Paper Presented at the International Conference The History Heritage and Urban Issues of Capital Dhaka, 17-19 February,

2010, Dhaka.

Imprints of the Changing Doctrines on Housing in Dhaka

Shayer Ghafur Professor, Dept. of Architecture Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology e-mail: sghafur@bangla.net

Introduction
The nature and extent of urban house forms are rarely autonomous in the process of their generation but products of a process emerging and evolving in response to the changing political and economic forces of society. These forces mediate with culture, climate and technology in housing production. This paper submits a proposition toward mapping the broad project of the social production of housing in Dhaka: Broader forces emanate from and are embedded in concrete doctrines that, among others, leave physical, spatial and social imprints on housing. The notion of imprints refers to the discrete feature and/or characterization of the product or process of housing. Discrete doctrine at a given point in time influences the decisions of the authorities in conditioning communitys capacity as much as guiding public action in marking imprints on housing production and consumption. This paper reflects on capital Dhakas four hundred years history as a palimpsest to trace the changing doctrines, and identify the respective imprints they have had marked in the construction and reconstruction of housing. It helps explain the existing housings possible linkages to the past, i.e. whether the changing doctrines tangible imprints have been occurring-recurring, differing or layering in time. The imprints identified are but exhaustive. This sequential tracing and narrating the changing doctrines that have had acted upon housing in Dhaka suggests their two major locations. They are: First, the hegemonic objectives of the distant ruling regimes during the precolonial Mughal and colonial periods that contributed to the Eastern Bengals subjugation and colonization respectively. Second, the global production of development discourse during the postcolonial period that has been emerging beyond the sovereign nation-state. The former had led to its trickle down foundational imprints on housing in Dhaka; while the latter has been acting upon housing in Dhaka directly through state mediation despite housing policies very late emergence as a discrete discourse and instrument in guiding public actions for housing production.

Pre-colonial Mughal Period

Revenue collection was a main reason behind the Mughal Empires subjugation of different regions of India by establishing a number of subah or provinces; each subah was divided into different sarkars and each sarkar into parganas or mahals. The Mughal revenue was of two kinds land revenue and sair duties. i The stated objectives of the Mughal revenue administration aimed at collecting revenue as much as possible but by maintaining the general well-being of the peasants so that they could bring more lands under cultivation.ii A network of cities and town across India served the purpose of Empires maintaining authority and control over the subjugated provinces. There were 120 cities (shahar) and 3,200 townships (qusbah) during Akbars Empire. iii Mughal cities and towns were seats of administration and military presence to ensure peace in the surrounding areas for unhindered collection of revenues as well as sites of manufacture, trade and commerce. Trade and commerce flourished in these cities and towns under imperial protection and

patronage to the extent of becoming a separate source of sair duties besides land revenue. We can safely assume the well-being implications of collecting revenue in land were equally present in collecting sair duties in cities and towns. That Mughal cities and towns produced only luxury goods for the consumption by their rulers is an understatement as the producers of a commodity in small towns arranged with dealers of these goods in a big city to supply them with finished goods for distribution inland or for export outside. iv Islam Khan Chisti made Dhaka the capital of Bengal province from Rajmahal in 1610 on strategic grounds that Dhaka would provide better opportunity to command over the surrounding naval routs and keep constant vigilance against enemies. Capital Dhaka was suggested to perform two major tasks: first, to guard the imperial territories and suppress the rebel chiefs; second, to receive imperial revenues and guard revenue interests.v Total land revenue and sair duties collected in 1658 were Rs. 8,800,000; even during the period of Dhaka naibat the revenue was significant as it amounts to Rs. 2.700,000. vi The administration of justice was an added role that ensured public wellbeing and safety of highways and waterways from robbery. Besides province administration, Kotwals and Muhtasibs looked after the day-to-day affairs in maintaining citys peace and morals. These points make a ground to argue that the surplus extracted by the Mughal regime from different products and land was not totally transferred outside Dhaka, or Bengal, but partly invested for the improvement and maintenance of Dhaka. Although pre-Mughal Dhaka was reported by foreign travellers to be a flourishing trading post of 52 galies and 53 bazaars, the capital Dhaka in its early years needed to be prepared for accommodating the new administrative and military establishments. Spatial ordering and social mosaic are the major imprints on housing by the Mughal regime in preparing Dhaka as a provincial capital. Spatial Ordering: The most significant imprint on housing in Dhaka was arguably the initial spatial ordering of Dhaka, including the pre-Mughal areas, that followed Mughal way of hierarchical layering of the public and private realms. S. P. Blake gives an idea of the Mughal reference, The geographical layout of the residences within the padshahi shahar (imperial city) centered on mansions of the important amirs and the larger houses of the lesser amirs and rich merchants. The thatched huts ... spread themselves around the spacious residences of the amirs and rich merchants. vii The (Lalbagh) Fort as the place of highest significance spread outwards for the hierarchical disposition of the city dwellers, while the riverfront had always remained a prime location for the powerful and the wealthy. The morphological study of the evolution of (old) Dhaka by Iftekher M. Khan provides insights on how mahal (house), mahalla (neighbourhood) and bazaar (market) contributed to the development of the socio-spatial order in the native city. viii He has explained the ways in which the implantation of the (North Indian) Mughal morphological features of mahal and mahalla were mediated by local culture, climate and geographical context of Dhaka. Common peoples house was most often a household production unit; places of living and working of different professional groups usually overlapped. The agglomeration of houses with homogenous occupation into a specialized neighbourhood was evident in their naming, e.g. Shankhari Bazaar or Tanti Bazaar. The linear form a bazaar had acquired was due to the arrangement of adjacent shop/workspace frontages of a number of deep plot houses. Social Mosaic: Mughal administrators had a policy of inviting and retaining different occupational group in the city by offering them rent-free lakheraj lands. ix All new groups were added to the preexisting caste- and occupation-based groups in Dhaka. That each of these groups was initially formed around a rather homogenous mahalla suggests their living in harmony with each other. 2

