Eradication of extreme poverty: most recent global scenario

Eradication of extreme poverty: most recent global scenario

Poverty is a mirror that reflects the miseries of deprived people who have to struggle with hunger to survive. It’s also considered as a big and difficult problem by both developed and developing countries. Different types of projects and strategies are taken to eradicate poverty, especially extreme poverty.
In 2008, World Bank (WB) announced the new poverty line of $1.25 a day to measure the number of poor population, which was $1 a day previously. It is estimated that 1.4 billion people live at this new poverty line or below it while this figure was 984 million with $1 a day in 2004.
Table-1: population in poverty

Poverty line ($ a day)	Population in poverty (bill)	Pop above poverty (bill)	% in poverty
$1.00	0.88	5.58	13.6
$1.25	1.40	5.06	21.7
$2.00	2.60	3.86	40.2
$10.00	5.15	1.31	79.7

Source: World Bank Development Indicators 2008
Between 1981 and 2005, the world poverty rate has fallen by about 25%, which has regional variation in this success. For instance, much of the poverty reduction exclusively comes from china, because its poverty rate fell from 85% to 15.9% or by over 600 million people at the same period of time. Excluding China, world poverty fell only by around 10%. Regional poverty reduction scenario will be clear from the following table. Table-2: Poverty by region (%)

Region	1990	2004	2015*
East Asia & Pacific	15.40	9.07	3.04
Europe & Central Asia	3.60	0.95	0.32
Latin America & the Caribbean	9.62	8.64	7.00
Middle East & North Africa	2.08	1.47	4.00
South Asia	35.04	30.84	34.61
Sub-Saharan Africa	46.07	41.09	54.5

*Projected by World Bank staff estimates
Poverty is declining in absolute term but increasing in relative term respectively. Income inequality is a relative measure of poverty which is appallingly high at almost every region of the world. Among six regions, poverty is currently concentrated and shifting towards South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa but it is most severe in Sub-Saharan Africa. Income poverty is very high at almost all regions but severe in Latin America & the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
It should be noted that the poverty gap tends to be worse in sub-Saharan Africa than in South Asia. Proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day is 51 % in Sub-Saharan Africa and 39 % in South Asia in 2005 (MDG report-2010) of world population.
Furthermore, in the south Asian countries, at $1 poverty is very high in India (34.3 %) and Bangladesh (41.3 %) whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, it is 70.8 % in Nigeria, and 63.8 % in Zambia.

Table-3: Inequality through income distribution (1990-2005)*

Region	Poorest 20%	Richest 20 %
East Asia & Pacific	5.2	48.5
Europe & Central Asia	6.6	41.1
Latin America & the Caribbean	2.9	57.1
Middle East & North Africa	5.1	49.8
South Asia	8.7	41.7
Sub-Saharan Africa	9.6	64.5
High-income countries	5.9	45.6

*Information available
Source: World Bank Development Indicators 2008
According to the World Bank staff estimates, based on current trends, about 624 million (0.6 billion) people would be living in extreme poverty in 2015 while 90 % of them would be living in South Asia (216 mill) and Sub-Saharan Africa (340 mill).
Poverty means unhappiness, powerlessness and deprivation from all types of basic needs. Poor people are none but our neighbours. Government of every country and the development agencies of the world should take initiative to eradicate extreme poverty. Otherwise, this world would be a hell instead of a peaceful living place.

Problem of minimum wages and the prospects of RMG sector

Problem of minimum wages and the prospects of RMG sector

BANGLADESH earns the largest portion of its export income from readymade garments and knitwear. At first, Bangladesh exported the readymade cloths and knitwear of one million US dollar to the USA through Riaz Garments in 1978.After that, Garments industry takes the position of a leading industry of our export income by whipping the traditional jute industry, which is illustrated by the following chart:
Chart -1: Percentage of total export income (1972-2009)

Year	Jute and Jute goods	Readymade garments
1972-75	86.73	0
1975-80	72.75	.03
1985-86	50.9	16.05
1990-91	22	50
1994-95	11.2	64
1998-99	7.1	76
2004-05	4.65	74.16
2008-09	2.68	79.33

