Losing everything to river erosion, Nasir Uddin came to Dhaka from Jashore 28 years ago and took up residence at the Korail slum. His family consists of his mother who is mentally challenged, wife and two children. Like Nasir, 6 lakh 46 thousand people live in city slums.
As per the survey of the department of statistics, there are 3393 slums in Dhaka which house 1 lakh 75 thousand 931 families.
Though the actual number of residents has been found to be much more than reported.
BANGLADESH BUREAU OF STATISTICS CENSUS
A survey was done by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, BBS in 2014 and it records 1639 slums in Dhaka north or DNCC with 135,340 families.
In Dhaka south, there are 40,591 families housing 147,000 people.
Though city corporation officials say that getting an accurate number is difficult.
KORAIL SLUM
Situated between Mohakhali and Gulshan, the Korail slum is over 95 acres. General secretary of the slum committee, Jasim Uddin Ripon, says: as per our records, there are 12000 houses in the slum and around 2.50 lakh people live here.”
There are 24000 voters in the slum, 10,222 houses and in the last five years, 1778 homes have increased at the slum.
MOHAKHALI’S SAT TALA SLUM
The ‘Sat Tala‘ slum has developed on the empty space of several government institutes like ICDDRB, National Health Institute, NIPSOM and others.
This slum has several sections: Boundary slum, Dakhsin papara slum, Staff Moholla, Pora basti and Chowdhury para basti.
The general secretary of the slum, Md. Abu Yousuf Mridha, says: “as per our records, 10800 families live here in 11000 homes; after 2015, the number of people has risen but we do not have an accurate record.”
The census of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics say that this slum has 6845 houses with 21869 people.
MIRPUR-2 JHILPAR SLUM
The slum developed by the Mirpur Commerce College 30 years ago on a land allotted for Bangladesh Development Bank.
President of the bank’s development committee, Abdul Wahab, says: “at present, there are 1500 houses in the slum; there are 220 house owners and 1500 voters from the 7500 slum residents.”
BBS census records 534 homes with 2018 residents.
KALYANPUR PORHA SLUM
Kalyapur Porha slum in Dakshin para of Mirpur has eight units with 3500 homes. President of the slum development committee, Abul Kalam, says: around 17500 people live in the slums of which 4500 are voters. As per BBS survey, there are 2184 houses with 8129 residents and in the last five years, number of homes rose by 1316.
MIRPUR-6 JHILPAR SLUM
The Jhilpar slum at Mirpur 6 and 7 developed around four and a half decades ago and the local ward commissioner source says that this houses 60000 people of 15000 families. This slum does not have a committee.
BBS census records 3201 houses with 20919 residents. In five years, house number rose by a staggering 11799.
PHOTO: Sazzad Hossain