Fixing the curse of homelessness

Being homeless is not always a consequence of failures suffered by individuals, misdeeds committed by families, or a result of extreme poverty alone. While the word homeless has a direct link with crushing poverty and consequences of failure of the states, individuals’ lack of capacity for accessing adequate income, and of course, the impacts of erratic climate change are to be blamed, among others.Unequal distribution of wealth in a society and the lack of monetary safety net for underprivileged ones often cause poverty, extreme poverty, and finally, make a significant portion of a population in a particular geographical location homeless.

It is the prime responsibility of governments to provide homes for the homeless, and frame laws and policies so that the poor can get out of poverty themselves, which in turn would free them from the stigma of being poor and homeless. Though the successive governments in Bangladesh have not so far been fully able to frame compatible policy guidelines in 50 years of the country’s independence to become a poverty-free nation, the incumbent government has, however, come forward to provide roofs for another 5.87 lakh homeless and landless families.

“In Mujib Year and on the 50th anniversary of our independence, no one will be homeless in Bangladesh. Our government is working tirelessly to achieve this aim,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in January this year, as she inaugurated the Ashrayan-2 Project in a virtual ceremony due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) – under its Ashrayan project – has so far provided housing for nearly two lakh homeless and landless population of our country. The hapless are certainly happy for getting roofs over their heads.

Another 5.87 lakh homeless people will now be getting housing facilities by 2024 in phases, says a news article published in this daily on Sunday.

The first Ashrayan project was launched in 1997, and through this initiative, a total of 2,97,886 families received shelters in three phases. Under the Tk 4,826 crore scheme of Ashrayan-2, the government has already rehabilitated a total of 1,91,953 families from July 2010 till date.

Around 5,87,417 new landless, homeless, and unprivileged individuals have been identified to give them domicile addresses. The PMO sent a revised proposal titled Ashrayan-2 (4th Revision) to the Planning Commission for approval from the Executive Committee of National Economic Council, adds the article.

The PMO has sought Tk 7,539 crore to implement the project by June 2024. Under this project, the government will build 14,720 new barracks for providing shelter to landless and homeless families. Of them, 5,149 brick, and 5,006 semi-brick houses will be constructed in char areas, and 4,393 semi-brick structures in other parts of the country.

Planning Minister MA Mannan said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken the initiative to give shelter to the landless. In 2019, separate surveys commissioned by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Planning Commission revealed that the country had as many as five million homeless people. Of them, three-fourth lives in mud houses. Bangladesh has 3,93,30,000 families, and among them, 2,82,60,000 live in villages, while 1,10,70,000 in the cities, adds the survey. According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2019, 74.87 per cent of families live in permanent mud houses while only 4.95 per cent of households have pucca buildings. Also, 2.13 per cent of people reside in slums and makeshift mud houses. The extent of poverty and homelessness has, however, increased alarmingly in the pandemic, much to the frustration of Bangladesh’s continued growth outlook and recent impressive economic expansion.

The number of new poor reached 3.24 crore after the second wave of the pandemic in August, which is 19.54 percent of the population, according to a recent survey of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and Brac Institute of Governance and Development. Under this grave situation of an increasing trend of poor and homeless people, the latest move from the government deserves much appreciation as far as providing housing facilities for the destitute is concerned. As the move will certainly give lakhs of ultra-poor relief to have roofs over their heads, we urge the government for permanent fiscal and economic measures, so that the poor can elevate themselves. No new poor should emerge in this economy requiring handouts from the government.