Housing Problem in Bangladesh
Introduction: A house is a place where a man lives. A house can be used for other purposes but usually, housing means to provide a dwelling place to them.
The
necessity of a house: Housing is one of the basic needs of
man. A man needs a house to keep his body and soul together. We live in houses
in order to protect ourselves from heat and cold. Houses also protect us from
rain and storm. Some people need houses to protect themselves from floods and
wild animals as well. Houses keep us comfortable and happy. But the irony is
that a large number of people in Bangladesh have no house of their own.
Houses
of different sizes and shapes: in Bangladesh, all
houses are not alike. There are houses of different sizes and shapes here. Some
are big, and some are small. Some houses have only one room. Some have many. The
roofs of some houses are flat while those of other houses are sloping. People
make the slop of the roof in order to let the rainwater run away quickly.
House
building materials: in Bangladesh houses are made from
different things. Here people build their houses with whatever things they can
get easily. In villages, most people build their houses with bamboo, rope, straw, and mud. The richer section of people builds houses of corrugated iron sheets.
In order to build such a house one needs sheets of corrugated iron, wood,
nails, and screws.
Manifold
problems in housing: The first thing that is needed to build
a house is money. But the greater part of our people is poor and many of them do have not the money to build houses to live in. Moreover, many poor people are
landless. They have no land where to build houses. So, a certain percentage of
our population is not only ill-fed and ill-clad but also houseless. Providing
dwelling houses to a vast population has become a Herculean task, which defies
all attempts at solutions. Secondly, flood visits our country almost every year.
Flood water washes away or damages a lot of houses every year. The flood of
1988 and 1998 alone fully devastated 47 lakh houses and partly damaged 93 lakh
houses. Thirdly, many people living by the side of the mighty Padma, the Meghna, and the Jamuna lose their houses to the strong currents and waves of these
rivers. Fourthly, as a result of the enormous consumption of firewood for cooking
our forests are losing so many of their trees that there is an acute shortage
of wood and timber required for the house-building purpose. Fifthly, the problems
have become more acute in urban areas. Service-holders spend a major portion of
their earnings on accommodation purposes. A good number of homeless people live
in make-shift slums, in the streets, in railway stations, and in railway wagons.
Some
relieving measures: Recently, the government has taken a number
of steps to solve housing problems. The project ‘Ashrayan Prokalpa” is a popular
one. Many rootless people are getting shelter in the housing project in
different parts of the country. Under Cluster Village Programmes a good number
of landless and homeless families are provided. In urban areas, an ambitious
project to build multi-storied houses to give accommodation to families of
small means is being carried out.
Conclusion: The housing problem is a burning problem for Bangladesh and calls for an immediate solution. If all the citizens of the country are not provided with the necessary shelter, our efforts for national development will prove futile. Proper planning for housing both in the towns and villages may mitigate this problem.
