Dhaka’s Changing Landscape

Description

Between 1991 and 2010, Dhaka’s population more than doubled to 15 million. Simultaneously, the city’s contribution to the national economy almost trebled. Clearly, population growth was accompanied by an unmistakable trend of economic growth, and a significant decline in urban poverty and income inequality. On the other hand, Dhaka’s high population density exacerbated serious environmental challenges, and it was soon ranked as one of the world’s least livable cities.

In the context of these contradictory signals of rapid urbanization, Dhaka’s Changing Landscape sets to answer three most intriguing questions: Are the poorer segments of urban population, which migrate with dreams for better lives, benefitting from positive economic trends? Are these benefits sustainable? Are these benefits creating scope for this group to have a stake in the city’s growing prosperity? By studying 600 households and applying comparative analysis over a span of 20 years, the authors examine demographic and economic trends to understand the patterns, scale, and complexity of urban poverty, income inequality, and rural–urban migration. Going beyond

the space and poverty debate, they enlighten the readers about the quality of life questions, sustainability matters, and gender and generational roles and relations necessary to understand qualitative transformation and migrants’ prospects for a better future.

About the Authors

Rita Afsar is an honorary research fellow at the Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, and the former senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka.

Mahabub Hossain (1945–2016) was an advisor to the executive director of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Dhaka, and chairperson, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, BRAC University, Dhaka.

Table of contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Boxes

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1. Dhaka’s Changing Landscape and Fortune: The Three Compelling Questions
2. Rapid Urbanization and Population Changes in Dhaka City: The Demographic Dividend
3. Migration and Rural–Urban Connectivity: The Need for Reconstructing New Theoretical Approaches
4. Migration and Occupational Changes: Dreams and Realities of Better Livelihoods
5. Dynamics of Livelihoods, Income, and Poverty: Scope for Shared Prosperity
6. Quality of Life: Shared Modes of Basic Services and Sustainable Development Goals
7. Impact of Urbanization on Health and Education: Progress and Inter-generational Prospects for Shared Prosperity
8. Migration, Modernization, and Social Change: An Inquiry into Migrants’ Attitudinal Changes
9. Better Lives and Better Incomes, but Slim Prospects for Shared Prosperity

Appendices

Glossary

References

Index

About the Authors