Скачать или смотреть Living in Urban Informal Settlement: A Glimpse of Life in a Slum in Dhaka City

An estimated 300,000-400,000 migrants, mostly from poor rural areas, migrate to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with the hopes of improving their standard of living. According to the 2014 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) census, 2.3 million people live in slums, which roughly translates to over 1.5% of the total population of Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, slum settlements tend to be built on vacant government land or private vacant land located in low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding and other natural disasters. Many slum
settlements are built on waste or polluted spaces, exposing residents to industrial noxious wastes.

These settlements are generally excluded from the basic amenities like water and electric supply, proper sanitation, and waste disposal, etc. Slum residents also have limited access to good
education, housing and healthcare services perpetuate the inequalities that initially drive people to reside in slum settlements. In addition, slum dwellers remain vulnerable to various forms of
violence, especially women and girls are at high risk of sexual harassment and domestic violence and gang violence. Poor management of public services, corruption, and inefficiency are largely responsible for the lack of attention given to the urban slum population.

BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University has produced this video documentary “Living in an urban informal settlement: A glimpse of life in a slum in Dhaka city” as a part of a new research project titled “Accountability and Responsiveness in Informal Settlements for Equity”, “ARISE” in short. This documentary has tried to capture the lived realities in the slum settlements in Dhaka city and the vulnerabilities of the slum dwellers.

Bhasantek, one of the oldest slum established in 1974, was taken as an example for this video shooting to portray the life of urban slum residents.

The ARISE Hub is a new research consortium, set up to enhance accountability and improve the health and wellbeing of marginalized populations living in informal urban settlements in low and middle-income countries. This five-year-long research project was launched in January 2019 with financial support from UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund. The research consortium consists of ten research institutions from Bangladesh, India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). This project is being implemented in big cities in four countries – Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Sierra Leone. BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University is the Bangladesh country partner of this project.

Please visit www.ariseconsortium.org for more information about the project.

Produced by BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), BRAC University