urban poverty in bangladesh - Gtz

DisclaimerThe Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is providing technical cooperation to theEnhancing Municipal Governance Project to help develop the capacities of pourashavas (municipalities) to monitorurban poverty and effectively address the needs of the urban poor.The Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPR) is improving the livelihoods and living conditions of3 million poor and extreme poor people, especially women and children, in six City Corporations and 24 pourashavas.The Programme is executed by the Government of Bangladesh, managed by UNDP, assisted by UNHABITAT,and funded primarily by UKAID.The stories in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für TechnischeZusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH nor that of the UPPR or its partners. The content expresses exclusively the opinionof the respective authors.Written by: Nicola Banks, Carolin Braun, Juan Carvajal, SonuRani Das, Nadia Tavares-Goodman, Toni Kaatz-Dubberke, KirthiRamesh, Sayaka Uchikawa, Lenka Vojtová.Design by: Lenka VojtováPhotographs taken by: Nicola Banks, Carolin Braun, Juan Carvajal,Toni Kaatz-Dubberke, Sayaka Uchikawa, Lenka VojtováCopy deadline: March 2010Link to the blog: http://urbanpovertyinbangladesh.blogspot.comPublished by:In cooperation with:Center for UrbanStudies (CUS) Dhaka

foreword of the supporting agencies March 2010ii

The urban poverty blog emerged in 2008 out of the interest of writing about the life of the urban poor in Bangladesh.It has been on the internet for 18 months now. We would like to congratulate the group of authors that started this initiativeand contributed to the blog and ultimately to this booklet you hold in your hands.The initiators were German students, who came to Bangladesh for the first time to do an internship in the area of GoodUrban Governance. The strong impressions they had during their field work became a driving force to report on what theyhad witnessed. Exposed to the life in the slums of Bangladesh, they did not concentrate on the less-than-ideal conditionsin which people lived in, but rather on “their daily routine, their areas and places of living, … their struggles, their hopesand fears”.The initiative was then taken up by newcomers in 2009 and also by young researchers, who were invited to blog. Theirblog demonstrates that they have gotten very close to the people that are anonymously labeled as the “target group” inDevelopment Cooperation jargon. The faces, destinies and day-to-day joys and worries described here help us to see theslum dwellers in a different light, and highlight the individuals behind the numbers.The blog does not claim to tell the ‘one true story’ about the life in slums, but its does contribute a few more facets of thewhole picture. The blog provides a better understanding of the life of the urban poor - for those distant to the slums, butalso for those – like us – who work to improve living environments and access to services, improve livelihoods and increaseassets, and ensure the rights of the poor. It helps to understand the complex reality of the challenge of urban poverty. Inthis way, the blog is both an attempt to communicate personal impressions and to create new knowledge.Now, after two years of writing, the publication of this blog as a booklet will help disseminate these insights, with hopesthat more people will start to care about the situation of the urban poor in Bangladesh.As a next step, with the enabling support of GTZ and the Urban Parnerships for Poverty for Reduction Project, the slumdwellers themselves will start to write their own stories. There are millions of stories to tell, and as many people that cantell them. Let us listen to them.Alexander JachnowGTZ Principal AdvisorGood Urban GovernanceRichard GeierInternational Programme ManagerUrban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction Projectiii

Foreword of the supporting agencies ............................... iiI. Dhaka ............................... 1Earning a living in Dhaka‘s slums ............................... 2Smelly bargaining chips ............................... 6„Three hundred taka!“ ............................... 10An oasis of calm and space in Dhaka‘s biggest slum ............................... 14Living beside the tracks ............................... 16II. Narayanganj ............................... 19The meaning of red colors in the Deara poor community ............................... 20Creating space vertically ............................... 22The threat of flames ............................... 24Looking for the best cook in town ............................... 28Sonu‘s story ............................... 32Sonu‘s story told by herselves ............................... 34Recycling ............................... 36III. Jamalpur ............................... 39Myths of migration ............................... 40IV. Mymensingh ............................... 43Sand business ............................... 44United in poverty ............................... 48Credits ............................... 52The authors ............................... 53v

I. dhakaDhaka is the fastest growing megacityin the world with an estimated300,000 to 400,000 new migrants -mostly poor - arriving every year in thecapital city. Its population is currentlyaround 14 million and is projected togrow to 20 million in 2020, making itthe world’s third largest city. Most migrantscome from rural areas in searchof opportunities which can providenew livelihood options for millions, potentiallytranslating into improvementsof living standards. Their contributionto Dhaka’s economic growth is significant,as they provide much neededlabor to manufacturing, services, andother sectors. This migration, however,adds tremendous strain on the alreadycrowded city with limited inhabitableland in conjunction with limited accessto infrastructure.Source: The Worldbank (2007): ImprovingLiving Conditions for the Urban Poor. Dhaka.1

Earning a living in Dhaka’s slums September 2009Nicola Banks2

time. Eventually, in 1979, the communitywas divided and one group settledin Dhalpur Ward in the southeast outskirtsof the city. Ironically, this Telugucommunity settled on top of an oldgarbage collection site where for yearssweepers had been dumping the wastethey collected. Despite the fact thatthere were no written agreements withthe authorities who had brought themhere and promised them housing andfood, their employer, the DCC, providedthem with simple dwellings ofbamboo and tin, as well as toilets andaccess to piped water. The Telugu didnot have access to basic infrastructuralfacilities, however: sweepers weredenied education on the basis that itwas extraneous to the work they did.An NGO fills this gap since the 1980s.At the beginning of 1996, the Telugucommunity had little access to electricityin their settlement. Candles wereused to provide light to huts of tinsheet with wooden roofs. That year,most likely as a result of the fragileconstruction of the houses, a fireburned down more than half of thesettlement. Fortunately there were nohuman casualties because almost residentscame together to watch a movieat the only TV place at that night.Left homeless, they approached theirlocal elected Ward Commissioner forsupport, recognizing their importanceto the city’s authorities. The Commissionerused his influence to lobby theMayor of DCC for the construction ofsuitable low-cost housing, from bricksto avoid that another fire can be thatharmful to the settlement again. Thisargument combined with a pointer ontheir importance for the city’s maintenanceconvinced. Over a period of sevento eight months, new houses wereconstructed for over 120 families. Eventhe NGO-run school was rebuilt. Someimprovements needed to be made bythe families themselves later on, butthe basic houses and all services wereprovided free of charge.Nowadays the situation for the Telugucommunity is changing. Since the systemof pots was replaced by a sewagecanal system in the late 1970s thedirect contact with faeces was reduced.This slightly attracted other partsof the society. Also Muslims are nowworking as sweepers. Their attitudetowards this job seems to change: tobe a sweeper is not longer seen only asnasty but also as secured business.As under the British and the Pakistanirule, until today the agreement hasalways been in place. However, importantto mention is that these promiseswere only made orally and were neverwritten down. The aim had never beento integrate them into society, but touse their disadvantaged place in it.The community never got the legalownership of the houses and the landthey are living on is still DCC property.Therefore the danger of eviction becomescurrent. Life can change rapidly, ifthe authorities once feel that they donot need the Telugu community’s serviceanymore. “Still at least one memberof each family is working for theDCC and we hope that we can going onworking with them. But we also recognizethe increasing importance of ourchildren’s education for their futureperspectives”, says John Sander.Cleaning their own place: most members ofthe Telugu community are still working asSweepers. >>8

