We are People Too
We all have many assumptions about pavement dwellers, but in fact we know very little about their livelihoods, problems and aspirations. For example, the general view is that most pavement dwellers are newcomers to the city looking for a place to live. However, recent base line study (2009) of Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh shows that more than eighty percent of the respondents have been staying in the same location for at least five years or more. Some were even born on the streets and the only life they know is street life. That study also reveals that the majority of the people living on the streets are involved in activities that contribute to the life of the city, such as waste collection, construction labour, house helper, vegetable collector, rickshaw and van puller, etc.
Pavement dwellers live near ferry landings, train and bus stations, market centres, religious shrines, parks, on footpaths and others. It is estimated that there are between 15-20,000 pavement dwellers in Dhaka alone. This may seem a relatively small number considering that Dhaka has a population of around 12 million (BBS 2009). However, it is an extremely vulnerable group which is likely to grow due to natural population growth and a continuous high influx from the rural areas. The consequences of climate change may also contribute to an increase in the number of extreme urban poor as more people may lose their land due to erosion and floods. This may leave them with no other option but to move to the city.
Pavement dwellers live on the streets for a variety of reasons. Some have been pushed onto the streets as they were forced to leave their earlier locations, for example loss of land/job or women abandoned by their husbands. Others are lured to Dhaka by the promise of opportunity or they were born and grew up on the streets and know no other lifestyle. Pavement dwellers make a living in different ways and often provide important services to city dwellers; they work as porters in transport centres, as market labourers unloading trucks on the markets, as rickshaw pullers, maid servants, solid waste collectors and recyclers, construction labour, vegetable collectors and sellers, etc.
The lives of pavement dwellers depend almost completely on their ability to make money. The study of Concern (2009) reveals that around 40 percent of the respondents earn an income of Tk. 101.00 to Tk. 225.00 daily, around 35 percent earn Tk. 51.00 to Tk. 100.00 and 23 percent earn below Tk. 50.00. Most of their earning is spent on the same day for food, water, sanitation, treatment and fulfilment of other daily necessities.
Lack of shelter even during emergencies, no access to healthy food and poor quality of water and sanitation services, pavement dwellers suffer from various health problems which have devastating effects for the family of an adult who gets seriously ill and cannot earn money. They are often denied access to health services because they are perceived as having very low status, or disqualified from services due to their inability to give their permanent address. In addition, they do not qualify for formal or informal microfinance services provided by relevant agencies. Unlike people who live in slums or squatter settlements, they have few physical assets that can be sold or pawned. Usually they do not have a community around them to help to cope with, as trust and support among them is very limited.
Although large investments are being made in Dhaka to improve life in the slums, there are very few programmes for pavement dwellers. Only a handful of organisations work with street children, drug users and floating sex workers, but there is no organisation in Dhaka that specifically works with families who live on the streets. Pavement dwellers are truly the invisible poor.
Concern Worldwide intends to improve the living standard of the pavement dwellers, together with Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), and four partner agencies - Nari Maitree, SAJIDA Foundation, Social Economic Enhancement Programme (SEEP) and Coalition for the Urban Poor (CUP). Over a five year period (March 2008 – February 2013), Amrao Manush targets around 10,000 pavement dwellers in Dhaka, including two-parent families, women-headed families, and children and youths that are not attached to families. The working areas of the project include Mirpur Mazar, Mirpur Stadium, Kamlapur Train Station, Karwan Bazar, Green Road, Mouchak, Sadarghat, Osmani Udhan and High Court area.