Interventions for improving urban poor's living environment : focus on women participation in projects in Khulna City slum area, Bangladesh | |
| Author | Shamsad, Bushra |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-01-27 |
| Subject(s) | Urban poor--Bangladesh Women in community development--Bangladesh |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Rapid population growth in urban areas of Bangladesh including Khulna, the third largest city, caused by heavy influx of migrants from vast rural areas, has led to mushrooming of slums and squatters in lands of urban areas without any basic service facilities. Due to cultural and religious restriction in Bangladesh, especially in slum areas, women are mostly housewives, stay most of the time at home. Eventually women of the slum area are the main victims of acute shortage of infrastructure facilities that characterizes slum living, whereas men of slum areas can share some public facilities around their workplaces. Public policy interventions have come, focusing on women, to provide basic infrastructure facilities to mitigate the miserable living condition of the slum dwellers of the country. But these interventions are made with a preconception or expectation that slum community will be responsible for maintenance and improvement of the infrastructure and services. Against this backdrop, one research question for this thesis has been who is responsible in the slum area for maintenance and improvement of the service provisions arranged through a particular intervention. To answer the questions, this research took up a study of a poor community in the southwest part of Khulna city, Bangladesh. An exploratory was done on public interventions in place, the condition of living environment, existing condition of provided basic infrastructure and services, impact of the infrastructure and provided services on the community, particularly focusing on the role of the slum community women in intervention process for maintenance and improvement of provided basic infrastructure services. Overall assessment of study area women's quality regarding their educational background, capacity to receive infrastructure services, capability to express their opinion about their needs, capacity to communicate with others and their willingness to join for maintenance and improvement of their own living environment were also explored. The results indicate that poor environmental condition prevails in the settlement even after getting the provision of basic infrastructure and services. That is because within a short time after providing basic infrastructure services, most of the services are either fully destroyed or is in a very bad condition. Eventually there is not that much improvement in the community as it was expected by the projects. The analysis shows that service provision has a significant impact on the community especially on women. Women of the slum community are highly enthusiastic to take part for maintenance and improvement of provided services if they are properly organized. The analysis of the project mechanism shows that projects has the objectives to utilize women for planning and decision making but there is no specific strategy for utilizing the community women. In order to change this situation for the better, this study proposes some policy recommendations. They are given for the project staffs at the community level and for women groups at the slum community to increase women participation for an effective participation of women in the projects for improving the living environment of the slum areas. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Amin, A. T. M. Nurul |
| Examination Committee(s) | Earth, Barbara ;Sajor, Edsel |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology-Partial Scholarship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |