IDPR, 26 (3) 2004

Shayer Ghafur
Home for human development
Policy implications for homelessness in Bangladesh
*
Shayer Ghafur is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering
and Technology, Dhaka-:ooo, Bangladesh; email: sghafur@bangla.net.
Paper submitted August .oo; revised paper received July .oo and accepted August .oo.
* This article is based on a paper published in the proceedings of the XXX IAHS World Congress on Housing,
Housing Construction: An Interdisciplinary Task, September q: .oo., Coimbra, Portugal.
This paper argues that access of the poor to a home is a precondition of their ability to benefit from
development practice. Besides being an ideological construct, a home also provides space for the daily
survival of its dwellers, who are the subjects and object of human development. Homelessness precludes
people from participating in and benefiting from development practices. This article explains how the
absence of an holistic understanding of homelessness has resulted in homeless peoples exclusion from
housing provision and development initiatives in cities in Bangladesh. Types and extents of homelessness,
its causes and consequences and responses to it are examined to suggest future policy implications for
the housinghuman development nexus.
Policies regarding low-income housing in cities in developing countries have shifted
from a provision to an enabling approach, and lately have gone beyond a focus on
shelter to include development issues like employment generation, poverty reduction,
gender needs and housing rights. In any given national context, settlement-specific
intersectoral interventions, e.g. settlement upgrading, aim to improve the livelihoods
and living environment of the urban poor. These interventions create space for them
to organise and negotiate with the local authorities for access to services and, thereby,
can be seen as a means to development. However, less visible, if not missing altogether,
in these interventions are homeless people, whose numbers have been reported to be
increasing, locally and internationally (UNCHS, .oo:a; Ghafur, .oo.a). Neglect and
exclusion are issues of global concern, and development practice and housing will
remain critical issues especially for the poorest section of society in the eradication
of human deprivation in developing countries. The first step in the eradication of the
deprivation of homeless people is to show the connection between home and human
development in short, peoples ability to earn, learn and live for a long time.
This paper examines homelessness in cities in Bangladesh to demonstrate the
possible connection between homes and human development: the access of the poor
to a home is a precondition of their ability to benefit from development. Discussions
are based on the findings of recent research into homelessness in Bangladesh by the
author (Ghafur, .oo.a), which was based on secondary sources of data, and was
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Shayer Ghafur 232
carried out as part of a broader research project (Tipple and Speak, .oo). To
complement this data, .o homeless people were interviewed and a number of resource-
persons and NGOs were consulted. This article first sets the scene by discussing the
concepts of poverty and development to situate the significance of poor peoples
access to a home in a development context. The meaning, types and extent of
homelessness in cities in Bangladesh are examined next, to show how homelessness
interferes with poor peoples attainment of capabilities that enable them to earn,
learn and live for a long time. Then the article reviews the extent and effectiveness of
responses to homelessness. The conclusion suggests what policies the state and NGOs
should introduce to address the plight of homeless people.
Poverty, development practice and home
This section discusses the concepts of poverty and development to demonstrate the
significance of poor peoples access to a home within the human development
context. This discussion provides a basis for the specific context in Bangladesh, and
for an aggregate profile of the rural and urban shelter situation.
Poverty and development
Widespread poverty has long been an acute problem in most cities in developing
countries. The development discourse has gone through successive paradigm shifts
since it became clear that the growth-oriented policies of the :q6os had failed to
provide tangible trickle-down benefits to the poor. These shifts, alongside an impasse
in the development discourse from the mid-:q8os onwards (Booth, :q8; Sklair, :q88;
Corbridge, :qqo; Schuurman, :qq), led to the rethinking of concepts of poverty
and development. These debates and discussions recommended placing human
beings at the centre of all development thoughts and initiatives. Subsequently, human
wellbeing became the main focus of the development discourse. Human
development is defined as:
the process of enlarging peoples choices by expanding human functionings and
capabilities. Human development thus also reflects human outcomes in these function-
ings and capabilities. It represents a process as well as an end. (UNDP, .ooo, p.:)
As a result of these changes, poverty is now widely understood as individuals or
groups being deprived of the opportunity to lead the kind of life they value. Income
poverty is just one aspect of deprivation; others include a minimal food-calorie intake,
social inferiority, isolation, physical weakness, vulnerability, seasonal deprivation,
powerlessness and humiliation (Wratten, :qq). The urban poor are also deprived of
their true citizen status, socially and politically.
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233
Poor households lack of access to food, clothing, shelter and other benefits is
considered a problem of entitlements (Sen, :q8:). Entitlement is understood as the
ability of an individual or group, under a given legal and economic regime, to
legitimately claim the means of subsistence. The ability of poor households to enter
into the market to establish entitlements to means of subsistence through exchange is
conditioned by endowments and the price situation during the exchange.
Endowments imply available individual/household resources, i.e. what they have to
sell and what they have that enables them to produce. For example, those who have
land can cultivate it to produce crops to sell in the market to buy other items; those
who have furniture can sell it to buy other goods. Endowments are grouped under the
following five headings, as elaborated in the context of home-based enterprises
(Ghafur, .ooo):

Human resources: the skills and capabilities of household members shaped by

age, gender and health.

Material resources: productive and non-productive assets and savings.

Common property resources: resources clearly defined as belonging to the whole

community.

Cultural resources: status, restrictions and norms that guide behaviour.

Social resources: social networks of information and exchange.

The urban poor usually have nothing except their labour available for exchange. How
poor households combine and utilise these resources determines the extent of their
entitlements to bundles of commodities and their opportunities to achieve gainful
livelihoods. On the other hand, five distinct types of rights and opportunities help to
advance the general capabilities of a person. They are: political freedom, economic
facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and the security of the poor
and vulnerable. The capability of an individual or group to lead the kind of life that
he, she or they value is generally understood as the means for and end of develop-
ment (Sen, :qqq, :o). Though income is not the only instrument for generating
capability it is a key one, and a vehicle for achieving other capabilities. For example,
more income usually creates scope for spending on health. Access to shelter is crucial
for an individual or household to increase and sustain the ability to earn (Ghafur,
.oo.b; .oo:) and live in good health (Pryer, :qq).
Development today follows a twin track of macro-economic development and
human development, which together aim to make a positive impact on income
poverty and human poverty, respectively. This dual approach is a welcome departure
from the earlier growth-oriented development initiatives, pursued under the auspices
of modernisation theory; there are, however, some critical issues missing in
development practice. It has been noted that housing poverty is another important
aspect that persists due to the neglect of human settlement development initiatives
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Shayer Ghafur 234
(UNCHS, .oo:b). Housing, in particular, was once misconceived by the proponents
of economic development as an item of social consumption or, at best, an indirect
contributor to welfare. Later, its role in development has been seen in terms of
generating employment and contributing to a countrys gross domestic product (GDP)
through different activities in the housing sector (McCallum and Benjamin, :q8;
UNCHS-ILO, :qq). While the development focus is now on human wellbeing, the
human development paradigm has not grasped the anchoring role that housing plays
in harbouring human creativeness to overcome poverty. This neglect has persisted in
theories and practice of development, even though the outcomes of economic and
human development are suggested to be strongly linked to conditions and process in
human settlements (UNCHS, .oo:b).
The specific context in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a country where no priority could be more important than a creative
pursuance of development to put an end to deep-rooted human misery. A focus on
poverty is underpinned by rapid urbanisation in Bangladesh. At the present rates of
population increase, Dhaka will be the sixth-largest city in the world by .o:o, with
:8. million people. Key characteristics that highlight this rapid urbanisation are:

