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Need for Planned City : Future Scenario -
Slums
Actors Responses
Many Government documents (i.e. Slum problem and its solution, Land
Ministry GOB 1989, Housing Policy GOB 1993, Slums in Dhaka CUS-
ICDDR,B 1994, Study of Urban Poverty in Bangladesh Vol1 & 2 GOB-ADB
1996) have identified the slum problem as a manifestation of poverty
processes in this country, all the documents have advocated the
application of a mix of steps to alleviate the situation namely:
in-situ development; slum relocation; grant of title or lease; land
sharing, and; avoidance of forcible eviction of slum dwellers. In
addition studies and policy documents repeatedly advise for the
provision and facilitation of access of the urban poor to basic
services, like water and sanitation.
Government is not in a position to create formal employment for such
large group of urban poor. The majority of these communities are
self employed and this has given birth to a large informal economy
that is very dynamic and gaining momentum.
Helping the Slum Dwellers
Slum improvement activities in the country are done in two ways: (i)
the infrastructure development and (ii) the poverty alleviation
programs.
The structural improvement like building permanent houses, bringing
sewerage and water supply facilities, making sidewalks, etc. are
done in the slums of DCC by the government agencies. The DCC
authority had so far carried out the main infrastructure improvement
activities under Slum Improvement Project (SIP) in the DCC.
Relevantly, the DCC authority has been involved in the slum
improvement activities since 1982. The SIP started with Tk.27.4
million in 1985 and was completed in June 1996. UNICEF provided
Ninety per cent of the SIP fund while the technical assistance was
given by the LGED. M A Gofran, former director, the SIP said that
during the last ten years the project activities were extended to
246 slums under Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi City
corporations and 21 municipalities. The SIP provided drainage and
water supply facilities and built sidewalks in 18-20 slums of DCC
The floating urban poor were not included in the program.
At present the follow-up of the SIP is being implemented under Urban
Basic Service Delivery Project (UBSDP) with a fund of Tk.350
million. The UBSDP has moved away from the infrastructure activities
of the SIP towards non- infrastructure services to the slum people.
The UBSDP now targets to raise community resource centers, one in
every ward, in the DCC where it will render education, adult
literacy, health service, etc. to the slum people.
The World Bank (WB) provided US$60,OOO for a project aimed at
installing sanitary latrines, improving the water supply and
drainage system. The project started in 1989. The WB committed
another US$150 million for a project for the improvement of city
corporations and municipalities. Both the projects included slum
improvement activities.
According to CUS estimate, about 100 NGOs are working for poverty
alleviation in the DCC. There is an NGO coalition named, "Coalition
for the Urban Poor" to work in the slum areas. The organizations of
this coalition run credit programs, conduct awareness building
programs and provide functional education to the adult and children.
Among the poverty alleviation programs run by NGOs there are income
generating activities, micro credit, literacy, health services, etc.
Among other poverty alleviation activities the micro credit program
is a major one. According to Prof. Nazrul Islam, the micro credit
giving NGOs have reached about 100,000 families in the DCC. Shajal
Kumar Roy, a community organizer appointed by DCC for Telegu slum of
Wari says, "The response of the slum dwellers to the credit program
is remarkable. Once this slum was identified as a crime zone. Now
the situation has been changed."
Housing is one vital issue, which is very hard to address both by
the government and the NGOs working for the slum people. As Zahirul
Islam, former chief slum improvement officer of DCC put it, 'The
main problem to extend the slum improvement program in the slum
areas is that the slum dwellers do not have tenancy rights. So we
cannot build up infrastructures in all slum areas because they can
be evicted any time by the land owner." The situation is the
same in the slums raised in the government lands also. Most of the
government lands having slums at present had been allocated for some
specific purposes from long time ago. The government has too little
land within the DCC, not allocated for any specific purpose.
According to a newspaper report (Janakantha August 26, 1997), the
government had recently designed a project called Urban Poverty
Reduction Project (UPRP) with an ADB loan of Tk.2 billion. An
initial study was done for the ADB by a group of consultants. The
consultants informed (May 1998) that the ADB had refused to fund the
project since the government was reluctant to abide by one of the
ADB's conditions that the slum people must not be evicted within ten
years from where the infrastructure would be built for them. The
government refused to abide by this condition because most of its
land was already allocated for specific purposes, said a source.
Dhaka City Corporation's Initiatives
By the own fund of Dhaka City Corporation. During the period of
1993-2001 DCC had undertaken following physical Infrastructural
Development Works in order to improve the environmental conservation
of the slum areas of Dhaka City from its own fund :-
a. Sanitary Toilet : 230 Nos. Tk. 77,40,574/-
b. Tube well : 42 Nos. Tk. 10,26,594/-
c. Footpath and Drain : 53,085 Meter Tk. 3,71,58,119/-
d. Installation of light post : 4 Nos. Tk. 33,044/-
e. Establishment of satellite school : 4 Nos. Tk. 6,15,863/-
f. Water Reserves : 9 Nos. Tk. 2,16,629/-
g. Biogas Plant : 8 Nos. Tk. 24,66,901/-
Total Tk.= 4,92,57,724/-
Government Initiatives
The government acknowledges that there is an acute shortage of
affordable houses both in the urban and rural areas. To address the
housing problems of the low and middle-income a households in May
1999 several announcements were made that slum dwellers would be
resettled in villages. Three schemes were proposed, namely:
a. Ghore Phera Prokolpo - Providing travel expenses for a
family to return to their village, three months supply of wheat
under the Vulnerable Development Program, and micro- credit on easy
terms for housing and self- employment.
b. Asrayan Prokolpo - Allocation of basic housing in a
barrack like tin structure having cooking arrangements and a common
pond for fishing and other needs.
c. Adarsha Gram Prokolpo - A similar proramme offering credit
for relocation.
d. Bhashantek Project - A project of 16,000 low- cost flats
which though approved in 1997is yet to be implemented.
On 10 August 1999, the prime minister formed a rehabilitation body
headed by the Minister of Home Affairs to oversee that the evictees
were included in the rehabilitation. The donors, through public
pronouncements pressed for resettlement of the slum dwellers. On 10
October, the Bangladesh Bank proposed that a consortium be formed
with four nationalized banks to set up a housing trust fund which
would offer credit for rural housing with collateral. This (und
would be available to NGOs, development agencies and other
intermediaries, which submitted proposals for housing for slum
dwellers and other homeless persons.
NGO Initiatives
A large number of NGOs including Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee (BRAC), Proshika, Nan Moitree, Community Development
Service (CDS), Sathi, Shakti Foundation, Protibondi Pragotishil
Samaj Unnayan Sangstha, Development Alternatives of the Rural Poor (DARP),
Sabuj Chhata and Bangladesh Women's Health Coalition (BWHC), had
taken up development programs in these slums.
Source: Bangladesh Environment: Facing the 21st Century,
SEHD.
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