Urban migration
Migration does not only affect urban areas but also the socio-economy of rural areas
Suraiya Yasmin
Internal migration in Bangladesh from rural area to urban area is very common. Though migration is necessary but it is vital to control when it impedes the development of a city. Cities are always a center point of interest. The pressure of people is increasing day by day in urban areas, especially in Dhaka city. The World Bank projected the population of Dhaka city 20 million in 2025 from 15 million in 2010 which will be more populous than Mexico City, Beijing or Shanghai. Everyday new faces are adding in urban areas. According to the UN 2014, the world urban population will increase by 66 per cent by 2050 and is expected to surpass six billion by 2045. Much of the prospective urban growth will take place in countries of the developing regions.
About 63 per cent of the total growth of Dhakas population is due to migration and only 37per cent growth comes from natural increase. Currently, about one third of the people in Dhaka live in slums and squatter settlements and this number is increasing with the increased number of migrants (RAJUK, 2015). According to World Bank approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people migrate to Dhaka each year. If population pressures cannot be controlled now then the unplanned city may face serious threat in future. Overcrowding and lack of planning in Dhaka city is creating traffic jam, pollution, land grabbing, imbalance in climate, impossible demands for energy and water day by day.
People come with a hope of better livelihood in urban area but the tangible scenario is totally different. Most of migrant people are poor and mainly lack of work opportunity motivates them to migrate in urban areas. Poor people find their shelter in the informal settlements initially. They face problems of sanitation facility, lack of safe water, shortage of water and poor drainage system in poor congested shelter which makes them vulnerable to various inconveniences.
Despite the difficulty in slum they combat with their daily livelihood problems to maintain obligations and forced to struggle for survival with difficulties. The migrated poor get involved in odd jobs like street vendor, rickshaw pulling, working in garment factories, household work, petty businesses, construction work, transport work and so on in urban areas. More than 80 per cent of the garment industries of the country are located in Dhaka which allures a large number of young females who come to Dhaka to earn their living.
Migration does not only affect the urban area but also affect the socio economy of rural area. Migration creates population imbalance which affects the rural economy broadly. Population growth is high compared with land in Bangladesh and the landlessness with other factors creates unemployment in rural areas. People mainly migrate to Dhaka city in search of employment opportunity. Other factors like climate change effect, poverty, high population growth and social and cultural facility drive people to migrate. The adverse impact of climate change is also a major factor that pushes people to migrate from coastal and drought prone areas. Temperature variation, changes in rainfall and precipitation, cyclone, salinity intrusion, frequent flood, drought, river erosion and climate change extreme events are seriously affecting the quality of their life. Seasonal migration is a very common phenomenon among the agro-based people of northwest Bangladesh. People also migrate to get basic need facilities like better education and health facilities for their children and family respectively.
Though the government has taken some pragmatic initiatives recently to alleviate poverty but migration control is necessary to continue development activities. Development of rural areas is necessary alongside of urban areas in order to halt the rural urban migration. Social and cultural facility available in urban areas should be available in rural areas too. By identifying the reasons of migration initiatives should be taken with due importance in rural areas. The push and pull factors of migration are needed to be considered first. Garment factories with many workers need to be decentralized and set up away from Dhaka city. The shifting of big industries and garment factories from Dhaka will not only reduce the pressure on the city but also ease the workers livelihood.
It is time to think afresh. Let the migrants solve their problems themselves. Eviction cannot be a solution if the root base is not addressed. Slum eviction, footpath cleaning can give a temporary solution but ultimately the evicted area will be filled again if there is no provision to rehabilitate the occupants. The activities like empowering the slum inhabitants, encouraging entrepreneurs and better security can make their life easy.
The formulation of proper policies on urbanization and urban slum settlements can lead to appropriate improvement. The issue of internal migration needs to be addressed properly and the government should take necessary action to support the migrants.
The writer is a development activist