A rapid increase in the urban population as a percentage of the national

population. The urban population has increased from a modest .6 per cent (.::
million) in :q6o to .. per cent (.8.8 million) in .oo:. The urban population is
forecast to exceed 8o million by .oo.

The increase in urban population has mostly been taking place among the poorer
sections of society.

Increasing income inequality is accompanied by an exclusive, class-biased service

delivery system, the absence of good governance, and the total exclusion of the
poor from all decision-making processes.
A low Human Development Index (HDI) of o.oq partly reflects the existing precarious
state of human misery in Bangladesh: it was ranked :8th of : countries in .oo.
(UNDP, .oo). The HDI value was o.8 in .ooo, :th of : countries. The HDI is
measured by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), based on per capita
income, literacy rates, educational enrolment and longevity. The Human Poverty Index
(HPI) in Bangladesh was ... per cent in .oo.. The HPI focuses on the proportion of
people who fall below certain threshold levels in basic dimensions of human
development, including living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and
having a decent standard of living. Homelessness is closely related to the HDI, and
hence to human development, as it is related to ones access to resources for earning,
learning and having a longer life. The Bangladesh Human Development Report
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Home for human development
235
showed gains in the HDI, per capita GDP and other macro-economic indicators in
discussing improvements made in human development (BIDS, .oo:). The estimated
value of the HDI, for example, improved from o.oq in :qq. to o.8 in :qq8qq. The
report makes the positive claim that It now appears that not all is lost in Bangladeshs
developmental efforts and that there is a plausible case of hope against the
hopelessness (BIDS, .oo:, ). A former finance minister claimed that these positive
changes were due to the achievements of his government (Daily Star, .oo.).
Unfortunately, Bangladesh remains poor despite these claimed gains.
Some of the best known development practices and institutions for fighting against
poverty (e.g. the micro-credit schemes of the Grameen Bank) have originated in
Bangladesh. The local and international development discourse has effectively liberated
poor women from their invisibility and put them in the forefront of development
practices, arguably nowhere more so than in Bangladesh. However, a fact often lost in
the jargon of development practice is that these women exist, improve upon, and
negotiate and confront male members of the household on a daily basis within a
socio-spatial reality called home. Besides being an ideological construct, home is
also a concrete object situated at a given site. Home provides a spatial setting for
women to pursue their key development objectives at the household level emancipa-
tion from poverty and patriarchy while being empowered to take charge of their
own lives as well as the wellbeing of their households (Ghafur, .oo.b). Home also
carries social, economic and emotional implications that will be discussed later in this
article. Judging from the seminal importance attached to home as a spatial arena for
the day-to-day survival of households, this article now looks at the state of shelter for
the poorest section of society in Bangladesh.
Pervasive rural poverty has been associated with a high proportion of landless
households, which in turn contributes to homelessness. According to the :qqq6
Household Expenditure Survey (HES), . per cent of rural households are landless
(Table :); they are homeless, as they do not have any homestead or cultivable land.
Recent migration studies report that a large number of rural landless households
Table 1 Trends in landless households in rural areas in Bangladesh
Rural landless Urban population and
Total rural Rural landless households (with its share of total
Year households households less than 0.5 acre) population
1979 12,866,000 1,979,000 6,265,000 14.09 million in 1981
(15.4%) (48.6%) (15.7%)
199596 18,495,920 1,013,037 9,167,978 19.23m
(5.5%) (49.5%) (16.5%)
Sources: Hossain, 1986; BBS, 1998.
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Shayer Ghafur 236
eventually migrate to major cities, especially Dhaka, in search of income (Begum,
:qqq; Afsar, .ooo); a significant number of these distress migrants will add to the
different categories of homelessness. However, functionally landless rural households
that own less than o. acres of land tend to stay in their villages. Their percentages
during the periods outlined in the table remain almost unchanged because small
farmers are relegated to this category due to economic crises, while some of them
Table 2 Housing circumstances of quintiles of urban households in Bangladesh
Monthly
household
Urban income and Monthly
household expenditure housing/rent Sheltar structure and
quintiles (in Tk)* expenditure** settlement situations Access to services
1 2,038 11 (223) Homeless people, living either No access to services like
(020) 2,269 in the street or in makeshift water, sanitation and electricity
Destitute and sheds built illegally on
hardcore footpaths or public land
urban poor
2 3,605 11.8 (425) The urban poor, especially the Only a few have access to
(2140) 3,668 hardcore poor, live in kutcha safe drinking water, electricity
Urban poor huts as renters in slums and or hygienic sanitation. Services
and hardcore squats; they live under constant are absent due to the illegal
urban poor threat of eviction tenure of the settlements
3 5,254 13.6 (713) All but a few households rent Most have access to (illegal)
(4160) 5,051 in private slums; some are electricity and sanitary latrines.
Urban poor owner-occupiers. Most of the Drinking water is either from
and low-income houses are semi-permanent tube-wells or nearby piped water
households structures points
4 8,122 15 (1,213) Most of the households are Nearly all have legal
(6180) 7,763 owner-occupiers of semi- connections to electricity, piped
Low- and lower- permanent and permanent water, proper sanitation and
middle-income residences gas. However, the settlements
households are not planned
5 20,826 17.1 (3,564) Mostly owner-occupiers of at Enjoy access to all available
(81100) 16,654 least one high standard urban utility services in good
Middle and permanent residence, built quality and quantity, e.g. gas,
upper income in public or private sector phone, piped water, sewerage
households initiated planned settlements and electricity
Notes
*
Figures in italics represent monthly household expenditure.
**
Figures as percentage of household income; figures within parentheses indicate expenditure in TK.
The average exchange rate in 199596 was US$1 = Tk. 40.84.
Source: Income data calculated from BBS, 1998.
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237
become landless households; however, they increased in absolute numbers.
To gain insight into the urban shelter sector, data from the HES :qqq6 on
household deciles were used to calculate figures of quintiles of average monthly
household income and expenditures (Table .). The amount spent by household
quintiles on housing or rent was estimated. These figures were then used as indicators
to explain the housing circumstances of the respective quintiles. One has to be careful
in dealing with these housing descriptions as mere approximations of the available
circumstances, because quintile-based housing information does not exist. It is
evident from the table that the amount of expenditure exceeds the amount of income
for the lowest two quintiles, therefore implying their status of poverty. The income
gap starts reversing progressively toward the upper quintiles.
While empirical evidence draws a national picture of poor shelter conditions and
identifies homeless populations in the streets and other public spaces, limited human
development has been taking place alongside persistent landlessness and homeless-
ness in cities in Bangladesh.
Home and homelessness in Bangladesh
This section explains homelessness to show how poor peoples lack of access to homes
interferes with their attainment of the capabilities the means and goals of develop-
ment that would enable them to live without deprivation. The dimensions of
home are discussed first, to outline the consequences of homelessness in cities in
Bangladesh. Then the article reviews existing approaches to homelessness, outlines its
types and extent and examines its systemic causes.
Dimensions of home and homelessness
Home is a concept that varies across cultures, social groups, individuals and time.
One of the earliest influential explanations of home was given by Hayward (:q6),
and this has been used as a basis for further definitional updates (Lawrence, :q8;
Despres, :qq:). What becomes clear from these studies is the fact that the meaning of
home is not confined to the physicalspatial realm, as discussed in the previous
section. It is argued, by and large, that the subjective dimension makes a house (or a
shelter) a home; social, psychological, cognitive, affective behavioural issues are
emphasised in the subjective interpretation of home. Following these physical and
subjective dimensions of home, approaches to homelessness have concentrated on
either rooflessness or rootlessness (Somerville, :qq.); this article, however, does not
deny one at the expense of another. Both dimensions are involved in the consequences
of homelessness in Bangladesh.
The local meaning of home goes beyond its immediately apparent physical
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Shayer Ghafur 238
connotation of shelter/dwelling/house bari, basha, ghar, griho in Bengali to include
a given individuals or groups spiritual, social and psychological attachment to a
specific place in time. Home is the centre of the holistic existence of an individual or
a social group (i.e., household) in Bengali culture and tradition. In short, home shapes
a persons sense of self as well as his or her social identity. In addition to providing a
place for living, home is where people are grounded socially, to an extent that it gives
them social identity. For example, a boy is the son, or a woman the wife, of a certain
home. Home is where one has ones root. It is, therefore, not surprising that, in spite
of living in a city for a long period, for many people home is still in an ancestral
village. In this way, home acts as a conduit for attaining social identity by a given
group in a social setting: in Bengali, this concept is termed samaj. To belong to a home
essentially implies to be in samaj.
Terms that are the nearest opposites of home, as a locus of protection, affection
and identity, are rasta and bazaar (street and market, respectively). As opposed to the
positive senses of home, rasta, in particular, is imbued with negative connotations that
shape the general public perceptions of any individual or group living in the street. In
other words, rasta is at the bottom of a ladder of social status and upward economic
mobility. In social terms, to be from rasta implies moral degradation, particularly for
girls and women. For example, rastar maye (girls of the street) or bazaarer maye (girls of
the market) are terms for prostitutes. In these cases, whatever social identity one has is
either erased or badly tarnished to the extent that one becomes a pariah in the eyes of
society. Such people are called potita in the Bengali dialect, literally meaning a fallen
one. In a highly socially and economically stratified society like Bangladesh, to live
without a home has serious social repercussions. A state of homelessness inflicts a loss
of identity, privacy, comfort and protection, things that are enjoyed at home by
default. To become homeless, therefore, is the ultimate traumatic destiny. Society
stigmatises homeless people, and the indiscriminate use of state laws (e.g. the Bengal
Vagrancy Act :q and Codes of Criminal Procedure :qq8) by law enforcement
agencies make the situation worse.
It is difficult to set a single criterion for homelessness. In the context of Bangladesh,
to live in a public space without a roof over ones head i.e., the physical perspective
should not be the only way of defining homelessness. From a social perspective,
people (or a group) can be homeless for reasons beyond their control even when living
in a legitimate shelter. The loss of social identity, possibly but not necessarily in
addition to the loss of shelter, contributes to a given individual or groups perception
of homelessness, e.g. abandoned children and orphans, brothel-based sex workers or
trafficked women and children. Home is also imbued with economic implications.
Besides its potential as a commodity to own, sell or rent, a given home provides a
setting for income generation and various subsistence activities that are essential for
the day-to-day survival of its dwellers (Ghafur, .oo:, .oo.b). Thus, ones existence
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239
without a home has serious physical, social and economic consequences that are
summarised below.

Rooflessness: the loss of shelter from the elements.

Rootlessness: the loss of the identity, privacy, comfort and protection given by a
home.

