24pc urban poor forced to leave rural areas

Staff Reporter :

Nearly 24.5 percent of the urban poor families have been forced to move into the cities from rural areas due to the lack of job opportunities. More than 20 percent left villages hoping for better life as agricultural productivity is gradually diminishing in pastoral areas.
These data was revealed in a comprehensive study on urban poverty titled ‘Urban Poverty: Land Rights and Access to Civic Services of Slum Dwellers and Deprived Communities’.
The study was presented at a seminar organized by Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) and Human Development Research Center (HDRC) at the National Press Club in the city yesterday.
The study is based on a survey conducted on 480 households in 8 city corporations and 8 municipalities across the country from May and July last year.
Professor Abul Barkat led the research conducted by HRDC with the support of ALRD.
According to the survey results, 94 percent of the city’s slum dwellers are landless and the average annual income of these families is Tk 150000 per year referring only Tk 12,500 per month.
About 82 percent slum dwellers facing food insecurity and 68 percent among them sent money to their belongings living in villages.
Summarizing the work, Abul Barkat said that the number of urban poverty according to the government is 18 percent to 9 percent, but this study says that it will not be less than 40 percent.
According to the study, people are living inhumanely in the slums. All family members forced to stay together in a tiny room. Only 16 percent have access to safe sanitation and clean water.
Apart from this, the price they pay for water, electricity, gas compared to their income is higher than the rich people of the city.
Nearly 41 percent of slum family members have never attended school. Five percent among the slum people have accounts in conventional banks and 95 percent of slum dwellers do mobile banking.
However, Only 1.2 out of ten received benefits from the government’s social
security program and 28 percent received old age allowances last year the study revealed.
Former general secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association Jamal Uddin Ahmed, member secretary of Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BASD) Barisal district branch Manisha Chakraborty and others spoke at the seminar.