Mughal Dhaka, however, also manifested social divide despite being a site of different social groups living side-by-side. Traders, merchants and middlemen made profit from manufacturing activities part of which they spent on building mansions; contemporary travelogues give account of numerous brick-built mansions often within enclosed walls. But in the case of weavers, who were made to live on a subsistent level, no profit let alone meagre savings was possible to allow their construction of houses other than makeshift bamboo-straw huts. T. Raychaudhuri explains, Virtually every relevant feature of the economy, society and the state was designed to hold the artisan family firmly down to his lowly place in the scheme of things allowing very little scope for upward mobility or differentiation.x Peoples gainful living in Dhaka was evident in its phenomenal population growth during the peak Mughal reign: the reported population of Dhaka was 900,000 in 1700. xi

Colonial Period
The East India Company came to India for business. The Companys acquisition of Dewani in 1765 had led to the colonization of Bengal, and brought devastating consequences for living and working conditions in Dhaka; their acquiring of Dewani and subsequent monopoly in trading created a scope for maximizing their profit. The jubilant reaction of the Court of Directors after hearing the news of acquisition of Dewani from Kolkata indicates the Companys future role in Bengal; they asked the Company to enlarge every channel for conveying to us as early as possible the annual produce of our acquisitions, and to increase the investment of your Company to the utmost extent you can. xii The Companys hunt for increasing revenue had ultimately ended by introducing the Permanent Settlement Act in 1793. Shortly before enacting this Act, in 1790, at least one-third of the cultivable land of Bengal was reported to have been under jungle xiii, and the Company was driven by the possibility of bringing more land under cultivation to increase revenue. The Company looked at the revenue collection as a means of increasing their capital; transfer of resources from India constituted a form of primitive accumulation contributing to the industrial capital formation in Britain.xiv Cities in Bengal like Dhaka were affected by the Companys reversal of trade policy from buying finished products for export to buying raw (agricultural) materials for processing in Kolkata. Later, the Companys introduction of heavy duties on locally manufactured products alongside importing industrial products from England had led to an uneven competition that eventually ruined countless artisans and weavers, especially in and around Dhaka. In short, the Company doctrine aimed at maximizing surplus extraction through land revenue as much as possible, and its later transfer to England. The Company was least interested in the investment of the revenue income for the public well-being of the city. xv Three major imprints on housing in Dhaka can be suggested to have had occurred in the first and second halves of the nineteenth century; they are housing atrophy, and service provision and planned land development. Housing Atrophy: The declining trade and commerce related to the manufacturing sector had resulted in the drastic reduction of population in and around Dhaka during 1801-1840. xvi The reported population of Dhaka had decreased from 200,000 in 1801 to 75,000 in Walters 1830 census in 1832, and further reduced to 68,610 in 1838. xvii The departure of the weaver community and the associated merchants and traders had turned Dhaka into a city of glorious ruins, pestilential forests and water bodies. Diminishing economy caused housing atrophy. The housing stock of 44,000 in 1801 was successively reduced to 16,279 and 10,830 respectively in 1830 and 1838. xviii This reduction in quantity was not without implications on the quality of the housing stock. As the city imploded due to declining population and economic activities and deteriorating

law and order situation xix, the major parts of Dhaka grew overcrowded as people moved to the inner Mughal areas. People were reported to build makeshift choppers on the side of the main roads. During the Company doctrine non-perishable building materials like brick were prohibitively expensive allowing only the rich to build brick houses. By referring to the comparative prices of brick to rice, Sirajul Islam has shown how brick in the beginning of the nineteenth century was ten times expensive than that in 1990. xx Service Provision: The most significant imprint of the colonial doctrine on housing in Dhaka relates to the progressive extension of basic urban services sanitation, pure drinking water, metal roads and much later electricity. These events were documented in utmost details by Sharif uddin Ahmed. xxi Implementation of these services, however, had taken place upon the spatial layout of the pre-existing Mughal mahals and mahallas in Dhaka. These services had positively contributed to improve the lives of Dhaka dwellers, especially in reducing the incidents of diseases. Land Development and Detached Residence: Indigenous Bangla gharthe rustic huthad inspired the British to produce a climatically adaptive house suited to their cultural values and norms which they called Bungalow. xxii Despite mass production of Bungalow in different parts of India we note a conspicuous absence of Bungalow laden civil lines in Dhaka until the arrival of the 20th century. Bungalows arrived late because the political significance attached to Dhaka had always guided the British establishments urban development initiatives in Dhaka. This view becomes evident when town and landscape planning of Dhaka were initiated in 1905 as capital of the proposed Eastern Bengal and Assam Province, and then abandoned later. However, emergence of a new English-educated professional group created a demand for improved and westernized mode of living conditions. A unique initiative of planned land development for housing the middle income professionals took place in Wari in 1880 long before building the Bungalows in Ramna. The extended housing loan and the enforced building control evident in the development of Wari later proved to be the pre-cursor of all subsequent planned residential area developments in the post-colonial period. Colonial and post-colonial imaginations were captivated by what was once there as evident in the ruinous housing. But attentions to what was not there and why in the broader political and economic contexts of the presidency of Bengal was rare. The melancholic depiction, description and disposition of the picturesque Mughal ruins in Dhaka during the Company regime created a mental block; it restricts our going beyond a politics of privies in examining housing in colonial Dhaka since the second half of the nineteenth century. The accumulation of capital from Dhaka, Eastern Bangle in the broader sense, had its concrete presence more in the colonial and merchant mansions in Kolkata than in Dhaka. xxiii As the company policy depopulated Dhaka, by debasing from its manufacturing past, why would the Company located at Kolkata, with comfort and pomp, care for investing in a shrinking Dhaka? Could there be any rational justification other than discrete individual civilian efforts? It seems the takeover of India by the British Empire after the unsuccessful sipoy revolution in 1857 had made a rational ground to look after the wellbeing of its cities and towns: sanitation-taxation-pacification.xxiv It was the period when the western industrialization was stabilized, and the European countries were in a state of finding new markets for their industrial products. There was then a need to reconceptualise Indian cities and towns in their functioning as the distribution centres of industrial products, and docile city dwellers becoming potential consumers. This need aimed at reorganizing the Indian cities and towns within an evolving colonial space. Colonial urbanisms linkage to capitalist world economy underpinned the colonial policys rising above the Companys apathy and neglect toward a morale ground

strengthened by the Victorian zeal for cleaner habitat since the second half of the nineteenth century.

Development Doctrines during the Post-colonial Period

Decolonization of developing countries did not lead to the end of relationship colonialism once had with capitalism. Decolonization was rather a natural response in resolving the contradictions capitalist mode of production had faced to make adaptation in the changing circumstances global economic pressure, domestic tensions and geopolitical relations.xxv Capitalist world economy delivered the concept of development during the post World War II scenarios. US President Harry Truman in his inaugural speech in 1947 referred to the presence of a larger underdeveloped areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America. xxvi He envisaged, unlike the old imperialism, a bold new programme based on the benefits of the developed countries scientific advances and industrial progress would lead to the improvement and growth of these underdeveloped countries. The notion development implies deliberate action to specifically promote change and progress in the broader sense; in critical perspective, (post-colonial) development ideology is doctrinal. xxvii The following sections describe the ways in which postcolonial development discourses have been mediated first by the formulation of housing policies at the global level followed by their translation at the local level in marking imprints on housing in Dhaka.

Modernization Theory (1947-70)

Development Global: Modernization theories the aftermath of decolonization had emerged in reorganizing the unequal capitalist relationship between the developed core and undeveloped periphery countries. Modernization theories in essence were how to develop manuals for the undeveloped countries; they were problem-solving and policy-oriented theories of social change and economic development. xxviii Underdeveloped countries relative location at the lower ends of a five-stage hierarchy of development had underpinned rationale of and approaches to development. xxix Development policy regime had expected underdeveloped countries to pursue economic growth through industrialization in their efforts to proceed towards advanced developed stages by emulating the experiences of the Western industrialized countries. Housing Global: Public provision of conventional housing was the hallmark of housing in developing countries under modernization paradigm. Housing was seen as an item of welfare and social control whose provision was a state responsibility. Developing countries assumed that they would adequately address the housing needs of the government employees and the formal industrial sector workers. Features of state provision include: capital intensive, high standard, industrial technology, and centralized management systems. There was an absence of global agency of housing and settlements during the 1950-60 periods in mediating modernization agendas translation into housing in the national context. This led to grand experimentations for modern cities epitomized by Nehrus celebrated phrase for Chandigarh - unfettered by the traditions of the past. Modern cities like Chandigarh in India and Brasilia in Brazil are the notable modern experiments in outlining the master plan for urban living with one of its most enduring features separation of the places of living from the places of working through zoning. Housing Local: Pakistan emerged as an independent nation state after decolonization of the British India in 1947; the new-born nation was split into Eastern and Western provinces with an alleged unity by religion but separated by different cultures and languages. During the initial years of high hopes and optimism since 1947, the provincial capital of Dhaka had assumed a prominent role to contribute to the nation state building schemes. In this scheme, modernization of Dhaka had 5

become an immediate necessity. But the centuries-long colonial legacy had effectively limited Dhakas capacity to develop and function as a provincial capital of a new nation state. Major problems that Dhaka had faced as a performing provincial capital are: inheritance of an inadequate urban infrastructure and services of the colonial regime; shortage of public and private housing to accommodate an increasing urban population; a great influx of displaced persons from India after 1947 requiring additional places of living and scopes of working; and lack of industrial setup to substitute production of commodities whose import from India had stopped overnight. Housing had predominantly been a private sector activity, confined within Old Dhaka. Public housing in Dhaka, prior decolonization, had mainly been limited by constructing Bungalows for the high-ranking government officials. As Dhaka became the provincial capital, the government took the responsibility of housing provision and address the prevailing housing shortage. In East Pakistan, the estimated housing shortage in 1958 was 150,000 dwelling units.xxx Justification of undertaking a low-cost public housing programme has an economic overtone, especially, in its contribution to the reproduction of labour amidst ongoing industrialization. A government document made explicit its intention; it states, Investment in housing increases labour output. A worker who can spend most of his spare time in a comfortable house does not feel repressed and can resume his daily task with renewed vigour, thus being able to work more and produce more. xxxi Concerted housing development hardly takes place without guided by Town Planning. Dhaka was no exception. The Dhaka Master Plan in 1959 was the first significant attempt to tap on western modernity, and initiate a process of peoples transition from traditional to modern housing. In terms of housing, what Dhaka Master Plan had proposed in fact were pockets of new development and redevelopment of existing localities. xxxii The Master Plan detailed out its development scheme in seven different localities; development outcome would create housing for 490,530 people in place of the existing 65,900 people. In the case of redevelopment, however, it identified parts of the old Dhaka as slum in presence of high density (i.e. overcrowding), service deficiencies and lack of open spaces; suggested slum clearance was to be followed by their redevelopment in line with the Western precedents. Imprints of modernization theory on housing in Dhaka are: township and neighbourhood development, rationalization of housing design, and squatter formation. Township and Neighbourhood Concept: The government undertook a number of projects for building townships in areas like in Dhanmondi and Gulshan, and housing estates as Azimpur, Motijheel and Lalmatia. By employing the neighbourhood concept, modern housing was conceived, planned and implemented in its most generic terms in sites and service schemes like Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Banani and Lalmatia; leaving aside the design merits, one can locate in them the presence of residential plots, roads with setbacks for footpath and trees, community open spaces, non-residential uses like shops etc. Western priority for ensuring health and hygiene, as a pre-condition of modern living, were markedly present in the buildings judicious setback from the road and other buildings to allow ample air, light and green. Rationalization of Housing Design: Modernization of social life had influenced the design of housing. In the case of public housing, the relative allocation and organization of different domestic spaces taking into account the difference in household heads income had resulted into different types of residences, often in multi-storey and multi-family flats. Flat types usually varied in size although containing generic domestic spaces of modern house like living room, bed room, dining room, kitchen and toilets. Employment hierarchy began to determine an employees access

to dwelling unit. Dhakas first generation urbanites were given a modern setup to dwell and make adaptation from their traditional modes of dwelling. Squatter Formation: Squatter settlements in and around Dhaka did not formed to the extent of a township like African and Latin American countries. Illegal squatter settlements, however, were formed inside Dhaka but usually alongside rail tracks and in isolated pockets close to the squatters places of work. City authority had tolerated the temporary squatters to ensure the continued supply of cheap construction labours. It was in the interest of modern Dhaka building that this pool of cheap labour was left undisturbed but unaddressed in the provision of basic urban services.

Redistribution with Growth and Basic Needs (1971-1990)

Development Global: By the late 1960 it became apparent that the objectives of modernization theory in pursuit of development through industrialization in developing countries had failed. Rural migrants continued pouring into the cities and the squatter settlements began to proliferate as the benefits of growth generated by such industrialization policy didnt trickle down to the poor. As a result, a case for achieving growth with equity had led to formulate a new set of policies. Chenery et al, among others, had argued for increased growth and alleviation of poverty; they had taken a view that economic growth can be achieved by focusing attention to the pressing problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Improvements in the absolute income of the poor could be achieved through transfers and subsidies, and improved access to essential goods and services (e.g. water, electricity, sewerage, housing, health facilities and schools etc.).xxxiii The emerged policy package became known within the rubrics of Redistribution with Growth (RWG) and Basic Needs. The main goals of RWG strive to make an improvement in the absolute income of the poor rather than an attack on relative inequality; a distribution of income increments rather than a redistribution of existing incomes and assets; labour-intensive approaches were devised to increase the productivity, output and employment opportunities of the poor. xxxiv RWG and Basic Needs strategies aspired to alleviate poverty, unemployment and inequality through first, balancing growth with redistributive measures; second, the stimulation of small-scale enterprises and labour-intensive technologies; third, the deregulation of the urban informal sector; and lastly, the introduction of transfer strategies in public service expenditure.xxxv Housing Global: Implications of RWG and Basic Needs strategies for housing was the realization that the governments should move from its direct provision to assisted self-help housing initiatives. The World Bank emerged as a major lending agency that began to expand from its traditional sector loans for basic economic infrastructure to address the strategies of the redistribution with growth goals. The Habitat conference in 1976 at Vancouver had made a ground for preparing policies to guide housing for the poor. Sites and service schemes and settlement upgrading were the key forms of assisted self-help housing that the World Bank and the newly formed United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) had provided finance and technical assistance in cities in developing countries. Lending was provided by a project by project basis. The World Bank became the dominant actor in the urban areas with its lending programme for housing and infrastructure projects. The model World Bank followed in its urban projects was affordabilitycost-recovery-replicability. Case studies, however, had shown that the model was not replicable and had limitations in achieving a wider coverage. The voluminous works on informal housing xxxvi, urban informal sector xxxvii and intermediate technology xxxviii had provided essential supports for formulating policy goals in the fields of housing, services and employment. Aspects of John Turners work that matched with the World Bank policies for RWG are: the need for self-help contributions; the incorporation of progressive 7

development procedures; the reduction in housing standards; access to financial resources; and access to and development of appropriate technologies and building materials. The initiatives that developed from these policy objectives are: sites-and-service and self-help housing projects; core housing, slum and squatter upgrading; the stimulation of informal sector activities and small-scale enterprises in project areas; access to financial, managerial and technical assistance; regularization of tenure and the extended provision of public services. Housing intervention became intersectoral in response to the urban poor households physical, social and economic needs.xxxix Housing Local: Bangladeshs involvement in the new development paradigmRWG and Basic Needswas disrupted and delayed for two main reasons; first, the war-reconstruction efforts under severe financial constraints; second, the adoption of a socialist economy in the First Five Year Plan (1973-1978) leading to the nationalization of the private industries. A highly restrictive trade regime was put into practice alongside nationalization of the private industries toward an import-substitution industrialization strategy of the government. xl But a change of political regime in 1975 led the national economys gradual shifting from the earlier nationalization to privatization of the industries. The shift from the import-substitution to export-oriented industrialization had taken place in response to the structural transformation of the global economy. A brief review of the implications of the pre- and post-1975 economic scenario for housing is outlined below to later elaborate their identified imprints on housing. Partly entangled by the promise and high hopes of independence euphoria, partly handicapped by a local policy vacuum, the state in Dhaka had continued the path of the earlier public housing provision approach. The state in its formative years attempted to address the housing problem in Dhaka through the supply-side. From 1972 to 1973, the state had constructed 27,000 dwelling units throughout the country of which 4303 units were built in Mirpur; after 700 units were occupied, the entire project was invaded. While a survey report xli on the state of the squatters in three major cities in Bangladesh, carried out in 1974, was submitted in 1976 the Dhaka city authorities had already completed a squatter eviction drive in 1975. An estimated 172,589 squatters comprising 24,757 families in 119 locations were forcibly evicted followed by their planned rehabilitation in three different peripheral locations around Dhaka. xlii In the post-1975 economic scenario, export-oriented industrialization was most evident in the expanding Readymade Garments (RMG) units in Dhaka. Under pervasive rural poverty, RMG industries had attracted an influx of cheap urban labour force, women in particular, in Dhaka. During the initial years of the liberalized trade regime, new housing demands of the labourers as well as the entrepreneurs were created in the informal and formal sector housing respectively. The formal housing market duly met the entrepreneurs effective demand but failed the labourers only to be catered by the informal sector squatters. Reference to an absence of the distributional consequences of economic growth is essential for discussing imprints on housing. Divestiture of public sector enterprises and cheap credit through Development Finance Institutions (DFI) were the two major state interventions in promotion of the private sector industrialization.xliii But a section of the entrepreneurs deliberate failure to repay the loansdefaultingled to a situation which the economists declined to identify as primitive accumulation of capital.xliv A part of the usurped loans ended up as investments in and consumptions of housing. Economists incisive note reveals that A part [of loans] went into local real estate investment, and financing of a lavish life style quite incommensurate with the modest social origins of a large section of this class (authors emphasis). xlv Distinct imprints on housing in Dhaka made under the RWG and Basic Needs strategy relate to the following expansion, upgradation and transformation of housing. 8

Expansion of Housing: The earlier sites-and-service housing schemes for the high- and uppermiddle income groups in Dhaka were continued through state land acquisition and development. Supply of land through Uttara and Baridhara planned residential area developments were made with state subsidy. State initiated squatter eviction followed by planned resettlement programme in the peripheries of Dhaka had indeed contributed to the supply of land for self-help housing of the low-income people. As most of the rehabilitated poor households were seen to return Dhaka to live close to their place of work, the allotment of the land changed hands several times. Upgradation of Housing: City-wide steady formation of slums and squatter settlements since independence in 1971 has had made Dhaka appeared a city of slums; slums proliferated due to urban poor households failure to access housing either through state provision or formal market. A 1996 survey reports the formation of slums in Dhaka during the 1971-1980 and 1981-1990 periods were 26 and 45.5 per cent respectively; the figures for the pre-1971 and post-1990 are 10.5 and 18 per cent respectively. xlvi Dhakas initial reaction to the slum formation was eviction by rehabilitation; later responses, however, were directed toward provision of urban basic services; UNICEF-Dhaka had played a vital role in focusing the urban poors needs, womens in particular, for urban basic services than shelter per se. Instead of assisted self-help housing schemes slum upgradation emerged as a key form of intervention in Dhaka but without tackling the land tenure issue. Transformation of Housing: Since the mid 1980s, private real estate developers were gradually gaining momentum in the scale of their operation. At the advent of the private sector developers, multi-storey and multi-family apartment as a specific housing typology emerged in Dhaka. Apartment construction initiated a transformation of housing from the earlier low-rise single-user to walk-up multi-family housing. This transformation of housing, however, had not yet gained momentum in different planned residential areas, Dhanmondi in particular, as late as in 1991. xlvii

Neo-liberalism (1990 - )
Development Global: A global economic slump during the early 1980s had significantly reduced the growth rates in developing countries due to the following conditions: reduced demand in developing countries; high interest rates on ever-increasing debts; a dramatic decline in foreign capital inflows; and declining foreign investment rates. xlviii They produced a decline in standards of living, and worsening rates and levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality in cities in developing countries. As a way out of this crisis a new macroeconomic development strategy had emerged. Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP) became dominant xlix, and was based on the neoliberal supply-side theories of development. The basic goals of structural adjustment strategies set for developing countries include: to restore the countrys balance of payments situation; to increase its debt-service capacity; to attract foreign investment; to achieve economic growth by restructuring trade and financial flows.l Loans to developing countries by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were made conditional upon their acceptance of these adjustment measures. Developing countries had shifted from their earlier import-substitution to export-oriented industrialization strategies to produce goods and provide services for the developed country markets. Transnational corporations, and their local agents, engaged the cities and their cheap labours in developing countries for producing goods for export to the west. In contrast to the earlier urban bias perception, a renewed interest was placed on cities. A growing realization that the primacy of market in generating economic growth had not been tackling urban poverty contributed to provide exclusive focus on urban poverty. li Acknowledging the significance of 9

cities, global development agencies came to a consensus to harmonize urban policies and national development policies by devising strategies to increase urban productivity, alleviate urban poverty and ensure good governance. lii Housing Global: In the late eighties global housing policy scenario changed significantly from the earlier Habitat I policies under the neo-liberal development doctrine. A neo-liberal analysis of the failure of the earlier affordability-cost-recovery-replicability model had provided a basis for a new set of (urban) policies. Significance was now attached to policy, institutional, and managerial reforms instead of the earlier brick and mortar approach for housing the poor. A shift from the earlier site specific project to sector- or city-wide programme consideration came into place. UNHabitat and World Bank initiated housing policy measures reflected the general goals of the neoliberal analysis: elimination of supply- and demand-side constraints; withdrawal of the state and encouragement of privatization; elimination and targeting of subsidies; deregulation and regulatory reforms; institutional capacity-building; increased participation; and political/administrative decentralization. liii The concept of enablement attained a central position in the neo-liberal thought on housing. The earlier problem of up-scaling the housing projects to meet the growing need was thought to be addressed through market enablement. Housing was left to the market to be taken care of as the principle demand- and supply-side constraints on the housing market arise due to direct state provision or production. The state, therefore, ought to withdraw from the direct production and provision, and facilitate or enable the private sector, formal and informal, to provide land, housing and services. The state should assume the regulatory and coordinating roles. Previous experiences and a series of UN conferences during the first half of the 1990s made a ground to shift from Global Shelter Strategys (GSS) market-based approach to Habitat Agendas right-based approach adopted in Habitat II in 1996. Global housing policy goals have now been realigned within a neo-liberal perspective in Habitat II in 1996 by taking into account the emerging concerns of sustainability. liv Housing Local: Dhaka grew in significance for national development as a location of economic growth producing sectors since the late 1980s; notable among the private sector include: the rapidly growing RMG in the industrial and housing in the construction sectors. Their respective contributions to the national GDP were significant. The share of real estate and housing sector and construction sector as percentage of GDP during the financial year 2002 were 8.3 and 8.0 respectivelylv. While the growth of GDP in Bangladesh during 1992-2002 was 4.6 the growths of real estate and housing sector and construction sector during the same period were 3.4 and 7.5 respectively. Investments in housing and construction sector accounted for 47.3 per cent of the total private investments. Liberalization of trade and commerce, as adjustment measures, helped the private sectors importing foreign as well as producing local building materials. The first concrete step towards adopting a neo-liberal housing strategy was the preparation of the National Housing Policy (NHP); the draft NHP was completed in 1993, and later amended in 2004. The formulation of NHP was initiated in compliance with the state commitment to GSS. The making of a neo-liberal housing strategy was further consolidated with the completion of two major policy documents in the same year. The first document was the Urban Shelter Sector Review carried out with UNDP and UNCHS technical and financial assistance;lvi the second document was the ADB assisted Housing Sector Institutional Strengthening Project.lvii It became apparent, again, that the economic growth through increasing global integration has had failed to abolish poverty and arrest income disparity in Dhaka. The benefits of trade liberalization 10

and privatization had accrued within a small section of society in the context of the commercialization of politics. lviii Although urban poverty had reduced in percentage of total urban population but increased in absolute numbers. Manifest concentration of poverty in slums and squatters has been a constant reminder to the international donors and national policy makers for urgent intervention. Concern for urban poverty, especially the urban poors access to basic urban services remained as important as in the previous development paradigms. The neo-liberal scheme for the alleviation of poverty in Dhaka became more comprehensive than the past efforts as evident in the following two ADB assisted efforts: the Urban Poverty Study in Bangladesh in 1995 lix and the Urban Poverty Reduction Project in 1996. lx Understanding of and actions for the urban poor living and livelihoods are among the key issues addressed in these documents. The first half of the 1990s had been a busy period of policy formulations and institutional reforms in tune with the neo-liberal (global) policy objectives in facilitating the private housing sector. The produced documents are objective, egalitarian and politically correct; they are an idealization of what should and ought to be in ensuring peoples access to housing. The problem, however, is the gap between what has been spelled out in the document and what actually happened in reality. While they assign the task of meeting the housing need to the market by giving the regulatory and coordinating roles to the state, market failure in absence of enablers has been the reality as far as low-income peoples access to housing is concerned. Donor-assisted government efforts aim toward policy and institutional reforms to prepare Dhaka's operating in a neo-liberal development scenario. The state involvement as a major provider of land contradicts its enabling intentions. In development planning terms, neo-liberalism has set an agenda for Dhaka to increase productivity through provision of infrastructure and alleviation of poverty with support of good governance. As Bangladesh hinged toward an export-oriented industrialization policy, RMG sector had made significant expansion of its share of the total national export earnings. The number of readymade garments firm increased from 4 in 1976 to 2313 in 1997. lxi In 1997, RMG sector contributed nearly three billion US dollars or 68 per cent of the national export earnings. It became apparent since the early 1980s that to maintain a competitive edge at the global market RMG units have to be located in and around Dhaka, among others, for their cheap labour force had to be accommodated within slums and squatters. Presence of cheap labour force for RMG and other formal and informal sector activities is increased at the cost of the quality of their living. Economic success of the entrepreneurs in the RMG and other sectors had created an effective demand for housing in Dhaka that has mainly been catered by the private sector real estate developers. A 2000 study reported the need of 20,000 better housing units for the RMG middle and high ranking managers. lxii If other cases in the industrial and service sectors, besides RMG sector, are considered then the effective housing demand in the private sector increases many-folds. We would now discuss the specific imprints the neo-liberal development strategies have on housing in Dhaka under the auspices of a series of institutional reforms. De-Housing of the Urban Poor: Since the late 1990s, continuous squatter evictions without rehabilitation have reduced the absolute space available for the urban poor housing (Table 1). As a result, the urban poor are pushed to the peripheral area and forced either to floating homelessness or over-crowding in the inner-city slums and squatters. An indication of over-crowding is evident in the increasing number of households living in lesser average floor area. In 1974 around 41 per cent households lived in less than 100 sq.ft area; this figure has increased successively from 65 per cent to 81 per cent in 1995 and 2005 respectivelylxiii. Besides floor space, squatter evictions had abolished the slum improvement initiatives provision of urban basic services to the urban poor households.

11

Table 1: Declining Profile of the Squatter Settlements in Dhaka lxiv

Year 2005a 1995
b

Slum Population 3,420,321 (DMA) 1,104,600 (DMA) 1,010,042 (DMC) 730,000 (DMC)

Total Land (in acre) 3840 1038 1340 600

Density (person per acre) 891 1064 665 1216

Slums in Public and Private Land (in percentage) 9.0 22.5 29.2 29.4 and 89.8 and 77.4 and 65.1 and 63.9

1988c 1982
d

Note: DMA and DMC refer to Dhaka Metropolitan Area and Dhaka Metropolitan Corporation respectively.

Distortion of Land Supply: Land in Dhaka is a scarce commodity, and the most important factor of production than capital, labour and technology. The public supply of developed land for housing has been limited, and argued to cause market distortion by its selling below the market price. The distortion of land supply by the private housing sector in Dhaka, on the other hand, is caused by its observed nature of supply land piracy, land poaching and wet-land filling. In land piracy, land becomes an item of illegal encroachment of government land by the vested interest group, often mediated by rampant corruption and political protection. In land poaching, large private land developers force small land owners to sell off their lands. In land filling, large private land developers fill up designated wet-lands surrounding Dhaka for township developments. The distortion of private land supply creates environmental externalities by defying existing law. Reorganization of Formal Housing: The high effective demand for formal housing that has been created by the affluence of the neo-liberal regime contributed to the reorganization of formal housing in Dhaka to the extent of redefining the urban landscape. Market led densification initiates this reorganization that is most evident in the near complete transformation of Dhakas planned residential areas from low-rise single user residences to multi-storied and multi-family apartments. Private formal housing became a packaged commodity in this reorganization.

Endnote
This paper traced and narrated the changing doctrines, and the imprints they have had marked on housing in Dhaka. It has shown how the local housing in Dhaka has increasingly been linked to the broader global situations. Discussion of this paper provides a basis toward mapping the broad project of the social production of housing in Dhaka.

During Mughal period sair duties included various duties like those imposed on buying and selling of products in markets and trade, on produce of rivers and tanks, duties on salts and elephants and receipt from zakats. See for details A. Karim, Mughal Revenue System, in S. Islam (ed.) History of Bangladesh 17041971. Vol. 2 Economic History (Dhaka, 1992), p. 166. See excerpt from Ain-i-Akbari, vol. II, 46 cited in A. Karim, ibid, p. 165.

ii iii

A. H. Kidwai, Urban Atrophy in Colonial India: Some Demographic Indicators, in I. Banga (ed.) The City in Indian History (New Delhi, 2005), p. 152.

K. M. Ashraf, Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan, New Delhi, 1970, p. 124-125 cited in J. S. Grewal, Historical Writing on Urbanization in Medieval India, in I. Banga (ed.) The City in Indian History (New Delhi, 2005), p. 70. A. Karim, Origin and Development of Mughal Dhaka, in S. U. Ahmed (ed.) Dhaka. Past Present Future (Dhaka, 1991), p. 28.
v

iv

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vi vii

S. U. Ahmed, Dacca. A Study in Urban History and Development (London, 1986), p. 24.

See S. P. Blake, Dar-ul-Khilafat-i-Shahjahanabad; The Padshahi Shahar in Mughal India: 1556-1739 (Chicago, 1974), p. 15 cited in H. Spodek Studying the History of Urbanization in India, Journal of Urban History, Vol. 6 (3), pp.251-295. I. M. Khan, Alternative Approach to the Redevelopment of Old Dacca, Ph.D. thesis (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,, 1982).
ix x viii

S. U. Ahmed, ibid, p. 11.

T. Raychaudhuri, Non-Agricultural Production: Mughal India, in T. Raychaudhuri and I. Habib. (eds.) The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. 1: c.1200-c.1750 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 284.
xi

See S. Hossain, Echoes From Old Dhaka, Bengal Past and Present, 111, (April-June, 1909), p. 231 quoting Rahman Ali Taish, Tarikh-i-Dhakha cited in S. U. Ahmed, ibid, p. 13. B. Chaudhuri, Agrarian Relations: Eastern India, In D. Kumar and M. Desai (eds.) The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. 2: c.1757-c.1970 (Cambridge, 1983), p. 88.

xii

xiii

S. Islam, Permanent Settlement and Peasant Economy, in S. Islam (ed.) History of Bangladesh, 17041971, Vol. 2 Economic History (Dhaka, 1992), p. 248.

I. Habib, Bharat Barsher Itihas Prasanga (Essays in Indian History-Towards Marxist Perception) (Kolkata, 2004).
xv

xiv

From total revenue of 19.8 million pound, collected during 1851-52, only 0.17 million pounds was invested on roads, embankments, bridges and other public well being projects. See Marxs New York Herald-Tribune letter on 23rd July, 1858. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1858/07/23.htm retrieved on 12.10.2009. S. U. Ahmed, ibid, p.129. ibid, p. 125. ibid, p. 147.

xvi xvii

xviii xix

S. Islam, Social Life in Dhaka, 1763-1800, in S. U. Ahmed (ed.) Dhaka. Past Present Future (Dhaka, 1991).
xx xxi xxii

See Note No. 12, ibid, p. 87. S. U. Ahmed, ibid. A. D. King, The Bungalow: the Production of a Global Culture (London, 1984).

For an account of Garden Houses (Bagan Bari) see S. Chattopadhyay (2007), The Other Faces of Primitive Accumulation, in P. Scriver, and V. Prakash (eds.) Colonial Modernities. Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon (London, 2007).
xxiv

xxiii

V. T. Oldenburg, Peril, Pestilence and Perfidy: The Making of Colonial Lucknow, 1856-1877, Ph.D. dissertation (University of Illinois, 1979) cited in H. Spodek, ibid, p. 162. For a detail discussion see A. Hoogvelt, Globalization and the Postcolonial World. The new political economy of development (Baltimore, 2001). D. Harrison, The Sociology of Modernization and Development (London, 1988).

xxv

xxvi xxvii

See D. Slater, Geopolitics and the Post-colonial. Rethinking North-South Relations (Oxford, 2004); A. Escobar, Encountering Development: Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton, 1995); W. Sachs (ed.), The Development Dictionary. A Guide to Knowledge and Power (London, 1996).
xxviii xxix xxx

A. Hoogvelt, ibid, p.35.

W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (London, 1960). Ibid. S. Minoprio and P. W. Macfarlen, Master Plan for Dhaka (London, 1959).

Works Department, Low Cost Public Housing Programme (Dhaka, 1968).

xxxi xxxii

xxxiii

H. B. Chenery, J. H. Duloy, and R. Jolly (eds.), Redistribution with Growth: Policies to Improve Income Distribution in Developing Countries in the Context of Economic Growth (Oxford, 1974).

R. Burgess, Helping Some to Help Themselves: Third World Housing Policies and Development Strategies, in C. Mathey (ed.) Beyond Self Help Housing (London, 1992).

xxxiv

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xxxv

R. Burgess, M. Carmona and T. Kolstee (eds.) The Challenge of Sustainable Cities. Neoliberalism and Urban Strategies in Developing Countries (London, 1997).

J. F. C. Turner did pioneering works on informal housing; see J. F. C. Turner, Barriers and Channels for housing Development in Modernising Countries, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 33 (3), pp. 354-63; J. F. C. Turner, Housing by People (London, 1976).
xxxvii

xxxvi

International Labuor Office (ILO), Meeting Basic Needs (Geneva, 1975). E. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (London, 1974).

xxxviii xxxix

See for a review of the issues in S. Ghafur, Beyond Homemaking: The Role of Slum Improvement in Home-based Income Generation in Bangladesh, Third World Planning Review, Vol. 23 (2), 2001, pp. 111135. S. Raihan, Trade liberalization and poverty in Bangladesh, Macao Regional Knowledge Hub, Working Papers, No. 15, 2008.

xl

Urban Development Directorate (UDD), Squatters in Bangladesh Cities. A survey of urban squatters in Dacca, Chittagong and Khulna 1974 (Dhaka, 1976).
xlii

xli

The squatter resettlement projects at Tongi, Damra and Bhashantek had been designed at sites of 100, 103 and 88 acres respectively; the number of plots developed in these projects was 4063, 4000 and 4000 respectively. For details see C. L. Chouguill, New Communities for Urban Squatters. Lessons from the Plan that Failed in Dhaka, Bangladesh (New York, 1987). A. Abdullah (ed.), Modernisation at Bay. Structure and Change in Bangladesh (Dhaka, 1991), p. 21. Ibid, p. 25. A. Abdullah, ibid, p. 26. ADB-GOB-LGED, Urban Poverty Reduction Project, Draft Final Report (Dhaka, 1996), p. 5.

xliii xliv xlv xlvi xlvii

An observation on 39 developers in 1991 reports only 9 out of their total 89 projects were located in different planned residential areas in Dhaka 6 and 3 in Dhanmondi and Banani respectively. T. M. Seraj and M. S. Alam, Housing Problem and Apartment Development in Dhaka City, in S. U. Ahmed (ed.) Dhaka. Past Present Future (Dhaka, 1991). R. Burgess, M. Carmona and T. Kolstee, Contemporary Macroeconomic Strategies and Urban Policies in Developing Countries: A Critical Review, in R. Burgess et al, ibid. P. Streeten, Structural Adjustment: A Survey of Issues and Options, World Development, Vol. 15 (12), 1987, pp.1469-82.
l li xlix xlviii

R. Burgess et al, ibid, p. 18.

One influential critique of SAP was offered by G. A. Cornia, R. Jolly and F. Stewart, Adjustment with a Human Face (Oxford, 1987). The most significant documents are UNCHS, Global Shelter Strategy to the Year 2000 (Nairobi, 1991); UNDP, Cities, People and Poverty: Urban Development Cooperation for the 1990s (New York, 1991); World Bank, Urban Policy and Economic Development, an Agenda for the 1990s (Washington D.C, 1991). R. Burgess, M. Carmona and T. Kolstee, Contemporary Spatial Strategies and Urban Policies in Developing Countries: A Critical Review, in Burgess et al, ibid, pp.114-115.
liv liii lii

UN-Habitat, The Habitat Agenda and Istanbul Declaration, Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (New York, 1996).

CPD, Strengthening the Role of Private Sector Housing in Bangladesh Economy: The Policy Challenges, paper presented to the dialogue organised by Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), March 11 (Dhaka, 2003).
lvi lvii lviii

lv

UNDP-UNCHS, Bangladesh Urban and Shelter Sector Review (Dhaka, 1993). GOB-ADB, Housing Sector Institutional Strengthening Project. Final Report (Dhaka, 1993).

M. Hossain, R. Afsar and M. L. Bose, Growth and Distribution of Income and Incidence of Poverty in Dhaka City (Dhaka, 1999); R. Sobhan, From Two Economics to Two Societies, The Daily Star, 25 August (Dhaka, 1998); S. Ghafur, For Whom are Our Cities?, The Daily Star, October 7(Dhaka, 1999).
lix

N. Islam, N. Huda, F. B. Narayan and P. B. Rana (Eds.), Addressing the Urban Poverty Agenda in Bangladesh. Critical Issues and the 1995 Survey Findings (Dhaka, 1997).

14

lx lxi

ADB-GOB-LGED, Urban Poverty Reduction Project. Draft Final Report (Dhaka, 1996).

K. Mainuddin, Case of the Garment Industry of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Urban Partnership Background Series 6 World Bank (Dhaka, 2000).
lxii lxiii

ibid, p.21.

Figures are taken from the following sources: UDD, ibid, p. 65; N. Islam et al, ibid, p. 205; CUS et al, ibid, p.40. The figures are the taken from the following sources in order of citations: (a) CUS, Measure Evaluation and NIPORT, Slums of Urban Bangladesh: Mapping and Census, 2005. Draft Report (Dhaka, 2006); (b) ADB-GOB-LGED, ibid; (c) A. Q. M.Mahbub and N. Islam, The Growth of Slum in Dhaka City: A SpatioTemporal Analysis, in S. U. Ahmed (ed.) Dhaka. Past Present Future (Dhaka, 1991); (d) CUS, Slums in Dhaka City. A Socio-economic Survey for Feasibility of Slum Clearance and Urban Renewal Programme in Dhaka City (Dhaka, 1983).
lxiv

15