“Three Hundred Taka!” July 2009Sayaka Uchikawa10

An estimated 1 to 1.5 million of thosechildren “who do not go to schoolbut work” reside in Dhaka. Many boyswork at a shop (car/rickshaw garage,market, tailor, tea stall, etc.) from earlyas 7 or 8am in the morning to aslate as 12am at night. They take ordersfrom customers and do whateverthey are told to do. Most of the girls,on the other hand, work as domesticworkers/servants, and do cleaning,washing, and/or taking care of smallchildren in a house. Some children saythat they like working, and are willingto work, while some say they do notlike their job and want to quit. Despitethe diversity of children’s work in Dhaka,outsiders sometimes quickly judgeand define their work as so-called“child labor”, usually with the negativeimplications. Much literature, forexample, writes about so-called “childlaborers” and “working children” inDhaka to suggest that: they are disadvantaged,vulnerable, and subjectto economic exploitation; their workis unsafe, unhealthy, dangerous, andpoisonous; and, they are trapped inlow skilled and low return work thatpushes them further into the viciouscycle of “poverty.”Baby (age 11). Breaking bricks. Since Bangladesh is located in the world‘s largest delta,there are not enough sufficient materials to produce concrete for building constructions.Thus, there is such an occupation as „brick-breaking,“ which is categorized as a hazardouschild work by the ILO and UNICEF. The brick breakers work outside, under the sun, in theheat, and smash bricks into pieces that will be used as concrete producing materials.Showing me their adorable smiles andsmall hands, three „tokai“ boys (streetwaste-collectors), probably betweenthe ages of six and eight, shouted atme in English. Wherever and wheneveryou go (even at midnight!), beggarswill ask you to give them some Taka(money/petty cash). Even when youare in a car, they constantly bang onthe windows of your car, gesturing toshow how hungry they are, how smalland sick their babies are, and whatdisabilities they have.However, when I met those three boys,I was amused at how well they readthe situation between them and me.11

Firstly, they shouted at me in English,knowing or guessing that I (a foreigner)did not understand Bangla but English.Secondly, they chose „three hundred“instead of thirty or three thousand,understanding that a foreigner like mewould probably have that amount oftaka in her pocket, and could affordto give it to them. Thirdly, although Ido not know whether or not they wereaware of this, they picked up a numberthat could be divided by three. It wasapparent that they were not beggingfrom me, but playing with me. Theydid not slow down their pace to makethe gestures, but just shouted loudlya few more times with their friendlysmiles and carried on along their way.On another day, my colleagues and Ivisited a learning centre where a localNGO provides non-formal educationopportunities to so-called “workingchildren”, and I asked the children ifI could take a picture of them. Then,when we left the centre, after askingif we would visit them again, somechildren said: “Yes, you-kind-of-peoplealways say you will come back and visitus again, but you never do”. Moreover,I felt as if they were challenging“our-kind-of-people’s usual” notion ofso-called “child laborers” and “workingchildren”, the notion that we,outsiders, foreigners, often carry andhave toward children in urban citiesin a country such as Bangladesh. Nevertheless,in Dhaka, the “work” thechildren willingly or unwillingly do ispart of their everyday life, especiallywhen there is no school to attend.Through irregular visits of foreigners,the children learn to internalize ournotion of “child labor” and “workingchildren”, and act out the ideal typeof “working children”—how we thinktheir lives are—to the visitors. Althoughthey have probably never reador heard what kinds of attitudes weoften have toward children like them,they understand (or act as if they understand)how the idea of “child labor”and “working children” has been constructed,idealized, and used in the internationaldevelopment aid context.A learning centre for „urban working children“operated by the Bureau of Non-formalEducation, Ministry of Primary and MassEducation of the Government of Bangladesh,UNICEF, and 20 entrusted local NGOs.There are total 8,000 centres for 200,000children. >>12

An Oasis of Calm and Space in Dhaka’s biggest slum Augutst 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke14

If you go from Gulshan to Banani usingthe newly built concrete bridge, youcan see the outskirts of the Korail slumon the other side of the lake. Beyondthe lakeside huts - which are erected onbamboo pillars - there are the homes ofabout 100.000 people. Several times Icrossed the bridge and saw people puttingpillars into the muddy lakebed as a“foundation” for new houses. However,when I visit Korail it turns out that thelatest structure erected is not a housebut an oasis of calm and space for thepeople of Korail.Although there is a kind of square at thesouthern edge of Korail which is usedfor cultural programs, sports and markets,open space is very limited. Theimmediate impression is that a placewhere people could relax in calm surroundings,enjoy an open view or evenundertake a romantic liaison would behard to find in such a crowded area.The same idea occurred to KhondakerHasibul Kabir, a young architect lecturerfrom BRAC University who hasbeen living in Korail for two years. Beforehe lived in an apartment but feltlonely there and incomplete without agarden to look after. However, once hemoved to this area he discussed a lotof ideas together with the communityand a platform made from bamboo(where I meet him) is one such ideathat became reality. Local carpenters(mistri) contributed labor to the project,while Kabir sponsored it from hisprivate pocket. One of the carpentersis Saifur who I also meet at the platform.He brought about twenty yearsof working experience into the project- he has never been to school but learntby doing from the very beginningof his working life. He has been livingin Korail since 1991 and is well knownin the community. Usually, people callhim if they want to have somethingbuilt and together with the client heplans the design and the costs of thematerial. However, sometimes he isgiven full responsibility and looks afterthe whole construction process fromstart to finish.“The most difficult thing with thesekind of structures is the starting process”,Saifur explains. First they hadto build a scaffold from which to putthe pillars into the mud. After that thepillars were linked by cross-bars to ensurethe strength of the structure anda bamboo platform was set on top ofit. Finally a roof with both bamboo andplastic layers was made and a smallfence put up.It took three months to finish the construction.Some private businessmendisturbed the process with a claim forthe land where the platform was built.“When they saw that we do not wantanything commercial, they never cameback and we just continued our workafter a while”, Kabir says. The purposeof the platform is as a playground forchildren and a place for people to sit,relax and enjoy the view over GulshanLake. At night a few people also sleephere. “Sometimes wedding couplesalso come here to get themselves photographedwith Gulshan in the background”,Kabir tells me.I can easily lounge here for a wholeFriday afternoon surrounded by kidsand other people who are constantlycoming and going. I almost forget thatthe biggest slum in Dhaka is only astone’s throw away.15

Living beside the TRACKS August 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke16

The railroad between Dhaka and Narayanganjis not only the link of twoprospering cities, ensuring the flow ofpeople and goods. It is also the homeof thousands of families who live andwork besides the tracks. Some of thesettlements are very compact bamboo-tinstructures; others are scatteredcamps where people live in improvisedtents. I jump off the train justone stop ahead from the main stationin the Gandaria area, in the outskirtsof Dhaka. Fully emerged, the kids gazeup at the kites as they dance up anddown in the smooth breeze. Aisha andMamuni, two kids from the neighborhoodget attracted by the ‘bideshi’(foreigner) who is now walking alongthe tracks to make pictures of theirarea. Two pairs of big deep brown eyesfollow my move.They show me the place where theylive. In this tiny tent, erected on thenaked ground Mamuni and Aisha areliving together with their mother andfather who are now at work. The heapof concrete bags and blue plastic blanketslook like they were just thrownrandomly on the improvised bamboostructures. But shaking it, it appearsstable enough to even survive a heavyrain fall. Although their parents can affordfood they do not have the moneyto send their kids to school, makingthe children waste their time alongthe tracks. Around fifty householdslive at this place between the trackson the one and the street on the otherside. Originally, all people came fromdifferent villages in the North of theGaibandha Disctrict. After the watersof the Brahmaputra River flushed awaytheir lands and houses about fifteenyears ago they had to move and foundeda new nameless village within thecity. Before the flood most of themlived from farming, now people surviveon rickshaw-pulling, day laboringand begging. Lalmir, a rickshaw-puller,tells me “as long as I am living herean accident never has happened. Eventhe kids are conscious about the threat.In the night we do not get botheredby any noise, because the last train comesby around 10.30pm.”In fact the families there are betteroff on the other side of the track, asI learn from Hafeza and her husbandAli Hussein. By steamer, they both movedfrom Barisal after the big floodsin 1988. “We came almost naked. Wecould not even save the dishes”, Hafezamoans. Alone in the urban environmentthey had to build up their newlives from nothing. But soon after theirarrival they find a good way to make aliving. When I meet the couple they arebusy with drying up dark little essencesticks on the tracks. A company providesthem with straw and coal and theyput these two together and sell it backto the company which then adds thesmelly essences that make these sticksso popular all over Asia. They receiveten Taka per kg, giving them enoughto afford the small luxuries they enjoyin their home. With 700 Taka a month,Ali Hussein “manages” from neighboringplots, the electricity for the fan,a bulb and water. When I ask about thefamily Hafeza proudly responds: “Wehave five daughters and one son. Threedaughters are already married andtwo are going to school.” Her son alsogot married recently and is working ina car workshop. When they were farmersin Barisal, Hafeza and Ali werebetter off, she tells, “but we are happyhere. We have a business close toour house and our kids are well.”.17

II. narayanganjNarayanganj is 17 km Southeast ofBangladesh‘s capital Dhaka. It is situatedon the bank of the river Shitallakhya,at the confluence of the Shitallakhyaand Buriganga rivers. Narayanganjis one of the oldest municipalities inBangladesh. It came into existence in1876. It has an area of 10.40 squarekilometers. and it is one of the twospecial category municipalities * in thecountry. As per census 2001, the townshiphas a population of 230,294 with amodest average growth of rate 2.5. It isincluded within the Rajdhani UnnayanKartripakkha (RAJUK), the developmentauthority of the capital city. Asother cities in Bangladesh, Narayanganjis well connected with the rest of thecountry by railway, road and river. Theriver port of Narayanganj is consideredas one of the busiest ports of the countrywhich acts as a hub for the flow ofgoods for the capital city.* Bangladesh has three categories of Pourashavas,namely Class A, Class B and ClassC. Among the Class A Pourashavas, thereare A1 and A2 Pourashavas. Among theClass A1 Pourashavas, Narayanganj andTongi is considered as Special Class Pourashavasas they are part of Dhaka Megacityjurisdiction and Rajuk Plan.19

