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SLUM DWELLING IN URBAN

BANGLADESH:
IMPACT IN SOCIETY

PREPARED BY
CAPT TAMIM ISLAM
ROSTER NO 38
MOBC 83

ARMED FORCES MEDICAL INSTITUTE

DHAKA CANTONMENT
DHAKA
2018

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ABSTRACT

Slum living people are very poor and their socio-economic condition does not allow
them to live a healthy life. They do not have access to sanitation and they cannot get
safe water supply. They have to live in adverse conditions due to poor social,
economic and health facilities. The main purpose of this study was to find out the
impacts of slum dwellings in societies of Bangladesh. Data was collected from
different online available researches and statistics. There were found that people
living in slums had sad tales in living conditions. Socially, slums remain isolated from
rest of the urban society and exhibit pathological social symptoms like drug abuse,
alcoholism, crime, vandalism and other deviant behavior. The lack of integration of
slum inhabitants into urban life reflects both, the lack ability and culture barriers.

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PRESENTATION PLAN

TOPIC : SLUM DWELLING IN URBAN BANGLADESH:

IMPACT IN SOCIETY

COURSE : MOBC 83

LOCATION : CLASSROOM

DATE : 11 & 12 MARCH 2018

TIME : 10 MINS

METHOD : LECTURE

TRG AID : MULTIMEDIA PROJECTOR

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RMKS OF DS/INSTR

SN DATE RMKS SIGN

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SLUM DWELLING IN URBAN BANGLADESH: IMPACT IN SOCIETY

Introduction

1. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, a slum

household as lacking one or more of the following:

a. Access to disease-free water.

b. Hygienic sanitation facilities.
c. Sufficient living area.
d. Durable dwelling.[1]

2. They are usually a considerably large collection of cramped households either

located at the peripheral fringes of an expanding urban settlement or present
encroaching unclaimed lands adjacent to a heavily industrialized zone, in exception of
some slums found at the heart of major urban dwellings. A primitive rural household
might also lack the modern sanitation facilities and durable dwellings characteristic of
a slum household, but their distinction from the classical slums can be made primarily
from the absence of overcrowded livelihoods and an absence of general sanitary
environment highly conducive to diseases. Moreover, slums are a by-product of rapid
expansion of cities and their existence is invariably accompanied by an adjacent foci
of urbanization.

Aim

3. The aim of this study was to find out the effects of slum on urban societies of
Bangladesh and ways to minimize the negative impacts on society.

Scope

4. The scopes of this study is as following:

a. Background.
b. Reasons for Coming to Slums.
c. Current Situations in Bangladesh.
d. Life Standards in Slums.
e. Social Impacts.
f. Countermeasure: Slum Upgrading.
g. Conclusion.

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Background

5. After the independence of Bangladesh, the urban areas of the country especially
the big cities like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi were confronted with the
problems of a sudden influx of rootless, landless, poor and unemployed people from
across the country in search of their livelihood. Many of these people were jobless,
capital-less, homeless and had no other alternative other than to live in the slum areas.
Some were so destitute that they lived a floating life being unable to obtain shelter
even in the slum areas. By and large they were engaged in jobs with low wages that
couldn’t meet their bare necessities. They began to construct unauthorized shanty
houses in abandoned or private land, khas or Government land, along the highway
sides or along the side of railway tracks and industrial belts. Thus these slums began
to grow rapidly in the spaces within and outskirts of the city centres.

Reasons for Coming to Slums

6. Slum dwellers generally came to slums of urban areas because of practical

reasons. They were bound to migrate from rural areas to urban areas in search of job
or work for sustenance. The reasons for settling down in slum areas are classified into
following seven categories:

a. River erosion (7%).

b. Seeking job (51%).
c. Divorced/Separated (1%).
d. Natural calamities (1%).
e. Poverty (29%).
f. Insecurity/Driven away (2%).
g. Others (9%).

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Figure 1: Percentage distribution of Households by reasons for settling in slums by

Locality.[2]

Current Situation in Bangladesh

7. The number of people living in cities without access to civic amenities has
increased by 60.43% in the last 17 years. According to the latest census on slum
dwellers and floating population conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
(BBS) in 2014, 2.23 million people live in slums across the country. The report says
1.06 million people live in slums in Dhaka division, followed by the Chittagong,
Khulna and Rajshahi divisions with 635,916, 172,219 and 120,036 slum dwellers
respectively. The slum population is 118,628 in Rangpur, 91,630 in Sylhet and 49,401
in Barisal divisions, according to the report.[3]

Life Standard in Slums

8. People living in slums are having a very low standard of living. They even can
not enjoy the basic needs. Some pictures of their living is depicted in following:

a. Housing. Structures of slums are generally very small such as jhupri, tong,
chai, tin-shed, semi- Pucca structures and dilapidated buildings. Structures of
slums are built of very cheap materials. Population density and the
concentration of structures are very high in a slum area. Three or more
structures are situated in one decimal of land.

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b. Water Supply and Sanitation. In slum areas, water supply is insufficient

and unsafe. Sanitation systems are quite inadequate (15 or more people use
one toilet). At national level, only 26.25% of slum population uses sanitary
latrine. Overall, very unhygienic environment exists in slum areas.

