Urban poverty is high in Rangpur, employment crisis is evident
Photo Collected
Passing the Satmatha of Rangpur Nagar towards Haragach Municipality, small houses with tin sheds can be seen. This place in Ward No. 30 was once known as Nachnia Bill. Now people know more as Nachnia Basti. In 2010, the slum was built overnight on an acre of government land. Around a thousand people from 195 families live here.
Moslema Begum (60) was sitting in front of the alley on the north side of the slum at noon in a tea shop without customers. On asking about the house in the village, he said, “The house is on the Teesta river (disappeared) father.” I am coming in this direction after crossing the river. Moslema’s house was at Dangar Hat in Rajarhat of Kurigram. But the reason for his coming to Rangpur is not only river erosion. He said, ‘There was a lot of trouble. Your uncle (husband) was driving a rickshaw here. It will also be 20-30 years.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Nachnia Basti is one of the 65 slums of Rangpur City Corporation. The men here are rickshaw-van drivers, labourers, hawkers and petty shopkeepers. Women do seasonal farming. They came from Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha and Nilphamari. Basically they leave the village in search of poverty, river erosion and employment. But poverty did not leave them.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) latest household income-expenditure survey provides a statistic of the economy of these poor people. According to the data of BBS, the overall poverty of Rangpur division has improved, but there is concern about urban poverty. According to BBS data, the national poverty rate is 18.7 percent. Among them, rural poverty is 20.5 percent, urban or urban poverty is 14.7 percent. In the cities of Rangpur division, this rate is 29.9 percent, which is the highest among the 8 divisions in terms of urban poverty rate. That is, one out of every three people living in the cities of Rangpur division live below the poverty line. Although the overall poverty rate of the division is 24.8 percent.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Analyzing the data of BBS, it has been found that the number of poor people in the city is higher than that of the village in Division Wari only in Rangpur Division. Average poverty rate in Barisal division is 26.9 percent. But there the rate of urban poverty is 21.3 percent. Khulna has the lowest urban poverty—9.9 percent. Apart from this, 14.3 percent in Dhaka, 11.3 percent in Chittagong, 14.4 percent in Sylhet, 14.9 percent in Rajshahi and 16 percent in Mymensingh.
Saifuddin Khaled, a teacher in the economics department of Begum Rokeya University, looked into the poverty and development of Rangpur division. He told Prothom Alo, Brahmaputra and Teesta rivers are a big ‘factor’. Due to river erosion, drought or natural disasters, those who may not have been poor have been plunged into poverty anew. In the last few years, no government initiative has been taken for them, so that they can return to their previous status. For this reason, they have no choice but to think of city-centered thinking in the urge to eat three meals a day.
Rangpur City Corporation was formed in 2012. According to BBS Census and Home Census 2022, the total population of this city of 205 square kilometers is 7 lakh 8 thousand 432. However, as a private sector, it has exceeded 10 lakhs. According to the 2022 data of BBS, the rural and urban population in Rangpur district is 67.45 percent and 32.55 percent respectively. In 2011, it was 84.63 percent in villages and 15.37 percent in cities.
According to the information of the city corporation, there were 45 slums in the city a few years ago. Later the number of slums increased by 20 more. At present, about 62,000 people from 19,000 families live in 65 slums.
On the morning of April 22, going to Gaibandhatari slum number 17 of the city, it was seen that someone had built a brick house in the slum. Some live in rented houses. Resident here Abdus Samad (89) said, his house was in Thetrai of Kurigram. Around 1994-95, they took shelter here along with their family of four brothers. He commented, ‘After 18 times of house breaking in Teesta, I am coming 19 times. I am cutting grass for cows and running pat.’
A woman named Jahanara Begum said that her house was in Kamarkani of Gaibandha Sadar. He came here after losing everything in the erosion of the Brahmaputra. He was 7 years old then. Now 62 years. He said that the slum was named Gaibandhatari as many people of Gaibandha came here after the river broke.
The slave community lives in 45 to 50 tin mud huts on the low ground a few hundred yards ahead of the Gaibandhatari Basti. Some women were talking on the side of the road. One of them said that their house was on their own land next to this land three years ago. But they lost the land and built a house in a rented place. The rent of such a house, which can be lived in, is one and a half thousand taka including electricity bill.
