Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Housing, Access to Sanitary Toilet and Electricity
Housing, Access to Sanitary Toilet and Electricity
5.0.0 Decent housing is an important indicator
of people’s standard of living conditions in any
country or geographic area with a strong bearing
on their health, feeling of safety and stable state
of mind. Decent housing was recognized as part
of the right to an adequate standard of living in
the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It also goes a long way in providing safety and
security to household members while protecting
them from hazards, particularly children whose
vulnerabilities increase without decent housing.
5.0.1 Acknowledging the importance of decent
accommodation, housing was incorporated in
the constitution of Bangladesh as one of the
five basic needs. Therefore, the Government
is constitutionally responsible in securing the
housing rights of its citizen, particularly for the
disadvantaged and marginalized. Housing for the
disadvantaged is not only an absolute necessity
for survival but it also provides them with a
productive asset.
5.0.2 Access to a sanitary toilet is another
important measure from the perspective of
people’s health. Diarrhea, typhoid and other
diseases are spread through unhygienic sanitary
practices and an unhealthy environment. Keeping
this in view, Goal 7 of the MDGs has set a target to
reduce by half, the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation.
5.0.3 Electricity is necessary to encourage
economic growth and human development.
Universal access to electricity is one of the most
important goals set by governments in the
developing world. Sustainable provision of
electricity can save a large amount of time and
labour as well as promote better health and
education of household members.
5.0.4 In this chapter, the current status of these
three indicators: access to housing, sanitary toilet
and electricity, have been spatially uncovered
through the 2011 Census data, and discussed as
part of the Equity Atlas and pockets of deprivation
confronting children and women in Bangladesh.
As in other chapters, this section is again a call to
action for all national and sub-national institutions
– public, private and civil – to address the obvious
geographical disparities in the socioeconomic
development trajectory of Bangladesh to middle
income status by 2021.
5.1 Housing
5.1.1 In the census questionnaire, the types of
houses people live in have been categorized
into four types: pucca, semi-pucca, kutcha and
jhupri 20 . The district-wise information on housing
conditions have been reported in Tables 5.1 and 5.2
and the proportion of households living in kutcha
and jhupri houses by administrative divisions and
geographic area is presented in Figure 5.1. As can
be seen, the proportion of households living in
kutcha and jhupri houses stands at 69.1 per cent
(66.2 per cent for kutcha and only 2.9 per cent
for jhupri) in 2011 compared to 83.2 per cent in
2001 (74.4 per cent kutcha and 8.8 per cent jhupri),
20
‘Pucca’ indicates the houses which are fully made up of
bricks. ‘Semi-pucca’ indicates the houses where the floors and/
or the walls are made up of bricks, but the rest are made up of
tin (metallic sheet) and/or other hard materials.
‘
Kucha’ indicates the houses where floors are made up of soil,
but the roofs and/or walls are made of ‘tin’ (metallic sheet).
‘Jhupri’ indicates the houses where floors are made up of soil,
and the roofs and walls are made up of straw/bamboo, etc.
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