EXTENT AND MAGNITUDE OF URBAN POVERTY: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

Abstract

The report aims to explore the extent and magnitude of urban poverty. It is based
on both secondary sources and primary data. Primary data were collected from
selected areas of Dhaka city. Dhaka has experienced a higher rate of urban growth
in recent decades and transformed into a megacity. But correspondingly the
infrastructure development has not taken place to meet the needs of the residents. It
is revealed that a significant portion of city dwellers live in the slums and squatters.
And the influx of the people to the city has been due to migration on various grounds
namely economic crisis and river erosion. With regard to the magnitude of poverty,
it is revealed that the income of poor has increased but they are unable to have
any savings due to increment of the expenditure of overall livelihood therefore
making them vulnerable in a situation of crisis. Illiteracy accounts for one of the
main problems of the lives of slum dwellers. There are considerable proportions of
dropouts from the school and the reason of discontinuation of study stems mainly
from poverty and early marriage. There are various impacts of urban poverty on
the society such as housing and employment problem, lack of educational facility,
increase of child labour, criminal activities, marital problem, and increase of
sexual crime and problems of access to urban facilities. Consequently, there are
challenges in addressing urban poverty that can be enumerated as creation of
employment, controlling criminal and anti social activities, providing access to
urban facilities, access to education, access to healthcare, and scarcity of resources
etc that need to be addressed in order to alleviate problems of urban poverty and to
make the city more livable one for all.