When I enter Deara poor communityin Narayanganj I feel like visiting a villagein the rural sites. The houses aremade from bamboo and tin, coloredgreen or blue in some patches. Betweenthe homes of about 300 families,there is space to walk and growsome cattle; the place is surroundedby vegetable fields. The green treeshanging over the Chitaloka River giveme a romantic impression of theplace.Regardless of its beautiful appearance,people are facing an invisible threat.They cannot use the water for drinkingpurposes as garment and dyeingindustries located nearby feed theireffluents into the river and pollute itin a way so that even swimming in it isnot a pleasure. Community membersmainly extract their water from tubewells from shallow aquifers.When they show me the tube wells Irealize that most of them are paintedred. In fact this color is much moreconnected to the people’s fate thanthe green of the trees and fields.The tube wells have been marked byPourashava water experts to indicatethe presence of something invisible:arsenic. The shallow layers of groundwater, where most of the tube wellsextract the water from are poisonedby this country-wide known affliction.Arsenic is not only without colorbut also without smell and taste.The fact that it is not immediatelyobservable makes it difficult to avoidits consumption. If arsenic is presentin excess in the drinking water, it hasa toxic effect on the human body.When it enters into the body, partsof it are deposited in the skin, hairand nails, where it is firmly bound tokeratin. It can take months and yearsuntil the poisoning of the body isvisible but then it might be too lateto prevent harmful effects. To datethere is no proper clinical treatment.The people of Deara are aware of themeaning of red-colored tube wells.Skin diseases and other consequencesof arsenic over-consumption arerarely appearing due to the fact thatpeople try to minimize drinking fromit, Mizanur Rahman, member of thelocal community organization (CDC)tells me. Due to a lack of alternatives,people still use the water fromthe red tube wells for washing andcooking purposes. The temptation todrink every now and then from it isalways present.Another disturbing substance that comesfrom the ground water is easierto avoid. Dissolved iron is present inexcess as well in the whole Narayanganjregion. Because of its bad tasteand odor, people are reluctant todrink it. “We can not even wash clotheswith it because the iron is destroyingthe fabric”, one woman thatstands next to the tube well says. Ontop of that, the polluted water has ared shade which shows the presenceof iron in it. Water with iron contentsalso comes from a red marked tubewell in Deara. Therefore some peoplewrongly assume that the red shadeof the iron is somehow connected toarsenic. There is at least one newtube well within the poor communitythat is drilled deep enough to extractclean and safe drinking water. Insidethe plot of Mizanur a deep drilledtube well extracts clean water fromthe ground and an engine pumps itinto a 5000 liter tank to store. Everyday in the morning, water from thattank flows one hour for free. For thepoor people of Deara, it is a chanceto get big red buckets filled with safedrinking water.21

creating space vertically March 2010Kirthi Ramesh & Juan Carvajal22

As we squeeze through the alleys of theSweeper Colony, Sonu, a girl from thecommunity, shows us some tiny roomswhere often 2 or 3 generations crowdtogether every night to sleep. Walkingfurther through the tight pathways, wesuddenly notice a narrow two-storeybuilding towering above the one storiedhouses. Curious about its function, we decideto take a closer look. Arriving therewe meet Ajab Lal and his son, Rajak Lal,who are the tenants of the house. Theymake a gesture inviting us to climb up allthe way up to the rooftop. After tacklingthe grips of iron jutting out from the wallin irregular intervals, an excellent view ofthe community awaits us.Twelve years ago, Ajab Lal built a smallroom above the narrow passage adjacentto the neighbor’s house, just big enoughfor two people to sleep in. By that timehis daughters had already been marriedand moved in with their in-laws, but hissons were yet to be married. While girlstraditionally move to their in-laws houseafter marriage, boys stay with their parents.Sensing that the 7m 2 room on theground floor would not be enough to accommodatehim, his wife, his two grownupsons and their families, Ajab decided toenlarge their living space. With no spacearound the house the only possibility wasto build upwards, on top of the hallway astheir own roof is slanted and shared withthe neighboring house.This was not an easy undertaking. Ajabfirst had to get permission from the Pourashavawho owns the land and builts thehouses. He approached the chair personof the community to discuss the matterand then went to the Pourashava who approvedhis request. His next challenge wasactually building the new upstairs room.With little outside help it took him about20 days to carry out this project. Today hisnewly married younger son sleeps in thesmall room on the upper floor while heand his wife live on the ground floor. Hisolder son, who lived in that room before,moved to another house nearby with hiswife and their three children.For many community members, however,the reality is still a crowded one. This isnot unusual in Bangladesh where the overallpopulation density is one of the highestin the world with 1075 persons per km².In fact, in slums the population density isabout 200 times higher, despite the factthat most slum dwellings are only singlestorey, as in the case of the Sweeper Colony.Population density in the Sweeper Colonyis 150 times higher than the nationalaverage, with as many as 168 172 peopleper km². This can lead to situations where15 people live within 8m 2 . In return fortheir work as cleaners for the Pourashavano rent is charged, which is the major reasonwhy most families stay despite continuingpopulation growth.Some community members tell us thatthey are all very proud of Ajab’s intelligencebut, for various reasons such asfinancial constraints, lack of knowledgeon construction work etc., so far no oneelse in the Sweeper Colony has taken upthis idea to vertically extend their houses.23

The threat of fLAMES February 2010Lenka Vojtová24

Slums in Bangladesh could be definedby constant and diverse insecurities. Inmany other countries, the term ‘slum’is very often used for informal settlementssimply because of the lack ofconstruction permits, high density orshelters situated on land not declaredas a building site. Most of the slumsI have visited in Bangladesh, however,suffer from every indecent living conditionone can imagine.I perceive two different natures ofchallenges to be faced. Inconveniencesfalling into the first category arethe visible environmental conditions -insufficient or missing sanitation, nonexistentdrainage system, overwhelminglyhigh density both of shelters aswell as their dwellers, high levels ofpollution, and the enumeration couldcontinue even further. The challengesof the second category levitate underthe surface, though indiscernible byobserving eyes, omnipresent in themind of the slum dwellers and themost complex to overcome. It is theinsecurity of tenure, the fear of evictionand the threat of fire.As a blaze gutted 47 houses in RallyBagan, a slum of Narayanganj Municipality,the calendar dated December24, 2009, and it was two o’clock in themorning. Three people fell victim to thefire; others woke up just in time to savethemselves by fleeing their houses. Therewas neither the time to rescue anybelongings nor to think about takingthe savings underneath the mattressesor out of the safes as the fire engulfedquickly. The morning saw over 200 flatbroke survivors, possessing not morethan a single saree or lungi.After 173 years of existence, Rally Baganis said to be the oldest settlementin Narayanganj and thus, compared tothe majority of Bangladesh’s slums, itsappearance differs slightly. Already in1907, a British Jute company had raisedbrick-made houses for their workersof Bihari and Bengali origin. Thehouses in each block are of the sameage and have a common roof of corrugatediron. Usually, it is light buildingmaterials that allow flames to spreadquickly through dense slums. Althoughnot obvious at first sight, this was alsothe cause of the large scale of RallyBagan’s dreadful incident: the ceilingunder the A-shaped tin roof is made ofbamboo, which enabled the damagingflames to spread quickly over the adjacentshanties. It was in this fashionthat one complete block of houses burneddown (see map on the next page).It took two hours for the fire fightingunits to put out the flames whose causewas yet to be investigated. Immediatelyafter the incident, the assumptionwas that the fire might have originatedfrom a mosquito coil. One month on,none of the neighbours see either thecoil, or the electric short circuit or thestove that remained inside the house25

Although most of the walls endured the fire, everything inside has been destroyed.of the fire-origin as a feasible causation.Few indications suggest a deliberatelyharmful act, but nobody daresto speak openly about such suspicions.The only words spoken are “Only thevictims could tell us the answer...”.The mystery of sudden combustion is anissue threatening slum dwellers worldwide.It is not only the flammability of theshelters, the narrow slum lanes oftennot more than two thirds of a meter, thedependence on open fires and the extraordinarydensity enhancing the fire outbreaks.Slum fires are often anything butaccidents. Intended arson can acceleratethe eviction process, bypassing the necessityof an official demolition order andreducing the expense of clearing the areaas well as providing reimbursements.Regardless of the cause, however, itis always the poor urban dwellers thatare left behind most often without anymeans of support – neither materialnor psychological. During the past sixweeks, I have visited the affected RallyBagan plot three times and each visithas been more disillusioning than theprevious one – simply because nothinghas changed, nothing moved towardsany improvement.A widow of ten years, Banu Hussain, haslived in Rally Bagan since the very firstmoment she saw the light of this world.She works in the garments industry earning2000-2500Tk a month. Her 17-yearold son, Sadaim, suffers panic attackssince the fire outbreak. He was workingin a factory, earning 1600Tk a month,but his trauma has made it difficult tocontinue his occupation. Like many ofthose affected by the fire, both of themare confused by the disorder their dailylife turned into.Pori, her husband and their four childrenwere lucky to find shelter at theirrelatives’ place. For an outsider, thesolidarity among slum dwellers mightseem very weak, but after a few questionsand a deeper insight it becameobvious that neighbours help each26

other out as much as they are able to.Immediately after the incident, theyshared food, helped with basic cleaningand those who could spare some spaceoffered shelter for the time being.Pori explained to me the community’sawareness about its man-power potentialto contribute to rebuilding. Asmost of them have a paid job, theyare also ready to take loans. Familyrepresentatives meet every week toreach common decisions on steps tobe taken next. But even though thelonging for a re-established day to daylife is strong, the dwellers are understandablydebilitated by the disasterand can’t bundle their strength andpotential only by themselves. What ismissing at the moment is someone toshoulder the responsibility and takeover the overall coordination.It is a puzzle to the academic world,how people can live with hardly anymoney or any self-produced goods. Butthey do manage, and the stories of ourblog illustrate some impressive ways.However, there are situations requiringa strengthened external intervention.And the consequences of damagingfire outbreaks are one of them...Map of Rally Bagan with highlightedfire-affected house block.27

Looking for the Best Cook in TowN May 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke28

month and meat only once a year duringEid (festivals). On this occasionsweet shemai, made from thin vermicelli,milk and butter is also served. “Ifyou bring some vegetables, then I cancook for you next time”, Lotifa says.With this invitation I take my leave andgo to look in the cooking pot of someother families in the area.In a small tin hut in Rishi Para I meetMasu Begum with one of her daughters.Usually she works twelve hours aday in a nearby garment factory alongwith two of her three kids. In the morningshe prepares rice with dry fish,chili and lady fingers for lunch so shecan eat together with her childrenduring the one hour lunch break withoutbeing hurried. Although three ofthe household are working they spendnearly all they earn on food. Her husbandhas abandoned her and is livingwith another wife, although he is fairenough to come every day and bringthem some money. Masu does not reallylike the place she is living in buthas come to terms with the situation.“I am an old woman and have no alternatives.”Her neighbors are nice,she tells me, she sees them as relatives.Good relations with the neighborsare maintained through sharing freshfish curry with them about two timesa week. Her youngest daughter Harminis thirteen years old and goes toschool. She often prepares the rice fordiner and looks after the fire, whichis feed by bushi, sawdust. Her biggestwish is to be independent, maybe byrunning her own small business. “Butbefore she should learn how to cookwell”, Masu interrupts.Looking into a cooking pot in Rishi Para >>30

Sonu‘s story March 2010Kirthi Ramesh32

Sonu (pronounced Shonu) is alreadyawaiting us as we arrive at the SweeperColony, which is predominantly Hinduand centrally located, surroundedby tall buildings on all sides. Withoutmuch formal introduction, the highlyenergetic young lady of 19 takes us bythe hand and pulls us into her friend’shouse where we sit down on the bedand listen to her story.Like most residents of the Sweeper Colony,Sonu’s parents are employed ascleaners by the Pourashava. Growingup she has had a hard time explainingto them that she did not want to getmarried early like her friends, but rathercontinue studying and eventuallywork with her community. This was nota simple endeavor in a society where“a girl’s education is still considereda waste of money”, she tells us. Shedoes not blame them for thinking this,saying, “My parents are not educated”.But in the end her brother was able togo to school, so why shouldn’t she?Determined to get an education, Sonuexplained that she was willing to get ajob in order to finance her education.In 2006, Sonu successfully completed10th grade and went to college whereshe specialized in commerce. Aftergraduating in 2008 she was chosen toparticipate in a 6-month global exchangein Caithness, Scotland. Thisopportunity came after she was discoveredin her community by the chiefexecutive of a citizen’s initiative, whosent her to an assessment for the exchangewhere she was selected as oneof nine Bangladeshi participants froma total of 9000 applicants worldwide.In Scotland she worked in a primaryschool with children and was involvedin volunteer work such as tree plantingand explaining her culture. As a result,she was able to improve her English.Her final project was a theater piecewith the school children on the HinduDiwali festival. From the group of Bangladeshiexchange volunteers, Sonuwas elected by her peers to speak atthe Scottish Parliament.Sonu’s next plan is to go to universityeither in Dhaka or Narayanganj. Shehas already applied and is currentlyawaiting her results. Her greatestwish is to study sociology and acquireknowledge to understand her communitybetter. Otherwise, she would liketo build on her college background andcontinue studying commerce and management.In her free time Sonu volunteers for anNGO. She likes it because it helps herto better understand how such organizationswork and come to grips withcommunity work. Apart from that shealso provides after-school tutoring inEnglish, Bangla and Math to children inher community.Sonu tells us that today the community’sinitial skepticism has given way to praisefrom many neighbours and friends.This has also led to her parent’s growingrecognition of her achievements.In the coming months we will havemore contributions from communitymembers themselves. Sonu, a 19year-old girl from the Sweeper Colonyin Narayanganj, is the first to contributeto our blog. She will be sharingher stories with us from time to time,writing on pertinent issues facing hercommunity on a daily basis. The firststory is waiting for you on the nextpage...33