Local Mudidokani Anwarul Islam said that earlier slums were known as Ispahani camp of trapped Biharis in Alamnagar, Robertsonganj, Churipatti in Lalbagh, both sides of the railway line, sweeper colony in Hanumantala. Now new slums are being built all around the city.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work less to improve the quality of life of poor people in Rangpur. Most of the microfinance also do some social work with the members. Prothom Alo talked to representatives of three NGOs that work with poor people. They say that poverty is not only in slums. Rather, they are lagging far behind in education and health care as civic services do not reach the extended 18 wards of the City Corporation. Their wealth is also very less. Most of them make a living by doing informal jobs like rickshaw pullers, day laborers, masons.
Non-governmental organization World Vision Bangladesh is working with zero poverty and zero hunger in seven wards of City Corporation. The organization has collected information of 29 thousand 408 families of wards number 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 in September-October last year. In this they have taken information from child marriage, child labour, disability, sanitary latrines, safe drinking water and education. Data analysis showed that the number of families at risk in at least two indicators is 9 thousand 319. There are 19 thousand 902 vulnerable families with more than two indicators. Only 87 households do not fall under any of the indicators.
World Vision senior manager Uttam Das told Prothom Alo that the pattern of poverty has changed. Before there was poverty of hunger. Now there is nutritional poverty. They looked at nutrition and growth monitoring (GMP) cards of zero to five-year-old children and found that 60 out of 100 children were normal. Of the remaining 40 children, 20 are moderately malnourished and 20 severely malnourished. A moderately malnourished child can be normalized with a balanced diet and care. But those who suffer from severe malnutrition, need to be hospitalized. This picture changes every month. New families are trapped in the cycle of poverty.
Ward number 1 to 15 of the City Corporation has fallen in Rangpur-1 (a part of the city and Gangachra). Even though Rangpur is a city, it is deprived of the benefits of urbanization, it can be called a rural town, said Jamaat-Party Member of Parliament Md. Rayhan Siraji. He told Prothom Alo that he will demand the parliament to reduce poverty here. At the same time, he will issue semi-official (DO) letters to various ministries regarding the benefits that can be taken for poor people.
Prothom Alo spoke to at least 15 local residents, businessmen, NGO representatives and those who keep track of the urban poverty in the division. They say that river erosion is one of the causes of urban poverty in the north. But not the main reason.
Shahana Akhtar, regional manager of Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program of non-governmental organization BRAC, said that people from Nilphamari, Kurigram, Gaibandha and surrounding districts are flocking to Rangpur city for work. This causes lack of work for the people of the city.
Shahana Akhtar speaks to many people involved in small businesses including rickshaw pullers, hawkers, drink shopkeepers in the city. Rickshaw driver Mahir Ali (50) lives on rent in East Ganeshpur. The house is in Ektabazar, Nageshwari, Kurigram. He said, “If there is work at home, there will be no education.”
Rokeya University teacher Saifuddin Khaled believes that the lack of employment is also the reason behind the uncontrolled use of easy bikes in the city. According to him, thousands of easybikes are plying in the city every day. But easybikes have two-three passengers. That is, due to the shortage of work, low-income people are going out on the streets by renting easy bikes.
According to research by the International Labor Organization and the World Bank, a large proportion of urban employment in the country is informal. In the case of Rangpur, the picture is even worse. According to BBS Labor Force Survey 2024, 82.78 percent of people in Rangpur division are associated with informal workplaces.
Civil society representatives say that Rangpur City Corporation’s allocation in the Annual Development Program (ADP) was zero in the last two financial years. This time 12 new project proposals have been sent to Rangpur City Corporation for the ADP of the financial year 2026-27. But these projects are mainly infrastructure based. There is no program to improve the quality of life of poor people.
According to City Corporation sources, currently there is no program for poor people in City Corporation. Four buildings are under construction in Ward No. 23 for Harijans at a cost of 20 crores and 15 lakhs only with the funding of UNDP.
Social welfare and slum development officer of City Corporation. Salim Miah told Prothom Alo that they have received very little government allocation. The quality of life of some poor people has been improved through various projects of UNDP, JICA and local NGO ESDO. But now there is no fund for poor people and slum dwellers.
According to City Corporation information, 12 new project proposals have been sent to Rangpur City Corporation in the annual development program for the financial year 2026-27. But these projects are mainly infrastructure based. It will not have much impact on improving the quality of life of poor people.
On March 16, Mahfuz Un Nabi Chowdhury, Member Secretary of Metropolitan BNP, took charge of the administrator of Rangpur City Corporation. He told Prothom Alo that more than 70 percent of the people in the city corporation are low-income people. These people should create an environment suitable for their work. The current government has a plan to set up agro-based industries in this area. He is calling on those who are entrepreneurs or those who want to set up industries based on agriculture. Rangpur City Corporation will provide all kinds of support to them.
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