Housing for all: A better urban future
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2022
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
Housing for all: A better urban future

Thoughts

Liakath Ali, Washim Akhter and Abdullah Al Zobair
29 October, 2020, 12:40 pm
Last modified: 29 October, 2020, 12:56 pm

Related News

  • Thousands of Covid-negative Beijing residents sent to quarantine
  • Shanghai inches towards Covid lockdown exit, Beijing plays defence
  • N Korea reports over 200,000 fever cases for 5th day amid Covid wave
  • North Korea's Dr Fauci? Health official emerges as face of Covid campaign
  • Shanghai detects new infections after five days of 'zero Covid'

Housing for all: A better urban future

Cities must integrate vulnerable, low, and excluded people in overall city development

Liakath Ali, Washim Akhter and Abdullah Al Zobair
29 October, 2020, 12:40 pm
Last modified: 29 October, 2020, 12:56 pm
From left Liakath Ali, Washim Akhter and Abdullah Al Zobair
From left Liakath Ali, Washim Akhter and Abdullah Al Zobair

Housing is one of the five basic needs of human beings. It is also a constitutional right. Article 15(a) of the Constitution of Bangladesh states that a fundamental principle of state policy is to provide, "…the necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care".

So, housing could be considered a fundamental human right in Bangladesh. Covid-19 also emphasized the necessity of housing for all in the battle against Covid-19, where it can be a matter of life and death.

Without adequate housing, it is impossible to carry out social distancing and good hygiene practices; and around 1.8 billion people, or more than 20 percent of the world's population, lack a place to live in. In this backdrop, this year, World Habitat Day was observed on the theme of "Housing for All – A Better Urban Future."

Globally, around one billion people live in informal settlements, and more than 100 million people are homeless. With the growth of cities and urban life, the housing crisis is rising in developing countries.

In Bangladesh, 37.40 percent of 163 million population lives in urban areas, and due to rapid urbanisation, it is expected that the current urban population of 62 million will be doubled by 2035. Three major metropolitan areas - Dhaka, Chattogram, and Khulna - account for about 54 percent of the country's total urban population. And among Dhaka's 21 million people, about 3.5 million people are living in informal settlements.

The number increases as informal settlements offer homes to most migrating people, who are looking for better jobs in the city or driven by climate change. More than 26 percent of rural people flock to Dhaka leaving their home cities due to natural disasters and climate change.

Low-income communities face a lack of adequate housing, infrastructures, and services and bear the brunt of natural disasters including floods, storms, and cyclones in hazard-prone Bangladesh. During the Covid-19 crisis, in addition to the stressful homestay environment in small and crowded housing, social and protective networks' disruption and decreased access to services increase the risk of violence against women and children. The absence of essential services and the prevalence of stress and unhealthy living conditions also contribute to poor health.

The existing situation presents the opportunity to rethink the transformative impact of Covid-19 on housing for all and explore how to build societies back better by leveraging the role of housing as a catalyst for delivering human rights and as a foundation of people's wellbeing.

Covid-19 has brought the housing paradox into sharp relief – at a time when people are in urgent need of shelter, millions of apartments and houses sit empty. Inclusive, affordable, and adequate housing is the key to our cities and communities' sustainable transformation.

The SDG-11 aims for resilient, inclusive, safe, diverse towns and cities by 2030, and one of the targets is access to adequate, secure, and affordable housing and basic services for all by 2030 and the upgrade of the slum. The pandemic offers new opportunities for all stakeholders to participate. Cities need leaders who will work with local communities and recognise that it is possible to cater to housing for all.

Housing strategies, citywide slum upgrading, prevention strategies, and low-income communities' engagement provide the avenue for scaling and accelerating the implementation of the SDG-11 in cities in the Decade of Action.

Undeniably, safe, affordable housing is a basic necessity for everyone. Without a decent place to live in, people cannot be productive members of society, children cannot learn, and families cannot thrive. Providing shelter to all is recognised as a constitutional right to Bangladesh's citizens since independence.

The seventh five-year plans and the revised national housing policy 2016 illustrated sustainable housing for all. In the national housing policy, the emphasis has been given on low-cost accommodation. As natural calamities like floods and cyclones are common phenomena in Bangladesh, low-cost housing should be durable and should have good living conditions for the dwellers. UN-Habitat projected housing deficit in urban areas of Bangladesh by 2030 is 8.5 million.

To redress the housing crisis for low-income communities in urban areas, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July this year handed over flats to 600 climate refugee households at Khurushkul Special Shelter Project in Cox's Bazar. The government has been constructing 139 five-story buildings on 253 acres of land on Bakkhali River banks at Khurushkul, spending BDT 180 million under the project. More than 4,000 climate refugee families will be rehabilitated there gradually. 

To address the housing crisis for low-income people in urban areas, Brac, Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh, UNDP, etc have been working since the last decade. Since 2015, Brac across 20 major cities and towns has provided support to about 6,000 households to improve homes designed to accommodate maximum sunlight and ventilation. More than 200 families constructed low-cost climate-resilient houses through people's processes utilising community-managed revolving funds.

Brac has released Tk40 million as a grant in the last three years to 10 city development fund (CDF) committees in ten large cities.  In coordination with city corporations and municipalities, and community people, this initiative is aimed to build low-cost climate-resilient houses according to the demands and choices of the households.

Besides, Brac sensitises local government institutions to realise the fundamental demands of the people living in low-income settlements. As a part of an emergency response to the devastating fire at Korail slum in 2017, Brac urban development programme (UDP) supported the reconstruction of 5,500 homes and 24 households at Durgamil Camp slum Saidpur in 2019. In Rangpur City, 28 households of the Oraon tribe rebuilt their homes in cooperation with the Brac and City Corporation.

As 90% of total slum dwellers are landless, long-term interventions focusing on reviewing current housing and land approaches are crucial. Around 2,000 new people are being added to Dhaka every day. So, cities must integrate vulnerable, low, and excluded people in overall city development.

The government needs to reshape policies, strategies, and legislation for diverse housing solutions for all and respect, protect and fulfil human rights in cities. We must put people at the core of decision-making, ensuring equity, and fulfilling housing rights for all.


Md Liakath Ali, PhD is the Director of Climate Change Programme, Brac and Brac International and Urban Development Programme, Brac

Md Washim Akhter is the Programme Coordinator at Brac Urban Development Programme

Md Abdullah Al Zobair is the Manager, Knowledge Management, Innovation, & Communication at Brac Urban Development Programme.


 

Top News

urban / Housing / COVID-19 / COVID-19 in Bangladesh

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Project delays: The Sinohydro style 
    Project delays: The Sinohydro style 
  • Photo: TBS
    37,000 BO account holders sell all shares in 11 days
  • Photo: Reuters
    Monkeypox: Govt puts ports on alert 

MOST VIEWED

  • Shahadat Hussein
    How the culture of food waste impedes SDG attainment
  • Zhang Jun
    What justifies China’s zero-Covid policy?
  • Ekram Kabir. Illustration: TBS
    Developing an effective social media strategy
  • Romesh Ratnesar and Timothy Lavin. Sketch: TBS
    Is carbon removal finally getting serious?
  • Kazi Ashraf Uddin.
    Managerialism in Bangladeshi public universities: A perspective from the global South
  • Jim O’Neill/ Former treasury minister, United Kingdom
    Another global recession?

Related News

  • Thousands of Covid-negative Beijing residents sent to quarantine
  • Shanghai inches towards Covid lockdown exit, Beijing plays defence
  • N Korea reports over 200,000 fever cases for 5th day amid Covid wave
  • North Korea's Dr Fauci? Health official emerges as face of Covid campaign
  • Shanghai detects new infections after five days of 'zero Covid'

Features

The Buffalo shooter targeted Black people, linking mass migration with environmental degradation and other eco-fascist ideas. Photo: Reuters

Eco-fascism: The greenwashing of the far right

13h | Panorama
Green-backed Heron on a tilting stalk. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Green-backed Heron: Nothing but a prayer to catch a fish  

15h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

‘High logistics cost weakens Bangladesh’s competitiveness’

18h | Panorama
Every morning is a new beginning for all

Seashore

18h | In Focus

More Videos from TBS

Wheat prices double in India

Wheat prices double in India

7h | Videos
Is Washington-Moscow agreement possible?

Is Washington-Moscow agreement possible?

7h | Videos
Pigeon exhibition for the first time in Gazipur

Pigeon exhibition for the first time in Gazipur

12h | Videos
Photo: TBS

US Congress to hold first public UFO panel

14h | Videos

Most Read

1
Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
Bangladesh

Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge

2
A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Banking

Dollar hits Tk100 mark in open market

3
The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter
Industry

The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter

4
PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire
Crime

PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire

5
BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies
Stocks

BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies

6
The reception is a volumetric box-shaped room that has two glass walls on both the front and back ends and the other two walls are adorned with interior plants, wood and aluminium screens. Photo: Noor-A-Alam
Habitat

The United House: Living and working inside nature

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab