Description

Between 1991 and 2010, Dhaka’s population more than doubled to 15 million. Simultaneously, the city’s contribution to the national economy almost trebled. Clearly, population growth was accompanied by an unmistakable trend of economic growth, and a significant decline in urban poverty and income inequality. On the other hand, Dhaka’s high population density exacerbated serious environmental challenges, and it was soon ranked as one of the world’s least livable cities.

In the context of these contradictory signals of rapid urbanization, Dhaka’s Changing Landscape sets to answer three most intriguing questions: Are the poorer segments of urban population, which migrate with dreams for better lives, benefitting from positive economic trends? Are these benefits sustainable? Are these benefits creating scope for this group to have a stake in the city’s growing prosperity? By studying 600 households and applying comparative analysis over a span of 20 years, the authors examine demographic and economic trends to understand the patterns, scale, and complexity of urban poverty, income inequality, and rural–urban migration. Going beyond

the space and poverty debate, they enlighten the readers about the quality of life questions, sustainability matters, and gender and generational roles and relations necessary to understand qualitative transformation and migrants’ prospects for a better future.

About the Authors

Rita Afsar is an honorary research fellow at the Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, and the former senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka.

Mahabub Hossain (1945–2016) was an advisor to the executive director of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Dhaka, and chairperson, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, BRAC University, Dhaka.