Dhaka’s worsening urban poverty has emerged as a major obstacle to equitable development as the city’s poorest residents struggle without minimum income, basic services or a healthy living environment, researchers told the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) annual conference on Monday, according to the press release.
They said urban poverty in Dhaka is structurally different from rural poverty, noting that limited access to essential services and rising living costs have intensified inequalities between cities and villages.
In the second session, Brac James P Grant School of Public Health Professor Zahidul Quayyum presented research showing that Dhaka has become one of the poorest megacities in the world, overwhelmed by toxic pollution, congestion and unplanned construction.
“Unbearable traffic gridlock, uncontrolled building activity, brick kilns surrounding the city and heavy vehicular emissions expose residents to sulphur and other harmful substances, putting public health in grave danger,” he said.
His study used data from the 2011 population census and the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, covering 112 wards of Dhaka. It urged the government to intervene in health strategies for poverty reduction and identify vulnerable groups regionally to guide planning and policy.
An earlier presentation by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) researcher Zahid Hasan showed declining technical capacity in upazila-level hospitals, raising concerns about the quality of rural healthcare.
The concluding session brought together Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Chair Rehman Sobhan, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Director General A K Anamul Haque, former director general K A S Murshid and Planning Commission Member Manzur Hossain.
Speaking at the session, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said civil servants campaign for salary increases but remain silent when wrong policies are implemented, adding that “we must return to moral responsibility and stop this sense of divine entitlement.”
He said the government is merging five banks with public funds and other support, adding that 96% of depositors are protected under the deposit insurance scheme as they hold deposits below Tk 2 lakh.
“Non-bank financial institutions will also improve. We have brought them under a wider regulatory net and are working on nine such institutions,” he added.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Chair Rehman Sobhan said the lack of accountable governance remains one of the biggest barriers to development.
“Our real problem is that we have never had a parliament where the government is held accountable for its misgovernance, its policies or its failures,” he said.
He said economic policy, development practices and corruption have rarely faced genuine scrutiny in parliament.
“Can you imagine that loan defaulting has existed since the Ziaur Rahman era, yet in all these years the default crisis has never been properly debated in parliament?” he added.