Resourcelessness: the loss of resources that severely affect ones ability to earn,
learn and live for a long time.
The extent and consequences of their severity vary from person to person.
Approaches to homelessness
Although different studies and censuses have tacitly covered issues central to homeless
people, they have not dealt with the concept of homelessness analytically. Studies of
homelessness tend to follow either a census, survey/research or journalistic approach.
These are reviewed below as a prelude to developing a typology of homelessness in
Bangladesh.
Homeless people in Bangladesh are usually referred to as the floating population
or rootless people. Central to the census definition of the floating population is
rootlessness; implicit in this perception are notions of rooflessness and resource-
lessness. The vagrant, the displaced, the landless or people exposed to the risk of total
economic deprivation are considered rootless. Rootless people are defined as belong-
ing to one of the following categories (BBS, :qqq, ): first, landless people who have
lost their own or their parents homestead areas; second, landless people who have
lost their land and homestead areas because of political, economic or social reasons;
third, abandoned women, people affected by flooding and people driven out of their
own homestead areas. In urban areas, the definition used by the Census of Slum Areas
and Floating Population states:
Floating population is the mobile and vagrant category of rootless people who have
no permanent dwelling units, however bad, and who are found on the census night ...
in the railway station, launch ghats (water transport terminals), bus stations, hat-bazaar
(market places), mazar (shrines), the staircases of public/government buildings, open
spaces, etc. (BBS, :qqq, )
Studies taking a survey/research approach are academic or commissioned research
initiatives carried out with a limited coverage (Siddiqui et al., :qqo; Rahman, :qq;
ADB-GOB-LGED, :qq6; Begum, :qq; READ, .ooo). There is no general consensus
on the definition of homelessness in this approach. These studies hardly step beyond
the physical criteria of rooflessness. The journalistic approach involves selective and
emotive profiles of homeless people in an attempt to report a specific dysfunctional
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Shayer Ghafur 240
state of Bengali society. The outputs of this approach are mostly transcribed
interviews and cartoons (Mamun, .oo:; the cartoons of R. Nabi); its language is rich
and expresses homeless peoples accounts, views and wits in their own words. The
coverage of homelessness in the printed media is not meant to be rich in analytical
content, but is intended to represent a section of society subsisting in utter destitution.
In all these approaches, rooflessness i.e., people living in public outdoor or
indoor spaces, especially streets, without shelter has been taken as the primary basis
for understanding and enumerating homelessness. The social perspective has
remained almost unexplored. Floating population and pavement-dwellers are the
two categories of homelessness that emerge from the narrow physical perspective of
rooflessness. The exclusion of squatters by the census reminds us of a possible covert
(political) intention: a narrow definition of homelessness results in a minimum number
of homeless people. Survey/research studies often categorise squatters as homeless in
the urban and rural contexts, but never slum-dwellers (Siddequi et al., :qqo; Rahman,
:qq). Despite the lack of critical observation, each approach has its specific focus and
is important for our comprehensive understanding of homelessness. However, the
following two points should be noted for analytical clarity:

floating population is not the only category of homeless people; and

not all pavement-dwellers are homeless. The might have homes in their ancestral
villages, which they usually visit periodically.
Types and extent of homelessness
One outcome of the significant research and policy focus that homelessness has been
given in the Western world, especially in the last few decades, is the emergence of
many different typologies of homelessness (UNCHS, .oo:, .6:). Such typologies
have been developed on the basis of house quality (FEANTSA, :qqq), the relative
degree of homelessness (Cooper, :qq), the level of risk homeless people face (BAWO,
:qqq), and the length of time for which a person has been homeless (Hertzberg, :qq.).
Such Western typologies are helpful in understanding homelessness in Bangladesh,
but they are inadequate, if not irrelevant, in terms of the local dynamics. First, the
origins of most cases of urban homelessness in Bangladesh lie predominantly in rural
areas, and have a unique set of systemic causes that will be discussed later. Second,
urban homelessness in Bangladesh cannot always be equated with a narrow physical
definition involving houselessness, but should include a social point of view.
The homeless population is not homogenous in terms of physical, social and
economic factors. In terms of the urban poor, homeless people are differentiated
mainly by the nature of their residential circumstances (Table ). The consequences
of the nocturnal sleeping arrangements and livelihoods of homeless people can be
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241
broken down according to age (i.e., adults and children) and gender. Three types of
urban homelessness have been identified in Bangladesh, based on residential
circumstances. They are: floating homelessness, situated homelessness and potential
homelessness. This typology establishes a basis on which, first, to differentiate street-
dwellers from squatters; second, to estimate the numbers of people involved in
different types of homelessness; and third, to show how homelessness(and thus
rooflessness, rootlessness and resourcelessness) prevents the poor from attaining
important capabilities.
Floating homelessness
Floating homelessness, the most visible type, is based on the physical criterion of
rooflessness: it refers to people living in streets or other public spaces without permanent
shelters of their own. Floating homeless people are often called pavement-dwellers,
street-dwellers or destitute. A :qq census of slum areas and the floating population
(BBS, :qqq) estimated floating homelessness in ::8 cities and towns at .,o8, and in
Dhaka at :,qqq. That these figures are conservative is revealed by a recent study
which found ,..6 street children in the six largest cities in Bangladesh; Dhaka
contributed per cent of this figure (DSS, .oo:). Street children constitute a specific
group among the homeless, with unique problems and needs.
The consequences arising from a state of rooflessness, rootlessness and resource-
lessness are manifold, and affect floating homeless people more than others. Individual
Table 3 Residential patterns of the poor in Dhaka
Percentage
of total
Estimated number poor
Nature of residence of people population
Slums and squatter settlements of 10 households or more 1,317,000 47.5
Servants living in upper- or middle-class residences 300,000 10.8
Floating population 50,000 1.8
Garment workers living outside the slums and squatter settlements 200.000 7.2
People living in institutional buildings 75,000 2.7
People living in shopping areas, construction sites, katcha bazaars 80,000 2.9
and on trucks/push-carts/rickshaw vans and other vehicles
Poor families living outside the slum settlements in various arrangements 750,000 27.1
Total 2,772,000 100
Source: ADB-GOB-LGED, 1996, 20.
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Shayer Ghafur 242
and group identities hold prominent places in the day-to-day affairs of Bengali life.
Unfortunately, society at large imposes a homogenous identity on people living in the
street, based on prejudices and class consciousness. Floating homeless people,
irrespective of age and sex, are socially ostracised and treated inhumanely. The lack
of tangible social identity bars them from access to jobs, education and healthcare.
Those who are in search of a gainful livelihood, women in particular, are frequently
denied earning opportunities. Their lack of skills and resources mean that the earning
opportunities available to them are fewer and lower-paid than those available to
squatters and slum-dwellers. Table shows the extent to which very few types of work
are available to homeless people. Begging (. per cent) is the most widespread
occupation. In addition, homeless people are present in greater proportions in those
jobs (e.g. construction labourers and porters) that demand manual labour. On the
other hand, the jobsthat require technical skills and resources (e.g. industry, business
and services) are rare among homeless people.
Surviving on the street and just making a living, day after day, result in a lot of
mental stress and ill health (Mamun, .oo:). A study on pavement-dwellers reported
that nearly : per cent of its sample were physically and/or mentally handicapped,
Table 4 Comparative profiles of the main economic activities of floating populations and
slum-dwellers
Main activities Dhaka (in %) Total urban (in %)-
Floating pop. Slums Floating pop. Slums
(14,999) (533,788) (32,078) (971,719)
Begging 33.73 0.60 26.94 0.71
Daily labour: agriculture 0.68 0.78 2.80 1.23
Daily labour: industry 0.68 10.46 3.96 8.31
Daily labour: construction 27.34 6.12 17.40 4.98
Portering 12.03 1.62 16.02 2.05
Domestic service 1.60 5.13 5.50 4.88
Business 6.70 9.18 4.91 9.26
Hawking 4.07 1.94 4.13 1.74
Rickshaw pulling 1.59 10.27 4.08 9.03
Van pulling 0.68 1.41
Studying 7.37 8.60
Service 0.23 6.54 0.20 6.41
Tokai (child waste-picker) 1.03 1.62
Not working 5.61 4.86 7.10 4.70
Others 4.03 35.13 3.93 38.10
Total 100 100 100 100
Sources: BBS, 1999; Ghafur, 2002, 54.
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Table 5 Diseases suffered by floating homeless women*
FWSW** FDW FWO All categories
Diseases (116 cases) (68 cases) (116 cases) (300 cases)
Symptoms/diseases related to
sexually-transmitted diseases or RTI
Leucorrhea 32.8 2.9 12.9 18.3
Itching 16.4 7.4 12.1 12.7
Fever 6.9 10.3 14.7 10.7
Lower abdominal pain 37.9 7.4 14.7 22
Pain during urinating 10.3 11.8 3.4 8
Physical weakness 17.2 44.1 26.7 26.7
Other
Leprosy 3.4 0 0 1.3
Breathing problems 3.4 4.4 2.6 3.3
High blood pressure 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.7
Other 15.5 29.4 27.6 23.3
Dont know 9.5 7.4 12.1 10
Notes: * Multiple response, total exceeds 100 per cent.
** FWSW: floating women sex workers. FDW: floating disabled women. FWO: floating women other.