But, it is frightening news for our country that this leading industry is now passing through crucial moments. Recent volatile situation in different garments facilities is threatening it existence. Since one year, the workers of RMG in different industries have been creating violence in the form of procession, vandalizing and blockading the roads to hike their minimum wage, attendance bonus and to ensure other facilities. These are common scenarios in most of the garments factories of   Savar, Mirpur, Rupganj, Joydebpur, Gazipur, Kaspur, Ashulia, Nishchintapur, Norashinghpur, Zamgara and in other garment factories. About 140 garments factories were closed last year due to unrest accompanied by the crisis of power and gas, price hike of yarn, poor infrastructure, and low price offers from international buyers amid increased production cost. These are the main reasons for shutdown of production of a factory.
Whatever the situation, the authority will have to find out the path of solution to recover the huge economic losses. Low wage is the key reason of workers agitation. The present minimum wages paid by the garment factory to its workers is Tk 1662.50 per month while the workers are demanding Tk 5000 per month. The current minimum wage is really a tiny and insufficient amount against the current inflation — both in food (7.85%) and non-food (5.49%) goods while general and average inflation are 6.89 % and 7.69% respectively (2009-10, July-March, BBS).
Fixation of minimum wage in Bangladesh

Year	Amount (in Taka)
1985	621
1994	930
2006	1662.50
2010	1662.50

The minimum wage of Tk.1662.50 was fixed on June 2006 when the cost of living was certainly lower than now. The Bangladesh Bank and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, reported that since 2006 the cost of living of an RMG worker increased by at least 35 percent. But the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a private think-tank, reported that the average cost of living increased by around 70 percent because of increasing house rent, gas and power price.
Important news is that, the minimum wage of Bangladeshi garment workers (less than $25) is the lowest wages among the garment producing nations. At the entry point, a worker gets $90, $101 in Vietnam, $135 in India and $217 in China.
Moreover, while garments workers are extreme poor, because they earn less than one dollar per day international poverty line income is $1.25. Along wage, they are also deprived from other benefits and facilities including bonus, insurance coverage, financial support for illness and good environment to work. At this situation, to resolve wage problem, BGMEA proposed Tk 2000 per month as minimum wage for entry level worker against the proposal of Tk 6200 from the representative of garments workers to the Minimum Wage Board (MWB). The MWB is set to announce the minimum wage by July 27, 2010.
The authority should fix a minimum wage including other benefits to save this foreign exchange earning industry as well as three million workers who are involved here.

A brief History of Economics

Evolution of Economics as a Discipline

A brief History of Economics:

The modern Economics, which we still study now, is the result of the efforts of ancient or Pre classical (384BC-1776), classical (1776-1871) , Neoclassical (1871-Today) and  Islamic Economists.

Ancient or Pre classical (384BC-1776):

The study of the economy in western civilization was begun largely with the Greeks, particularly Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Xenophon (420?-355? BC). The ancient economic thinkers concerned with the theories of money, Taxation, usury, property rights, Entrepreneurship, Price differentials, Justice in economic exchange and analyzed the impact of ethics in economics.

Famous economists of the ancient school include St. Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274?),John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), Jean Buridan(1295 – 1358), Jean Buridan, (1295 – 1358),Nicole de Oresme, (1320-1382),Gabriel Biel, (1425-1495), Sir William Petty (1623-1687).

Classical (1776-1871):

The classical economists developed the theories about how markets and market economies work focusing the dynamics of economic growth which stressed economic freedom and promoted ideas such as laissez-faire and free competition. They introduced the labor theory of value, theory of distribution (Smith),, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation((Ricardo 1817, Mill 1848), the theory of surplus value(Karl Marx), principle of comparative advantage ,international-trade theory (Ricardo) and Monetary theories.

Famous economists of the classical school include Adam Smith, David Ricardo, W. Jevons, Jean-Baptiste Say, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Malthus, Professor Pigou, and Alfred Marshall.

Neoclassical (1871-Today):

Neoclassical economists first introduced the theories of Rationality & individual preferences, utility maximization (Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham) and Information economics, Theories of market forms and industrial organization, general equilibrium theory, indifference curves and the theory of ordinal utility. Neoclassical economics also increased the use of mathematical equations in the study of various aspects of the economy.

Famous economists of the Neoclassical school are William Stanley Jevons (Theory of Political Economy (1871), Carl Menger (Principles of Economics (1871), Leon Walras (Elements of Pure Economics (1874 – 1877), Joan Robinson (The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933), Edward H. Chamberlin (the Theory of Monopolistic Competition (1933), Paul Samuelson and so on.

Islamic Economics:

The practice of Islamic Economics was begun in the state of Medina in the 6^th century. After that, the process of Development of this discipline was handled by the different scholars and Economists in different centuries. many of them  are Abu Yusuf (731-798), Al Farabi (873-950), Al Ghazali (1058-1111), Al mawaridi (1675-1158), Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi (1201-1274), Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328), Ibn Khaldun (1334-1406) History of the World (Kitab al-Ibar), Asaad Davani (1444). They amplified the Ideas of consumer theory, supply and demand, Elasticity, Taxation (Khaldun-Laffer Curve (the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue) etc in the light of Islamic Economics.  Ibn Khaldun was considered as a Forerunner of modern economics.

The tools of Islamic economics are also employed in modern economics by some economic thinkers. Among of them, the contributions of M .Umer chapra (Islam &economic challenges), Monzer Kahf. Najat Ullah Siddiqui, M.A. Mannan,  Fahim Khan,Anas Zarqa are well known to the recent world.

The details history of economics will be published soon….so stay with us…

Slum of Bangladesh: An Overview

Abstract:

Bangladesh is a country of about 146.10 million of people containing nearly 5.3 million of slum people. Two censuses and many surveys on slum people were conducted by the government of Bangladesh to know and figure out the key problems of slum dwellers. A brief overview about the slum of Bangladesh has presented in this paper by analyzing the censuses and survey report. An informative scrutiny on number, structure and housing condition of slum, nature of slum people, common standard of living and wretchedness of slum people, income patterns, poverty scenario and NGOs coverage has presented in this paper. Finally, some suggestion has designed to remove the problems of slum people.

1. Introduction

Slum is a word, a name that reflects the miseries of deprived people who have to struggle with poverty to survive in this beautiful world. Slums and shanties are available in every countries regardless which are developed or developing countries. Usually poor people migrated from village and very poor people in urban areas live in slum. They choose the slum to live, because they have no afforded. Basically, for eight reasons people usually migrated to slum life. In this paper it has been tried to give a brief description of slum of Bangladesh with some policy suggestion.

1. Slum: definition

1. A slum is a cluster of housing units which grow unsystematically in government owned or private vacant land. The walls and roofs of such houses are generally made of straw leaves, Gunny bag, polythene paper, bamboo etc. a tin shed house or even a building may be added, if it is situated within the purview and environment of a slum. The physical and hygienic conditions of such houses are far below those of a common urban residential area. Generally, this segment of people are distressed and forced to live in such unhygienic condition due to economics reason[i].

1. A slum is a cluster of compact settlements of 5 or more households which generally grow very unsystematically and haphazardly in an unhealthy condition and atmosphere on government and private vacant land. Slums also exist in the owner based household premises[ii].

1. slums are defined as settlements with a minimum of 10 households or a mess unit with a minimum of 25 members and predominantly very poor housing; very high population density and room crowding; very poor environmental services, especially water and sanitation;  very low socio-economic status; lack of security of tenure[iii].

1. Causes behind slum creation:

Usually it is claimed that, a large number of poor people come to the divisional cities and adjacent paurashavas for livelihood and many other purposes, which highly contribute to create slums. In the slum census of 1997, firstly it was tried to find out the key reasons of migration to slum areas.

Table-2

Reason for coming to slum (as % of total households)
River erosion	17.2
Uprooted	12.53
Driven out	2
Abandoned	1.22
Meager income	19.97
Insecurity	2.43
For job	39.53
Others	5.12
Total	100
Total households	334431

The eight reasons founded for migrated to slum areas in which 39.53% of slum households for looking job followed by insufficient income, River erosion, uprooted and others etc.but the recent data is not available.

1. Slums of Bangladesh: an overview

1) Total Number of slums in Bangladesh:

Table-3

Years	Number of slums and squatter clusters	Number of slum households	Slum population
1986	–	176745	831645
1997	2991	334431	1,391,459
2005	9048	1043329	5233217

The slum area census 1986 covered the three Statistical Metropolitan Areas (SMA), Chittagong, Dhaka and Khulna including Paurashavas and city and counted 176745 households in slums whereas this figure was recorded as 259244 in Census of slum areas and Floating Population 1997, for these same areas.

With some variation, Mapping and Census of urban Slum of Bangladesh, 2005 accounted it as 977891 for the city corporation areas of these cities.

Furthermore, the number of population living in these areas was founded as 831645, 1063010 and 4876453 in the census of 1986, 1997 and 2005 respectively.

Moreover, the Number of slums and squatter clusters in the same areas were recorded as

2991 in 1997 while it increased to 7300 in 200

2) Number of slums in Dhaka city:

Table-4

years of survey	Number of slums and squatter clusters	Number of slum households	Slum population
1974	–	–	275,000
1986	–	121328	–
1991	2,156	–	718,143
1996	3,007	–	1500000
1997	1579	185917	754866
2005*	4966	673883	3286770

*

Due to the variation in the definition of slum, the figures of the table ill matched for different years, but table depicted the tremendous increase in the slum, slum household as well as Slum population in Dhaka city.

3) Number of slums in Bangladesh: by division:

Table-5

Number of slum and cluster between 1997 and 2005 census
City	1997	% of total	2005	% of total
Dhaka Mega city	1579	52.79	4966	54.9
Chittagong SMA	186	6.22	1814	20
Khulna SMA	202	6.75	520	5.7
Rajshahi SMA	84	2.81	641	7.1
Barisal	*		351	3.9
Sylhet	**		756	8.3
14 cities	293	9.8	***	***
100-Paurashavas	647	21.63	***	***
Total	2991	100	9048	100

*Included with Khulna** Included with Chittagong*** Not coverage

According to the report of the Census of slum areas and Floating Population 1997, the largest number of slum situated in Dhaka city followed by 100-Paurashavas and 14 cities respectively. While in 2005, Dhaka remained the first followed by Chittagong, Rajshahi SMA and Barisal accordingly.

In addition to that, the report confirmed that, 1579 slums and cluster were situated in Dhaka SMA whereas this figure reached at 4966 in 2005 with a broad definition of slums. (See definition of slum).the percentages of these numbers recorded as 52.9 and 54.9 respectively.

Between 1997 and 2005, the percentages of slum in Chittagong SMA, Khulna SMA and Sylhet fluctuated in the range of 5 to 8.in 2005 census, 641 slums founded in Rajshahi SMA while it was only 84 in 1997.

The data insure that, the expansion of slums is not confined not only to divisional cities but also in the urbanized areas and Paurashavas.

4)      Number of slum Households and their % between 1986 and 2005 census

Table-6: Number of slum Households and their % between 1986 and 2005 census

City	1986	% of total	1997	% of total	2005	% of total
Dhaka Mega city	121328	68.65	185917	55.59	673,883	64.6
Chittagong SMA	30854	17.45	45143	13.5	266,182	25.5
Khulna SMA	24563	13.9	28184	8.43	37,826	3.6
Rajshahi SMA	–	–	6998	2.09	27,665	2.6
Barisal	***	***	*	*	19,460	1.9
Sylhet	***	***	**	**	18,313	1.7
14 cities	–	–	24448	7.31	***	***
100-Paurashavas	–	–	43741	13.08	***	***
Total	176745	100	334431	100	1,043,329	100

*Included with Khulna** Included with Chittagong*** Not coverage

During 1986, the number of slum households was 176745 in the three divisional

Cities including Paurashavas, while this figure increased and reported at 334431 in the six divisional Cities including Paurashavas and some urbanized areas, called SMA.in the census on the slums of six city corporation in 2005, this number recorded as1, 043, 329.however, Dhaka still occupied the first position in terms of living slum household, which was 68.65 and 64.6% in 1997 and 2005 respectively. Chittagong SMA secured the second position followed by Khulna SMA, Rajshahi SMA and sylhet containing 25.5%, 3.6%, 2.6%, 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

5) Percentage of male and female In Distribution of population between 1986 and 1997 census

Table-7

% of male and female In Distribution of population between 1986 and 1997 census
City	1986	1986	1986	1997	1997	1997
City	Total population	% of male	%of Female	Total population	% of male	%of Female
Dhaka Mega city	575604	52.75	47.25	745866	54.66	53.82
Chittagong SMA	138282	58.58	41.42	188839	14.05	13.07
Khulna SMA	117750	52.5	47.5	119305	8.05	9.15
Rajshahi SMA	***	***	***	29766	2.11	2.17
Barisal	***	***	***	*	*	*
Sylhet	***	***	***	**	**	**
14 cities	***	***	***	109012	7.77	7.9
100-Paurashavas	***	***	***	189670	13.39	13.88
Total population	831645	53.69	46.31	1391458	51	48.99

In 1986, the total population in slum was 831645 with 53.69 % and 46.31% of male and female respectively in three divisional cities with adjacent Paurashavas.while in 1997.this figure reached at 1391458 with 51% and 48.99 % of male and female respectively in six divisional cities with adjacent Paurashavas and urban areas. The slum population figured out as 5233217 in 2005 for six divisional cities.

6) Population Density: Slum Area and Overall City, 2005

Table-8: Population Density: Slum Area and Overall City, 2005

City	person Per acre	person Per acre
City	slum area	city total
Dhaka	891	121
Chittagong	1032	94
Khulna	536	82
Rajshahi	272	39
Sylhet	626	52
Barisal	541	29
all cities	831	95

The density figure reflects the miseries of slum people.The average population density in slums were 831 persons per acre in 2005. Density varied from 272 persons per acre in Rajshahi to 1,032 in Chittagong. Dhaka had the second highest density at 891 persons per acre. The overall gross population density for Dhaka was less than 121 persons per acre. Thus, the population density in slums there was at least 7 times higher than the average for the city as a whole. In Chittagong, the population density in slum areas was 11 times that of the overall city.

1) Housing Structure and condition of slum

Diagram-1

Table-9

Housing Structure (percentage of households)
	1986	1997	2005
Jhupri/Shacks/Mud	20.55	41.41	11.3
Bamboo structure/ Tong	44.66	0	0
Tin shed	30.48	28.33	0
Tong	0	8.57	0
Chhai	0	17.69	0
Pucca	0	0.91	0
semi pucca	0	3.09	42.4
Kutcha flimsy structure	0	0	44.8
Dilapidated old buildings	0	0	1.1
Others/better quality	4.31	0	0.5
total	100	100	100

The Housing Structure of slum dwellers is very poor. According to the report of the slum census-1986, 44.66% households lived in Bamboo structured houses followed by Tin shed 30.48% and Jhupri/Shacks/Mud 20.55%.however, in 1997, Jhupri dominate housing structured by capturing the highest portion 41.41% and reduced to 11.3% in 2005.Conversely, 44.8 % households lived in Kutcha housing followed by semi pucca 42.4% and old buildings 1.1% respectively.

2) Ownership of agricultural land

The alarming indicator is that, with the course of time, the slum households are becoming landless with an increasing trend. In 1986, the percentage of landless people was 78.08 which were reached to 83.47 in 1997.As depicted from the diagram.

Diagram-2

Consequently, the slum people live in the land of Govt. or private organization. As data shows that, in 2005, the majority portion of slum land, 88.6% was owned privately followed by government. (9.3%) and others (2.2%) respectively. whereas these figures were counted as 51.92%, 43.83% and 4.25% for government.

3) Rental status of slums
In2005, 73.9% of slum households live in rented land while it was 63.33% in 1986.conversely, 63.33% of slum households were lived in rent-free land  whereas it was reduced to 11.74% in 2005 .it is bad news that, only 14.5% households lived in their own land in 2005.

Table-10

	1986	1997	2005
owner		44.54	14.5
Rented	63.33	48.45	73.9
rent free/others	36.67	7.01	11.7

4) Sources of light

Diagram-3

For lighting the housing unit, 70.99% of households used Kerosene in 1986, while it was reduced to 27.59% and only 7% in 1997 and 2005 respectively.conversely,28.51% households depended on electricity for lighting in 1986, whereas it has increased to 57.7% and 91.10% in 1997 and 2005 accordingly. Furthermore, a tiny portion of households depends on other sources for lighting such as 1.10% in 2005 compared to 0.16% in 2005.

5) Sources of fuel

The slum dwellers usually use straw leaves, gas etc. as fuel for preparation of their meals. Wood is still the main sources of the fuel in the slum areas. the data states that, in 1986, the majority percent (71.60%)of the slum household used wood as fuel followed by 10.60% straw/leaves/cowdung,7.44% gas,4.79% husk and 3.38% kerosene etc.

But the census report- 2005 claimed that, gas has become the second sources of fuel in the slum and 44.6% of households depend on gas. It was not available in Khulna, Rajshahi and Barisal. In Dhaka, 81.2% of clusters and 57.6% of households in slums had access to cooking gas while in Chittagong and Sylhet gas was available to only 27.9% and 16.1% of slum households, respectively.

6) Toilet facility

Diagram-4, 5, 6

It is highly alarming that, the toilet and sanitation facilities are absolutely unsafe as well as unsatisfactory. The three pie diagrams depicting toilet facilities show that, unsafe and unhealthy toilet facilities occupied the majority percent of toilet in the slums. such as temporary (79.45%) ,Kancha (53.80%) and pit (52.8%) in 1986,1997 and 2005 respectively. even open space were used and still using as toilet which accounted 8.99% and 4.1%in 1997 and 2005 respectively. while the safety toilets were few in numbers such as  sanitary (20.55%) and sanitary (7.93%),pucca(20.14%) in 1986 and 1997 respectively.

In addition to that, Latrines linked to sewers and septic tanks and water sealed latrines are considered safe from a hygienic standpoint. Only 28.8% of slum households had access to one of these three types of latrines in 2005. Dhaka slum residents had the best access to safe latrines (35.6%) while those in Sylhet and Barisal had very poor access (only 2.1% and 0.4%, respectively) for the same time. Pit latrines, a variety widely regarded as unsafe, were common in slum areas. In almost all slums, latrines were usually shared by two or more households. In 13.4% of slums, one latrine was shared by 11 or more families.

7) Sources of drinking water:

Diagram-7

The census report-1997 states that, the 55.42% of slum households used Tube-well as the sources of their drinking water followed by municipal tap 21.59%, others 15.35% and river/canal 2.88% respectively. Only 1.01% households were collected drinking water from the ponds.

Conversely, 61.10% households were getting their drinking water from the municipal taps followed by tube-well 37% and others 1.90% respectively as reported in slum census-2005.

8) Literacy rate of slum people

Table-11

Literacy of slum people by locality 1986 and 1997
City	1986	1997
Dhaka Mega city	12.61	14.35
Chittagong SMA	16.48	16.99
Khulna SMA	15.08	16.67
Rajshahi SMA	***	13.36
Barisal	***	*
Sylhet	***	**
14 cities	***	14.66
100-Paurashavas	***	12.53
National	13.6	14.66

Literacy refers to the ability to write a letter. The literacy rate of slum’s population was14.66% where the male literacy rate was 17.88 and female literacy rate was 11.32% respectively, which was slightly higher than that of 1986 figures. But it was significantly smaller than the literacy rate of 32.4% in 1991 census. It appears that literacy rates very low in slum areas.

9) Employment Scenario:

Diagram-8

A person is termed as employed who is engaged in some gainful work. In slum areas, most of the adults are found to be engaged in some activities in exchange of some benefits either in cash or kind. The census report 1986 figured out that, 40.98% of the slum population was employed where 65.53% was male and 11.91% was female while 59.02% people including children and student was unemployed due to having no specific job. Moreover, the employment rate slightly increased to 47.88% while unemployment rate was 52.12%.Among 52.12%,4.71% were not working, 8.60% were students ,0.71% were begging and others 38.10%,who had no specific jobs ,but were seeking to job.

