URBANIZATION IN BANGLADESH

Urbanization is an inevitable and unavoidable feature in the process of

development. Urbanization is positively correlated with the economic
growth of nations has also been rather obvious.
Over 50% of GNP of developing countries is generated by towns and
cities (UNCHS). The figure is likely to increase to two third by the
turn of the century.
Bangladesh even at the beginning of the twenty first century remains a
rural country with an economy which is predominantly agrarian.
Over 60% of the country's labor forces are directly or indirectly
dependent on agriculture while 75% of the country's population still
live in officially defined rural areas (BBS, 1998).

On the other hand the contributions of the rural non-farm

sector and the urban sector have gone up significantly. The
importance of the urban sector particularly has been
remarkable. It increased from a more 25.32% to 35.39%
between 1971-1972 and 1991-92 at constant price.

Per capita income level in urban areas is more than double

of that of rural areas.

There are obviously many positive benefits of urbanization

in all these areas. But there are also concomitant negative
consequences of urbanization although urbanization
creates more employment but all employments are not
socially endorsable.

The growth of urban population in Bangladesh has been at

the order of over of 6% annually since 1961.

Table 1: Urbanization and Urban Growth in Bangladesh

Level of
Urbanization
(%)

Year

Urban growth (%)

15.1

10.3

1990

20.1

5.4

2000

26.5

4.8

2005

29.8

4.4

2010

33.3

4.0

2015

36.8

3.6

1981

URBANIZATION AND URBAN GROWTH

Bangladesh is characterized by low level of urbanization
with about 20% of the nations population living in the
urban areas in 1991, compared to the Asian average of
over 30%, which however has experienced one of the most
rapid rates of growth during the last 3 decades. Even with
a projected declining trend the urban growth rate would
not be less than 45 until 2010 or 3.6% until 2015.

Components of Urban Growth

The rapid Growth of urbanization in Bangladesh has

happened due to number of factors, such as:
1. A high natural increase of native urban population;
2. The territorial extension of existing urban areas, and a
change in definition of the urban areas; and
3. Rural to urban migration.

Growth of Urban Population and the

Future
Table 2: National and Urban Population in Bangladesh 1901-2015.

National Population (million)

Urban Population (million)

28.1

0.70

1951

44.17

1.83

1974

7637

6.00

1990

113.7

22.9

2000

141.1

37.3

2005

155.8

46.4

2010

170.5

56.8

2015

184.6

67.9

Year
1901

Source: Bangladesh Population Census, 1997.

Factors of Migration:

Both rural push and urban pull factors caused

large scale migration from the rural to urban
areas. The larger metropolitan centers, more
particularly Dhaka, have been the major
attraction.
Rural poverty and landlessness are the major
factors for the rural out migration. The rural
push becomes strong. Natural hazard like river
bank erosion, cyclones, tornadoes, tidal surges,
droughts and floods are the triggering factors.
The urban pull factors are the real
opportunities for the employment, security,
education and other social development in urban
areas. Marriage of rural women to rural urban
migrants is yet another major pull factor.
A high proportion of migrants to major cities have come from a
few district. Both rural poverty and their proximity to Dhaka
have been the major reasons for the migrants rush to the
capital.

Growth of Urban Centers:

According to the new definition an urban area in Bangladesh
was considered to be:
A municipality, cantonment and any other place of
collection of contiguous houses inhabited by not less than
5000 people;
All Upazial headquarters irrespective of population size,
and
Major hats and bazaars with electricity.
Bangladesh has 522 urban centers (GOB, 1991 census). At
the beginning of this century (1901) there were only 48 such
centers in the present Bangladesh region.
The spatial pattern of Urban centers in Bangladesh is fairly
well balanced, in the sense that almost all 64 districts have a
city or town of reasonable size, and old 460 thanas have at
least one small town.