All figures are in percentages.
Source: READ, 2000.
and .. per cent were clinically insane (Begum, :qq, 66). In another study on
disadvantaged women in Bangladesh (READ, .ooo), the findings showed that more
than half of all respondents had suffered from diseases (see Table ). Floating home-
less people the poorest of the poor in cities in Bangladesh are excluded from all
social and political participation; these exclusions restrict their access to services.
These issues are discussed in Ghafur (.oo.) and are not repeated here.
Situated homelessness
An holistic view of the loss of identity, privacy, comfort and shelter provides the basis
for identifying situated homelessness as a type. From a physical perspective, unlike the
floating homeless, these homeless people do have given residences. Squatters living
illegally on public land are a major subgroup within this type. Squatters can be thought of
as being situated homeless because their shelters are not adequate. From a social
perspective, the absence of an identity as a participating member in all spheres of
society constitutes the basis of homelessness for abandoned children and orphans,
domestic and child servants, brothel-based sex workers and trafficked children
(Shamim, .oo:; READ, .ooo).
In different studies in recent years, the squatter population in Dhaka has been
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Shayer Ghafur 244
estimated at between :o per cent and :8 per cent of the total city population. For
example, a study by Habitat Council Bangladesh reported that the squatter popula-
tion in Dhaka in :qq8 was qoo,ooo, which is :o per cent of the total population of q
million (Daily Star, :qq8); a :qq6 survey conducted for the Urban Poverty Reduction
Project estimated that :8. per cent of households in Dhaka live in squats (Islam et al.,
:qq, .oo). According to a World Bank (:qq8, ) estimate, the number of squatters in
all cities in Bangladesh is ..6. million. From an holistic perspective, situated
homelessness is not a fixed state; eviction by the state or a vested interest group, for
example, can easily demote people from situated to floating homeless. Under
favourable conditions, created mainly by support from an NGO, people can also
expect to escape their homelessness.
From a physical perspective, people who live in owner-occupied shelters, however
poor in structure and limited in access to services, have never been considered to be
homeless in cities in Bangladesh. The absolute absence (e.g. street-sleepers) and relative
absence (e.g. squatters) of shelter are possible causes of homelessness, manifested
respectively in floating homelessness and situated homelessness. Squatters can thus be
distinguished from street homeless people in Bangladesh according to the following
aspects.

Overhead roof. However rudimentary, a situated homeless person has a roof over his
or her head, even though his or her shelter may be built on illegal land; the
floating homeless are not rooted spatially in this way.

De facto address. A roof gives a squatter a de facto address that helps him or her to
develop a social network with people living in similar situations. An address and
traceable social network gives social collateral that enables people to receive
various forms of NGO assistance, e.g. credit, education, water and sanitation, as
well as a sense of belonging to a group. In comparison, the floating homeless
(individuals or families) are absolutely insecure on the streets. Insecurity and
uncertainty about location limit their access to resources.

