Slums are forever
PUSH' from the village and 'pull' factors from the city have been compelling the Bangladeshi rural poor, depleting by percentage versus urban population, to migrate to urban centres for decades, the upshot being the doubling of the number of slums since independence.
There is also no respite in sight and therefore one has to accept that slums are here to stay.
Living in abject conditions generally no daylight and the first victims of load-shedding if at all served by electricity, no fresh air, no water, no hygiene, no health service, no privacy, no security of tenancy, no facilities for children, no social status or security the sufferings of slum dwellers have to some extent been mitigated by the NGOs working with them.
A dedicated crusader in the cause of slum dwellers Professor Nazrul Islam and his team in today's piece try to draw a clear picture on the state of slums in Bangladesh. It is not an easy task considering that the parameters on slums and slum dwellers are diverse, complicated, intertwined and many. Moreover, the number of slums is also staggering for any researcher.
High (nay highest!) population density, worsened by single story sprawl, adds to the misery of women and children, given that the men folk do go to jobs or job-hunting.
Crime and drugs are associated with slums, either as source for city targets or as the playing field of criminals. Police raids, labelled as fruitless and gallery show, are not uncommon for various reasons.
Fire has occasionally reduced some slums to ashes, some deliberately lit to evacuate the tenants (?), and some due to carelessness and lack of awareness, but most of them have sprung back to life. The resolve to survive among these poorest of the poor is that much strong.
Those more fortunate should consider them blessed that the slum dwellers have concentrated their housing needs at some self-designated areas in the city, and not at their doorstep or street corner. The fact that more private property is being used for slums is indeed alarming. Our slums on government land may have to be accepted and built multi-level to ease density and related problems unless of course we can conjure up enough factors in the peri-urban and rural areas to pull back the people.
Needless to say, a comprehensive understanding of the pertaining issues shall be required if one is to attempt to bring some relief to the slum dwellers in any of the umpteen facets, mostly negatives, that make slum life unbearable, and yet life goes on.