Sonu‘s story told by herself March 2010Sonu Rani Das34

„Welcome to my community. I comefrom a community called Dalits (Untouchables).Dalits are not created byGod, this idea is created by people andsociety and goes back to the creationof the caste system within Hindu religion.My community people are all Hinduand we all follow the Hindu religion.My community people are very frank,sociable and hospitable people. Mycommunity is very poor and most ofour community people live below thepoverty line. Many of us work for thePourashava (Municipality) as cleaners,where they earn very little money(2200 Taka (~28 US$) per month). Thisis why we can’t get the same opportunitieslike other people. Most of us areilliterate and don’t understand the importanceof basic rights we have likeeducation, health and sanitation, housing,good food, entertainment etc.Illiteracy is one of the problems andanother problem is discrimination.Some people understand that thereare good and bad living conditionsbut they can’t escape their bad livingconditions because they face too muchdiscrimination. For example, if Dalitchildren go to school the teachers donot teach them properly and the classmates’behavior towards them is horrible.My community children are veryintelligent but sometimes they don’tget the opportunity to go to school.In the past, when they tried to go toschool the school doors were closedto them. This is now better in urbanareas but sometimes still the case inrural areas. Now some of them go toschool, college, even university, butthey don’t honestly say: ”I am Dalit”.They say:”We are Hindu”.Nobody in my community has theirown land but we stay on somebodyelse’s land. As many of us work forthe Pourashava the Pourashava selectsone place and we stay there. If anyone does not work for the Pourashavaanymore they lose their house. That’swhy at least one family leader or familymember has to work for the Pourashava.Some people in my communityare Government employees and theirsalary is quite good. But most of mycommunity people work for the Pourashavaand the salary is not enough.Very few people try to find more jobsso they can get additional money. Butmost of them earn money by sellingrubbish like alcohol, ganja, heroineetc. So when it gets dark in my communitya lot of unknown faces comeand they buy this type of drugs. Nowmy community is full of noise and horrible.These people harass our girlsand intimidate them. I have no wordsto explain how bad this situation is.In my community all of us face problemsbut girls face more problemsthan boys. If girls are born, the familymembers are usually not happy.They think girls mean a burden for us.The parents give all opportunities toboys not to girls. Boys are allowed togo to school, girls not. They think agirl’s education means a waste of money.They always say you are suitablefor the kitchen and household chores.Now quite a few boys are educated butonly very few girls are. I think if youngpeople get the opportunity to highereducation it is possible to solve theproblems of Dalits.“35

RecyCLING May 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke36

In a country with limited resources itis possible to make money even fromgarbage rather than just to waste itby throwing it away. The hundreds ofgarment factories in Narayanganj areproducing a lot of fabric scraps, smallpatches that remain after cutting theblanks. Unsorted, these scraps find (forvery little money) their way to the nearbycommunities, providing a sourceof income. The fibers are of good qualityand are reused. They have to besorted with a lot of patience and duediligence.One of these patient and careful sortersis Mojiton, who I meet in a storageroom close to Rally Bagan poor community.She squats on the ground in aroom filled with big heavy plastic bags.She is surrounded by small patches offabrics of all colors, which she sorts bycolor and quality. The air is filled with asmoke-like dust of fabric fibers, whichcolors my nose from inside. When herhusband died 10 years ago in an accidentat a construction site, Mojitontook responsibility for herself and hertwo daughters. One lives with her inRally Bagan. Every day she makes about60 to 65 Taka. “It is not that much, butwe can survive on it”, Mojiton says.Shaheen is sorting plastic and tin garbage.On the other edge of Rally Bagan, nextto the entrance, another kind of recyclingbusiness is going on. In front of hissmall shop, Shaheen and his older brother,Shukur, are sorting solid waste fromgarbage bags they bought from slumresidents. Piece by piece, they separatemainly plastic from tin items. Aftersorting, they sell it to a bigger dealer,usually making about 10 Taka per kg.They earn 300 Taka per day (3 Euro),on lucky days even 600. However, inthe last couple of months the price ofrecyclable materials, especially tin, isdeclining. The dealer now pays only 12to 15 Taka per kg to Shukur instead ofthe 35 Taka he used to offer. This lossis then passed on to the slum residentswho suffer from a lack of income.37

III. jamalpurJamalpur is a district town in the northernpart of Bangladesh, located onthe Brahmaputra River, 140 km northof Dhaka. The municipality of Jamalpurwas established in 1869 andis connected by rail ways, roads andthe river with Dhaka and other partsof the country. Around 60.000 peopleare currently living in Jamalpur, whichis an important market centre for rice,sugarcane, jute, tobacco, and mustardthat is produced in the region.The Jamalpur Municipality includesmore than 55 slums with a high density(2270 people per km²). The mainsources of employment are agricultureand agriculture based industries (40%),different kinds of businesses (10 %), industriallabor (25%) and small and pettyoccupation.References: BBS Population Census 2001(Community Series; Zila- Jamalpur), Pourashavabase line survey39