Employment. Opportunities for work in the informal sector and sources of income
are more limited for homeless people than for squatters. Begging, for example, is
more prevalent among homeless people than squatters (see Table ).
Potential homelessness
The possibility of becoming floating or situated homeless because of social, economic,
natural and political factors constitutes potential homelessness. Individuals or house-
holds at risk of becoming homeless include people living in slums, especially those
who are in shared accommodation (i.e., sub-tenants); stranded refugees living in
camps; nearly one million single female garment workers; poor rural widows; and
marginal rural farmers who are functionally landless. People who are below or just
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above the poverty line are potential homeless due to their vulnerability to eviction,
loss of employment without notice, conspiracy among people from within and outside
their family, and a range of natural causes. Among these groups, women are more
likely to become homeless than men due to prevailing gender inequality that is
explained, albeit briefly, in the next section.
Systemic causes of homelessness
This article will now examine the underlying forces that cause homelessness and
deprives poor people of the opportunity to aquire capacities that will enable them to
earn, learn and live for a long time. Homelessness is usually the result of a collection
of disparate and interlinked causes. The systemic issues that cause homelessness are
briefly explained below.
Pervasive poverty
Poverty is a manifestation of human deprivation. It is characterised by the non-
fulfilment of minimum basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, fuel etc., and is
compounded by a situation of vulnerability, helplessness and powerlessness. The poors
lack of access to adequate shelter homelessness is one of its manifestations. The
Household Expenditure Survey of :qqq6 reported that the respective proportions
of absolute and hardcore poverty among the rural landless were 66 per cent and
per cent (BBS, :qq8). The figures for these two categories among the functionally
landless (i.e., households owning less than o. acres of land) were 8.6 per cent and
... per cent. A review of studies on rural poverty and homelessness (Rahman, :qq;
Rahman, :qq) suggests that poverty causes homelessness in two possible ways: first,
in moment of crisis, e.g. natural disasters, ill-health or social insecurity, people are
forced to sell their homestead lands (and shelters) to survive; second, a persistently
inadequate income perpetuates already existing homelessness.
For a landless labourer, the average monthly household expenditure on food and
clothing usually takes more than o per cent of his income, leaving little more than
per cent to be spent on housing and rent (BBS, :qq8). The situation is very similar for
the functionally landless. This very low allocation of monthly expenditure for housing
hardly allows poor households to come out of their homelessness, let along allows
them to live in adequate shelters and lead decent lives. As a result, homelessness
persists. Despite noticeable improvements in the general poverty levels, the income
situation of the hardcore poor has not improved recently. The poorest per cent of
households in urban and rural areas, from :q886 to :qqq6, have suffered falls in
their shares of total income at a time when the top per cent have gained, especially
in urban areas (BBS, .ooo, qo).
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Shayer Ghafur 246
Social setting
Urban homelessness may be a distinct form of individual and familial destitution, but
a rural village is most often its place of origin. Insights from anthropological studies
(Maloney, :qq:; Arens and Burden, :q), in particular, help to explain the complex
social settings from which homelessness arise. Rural society manifested in kinship
relations rarely responds to this form of destitution because of the absence of any
effective safety nets for those who cannot cope too well.
The vulnerability of the potentially homeless is exacerbated not only by rapidly
eroding interhousehold relationships, but also by an unequal intra-household
relationship among its members due to persistent gender inequality (Kabir, :qq8).
Within an apparently homogenous group of poor people, women are more likely to
become vulnerable to homelessness than men because of patriarchy (the male
subordination of women). A study carried out for CONCERN-Bangladesh in eight
cities and towns has found that a majority of floating women living on the streets came
from households with land (READ, .ooo). The underlying causes of homelessness
among women and children may include physical abuse by the husband or father,
involuntary separation because of the husbands remarriage, the husbands desertion,
or abuses by step-parents. As a consequence of these things, changes take place not
only in the family structure but also in kinship relations that put the parents and the
children in different worlds, and also in different classes. Moreover, when immovable
assets and land are decreasing, break-ups between children and parents increase due
to the dwindling prospects of inheritance. As a result, homeless people, especially
women and children, become detached from their immediate kin. Subsequently, the
social networks that operate among the poor are not present among homeless people.
Natural disasters
Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. A number of
factors, especially its geographic location downstream of some of the largest rivers in
South Asia and beside the Bay of Bengal, have contributed to its vulnerability.
Disasters such as floods, cyclones, droughts, tidal bores and river erosion occur
regularly, causing immense losses of lives, crops and property. Bangladesh was struck
by at least 6 different natural disasters of various intensities during the period :q6o
8: (BIDS, .oo:, :oq). Flooding is perhaps the most recurrent and damaging type of
disaster. The extent of annual flood-affected areas usually varies between .,ooo and
o,ooo square kilometres. Experts estimate that out of a total of :., square
kilometres in Bangladesh, 8.,o88 (i.e., 8 per cent) are vulnerable to flooding. In the
years following :q, there were .8 floods, of which :: were devastating and most
devastating (BIDS, .oo:, :oq). The floods in :q88 and :qq8 were two of the most
devastating in living memory. Flooding is known to cause temporary and permanent
homelessness.
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A related problem is river erosion. Floods are known to cause major changes in
river courses that contribute to the erosion of river banks, leading to the dislocation of
populations, many of whom later become permanently displaced. For example, from
June to September :qqq the Jamuna river devoured .,ooo houses, rendering homeless
:,ooo people in about villages in the Tangail district (Bangladesh Observer, :qqq[Q]).
The demographic and socio-economic consequences of river erosion are far-reaching
and two-fold: a direct loss of arable and homestead land, and sudden onset of
poverty. The end result of these losses in most cases is migration from ancestral
villages to large cities.
Political exclusions
A pro-elite set-up in the urban shelter sector, with a virtual absence of representation
for poor people, causes and perpetuates homelessness in its broader sense. The impli-
cations of a pro-elite setup in Bangladesh, especially Dhaka, are double-edged. First,
limited national resources are consumed by the elite through the development of
subsidised site and service schemes, the construction and allotment of multi-storey
apartments on prime lands, and unhindered access to basic urban services. Second,
genuinely poor people find it difficult to gain access to projects because a powerful
section of society manipulates and abuses the implementation process for the
purposes of patronage.
Evictions without rehabilitation
Squatter settlement evictions without rehabilitation and compensation have continued
unabated since the mid-:qos. An estimated .oo,ooo people had been affected and
US.. million dollars worth of property was destroyed in o cases of major forced
evictions in Dhaka between :qqo and :qq. (Sinha, :qq, cited in Rahman, .oo:).
Between May and August :qqq, . slums or squatter settlements were emptied and a
total of .:,q families living in of these settlements were made homeless (CUP,
:qqq). Another way in which the poor are rendered homeless is slum-burning. This
can either occur intentionally, through the use of hired miscreants, in order to evict
the poor from a given slum so that its valuable land can be made available to vested
interests, or purely accidentally because of electrical short circuits or unattended
ovens. Whatever the cause, the outcome is devastating. In six incidents alone,
reported in the media between March :qq8 and March .ooo, around :o,oo shanties
were gutted and approximately o,ooo people were made homeless.
Responses to Homelessness
Despite numerous constraints, there are tangible responses (however small in relation
to the overall need) by government agencies, NGOs and religious/social organisations
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Shayer Ghafur 248
that address the plight of homeless people in cities and villages in Bangladesh. These
responses sometimes go beyond shelter issues to include financial, food and socio-
economic assistance, and attempt to reduce human deprivation and increase peoples
capacity to live a decent life. A framework for responses to homelessness suggested by
Edgar et al. (:qqq, 6) is used below to review the responses of different actors to
homelessness in Bangladesh. Table 6 gives an idea of state responses to homelessness
in Bangladesh.
Emergency/crisis
Except for makeshift accommodation provided for flood-affected homeless people in
schools and other multi-storey educational facilities, there are currently no sustained
efforts aimed at providing night shelters for floating homeless people in cities in
Bangladesh. A few drop-in centres run by the state and NGOs cater for street children.
Various policy documents have already suggested providing emergency shelters
for floating homeless people in major cities. A proposal for the phased construction of
:: night shelters in nine different locations in Dhaka, to provide refuge for ,qo
floating homeless people, was submitted to the Housing and Settlement Directorate
(HSD) in :qq. The proposal has since waited for the necessary approval. Cost
recovery of the capital investment was ruled out, as a nightly rent of between .q. and
:..:. Tk. per person was found to be unaffordable for the target group. However, ..q.
Table 6 State responses to homelessness in Bangladesh
Approach Accommodation Financial services/support
Emergency/crisis State-sponsored night shelters (with State allowance/services for extreme and
income and social support) for extreme potential homelessness
homelessness Poor elderly people
Proposed HSD, DMDP and UPRP Distressed women
models* Disabled people
Transitional/support Supported housing (with social and Credit programme for passive homelessness
medical support) for extreme Ghare Phera (Return Home) Programme
homelessness
Homes for old-aged people
Permanent/integration Basic housing for passive homelessness Housing loans for the disaster-affected
Asrayan (Shelter) Programme homeless poor
Adarsa Gram (Ideal Village) Project Housing fund
Public housing for bastuhara
(homeless) and squatter resettlement
Note: *

