By Kazi Amdadul Hoque
The unpredictable speed and scale of urbanization in Bangladesh is indicating that 50% of the population might migrate to the major cities in next three to four decades for better lifestyles and livelihoods. According to a recent survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 74.4 people out of 1,000 migrated to the urban areas from the rural areas whereas only 34 people made the reverse move in 2014. Bangladesh experienced faster urbanization than South Asia as a whole between 2000 and 2010. What is unique to Bangladesh is the speed and scale of urbanization, with an annual growth rate of 3.6%. According to the projections by the UN Expert group, by 2025, the urban population in Bangladesh will be around 77 million and according to the McKenzie Global Institute report, Dhaka will have the 3rd largest child population in the world. The most common reasons for this movement are:
i. To escape from poverty in rural areas
ii. The loss of homes due to river erosion
iii. Better earning opportunities
iv. City employment and better living standards for family
v. Better facilities and options for education and health services and etc.
Many of these people struggle as the cities are not always prepared to welcome them and on the other hand they have to remain in-touch with their rural community for property and family members they left behind.
Migrant Micro-Entrepreneurship
In Bangladesh millions are migrating to the cities because agriculture can no longer sustain them. Most of those arriving in the cities in search of work, however, are unable to find it because they lack the skills and training for jobs in the rapidly growing technology-driven industries and disappearing ‘formal’ economy. Consequently, they are being forced out to the urban peripheries, where the manufacturing and garment industries are located.
In 2010, 21.3% of Bangladesh’s urban population lived below the national poverty line, while, in 2009, almost 62% of the urban population lived in slums. The urban poor also tend to work informally, with low wages and lack of job security, contributing to the prevalence of child labor. Apparently, unemployment is often quite low in urban areas, but this tends to hide high levels of under-employment. The country’s poverty reduction strategic paper is mostly rural driven and the lack of a centralized body to address urban poverty is a major challenge.
The inability of ‘formal’ labor markets to absorb the millions of people seeking work and the increasingly regulated ‘informal’ economy are generating substantial increases in unemployment and underemployment. Those who depend on the informal economy for their livelihoods are being forced into degraded living conditions either in the cities or on city peripheries.
This massive rural migration is closely linked to growing urban poverty, as the poor in the cities and towns are mostly rural migrants. When asked why they moved to the city, most usually cite better prospects in the urban economy as the main reason. However, one could easily assume from the sight of the severe and widespread poverty in Dhaka, for example, that rural migrants do not really know what to do when they get to the city, and are unaware of the risk of being trapped in urban poverty.
This can be turned into a win-win situation if micro-entrepreneurships can be used as an alternative to reduce poverty, increase earnings and reduce poverty induced personal and social. The city authorities along with other stakeholders can be instrumental with innovative ideas and support to make a city of micro-entrepreneurs.
The wide spread of micro-credit programs and micro-enterprise in Bangladesh has emerged as a major avenue for the alleviation of poverty and unemployment. The banks, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have adopted several approaches and strategies to reach people with certain conditions. There has been a positive impact by micro-enterprises on specific socio-economic variables. However, these initiatives needs to help build capacities with opportunity costs, seed money and marketing support providing high returns at low costs.
Privatization of Services
Although the situation of the poor in cities like Dhaka has improved somewhat in terms of income and food consumption, many still lack access to shelter, infrastructure and social services. The stark inequality between the poor and the neo-rich, , is becoming a key challenge in Bangladesh’s cities.
Adding to the hardships for the poor is the privatization of many urban services. With the state withdrawing from its social commitments, many services, particularly in education and health, are being provided by non-state agencies and the private sector putting them beyond the reach of the poor. Despite the prevalence of illness and disease in the slums, especially among infants and children, the poor have limited access to affordable healthcare services.
