Census of Bangladesh population

Bangladesh has a population of 162 million of which 50% live below poverty line (BBS,2003). A quarter of the people in Dhaka living below poverty line are urban poor (CUS,2006). Its per head land allocation is about 0.28 acres and employment opportunity is mostly city oriented. 23.39% of the total  population live in the urban areas, 52% of which lives in 4 metropolitan areas like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi. The mean density of the population of Bangladesh is about 906 persons per square kilometre. The capital city of Dhaka is the largest built-up area in the country - located on the bank of the river Buriganga. In Dhaka, 29,000 people live per sq.km, which is 32 times of the mean density of the total population of the country. Adequate and secured shelter is a basic human right, and is vital for the fulfilment of human aspirations (GoB 2004). Yet a staggeringly large number of inhabitants in Bangladesh in general and in the metropolitan city of Dhaka in particular do not have any shelter. The housing condition of Dhaka is truly miserable. This city contains more than 1 crore people of which only 15% have their own house.18% people live in colonies, 13% live in slums and 34% live in rented houses and the left 20% is floating. Every year the population of Dhaka increases by 1 lakh 60 thousand but the housing increases by 10 thousands which is 1/16th of the demand only. The urban poor have not enough money to build their own shelter. But every one wants to live at the centre of the city for his livelihood which resulted necessity of accommodation for the urban poor. The population of Dhaka city is about 11 million and area is 815.85 km2 (BBS, 2003). This Mega City is one of the ten largest urban centres in the world. There are over 4,500 slum and squatter settlements in Dhaka city and estimated total number of households is 112,670. Much of its growth stems from migration, with 46 percent of its 1991 population born outside the metro area. Rural to urban migration is attributed to extreme rural poverty and landlessness, and large urban-rural wage differentials (Ahmed & Ahmad, 2002; Khanam, 2004). Dhaka is likely to face tremendous challenges in expanding the existing infrastructure and avoiding deterioration of living standards due to congestion, pollution, and lack of basic services. These inadequate services and worsening environmental conditions disproportionately affect the urban poor, many of whom live in slums. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to focus on the nature, current status, problems and challenges concerning housing for urban poor in the selected locations in the city of Dhaka. It is  believed that the ‘poverty’ is the symptom of certain anomalies in the society – diagnosis of the root causes of the problem would help take appropriate corrective measures. None of the planning frameworks adopted so far for Dhaka directly addressed itself to dealing with the priority needs and  problems of the working poor, who constitute about 35% of the population.