyers, human rights activists, academia, all professional groups/organizations, public servants, urban planners and civil society to recognize & feel the actual contribution and the need of presence of the urban poor to the city life/national economy of the country and then, undertake all necessary steps towards proper rehabilitation of the urban poor.
Slum Eviction:
The largest pre Independence slum was formed along the railway track that fell into disuse since the let 1960s. This was demolished, re-formed and demolished again in the incidents of 1971 and 1975. There have been numerous incidents of demolishing slums and evicting squatters in Dhaka. Those formed in the pre-independence period were burnt to ashes by the Pakistan army on the night of March 25, 1971; Thousands were either killed or made refugees in that incident. A major incident of eviction was the eviction of 173,000 squatters in the first week of January 1975, which embarrassed many people's representatives and unaware high government officials.
nobody has any qualms about evicting slums generally located on government land, An estimate 200,000 people were affected and US$ 2.5 million worth of properties were destroyed in 30 cases of major forced eviction in Dhaka in-between 1990-1992. Actual number of evictions could be many more as not all cases are reported either to the relevant authority, police, organizations of the poor or the media. Brutal means are used in the eviction: the most prominent are cordoning of and beating the squatters, resorting to arson which is a popular and cheap and effective method and employing hired mastaans.
It is a matter of fact and grave concerned that, the eviction during the period of May, 1999-August, 2002 was massive and takes place as four to five times more than that of the earlier years. Over the last couple of years there are about 100+ slum were evicted where more than 3,00,000 slum dwellers become shelter-less which is nothing but the direct violation of human rights
International perspective of Urbanization and its consequences:
According to a recent report of the UN Population Division. World's urban population is growing so fast that by the year 2007 city dwellers will out number rural residents for the first time in history, And in 40 years at current rates - the world urban population will double, to about 5.8 billion. There are now 6 billion people on the globe.
According to 1999 revised estimate Currently 2.9 billion people, 47 percent of the world's population live in urban areas. By 2030, when total global population is expected to hit 8 billion, some 4.9 billion people or close to 60 percent of all the people in the world will be city dwellers.
The world has experienced remarkable demographic change during the second half of the 20th century, but the pace of change has not been uniform across countries. A report prepared by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) states that, "Globally, only in Asia there were consistent increases in levels of urbanization over the last four decades." Interestingly, the majority of projected population increases are expected to be absorbed by the urban areas of less developed regions. These regions will account for 98 percent of global population growth between 1999 and 2015, according to Charting the Progress of Populations, a publication of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
The DESA report also emphasizes that stabilization of population growth has been found to make a crucial contribution to the achievement of sustainable development. In East and South-East Asia, populations have slowly begun to stabilize, according to the ESCAP report. However, South and West Asian populations are rapidly increasing as well as experiencing large rural to urban shifts. The ESCAP study also found that urbanization in the Asia and Pacific region includes a significant proportion of females.
The Country context of Bangladesh :
The cities are the chief centers of "modernization" not only in their concentration of industrial growth, but also transport hubs, financial centers and the major clusters of higher education, technical advances and intellectual ferment. Access to that center of political and cultural power is easier for the educated and the relatively more affluent than for the impoverished and the disenfranchised. But the pressure of the rootless rural poor into marginal coastal areas or brittle highlands has reached a saturation point, these ecological "boat people", as it were, are force feeding migration streams into crowded urban slums. Further, the inadequacy of employment generation for the rural labor force has also led massive out migration from countryside to metropolitan centers, mainly Dhaka followed b Chittagong and regional headquarters like Rajshahi or Khulna. According to a World Bank report, 1.2 million urban households (24 percent of the total urban) are living today in slums while some 0.6 million households are either homeless or squatters. If slum living is to be reduced to 10 percent by the year 2020, an estimated annual expenditure of $2 billion initially is required, while other informal and sum housing will cost another $1 billion annually if there is to be no squatting or homelessness beyond the year 2010. This has serious policy implications in terms of improving dramatically the provision of sites and services for low-income people. Also due to transformation of slums and open spaces into private formal real estates more slums are emerging in the outskirts. This will have implications on the future transport demand and its nodes as well as the incidence of urban poverty.
Given this rather grim scenario let us look at the future urbanization pattern. The World Bank Study points out that Mega city of Dhaka with the current population of more than 9 million will be some 14 to 16 million people by the year 2010 and round 20 million by the year 2020. Chittagong metropolitan area will double in size by the year 2010 with an expected population between 9-12 million and may continue to dominate the urban scheme throughout the 25 year time horizon. The growth of other urban areas including the metropolitan centers of Rajshahi and Khulan are expected to be homes of roughly as many people or slightly more of Dhaka and Chittagong combined. Completion of the Bangabandhu bridge over Jamuna, possible multinodal transport linkage with India's eastern and northern forntier states, and installation of broad gauge railway along Sirajgonj - Iswardi-Rajshahi corridor will enhance the importance of Rajshahi metropoliton centres as well as other medium and small towns in the western districts. The bridge and the availability of higher grounds will influence the urban growth along the corridor of Dhaka-Gazipur-Mymensingh-Tangail-Northwester districts. Other corridors like those of Dhaka-Laksam-Feni-Chittagong and of Dhaka-Faridpur-Gopalganj-Khulna are potential urban growth poles. Barisal and Sylhet may receive some secondary spill over effects.
Challenge of urbanization in Bangladesh The challenges of rapid urbanization are daunting. According to a World Band estimate, "From a base of 24 million in 1996, the urban population is expected to be 31 million in the year 2000 about 52 million by 2010 and nearly 79 million in 2020. These projections are based on an assumption of an average annual growth rate of 6.4 percent up to 2000, 5.3 per cent between 2000-2010, and 4.3 per cent thereafter." As future constituencies of different political parties will become increasingly urban, a political consensus should be forthcoming on a national urban strategy and its implementation. Issues of location according to spatial and economic growth patterns, investment in physical infrastructure and utilities, expansion of social development, encouraging private initiatives in Investment and transparency of municipal governance along with adequate-delegated authority are all necessary components for both an immediate and large term program framework. An enabling policy environment should facilitate a balanced development of both urban and rural economies. Unfortunately urban policies in the past have been largely reactive and ado. If a cohesive national strategy does not evolve and advance planning is not taken in hand, the situation can become explosive. A concerted initiative is needed today and cannot be postponed any further.
The rights of the urban poor as ensured in the constitution of Bangladesh and other laws (issue of housing for the urban poor):
The issue of housing rights and environmental degradation including housing in the urban areas of the South Asian countries has been raised on many occasions in regional forums. The Male Declaration of 1990 recognized the issue of shelter and advocated concerted effort of the SAARC nations in providing socio-politically and economically suitable shelters. Bangladesh, a signatory to many such global and regional declarations and charters, needs to be committed to their essence. It has taken some measures to fulfill some of the prerequisites to create a congenial atmosphere conducive to upholding the housing rights of the urban poor and solve their housing problem in the most appropriate and cost effective way. For example, the government has declared 'Housing for all by the Year 2000' , has prepared a housing policy outlining priorities and strategies, has Formed a housing ministry, has under-taken many studies to alleviate urban poverty and the severe housing and environmental problems, and is about to implement a few low-income group housing and lending programs. However, most of these are limited within documents and reports, most provisions are enforced, and moreover planned provisions are meager compared to the widespread violation of the rights and housing shortage.
'Rights related to basic necessities as stated in Part, all, Article 15 (a) of the Constitution of Bangladesh are: It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the state to attain, through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people with a view to securing to its citizens: the provision of basic necessities of life including food, clothing; shelter, education and medical care. Paragraphs 5.7.1 and 5.7.2 c of the National Housing Policy (NHP) reiterates protection against forced eviction as- the' government would take steps to avoid forcible relocation or" displacement of slum dwellers in so far as possible ..... encourage in-situ upgrading, slum" renovation and progressive 0 housing developments with conferment of occupancy rights, wherever possible, and to undertake relocation with community involvement for clearance of priority sites public .interests. Therefore, forced squatters without proper legal notice resettling them is vi6Jation of and state policy
The objectives of NHP described in Paragraphs 3.1 and 3.3 are ... to make housing accessible to all strata of society... high priority target groups will be the disadvantage: destitute and the shelter-less poor and to develop effective strategies for reducing the need' to seek shelter through formation slum... . to relocate them in suitable places.
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