The myths of migratioN January 2010Carolin Braun40

For many of the urban citizens in Bangladesh,people living in slums arenearly an invisible phenomenon. Thecommon presumption amongst thesecitizens is that slum dwellers only residentin the slums for a limited periodof time and are permanently engagedin the rural agricultural sector. Consideringthe dense living conditions inmost of Bangladesh’ cities and hugeslum areas, I have been wonderingwhether this image reflects the realityof the urban poor. Thus, I visited oneof the biggest slums in Jamalpur, in thenorth of Bangladesh. The slum whichis known as Sarpur comprises of about300 households. The housing structureof the small shanty homes in this slumis similar to those of other slums inother developing regions. Despite itsstatus as a ‘slum’, the area gives methe impression of being a fairly brightand green neighborhood, with littlegardens, open places here and there,and small lakes that are surroundedby palm trees. Like many other slums,this slum is already an established partof the city. The inhabitants of Sarpurhave lived there for more than four tofive decades, and no longer have anylinkages to the original agriculturebusinesses of their grandfathers.The main reason why the first migrantscame to the slum was the lackof agricultural land ownership, dueto hereditary partitioning or land losscaused by flooding. Working for otherlandowners does generally not providesufficient income to sustain a familyon a long-term basis. Thus contrary tothe common belief, the people of thisslum established a permanent livingenvironment and social networksaround their area, which permit themto follow their occupation and to earna living.I met an elderly lady, Panmuti, in asari, cooking in front of her house.Panmuti is about 60 years old andcame to the slum with her parentswhen she was a girl. At that stage,her family had a low income, resultingfrom their occupation as basket carriers,beggars and other minor roles.Panmuti got married to another youngman living in the same area, who obtaineda job as a grave digger workingfor the whole town. Together they raisedfive daughters and one son. Herson and two of her divorced daughtersare still living with her. Her house hastwo rooms and is located nearby thelake. Her handicapped son uses oneroom, while she shares the other roomwith her two adult daughters and theirchildren. Both women work as domesticassistants in different householdsin the town. With their combined income,they can easily survive and sustainthe family.The elderly lady seemed very surprisedwhen I asked her if she ever wanted togo back to her village. She said “No,what would I do there? We don’t haveany land for agriculture, so how wouldwe live there?”. Even the adolescentgirls who gathered around us, alongwith other interested neighbors, said,they would rather stay in Sarpur thangoing back to rural areas, and wouldnot even consider returning for marriageoffers. Many of the girls around uswere well educated, attending higherclasses of the local secondary school,and had basic knowledge of English.One thing is subject to common agreement:None of the residents wants tomove back to rural areas and changethe opportunities which the city offersthem for a life in a village where theyhave no income. According to Panmuti,people here have adapted to the life intheir neighborhood. Most of them havenot been back to their original village41

for a very long time. The children bornhere don’t even know rural life.There are many ways in which boththe city and the slum dwellers benefitfrom each other. The residents of theslums find occupational opportunitiesin the urban areas, while the towntakes advantage of their competitivelabour force in different businessesand the domestic sector. The inhabitantsof the slums serve the town, e.g.in form of day labor in one of the citiesconstruction businesses, or by providingessential services like rickshawdriving and waste collection, streetsweeping, providing domestic help orby selling small items in a stall on thestreet. For all of those who are engagedin the city’s businesses, the slumsare the basis for their daily work in theurban area of Jamalpur.Panmuti is cooking in front of her shantyhouse at the lakeside while talking to us. >>42

IV. mymensinghMymensingh, located beside the BrahmaputraRiver in the north of Bangladesh,is one of the biggest and oldest Pourashavas(municipalities) in Bangladesh,covering around 22 km 2 . Due to migrationfrom the villages and rapid naturalpopulation growth within the city thenumber of inhabitants has rapidly increased.The Pourashava assumed 2005about 375.000 inhabitants. Almost halfof the population (45%) is considered as„poor“, many of them living in slums underbad conditions. All over the city, themunicipality counts 94 slum areas withaltogether more than 140.000 inhabitants.Similar to other towns, the slumdwellers are working as day laborer,rickshaw puller and hawkers or runningsmall businesses. The average income inthe slums of Mymensingh is estimated as3000 Taka a month.References: Ahsan, Shaikh Muhammad Mehedi(2009), Participation of Urban Poor in MunicipalGovernance in Bangladesh. A Case Study ofMymensingh Pourashava, Dissertationa at CivilService College, Dhaka.Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (2004), Socio-EconomicHousehold Survey of Mymensingh conductedby Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad for ADB.GTZ (2008), Poverty Impact Assessment in Mymensingh,Dhaka.43

Sand BUSINESS July 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke44

When I enter the Kalli Bari communityin the Northeastern part of MymensinghI find the roads muddy after twodays of rain. Until one year ago peoplelived directly next to the BrahmaputraRiver and were threatened by floodsduring every rainy season. Now thesettlement occupies a narrow striplocated along a recently built embankment.That the river is not onlya threat but also a source of income Ican quickly learn here. The word ‘river-bank’makes sense in two differentways in Kalli Bari.I meet Abdul Modtaleb working amongothers on top of the silt. He is the supervisorof the sand business at thispart of the river, with experiencestretching back more than 15 years.Abdul lives here with his wife, kids andparents. Because they did not haveland in their home village his parentsmoved to Mymensingh in 1974. Beforehe started the sand business he wasworking in a saw mill factory. He makesaround 500 Tk. a day now and thisis enough to maintain himself and hisfamily. “The price of the sand fromhere is 1.5 Tk. per cubic foot (about 28litres), but 40 percent of the proceedsKanchan fixes a problem with the engine.from every cubic foot sold goes to aprivate investor. We can keep the other60 percent. Business is going well.” Theinvestor holds a leasing contract withthe Pourashava of Mymensingh for therights to the extraction of sand on thisparticular stretch of the BrahmaputraRiver. At the same moment as Abdul isexplaining how well his business flows,the stream of silt suddenly gets interrupted.“What is happening? Work isfinished today?” I ask. “No, no this isnormal. Every 20 to 30 minutes themachine gets stuck”, he replies.45