HSD: Housing and Settlement Directorate; DMDP: Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan; UPRP: Urban
Poverty Reduction Project.
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Tk. per night per person, equivalent to .8 per cent of the daily income of the target
group, was considered possible (cited in ADB-GOB-LGED, :qq6, Annex J, :::). In
:qq, another proposal for night shelters came from Ahmed (:qq) in support of the
specific recommendations of an ongoing Dhaka Metropolitan Development
Planning (DMDP) project. As part of an overall review of the housing market, the
DMDP proposal targeted the poorest :o per cent of Dhakas population as potential
users of night shelters with sanitary facilities. A comprehensive Urban Poverty
Reduction Project (UPRP) in :qq6 also included the provision of night shelters and
sanitary facilities for the urban destitute. The government of :qq6.oo: decided
instead to give monthly allowances to vulnerable groups like homeless old people,
distressed women and disabled people (Ratan, .oo:).
Transitional/support
The urban poor living in slums and squats the situated and potential homeless are
distressed migrants who have been pushed to the city by poverty, natural disasters and
river erosion. Ghare Phera (Return Home) is a credit programme conceived for these
people on the sole premise of resourcelessness; it was launched by the Bangladesh
Krishi (Agricultural) Bank (BKB) in May :qqq, the period also marked by the state-
initiated squatter eviction drive. Its conception was underpinned (rightly or wrongly)
by two assumptions. First, most of the slum- and squat-dwelling urban poor, despite
owning homesteads and other assets, however small, have chosen to live a miserable
life in major cities in Bangladesh. Second, many problems in Dhaka, in particular,
could be resolved if these people were helped to go back to their own homes in their
villages. In the ten phases of the Ghare Phera Programme so far, from May :qqq to
March .oo:, a total of .,. slum-dwellers and squatter families (or :,..o people)
were given .... million Tk.[Q] in loans by the BKB. The beneficiaries allegedly
went back to : upazilas (sub-districts) in : districts in Bangladesh. However, the
printed media reported that the recipients returned to the city in large numbers when
they failed to adapt economically to life in the villages (Daily Vorer Kagoj, .ooo).
Government agencies are by far the most important actors in providing shelter
and other support services to homeless people. In urban areas, the role of NGOs and
such like are limited mainly due to lack of access to land, although they provide night
shelters and social and economic services. A survey carried out in Dhaka in :qqq
among q NGOs found that 8. per cent (:,8q million Tk.) of the total allocations
were in credit schemes (Shahabuddin and Opel, .ooo, q). The urban poor living on
illegal land or renters in private slums situated homeless people are usually the
beneficiaries of these initiatives. That the destitute floating homeless people have not
been covered in any tangible way confirms earlier observations related to their
differentiation from the situated homeless people. For the same reason, NGOs
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Shayer Ghafur 250
operating in the rural shelter sector, especially the large ones, have often shown a
tendency to ignore the poorest of the poor. There is a growing concern that the socio-
economic and housing programmes of the larger NGOs, like Grameen Bank, BRAC
and Proshika, do not actually cover the rural hardcore poor (Caritas, .oo:; Rahman
and Razzaque, .ooo; Rahman, :qq).
Permanent/integration
Since independence in :q:, different projects have been undertaken by the state,
often in collaboration with NGOs, to provide shelter and land for poor homeless people
in rural and urban areas. These initiatives implemented either through shelter
provision, loans for shelter construction or micro-finance as an incentive to return to
villages were aimed at the reintegration of homeless people on a permanent basis. As
a result, sometimes the provision of shelter was tied up with social and economic
components to contribute to the alleviation of poverty among the target beneficiaries.
In rural areas, the current Adarsha Gram (Ideal Village) Project was formerly
known as Cluster Villages for the Rehabilitation of Rootless and Landless Families. In
:q., the Land Administration and Land Reforms divisions decided to maximise the
utilisation of state-owned khas lands under newly introduced land reforms. One of
the outcomes was the establishment of seven cluster villages in four areas to rehouse
:,o landless and rootless families affected by river erosion. Adarsha Gram, therefore, is
the oldest rural initiative to provide homes for the homeless in rural areas. Since its
initiation, Adarsha Grams approach to land reform and poverty alleviation has been
a national priority, and subsequently was included in all of the relevant national
planning documents.
The relatively recent Asrayan programme is similar to the Adarsha Gram project
in many respects. The Asrayan concept was developed by the then Prime Minister
during the post-cyclone period in May :qq. Asrayan is an integrated effort to provide
shelter and promote self-income generation for the homeless poor. Overall socio-
economic development among this target group is the main aim of this programme.
For its proper implementation, active cooperation and coordination between different
actors were sought under the direct supervision of the Prime Ministers office. Defence
forces have been given the task of constructing this programme; different NGOs were
given the responsibility for carrying out the motivation and training works.
In urban areas since :q:, the government had implemented a number of squatter
resettlement projects located on the outskirts of Dhaka for bastuhara (homeless) and
squatter resettlement. These projects were heavily subsidised and often distributed to
class three and four government employees as well as intended homeless beneficiaries.
Tipple and Ameen (:qqq) reported how some of these projects have changed hands
from their original squatter allottees to non-target higher income groups. Table lists
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all the major projects either already implemented or awaiting implementation by the
HSD.
The various projects mentioned in Table are evidence of the positive role played
by the government in addressing the problems of homeless people. They show that
enormousaly diverse interventions in terms of scale, content and coverage have
emerged over the years to benefit those affected by situated and potential homeless-
ness. The projects listed also draw attention to certain areas (e.g. night shelters) in
which the government has yet to turn policies into tangible actions to address the
plight of the floating homeless. These projects are designed to have responsive goals
and objectives, and have the potential to reduce homelessness significantly in cities
and villages in Bangladesh. But a disturbing absence of critical evaluation restricts us
from judging whether their objectives have been met, particularly in the face of a
culture of political patronage that is known to exclude genuine beneficiaries.
The government believes that the solution to the problem of not having a shelter,
especially among the floating and situated homeless, lies in the public sector provision
of shelter, i.e. social housing. The national report to Habitat II defines social housing