The reported data claim that, unemployment rate is very high among the slum population and almost all of the employed persons were engaged in informal sector. It will be cleared from the list of job structure of slum population as given below.

.

10) Income Pattern and poverty rate in Slums

Table-12

Households’ Monthly Income Pattern by City                                         (percentage of households)
City	<2000 tk	2001-3000tk	30001-4000tk	4001-5000tk	above 5000 tk	Number of households
Dhaka	3.8	19.6	34.5	27.6	14.6	673,883
Chittagong	21	36.8	27.6	11.6	2.9	266,182
Khulna	34.4	54.3	9.4	1.5	0.3	37,826
Rajshahi	8.8	52.1	33.9	4.7	0.5	27,665
Sylhet	0.8	1.9	22	69.3	5.9	18,313
Barisal	44.6	44.8	9.9	0.6	0.1	19,460
all cities	10.7	26.8	29.6	23.7	9.1	1,043,329

The census report-2005 explained that, 90.8% slum people lived below the urban poverty line[i] (tk.5000 as estimated by the CUS study team for May 2005) with 37.5% having incomes below Tk. 3,000 per month. Most of households (29.6%) income range was 2001-3000tk followed by 2001-3000tk (26.8%), 4001-5000tk (23.7%) and <2000 tk (10.7%) respectively. on the other hand, only 9.1% of households had the income of tk.5000.

Besides, poverty was very high in the slum households of Barisal and accounted that,99.9% people live below the urban poverty line of tk.5000.even 44.6% had income below tk.2000.

Khulna (99.7%) occupied the second position in the slum poverty followed by Rajshahi (99.5%)

, Chittagong (97.1%) and Sylhet (94.1%) respectively.

Dhaka was slightly better off, with 14.6% having incomes above the poverty line and slum poverty 85.4% with 23.4% having incomes that fell below the hardcore poverty line.

11) NGO Coverage of Slums

About three-fourths of the slums (71.5%) received services from one or more NGOs.

13.1% and 58.4% of clusters received services from one and more than one NGOs respectively. Whereas 28.5% clusters did not receive any service from NGOs. Besides, by division, Rajshahi received the highest services followed by Barisal, Dhaka, Khulna, Chittagong and sylhet respectively. The figures were 86%, 81.2%, 58.5%, 51.3%, 50.4% and 40.7% respectively as reported by slum census 2005.

Table-13: Percentage of Slums Covered by NGO Programs         (percentage of clusters)

NGO coverage	Dhaka	Chittagong	Khulna	Rajshahi	Sylhet	Barisal	all cities
one NGO	11.3	7.2	27.1	7	34.8	13.1	13.1
more than one	58.5	50.4	51.3	86	40.7	81.2	58.4
none	30.2	42.4	11.5	7	24.5	5.7	28.5
don’t know	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
total slum	4966	1814	520	641	756	351	9048

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[i] The household monthly income of Tk. 5,000 was estimated as the urban poverty line for May 2005 by the CUS study team on the basis of urban poverty line per capita income of TK.906 (or Tk 4344 for an average urban household) for May 2004 determined by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and presented in its “Preliminary Report of the Poverty Monitoring Survey, 2004”. p.13

1. Conclusion:

“Slum life” means a bad dreamy life, life of man as non-human being, and the final deprivation from fundamentals constitutional rights-it is proved from the description of this paper. Though every government committed to eradicate poverty completely, they did not yet take the appropriate program. To save the lives of 5.3 million slum people, it is urgent to take immense steps by government, NGOs even an individual level. Otherwise, instead of becoming a peaceful and developed nation, our country will be a hell for us.

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[i] Report on the slum area census 1986,Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,June-1988,page 4,

[ii] Census of slum areas and Floating Population 1997, Volume-1, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, October-1999, page 2

[iii] Slum of urban -Bangladesh, Mapping and Census, 2005 by Centre for Urban Studies(CUS), http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=93293

Urban slums of Bangladesh, by-Professor Nazrul Islam,Dr. AQM Mahbub,Dr. Nurul Islam Nazem, The Daily star, Published On: 2009-06-20

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