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State law and jurisdiction do not apply to no man’s land. Slums are the barren lands where state institutions do not provide services to residents, but the wealthy people of the city enjoy the services of cheap labor. Called the informal economy, it contributes 40 percent to our economy. This means that those who add 40 percent of value to this economy, that the economy spends even 5 percent on them, are dishonest with them. According to UNICEF, around 4 million people live in 5,000 slums in Dhaka, most of them women and children. They are the ones who keep many things in Dhaka moving and clean, they provide the manpower for development, they are also the main workforce for housekeepers. Why Dhaka without them, the country will not be able to continue.
Therefore, economists are giving great importance to the informal economy. But the response from government lawmakers has been low. If we need the labor of these slum dwellers, if they are the buyers of a large part of our daily necessities and Manihari products, if they are a major supplier to the economy, why will there be no housing for them? Why will the life of a poor neighborhood be cut short by constant fire and fear of eviction? Why is the slum evicted even after the high court ban? Why is there no solution to one fire after another?
The questions are simple and the answers are known. There is only one basic question: whose city is Dhaka? If it were a city of 4 million slum dwellers, it would be even more humane for another middle class one crore. Because this capital is not for the poor, the burned benarsi of Bithi Rani, Badruddin’s house, Kalshi’s craftsman Salma Zari, or Tania’s textbook are patiently burned, and the middle class becomes the visitor. by Sesab.
When it’s not burned, life in the slums is still a battle. Thats nothing new. There is no point going to Gulshan-Banani to get an idea of the vitality of the Bangladeshis, you have to go to the slums. Large slums mean a history of repeat fires. And the story of beating the fire over and over again and replanting the poles of life.
Farooq Wasif Deputy Editor and Writer for Prothom Alo.
