Kishoreganj

Last weekend went to Kishoreganj, a district a few hours away from Dhaka.

Dhaka's amazingly empty train station - most people seem to prefer buses.


The train was a bit cockroachy but otherwise fine.


BRAC school spotting has become my hobby - this one was between Kishoreganj town and an outlying village.




In the evening we went to a fair featuring a genuinely frightening "Game of Danger" -- a motorbike demonstrating the laws of physics in a shakily built circular wooden structure.

Slum myths

These are some of the things people come out with about slums which, as far as I can see so far, seem not to be true...

1. Everyone is equally poor in slums - There is enormous variation both between slums in Dhaka, and within each slum. Some people own several dwellings in the slum and rent them out to others. Others have family members sending money from abroad. These people still live in fairly bad conditions but their children's prospects must be much better. Karail Bosti, which seems to be seen by some people here as the city's teeming, flooded heart of darkness, has been described by others as the 'creme de la creme' of Dhaka slums, with better living conditions and richer inhabitants than some of the less well-known slums.
2. Slums are mainly peripheral - some writers on Dhaka slums seem to have the impression that, following evictions of many central Dhaka slums, slum dwellers have moved out to the periphery. In fact there remain several very large slums in the middle of the city, and anyway it is hard to tell what constitutes the centre. Areas like Mohammadpur (for example) seem pretty central to me, and although Mirpur is more suburban it's still very much part of the same urban sprawl.
3. Slum-dwellers are all migrants from rural areas - This is only true if you include as 'migrants' people whose parents or grandparents migrated. Most of the school-age children in the slums seem to have been born there. While there is likely to be some movement between different slums and between slums and villages, many people seem to have settled for the long term, eviction threats notwithstanding.

I also suspect the following to be myths - hope the survey will shed some light:

1. People in slums don't expect much for their children, or don't know what to expect - I reckon most people will have quite realistic expectations about the range of possible futures that their children could have, and will have a keen eye on 'escape routes' out of poverty and the slum.
2. People in slums don't send their children to private schools - There appear to be people paying substantial fees to send children to private schools both inside and outside of their slums. However these will probably be few compared to the number of children.

(Download my bibliography on slums: Zotero RDF | RIS)

Aparajeyo project, Pallabi

Another visit to a slum education project, this time run by Aparajeyo Bangladesh. This project has daycare centres, a nursery, "Centre Based Education" for primary classes 1-6 (for children of minimum ages 6-11), and a coaching group for older children who attend a public or private school. The organisation also pays 50 per cent of fees for children who progress from their project to secondary school. In total 401 children are enrolled. Apparently none are working; there is another Aparajeyo project which targets working children. The centre has children's management groups which identify problems and discuss solutions with the managers, and once a week is 'Children's Day,' when the children get to run the centre themselves.

This project was really interesting, although due to my bad planning and shortage of time, the visit was the worst kind of flying visit — a stage-managed glimpse of how the project runs with very little depth of insight. Hoping to return there during one of the Children's Days to see how that works.

Survey piloting - 2

Korail

A short boat trip away from BRAC Centre, Korail is the city's largest single slum.


Rent is around Tk. 900 (£7) per month. People cook on shared earth stoves and get water either from tubewells or communal taps.



We visited this small kindergarten, run by one of the slum's land owners. It went up to grade 2 but the children were aged up to at least 10. The government school is about 1 hour's walk away and difficult to get in to. Having finished at the kindergarten most of these children are unlikely to make the transition to further schooling. Fees here are Tk. 500 (£4) for registration, Tk. 150 (£1) per month tuition, Tk. 100 for grade 1 exam fees, Tk. 200 for grade 2 exam fees. Salaries for full-time teachers are Tk. 1000 (£8) per month.

There are also a number of small NGO schools in the area.


Though basic the school seemed well maintained, and was covered with instructional posters.

Cholontika Cluber Bastee, Mirpur

This turned out to be the really bad slum where I visited a BRAC school a week ago. Typical rent in the slum was Tk. 600-800 (£4-6). Each toilet was shared by 18 households. They got water from shared tubewells.

We spoke to one woman who was a landlord, owning 12 houses in the slum as well as her own (suggesting an income of around Tk. 8-9000 per month). She sent her daughter to an RNGPS where fees were: 1640 enrolment; 160 Tk per month tuition; 80 Tk exam fees. She had also spent Tk. 5000 on books and uniforms.

Cox's Bazaar / St Martin's Island

Showing my commitment to keeping a close eye on my ongoing survey, decided to take a long weekend holiday to Cox's Bazaar - a popular and slightly overdeveloped beach resort - and St Martin's Island - a pretty and largely undeveloped island with no electricity or cars.


Cheeky mouse hiding behind my pillow in the beach hut on St Martin's Island. He kept popping out to try and eat our bananas.

Survey piloting

Went to visit the four slum areas where the survey is being conducted by a team of investigators. First was Begunbari Pataton Bosti, Tejgaon.


This building contains 120 one-room households on three shakily constructed floors. The people live here worry constantly about it collapsing. There is a dispute between the landlord and the government over who owns this land, which could result in eviction. They pay around Tk. 1300 per month rent (£10), which per square metre is around 5 times as much as middle class families pay in Dhaka.


This girl went to a kindergarten (private) school, where fees were Tk. 3000 (£23) to register plus Tk. 150 (£1) per month.


Some of the rooms were too dark to fill in the survey - there had been a power cut since the previous day.

Lalbag Bosti

This slum was originally set up as a "sweeper colony" - people were invited to migrate from India to work as street sweepers. The housing was a combination of tin shacks and a much better 5-storey concrete building.


Some of the people here had relatively high incomes - around Tk. 8-10,000 (£60-80) per month for a family with two earners. This woman's husband was working in Malaysia and sending home money. Most of the children were going to school.

Study Areas

... have been selected:

• Korail
• Cholontika Cluber Bastee, Mirpur
• Lalbag, Old Dhaka
• Begunbari Pataton Bastee, Tejgaon

The entire project will go to 400 households in each area. My own survey will be given to those with children aged 11-15, which will be about half of them. The survey is due to start on Saturday.