Disparities between Slum and Non–Slum City Dwellers
A recent survey commissioned by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and supported by UNICEF, showed that though the country has relatively better levels of overall achievements in urban areas in terms of the well-being of children and women, large disparities exist between slum and non–slum areas within City Corporations as well as with the municipality and other urban areas. The Child Well-being Survey (CWS) in urban areas of Bangladesh was conducted between February and April 2016 focusing on 75 child related indicators in over 20,000 households. Survey results indicate that large disparities exist within City Corporations between the slum and non-slum areas and also between the divisions for many of the indicators related to child nutrition, breastfeeding, child health, access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation, reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, child development, literacy and education and child protection. The key findings are:
i. More than 1 in 4 under-five children (26.3%) in urban areas are stunted (height-for-age); children in the slum areas of city corporations have much higher prevalence (40%) when compared to those from non-slum areas (25%) – a difference of about 15%.
ii. About 3 in 5 births (65%) are attended by skilled attendants in urban areas. While about 56% of births are assisted in city corporation slums, 74% of deliveries are assisted in non-slum areas.
iii. Net Attendance Ratio in primary education, one of the main indicators in the education sector, was 86%, with slum areas rates 15 points lower than the non-slum areas within City Corporations.
iv. Households in slum areas had a very low access to improved sanitation (18.9%) as compared to the non-slum households (51.3%) in City Corporations.
v. Prevalence of child labor for 5 to 14 year olds, which stood at 8.1% for urban areas as a whole, was substantially higher in city corporation slum areas at 14.3%.
vi. Early marriage continues to be high with about 59.7% of women aged 20-49 getting married before the age of 18 years, and about one in every three girl in the age group of 15-19 years being married.
Urbanization is linked to economic advancement and brings with it new opportunities as well as challenges for sustainable and inclusive development.
Urban Pollution
Air and water pollution is the main environmental threat to human health in Bangladesh cities leading to increased death rates for the urban population. This problem is acute in Dhaka being the capital city and major cultural, and manufacturing center. The city along with its peripheries serve as manufacturing hubs for of many ready-made garment, jute, tanneries, textile, tea processing, fertilizer, cement, paper and pulp, chemicals and pesticides, food and sugar, pharmaceuticals, petroleum refinery, distillery, rubber, plastics, and brick, bus/track assembling factories. The air in Dhaka is extremely polluted. The ambient atmospheric conditions of other urban areas have also progressively deteriorated due to the unprecedented growth in the number of motor vehicles, and continuous housing and industrial development. (Muhammad Mahadi, Khulna University)
Dhaka city is expanding very rapidly in all directions and population is increasing at an alarming rate. Due to this, the supply of pure drinking water, sewerage facilities, safe accommodation for the growing population, appropriate sanitation, waste collection, supply of electricity and gas for about 160 million city dwellers is being put under immense pressure. Furthermore, the news about Dhaka city air reported to contain higher proportions of lead and CO is also a cause for concern. The noise levels from the constant traffic has become intolerable and the water of rivers around the city are filled with filth. City dwellers are already affected with various contagious water borne diseases.
This pollution is spreading as factories are being forced to the peripheries because of the ready availability of land and labor there. The use of industrial chemicals is not only damaging the environment but also creating dangerous health risks for the millions of people who are forced to live in those areas.
People have been going about their daily lives as they are either unaware of this serious issue or they are not bothered. However, this has to change before the whole city becomes a concrete slum. City institutions should reach to its citizens and raise awareness. City Corporations and other service organizations will be held accountable, thus, they must implement projects based on environmental impact assessment.
Urbanization, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management
Another reason for which people have been migrating to the cities is to flee from the impacts of climate change – increasing floods, cyclones, and drought. The capital city, Dhaka, is vulnerable to recurrent natural emergency events including seismic activities with nearly 15 million people (more than one third of which are classified as poor). Around 350,000 migrants are moving to the city each year but the city has failed to keep up with the pace of its growth for the land use, planning regulations and emergency service delivery. Similarly, Sylhet, the country’s third largest city, suffers from a responsive, rather than proactive approach to urban management and development. It is also Bangladesh’s most exposed city to seismic risk.
Now, there are some questions that need to be answered. These include:
i. Do we know what to do where to go and how to face an unexpected situation related to natural or manmade disasters?
ii. Do we have any idea regarding what climate change means to us?
iii. Do we have community (or ward) specific emergency preparedness and management plans?
iv. Do we have fire extinguishers and training in each and every buildings, markets and settlements?