Figure 2: Main Sources of Drinking Water of Slum Population.[4]

c. Health and Nutrition. Slums are characterized by squalid surroundings.

Open gutters, absence of underground sanitary conduits, frequent waste dumps
and an almost total absence of medical facilities make slums conducive to
breeding of diseases. The incidence of diseases and the resultant mortality is
atleast two-fold higher than the corresponding statistics of an average urban
setting. Pre- or post-natal care is practically absent. Healthcare standards are
worsened by their social alienation which makes it difficult to reach out to this
population, even through sizeable endeavors of the adjacent healthcare
establishments. The need of incorporating healthcare measures into slums is
more critical than the need of their economic upliftment. Hygiene awareness
and knowledge of the links between poor hygiene and disease are lowest
among the typically poorly-educated slum dwellers.

9. Social Impacts.

a. Increasing Workforce. As most of the people living in slums are in

persuit of their livelihood. They are the main physical worker of the society.
Thus they are contributing in the economy of the society. They are usually
employed as garment worker, domestic aid, rickshaw puller, street hawker,

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day labourer, transport worker and some other jobs.

Figure 3: Main Sources of Income of Slum Living People.[5]

b. Drug Abuse. In urban areas, usually slums are the main points where
drugs are sold. Many of the slum people are directly or indirectly connected
with drug business. Males, females, even children are also relate with these
syndicates. They sell Phensedyl, Heroin, marijuana and Yaba all day long in
the slums. Sometimes the facility to abuse the drugs are also provided with.

Figure 4: Types of drugs used by slum residing men (n=309) and its
frequency.[6]

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c. Other Crimes. Specially Dhaka’s illegal slums have become heavens for
crime. The slum syndicate runs prostitution business. Besides, they make hand
bombs and sell firearms. The weapons are sold only to known clients to avoid
risks, and the syndicate maintains a register for these clients. A study of
violent incidents in Korail Slum of Dhaka city shows, 73 respondents said
they themselves or someone in their family was subject to physical violence in
2015-16.

Figure 5: Type of Violences in Korail Slum, Dhaka.[7]

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d. Extortion. Mostly young populations of slum are related with extortion.

Lack of education, lack of job, drug abuse etc are the factors leading to
practices of extortion. Use of sharp weapons or firearms are also very frequent
in these cases.

10. Countermeasure: Slum Upgrading.

Some governments have begun to approach slums as a possible opportunity to urban

development by slum upgrading. This approach was inspired in part by the theoretical
writings of John Turner in 1972. The approach seeks to upgrade the slum with basic
infrastructure such as sanitation, safe drinking water, safe electricity distribution,
paved roads, rain water drainage system, and bus/metro stops. The assumption behind
this approach is that if slums are given basic services and tenure security – that is, the
slum will not be destroyed and slum residents will not be evicted, then the residents
will rebuild their own housing, engage their slum community to live better, and over
time attract investment from government organizations and businesses. Turner argued
to demolish the housing, but to improve the environment: if governments can clear
existing slums of unsanitary human waste, polluted water and litter, and from muddy
unlit lanes, they do not have to worry about the shanty housing. Squatters have shown
great organizational skills in terms of land management and will maintain the
infrastructure that is provided.[8]

11. Conclusion.

Considering the impact of slums on the urban society outside the slums, the biased
mental image of slums takes a pivotal role. This socially secludes the slum population
into developing a society of their own, practically free from the outside world. Jobs
are a way of connecting these two groups of people, but, as a courtesy of a prejudiced
representation in popular culture, people outside slums are oblivious to the prospect of
finding professional skills from within the slum population and are blind to the fact
that socially involving these people via their participation in the outside society is the
cornerstone of a sustainable urban growth. A fact confirmed by simple internet
exploration, the number of successful people and celebrities to have come up from
slums is far outweighed by the number coming up from rural and economically
stressed backgrounds, despite both these settings having equal economic strain. This

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is a visible effect of the social negligence of slums. Overpopulation due to lack of

awareness of its dire consequences has its roots in such settings.

Capt TAMIM ISLAM

Roster No 38
MOBC 83
AFMI, Dhk Cantt
Date: ___March 2018

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REFERENCES

1. What are slums and why do they exist? Archived 2011-02-06 at the Wayback
Machine. UN-Habitat, Kenya (April 2007)
2. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (September 2015).” Census of Slum Areas
and floating populations 2014”. Reasons for Coming to Slums 6.1: 73-74.
3. https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/06/29/number-of-slum-dwellers-in-
bangladesh-increases-by-60.43-percent-in-17-years
4. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (September 2015).” Census of Slum Areas
and floating populations 2014”. Sources of Drinking Water 5.03: 59-60.
5. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (September 2015).” Census of Slum Areas
and floating populations 2014”. Main Source of Income 4.15: 49-50.
6. J Health Popul Nutr. 2009 Aug; 27(4): 452–461.
7. Choudhoury, Durrat, Hussain, Alam, Andersen(2016). “Poverty and Violence
in Korail Slum in Dhaka”. Bangladesh, UK and Denmark 2016. Types of
Violent Experience. Table 24: Types of Violence: 50.
8. Werlin, Herbert (August 1999). "The Slum Upgrading Myth". Urban Studies.
36 (9): 1523–1534.

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