Table 3: Number of Urban Areas by Size Classes (1901-2001)

2001
Size of urban
place

1901

1921

1951

1981

1991

All size

48

50

63

491

522 I

Above 1 million

I lakh-999999

14

23

25 000-100000

16

66

92

Below 24999

46

43

45

409

405

Table 4: Level of Urbanization and

Per Capita GDP by Districts
Districts

Level of
urbanization (%)

Per Capita GDP

(1985)

Dhaka

51.64

981

Chittagong

35.2

1254.6

Svlhet

9.54

850.9

Raj shahi

15.3

790.7

Comilla

8.9

780.2

Social implications of Urbanization:

Labor force, employment and unemployment:

It has been that rapid changes have taken place in the supply
as well as the demand side of the urban labor market since
1972. While the supply side was abundantly satisfied by the
flow of rural migrants, the demand came from the many
new enterprises in the formal sector, but more from the
informal sector.

The urban Poors income:

It has already been noted earlier that more than 50% of the
urban population in Bangladesh fall below the poverty line
income.

Health condition:

The health conditions in urban slum settlements are

extremely poor and hazardous for both slum dwellers and
other citizens. The dense and squalid environments with
little or no essential health and sanitary facilities breed a
host of communicable as well as non-communicable
diseases. At any time 30% to 46% of the population in
urban poor communities suffers from a disease.
Education:
In the field of literacy and education, the urban areas in
general show better record than the rural areas, or the
national average. This is expected. In 1981 literacy rate at
the national level was only 23.8% while for urban areas it
was significantly higher, 34.8%.

Water:
Existing situation in urban water supply and sanitation is not at all
satisfactory. Household in different categories of urban centers in
Bangladesh Obtain drinking water from different sources, with less
than one-fourth of the households in all urban areas having house
connections.

Sanitation:
Only small minority of urban population has access to modern
sanitation system. The sewerage system is found only in Dhaka.
Even in this city only 15 percent of households have access to
sewage lines. In other towns various arrangements are in practice,
including septic tank system as well as pit latrines, bucket latrines
etc.
In the upazila Towns about 21 percent of households use septic
tanks. A lot of people, particularly the poor, have no proper fixed
toilets or latrines. As in the case of water facilities in many slums in
Dhaka city, more than a hundred families are forced to share a
single latrine and on payment.

Energy:
In Bangladesh energy resources are very limited and it has
great demand to household, there is also a large demand for
energy for the industrial, transportation and commercial
sectors. Already, all the urban areas are experiencing
shortage in power supply.
Garbage Disposal:
In the case of garbage disposal, except for large cities like
Dhaka and Chittagong, there is hardly any proper
arrangement for collection and disposal of garbage in urban
areas. Even in Dhaka, the garbage collection and disposal
management is unsatisfactory, heaps of rotten garbage are
normal sights along city streets or neighborhood lanes.
People are forced to coexist with garbage in the city.
Transport:
Urban development depends heavily on the transportation
system. Unfortunately this essential infrastructure is very
poorly developed, in the urban areas, of Bangladesh. The
popular form of public urban mass transport in Bangladesh
is the bus. Although water transport is the cheapest mode of
transport.

Urban Pollution:
Pollution in urban areas is primarily manifest in the quality
of water and air. But noise beyond a particular level is also a
serious health and social hazard and therefore considered
Pollution. All types of pollution are increasing at an
accelerated rate, particularly in large cities. Some of the
Pollution levels are very high, yet people seem to have
accepted these with a sense of helplessness and indifference.
Housing Conditions:
The overall urban residential density, occupancy ratio and
the structural condition of houses have all assumed critical
situations. Residential densities have increased manifold
even in the upper income and middle income areas by the
process of filtering and densification. The occupancy rate of
the average number of occupants per housing unit- in. urban
areas increased from 5.84 in 1961 to over 7.07 in 1981 and a
probable 7.50 in 1991.

Slums and Squatters:

The highly limited access to land for housing, the
high cost of housing materials, coupled with the
rapid growth of population mainly through the
immigration of the rural poor, have caused the
growth and proliferation of innumerable urban
slums and squatter settlements.

Open Space, Recreation Space and Space

for Socio-Cultural Political Assembly:
The urban environment becomes physically and
socially unbearable if adequate proportion of land
is not planned or kept aside as open space. For a
large city this proportion may amount to more
than 10 percent.