There are numerous other similar questions but I am afraid the answers are missing. Fundamental deficiencies in the emergency management system and the lack of the local capacity to conduct search-and-rescues often lead to slow response processes that rely on ad-hoc decision making. There is still hope as the Bangladesh Government along with City Corporations and its development partners are developing a Standing order of Disaster (SoD) which is a dynamic document to follow in case of such emergencies. It is understood that to reach a common goal to reduce disaster risk and to ensure urban resilience in Bangladesh there is a need for a comprehensive multi-sectoral approach, equipping emergency operations centers and interoperable communication systems to exchange information, search and rescue equipment across agencies and help capacity building. What we also need to do is to translate those directions and plans so that people are more aware and involved.
Sustainable Development
In Bangladesh, development history shows that urban populations have been deprived of development attention by the government and perhaps it has yet to recognize adequately that growth in urban centers is linked with national growth and economic development.
We are aware that some development theories like Modernization theories and Rostow’s Five stages of development theory were wrong as they thought that development in some areas would trickle down development to the rest, but that did not happen and the majority of people in underdeveloped countries have had the same living standard as in the past. On the other hand, there were those who could pick up on the development trail and benefit from this growth as they were close to epicenter of development. However, after the Rio De Janeiro Sustainable Development Summit, UN Habitat policy makers of developing countries were able to take into account urbanization as a policy priority.
There are several projects now in progress in Bangladesh by the government and different development agencies. These programs have been initiated to provide assistance for urban development towards poverty reduction, infrastructure development, private sector development and water-sanitation improvement. They are supported by the Asian Development Bank, Action Aid, BRAC, Concern, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), GIZ, JICA, Practical Action, Save the Children, Sanitation, Hygiene, Education & Water (SHEWAB), Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction (UPPR), World Bank, World Vision, and many others.
The major challenge of development initiatives is to involve dwellers in the assessment, analysis, planning and implementation of the development process. Also, during this process, it must be taken into consideration that dwellers of different geographical locations within the cities may not have the same lifestyle, livelihood, consumption pattern and socio-economic stratifications. Overall urban governance should be strengthened. A bottom up approach with participatory planning, people empowerment and inclusiveness is the key to sustain the impact of the development processes.
Urban Development Center
I remember the UNICEF supported a Slum Improvement Project (SIP) for implementation by the Local Government Engineering Department with City Corporations and selective Municipalities in Bangladesh during 1985-1995. In 1996, a revised model of this was introduced as the Urban Basic Service Delivery Project, which became operative in 1997 and ended in 2000-2001 with an understanding with the City Corporation to take the program forward. The ultimate goal of the Urban Basic Service Delivery Project (UBSDP) was to improve the quality of life of the slum dwellers.
In accordance with the UBSDP, the Urban Development Centers (UDC) were established in each and every ward of the city corporation both in Dhaka and Chittagong were, in general, appropriately located within or close to respective slums. The centers served as classrooms for non-formal education as well as other services including primary health care, income generation, legal aid for slum dwellers. UBSDP played a major role in establishing linkages with some NGOs and service agencies including those in the private sector. Local elected representatives, particularly Ward Counselors (then Commissioners) played as chair and we observed a fair amount of interest in the community through UBSDP.
I would like to explore further, after two decades, the efficacy of the UBSDP and whether it has been able to bring about the desired changes in the life of the slum dwellers, the urban poor and the potential for sustainable development.
Challenges
The difficulty in dealing with the pressures that urban populations put on infrastructure, basic services, land, housing and the environment have led to the declining livability of the region’s cities. That fosters what the report calls “messy and hidden” urbanization that constrains the concentration of economic and social activity that could bring about faster improvements in prosperity. There are between 16 and 40 different bodies involved in urban matters in Dhaka alone, however, they need to put in a much more cohesive effort to make the urban life in Bangladesh at least acceptable.
The writer is a development practitioner. He is a contributor for many national and international conferences and publications. He can be reached at hoqueka@gmail.com.