as a specific category of public housing that involves social costs, i.e., some form of
subsidy either in its land development, construction or rent (GOB, :qq6). The govern-
ments understanding of homelessness in terms only of rooflessness has significantly
limited its ability to address the problem, let alone giving all homeless people access to
social housing. The public sector provision of shelter, covered in part in Tables 6 and
Table 7 Completed and ongoing public housing for homeless and squatter populations*
Project area Project cost Total dwelling
Name of project in acres in million Tk. units constructed
Semi-puccahouses for the bastuhara (Mirpur, Dhaka) 43.04 4,304
Squatter resettlement project (Section 11, Mirpur, Dhaka) 92.5 193.34 2,568
Squatter resettlement project, Phase 1 (Duttapara, Tongi, Dhaka) 101.0 119.79 1,016
Semi-pucca row houses for bastuhara (Keraniganj, Dhaka) 64.13 231.40 3,200
Core houses for bastuhara and destitute families, Phase 35 219 2,424
(Duttapara, Tongi, Dhaka)
Core houses for bastuhara (Mirpur, Dhaka) 50 305 3,500
Flats for bastuhara and low-income government employees 40 3,326.9 16,000
(Mirpur, Dhaka)
**
Total 382.63 4,438.47 33,012
Notes: * The first three projects have been completed, while the remaining projects were proposed under the Fifth
Five-Year Plan (19972002).
** 9,600 (60 per cent) of the 16,000 flats will be for bastuhara.
Source: Compiled from HSD, 2000.
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Shayer Ghafur 252
, has been limited to just per cent of an estimated shelter deficit of five million for
the year .ooo (GOB, :qq6). On the other hand, state-initiated squatter eviction drives
contradict its responses to roofless people. The governments failure to comprehend
the rootless and resourceless dimension of homelessness means that homeless people
are either evicted from houses or forced to hand over houses to higher-income house-
holds in return for meagre monetary gains. Their rootlessness contributes to their
political disenfranchisement, which in turn leads to their eviction for example
from a multi-storey social housing block now occupied by the employees of the Dhaka
City Corporation (Ghafur, .oo). Living without resources makes them vulnerable to
short-term financial gains at the cost of displacement from their shelter (Tipple and
Ameen, :qqq).
Conclusions
This article has examined homelessness to show that poor peoples access to a home is
a precondition for human development. This examination was carried out by looking
at the holistic meaning of home and how homelessness excludes the poor from
human development. Home is an ideological construct as well as a material object,
and it mediates peoples relationship with nature and society to sustain their daily
existence. The significance of shelter the physical manifestation of a home is its
role in encouraging endowments that contribute to poor peoples attainment of
capabilities that allow them to overcome their deprivation. Access to a home is a pre-
condition for human development in cities in Bangladesh, as living without one
deprives the poor of the capacity to earn, learn and survive. Homelessness, from a
holistic perspective, has a three-fold consequence (rooflessness, rootlessness and
resourcelessness) which deprives the poor of access to gainful employment, the
acquisition of skills and healthcare. The relative nature and extent of each of these
consequences will vary according to the internal differentiations within homelessness:
floating homelessness, situated homelessness and hidden homelessness are the
manifest differentiations. An holistic understanding of homelessness is critical to
prevent the exclusion of floating and situated homeless people from shelter provision,
in particular in cities in Bangladesh.
That the means to earn, learn and survive are not availble to those poor who do
not have a home has policy implications for two areas: first, housing policy and
practice; and second, further research. On the issue of providing shelter to all home-
less people, the government alone cannot meet the huge demand in Bangladesh.
However, the constitution guarantees the right to shelter, and the government can not
also waive its responsibility. There has to be realism in the states efforts to provide
shelter for homeless people. In this provision, during an enabling era, the government
has to intervene as a provider, protector and mediator of roofs, roots and resources in
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collaboration with NGOs, based on the holistic understanding of home. A given
shelter ought not to be seen only in terms of physical form and space determined by a
given minimum standard; the state should not be the cause of homelessness by its
eviction of squatters; the authoritys role ought not to end after the handover of
shelters; measures should be taken to ensure that homeless people are not pushed out
of shelters by higher-income groups. Initiatives to pursue human development and
bring deprivation to an end have to be coordinated, consistent and continuous across
successive regimes.
Approaches to address the plight of homeless people ought to differ with the
relative importance of the three components of homelessness. Harnessing human
development thus requires different kinds of action, as briefly outlined below.
Floating homelessness
From the perspective of rooflessness, the public provision of night shelters should be
the key means by which floating homeless peoples lack of access to home can be
addressed realistically in cities in Bangladesh. From the rootlessness perspective, night
shelters should be a safe haven where homeless people can sleep, eat and socialise,
and have access to education, healthcare and credit. Night shelters can play a role in
instilling a sense of social identity and self-esteem among homeless people. NGOs can
be active partners with the state in this regard. This article provides further
justification for constructing night shelters in cities in Bangladesh, but these measures
are by no means unknown to the policy makers. The provision of night shelters has
been an active component of different proposals under different regimes. The non-
implementation of these proposals, in part due to the failure to release the necessary
public land, means that the government has excluded a vulnerable section of society
from human development.
Situated homelessness
Security of tenure, without the threat of eviction, is the most crucial thing that the
state can provide for situated homeless squatters. The provision of services by the
state and social and economic initiatives by NGOs are required to prevent these
people slipping into the floating homeless category.
Potential homelessness
As different groups under this type already have shelters in villages and cities, actions
are required as preventive measures so that these people do not fall victim to sudden
economic shocks, natural disasters, redundancy, etc.
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These conclusions and their policy implications are the outcomes of an examina-
tion of existing evidence, mostly secondary. The evidence and arguments presented
provide a preliminary basis for further empirical research to expand our understand-
ing of the connection between home and human development. In particular, research
is required to reveal the employment, education and health consequences of different
types of homelessness from age and gender perspectives, to guide future policies
towards projects and implementation that have the express purpose of human
development.
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