To discover the reason why the siltflow stopped I ask him to show me theheart of his business. We cross the embankment,following the pipes downto the river. A small raft brings us totwo boats which are tied together forminga catamaran. When we step onthe boat we meet Kanchan, the machineoperator. He is busy unhooking wetgarbage from a small metal containerincorporated within an arrangementof two engines, rods, pipes and arbors.A smell of diesel is in the air althoughthe engine is not running. Everythinglooks quite improvised. Before thesilt is pumped through the pipe to theridge at the riverbank, it passes a filter.“The problem is that there is garbageall over the riverbed, so that themachine has to be stopped to free thefilter from the garbage. We have tostop it every half an hour.”, Kanchansays. He is about twenty years old andhas been working with machines sincehe was twelve. He has never been tocollege but he understands the kinksof this Chinese engine. Together withhis parents, Kanchan also lives in KalliBari. Being still unmarried he can liveon the 280 Tk. he gets every day.To compensate for the current of andthe waves on the river, Kanchan inventeda flexible piece of pipe so that themain pipe can not break. It also looksmuch improvised but seems to work.However, with the upcoming rainyseason the river will have more waterand the current will be too strong tooperate the suction machine for abouttwo months. Even the invention madeby Kanchan will not help then and duringthat time the equipment will bestored at the riverbank. Abdul will beable to earn during that period by sellinga stock of sand they have alreadyaccumulated, but for Kanchan it willmean unemployment.A ridge of sand silt in Kalli Bari. >>46

United in Poverty August 2009Toni Kaatz-Dubberke48

In the Patgodam poor community (Mymensingh)I get introduced to a totallydifferent aspect of urban poverty inBangladesh. The houses made frombricks are rotten and it appears tome that the walls could collapse atany time. The narrow roads betweenthe houses are muddy and covered bygarbage. The place is crowded. At firstview it seems to be a slum like manyothers that I saw in Bangladesh, albeitone of the worse ones though. But thatis only half the story, a fact I realizewhen I spot a big sign, which says:“Stranded Pakistani General RepatriationCommittee”. “This is an organizationof the Urdu speaking minority. Wecall them Biharis, but they have manynames”, my translator answers myquestioning look. I meet MohammadShakir Ali, a leader of the community.When he introduces himself I amrather confused. He was born in 1944in Uttar Pradesh (India), speaks Urdu,Hindi and Bangla and seems to be asmart and educated guy. Why is heworking as a night guard and lives inthis miserable place? The story of himand his family is the story of threecountries and a lot of tears and blood.During the unrest after the partitionof India in 1947, his father and his familyescaped the communal riots thatthreatened their lives and came to Mymensinghin then called East Pakistan.From zero they had to build up a newlife in a new environment far awayfrom their ancestral homeland. He joinedthe Pakistan Railway Company andso did his son Shakir Ali when he wassixteen in 1960.Shakir Ali made a good living as traindriver, so the Railway Company providedhim with a house and a comfortablesalary. But in 1971, historyagain turned against his family. Theliberation of Bangladesh from Pakistanidomination jailed him in the slumwhere he still lives today. In the firstplace, it was for his own good and tostay here. Bengali “freedom fighters”branded all Biharis as enemies of newlyborn Bangladesh and collaboratorswith the Pakistani army, killed many ofthem in revenge of war crimes done bythe Pakistanis and evicted them fromtheir living places. The Indian army,which helped Bangladesh to get independence,“resettled” about 600 Urduspeaking families in Mymensingh whowere scared and scattered all overthe town. Their lives were saved butalmost the whole community had lostOne of the „main roads“ of the settlement.property, jobs and standing overnight.Calm and without bitterness ShakirAli tells me how he lost family membersand friends.When the communityfound itself unwelcome, unsecured andreckoned as non-Bangladeshis anywaysthey considered themselves as “StrandedPakistanis” hoping that Pakistanwould take them to its territory,providing them safety. Indeed, after49

credits52

The authorsNicola Banks is a doctoral associatewith the Brooks World Poverty Instituteat the University of Manchester,where she is completing her PhD. Thisexplores the linkage between employmentand livelihoods of the urban poorin Dhaka city.Carolin Braun graduated in SoutheastAsian Culture and is currently workingon urban migration and urbanpoverty reduction strategies at GTZin Bangladesh.Juan Carvajal has a Masters in HumanGeography with focus on globalizationand development. During his internshipperiod with GTZ he has beenclosely involved with socio-economicanalysis and GIS mapping of urban‘slum’ communities.Sonu Rani Das grew up in a SweeperColony in Narayanganj. She has completedhigh school and is currently volunteeringfor a local NGO which enablesher to understand the challengesof her community from a new perspective.She is planning to continue herstudies at university this year.Nadia Tavares-Goodman has a PhD inUrban Design from the Oxford BrookesUniversity, England. She has been workingas a researcher and project coordinatorin Bangladesh, Zambia, Braziland the UK. Her focus is on the inclusionof minority groups in the urbandevelopment debate.Toni Kaatz-Dubberke studies InternationalRelations at the University ofLeipzig with a special focus on developingcountries. He has been working asan intern with GTZ in Bangladesh fromMarch to September 2009, researchingand writting on the livelihoods of theurban poor in Bangladesh.Kirthi Ramesh is a Master of Public Policycandidate at the Hertie School ofGovernance in Berlin. She is currentlyworking in the Good Urban Governanceproject at GTZ in Dhaka whereshe supports activities related toimproving the urban poor’s access topublic services and poverty reductionprogrammes in urban areas.Sayaka Uchikawa is from Japan, andcurrently a PhD candidate in AppliedAnthropology at Teachers College, ColumbiaUniversity. Her research interestfocuses on working children andeducation in Bangladesh, especially inthe urban settings.Lenka Vojtová has graduated in landscapearchitecture and is currently acandidate for a Master in Urban Design.Through her work for GTZ Bangladesh,she supports various projectsaiming for the livelihood improvementof slum dwellers.53

With the blog „urban poverty in bangladesh“ we are trying to describethe livelihoods of slum dwellers in different towns in Bangladesh. We wouldlike to show you their daily routine, their areas and places of living and sharewith you their struggles, hopes and fears in the hope that yourealize - like us - that poor people are not just numbers in statisticsbut human beings.http://urbanpovertyinbangladesh.blogspot.com