Lack of Basic Amenities for Urban Slum Dwellers: A Framework of Paradigm Shift to Bring Sustainable Development for Them

The lives of urban slum dwellers are threatened by the lack of access to the most basic human requirements – water, sanitation, shelter, health, and education in almost all low- and middle-income countries globally. Same is... [ view full abstract ]

The lives of urban slum dwellers are threatened by the lack of access to the most basic human requirements – water, sanitation, shelter, health, and education in almost all low- and middle-income countries globally. Same is the situation in Bangladesh. This study has been conducted to find out the causes and miseries of the slum dwellers and suggest possible paradigm shift to bring sustainable development in their livelihoods. The information and data were obtained from different sources including private, non-governmental and UN organizations particularly UNDP. More than one billion people live in slums all over the world. In the developing countries one out of three people live in urban slums. Bangladesh has 3.4 million people living in 5,000 slums of its capital. Slums are often economically vibrant in many developing country cities. Around 60% of employment in the informal sectors is from slum dwellers. But their lives are miserable with manifestation of deep poverty, unrealistic regulatory frameworks, ill-convinced policies, inadequate urban planning, weak institutional capacity, and larger microeconomic factors. These settlements lack basic municipal services such as water, sanitation, waste collection, storm drainage, street lighting, paved sidewalks and road of emergency access. The lack of these amenities is grossly responsible for their sufferings from different kinds of diseases including diarrhea, cholera, diabetes, intentional and unintentional injuries, tuberculosis, rheumatic heart disease, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and HIV infection. Given that the slum dwellers are part of the urban populace and they are the most strong force of the economy of the low- and middle-income countries particularly in Bangladesh, the governments should pay attention to upgrade their living standard with housing, streets, footpaths, drainage, clean water, sanitation, sewage disposal, employment, education and healthcare. All these can be provided through integrated plan of housing.

Keywords: Housing, Slum dwellers, Urban