Consequences of Urbanization

Urbanization and urban growth have both positive and negative

consequences and impacts.
A. The Positive Consequences:
Many urban centers in Bangladesh are in fact vulnerable to natural
environmental hazards, like river bank-erosion, cyclone, flood and
even earthquake. But it is also true that because of their high
economic importance ell) the public opinion in favor of saving
cities is stronger than saving rural areas.
1. Saving on Land:
In Bangladesh, urban settlements occupy about 7% of the
land area but accommodate 25% of the population; this is due to
the compactness of urban settlements and the high density
of
population in such settlements. The population of the
country
would continue to grow for several more decades,
urbanization w I thIi its high density is the only comparative
relief as it saves some land.

2. Economic Benefits:
Due to higher productively and value addition, urban areas contribute
comparatively more to the national economy in proportion to the rural
population. Urban average income is more than double that of rural
average income. However, average expenditure is also higher in urban
areas.

3. Demographic Benefits
Urbanization leads to reduction in family size, due to access to better
information and services of family planning methods on the one hand
and new occupational demands on women on the other.

4. Political Benefits
Cities are the cradles of democracy. This is true also today. All
democratic movements in Bangladesh had tailed in cities, particularly
from Dhaka. Cities also offer greater scope for civil society
movements, establishment of rights of people, including of women.
Urban local governments, such as city corporations and
municipalities, also foster democratic process.

5. Socio-cultural Benefits
Urbanization helps modernization through adaptation and other social
processes. This leads to social and cultural development. In a
developing country situation, access to education, particularly
education of better quality and higher level, is better in urban areas.
The urban literacy, life-styles, marriage pattern, development of
literature, music theatre, architecture, sculpture and painting largely
due to process of urbanization and metropolitan development.

6. Access to Modem Technology and Information

Urbanization has helped Bangladesh enter the information highways
and benefit from it. It has the possibility of large scale expansion from
Dhaka to other cities and later to smaller towns, as well.

B. Negative Consequences of Urbanization

Urbanization is not an unmixed blessing. Its negative consequences
are also of great concern. These assume critical role under situation of
rapid and uncontrolled or unplanned urban expansion. The negative
consequences can be grouped as the following:

1. Extreme pressure on Housing and Urban

Services
In Bangladesh, urbanization particularly rapid urbanization
within a situation of weak economic condition, such as
creates extreme pressure on housing and urban services like
education, health, transportation, water, sanitation,
electricity, fuel, garbage clearance, recreation etc. Pressure
on housing accompanied by poverty causes growth of slums
and squatter settlements.

2. Economic Consequences
While it is true that urbanization generates growth in the
economy, it also creates great inequality of income within
urban population. Income inequality in urban areas in
Bangladesh is higher than in rural areas.

C. Social Consequences

Among the many negative social consequences of

urbanization are the increase in the incidence of crime and
violence, drug, trafficking, and addiction, corruption and
prostitution, Some of these are associated with affluence
while the others with deprivation, frustration and bad
governance.

D. Cultural Consequences:

Unhealthy cultures make easy entry through urbanization.

Satellite TV has been a strong agent but there are also other
modes of entry. The situation could be even worse if the
country had adopted a more open tourism Policy like some
of the South- East Asian countries. The negative impact of
globalization is not insignificant.

E. Environmental Consequences:
Rapid urbanization without planning and
development control has resulted in massive
degradation in the urban environment. This is
obvious in pollution of air and water. There is also
high level of noise pollution and degradation of
land. Uncollected garbage adds also to increase in
noxious door. In large cities like Dhaka and
Chittagong, particularly Dhaka, air Pollution (in all
indicators) is one of the highest in the world.

That rapid growth of population of a massive scale

causes negative impact on environment is obvious in
Bangladesh both in its rural and urban areas.

TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS

Strategies for Urbanization and Urban
Development in Bangladesh:
1. National Urban System Development Strategy
2. Urban Planning and Management Strategies
Urban Planning:
a. Urban (Master) Plan and Planning Bodies:
b. Master Plans.
c. Planning Process and Peoples Participation:
d. Physical Planning Control Legislation:
e. Infrastructure Development:
f. Public toilet and public bath:
g. Urban land Policy: