Integrating the urban poor in Dhaka: review of development policies and strategies

Abstract

Dhaka is a highly dynamic city and it attracts some 300,000 – 400,000 new migrants each year. Most of them are poor and come from rural areas in search of many opportunities that the city can offer for improved living conditions. This issue creates severe pressure both on the existing setting as well as city development process of Dhaka. Hence the entire city dwellers feel the consequences of inadequately planned and managed urbanization, but it is the poor who are affected most severely. The urban poor, who are the people in urban areas, cannot afford to meet the basic needs with their own income. The rising inequalities in the city pose a danger to its social stability and the sustainability of the development process itself. The pursuit of equal opportunities stems from the belief that it is a basic human right to be treated equally in terms of access to all opportunities. Equal access to opportunities increases development potential; conversely, inequality in opportunities diminishes development process and makes it unsustainable. The current pace of urban poverty reduction depends not only on the rate of economic growth, but also on how the benefits of growth are shared among the all citizens within the city. Therefore, to check the urban poor compatibility with city development process in Dhaka, the related policies, plans and strategies (i.e. National Land Use Policy, Urban Sector Policy, Housing Policy, DMDP, Fiscal Policy and Plan, National Disaster Management Policy and Plan, Fifth Five Year Plan, Poverty Reduction Strategies etc.) are reviewed from the inclusive development perspective. The main objective of reviewing existing policy, plan and strategy is to find out their strengths and weaknesses along with the issues needed to be addressed to investigate whether the urban poor are included into the existing development policies and strategies to explore the scope of incorporating them in the development process of Dhaka. In nutshell it may be said that since urban poverty as seen in this research to be proportional to shelter and living conditions, infrastructure and utility services provision, education and employment opportunities, and natural as well as man-made disaster risk of the urban poor, the poverty and the urban poor must be accepted as a fact and therefore included in the planning framework for Dhaka city. Physical development also needs to follow ‘bottom up’ policy and include social agendas, therefore, recognizing and mitigating the needs of urban poor. While the needs of urban poor in Dhaka are enormous, the analysis of the study has shown that the provision of adequate housing to the urban poor, improved access to education, training and employment opportunities, and proper disaster management for urban poverty alleviation should be given due importance to incorporate urban poor in the city development process of Dhaka.