Impact of Rural Urban Migration in

Bangladesh: The Case of Dhaka City

Name: Khondokar Sabera Hamid
United International University (UIU), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Master in Development Economics (MDS)

Abstract:
The rapid growth of rural-urban migration (RUM) has been a common feature of the developing
countries. There are various reasons for its occurrence and these reasons may vary from country
to country. However, the consequences of this type of migration have similar effects for different
countries. RUM is the most crucial component of internal migration of any country. It poses
some problems in the rural as well as in the urban areas, even though there are benefits derived
from it (Ullah, 2003). In recent years, most of the cities in Bangladesh are experiencing rapid
urbanization and RUM is the most important factor behind it. Bangladesh is one of the highest
rates of growth of urban population. According to UN projection, the size of the urban
population will be about 100 million by the year 2025 (UNESCO, 2009). Millions of rural
people are migrating to divisional cities of Bangladesh. Migration to Dhaka, the capital city of
Bangladesh is the main focus of this paper. In this paper an attempt has been made to explore
why a large number of people from rural Bangladesh are migrating to this city and what are the
consequences of this movement on the physical and social environment of the city. Although the
consequences of RUM are diverse and deep, both at the urban destination and at the rural origin,
this study focuses only on the urban destination.

Key Words:
Rural Urban Migration, Urbanization, Population Growth, Dhaka City,

Part- A
Introduction:
Many Third World cities lack sanitary y sewage disposal, and about 50% of the people do not
have an adequate supply of drinking water. Furthermore, because most of these cities are in
tropical countries, where population growth is most rapid, and public health issues are
compounded. Bacteria thrive in temperatures of 75 Fahrenheit, or 24 Celsius and above. For
them, it is like living in an incubator.
Rural urban migration is the principle component of rapid and unplanned growth of towns and
cities in the developing countries. Gross disparities in socio-economic opportunity between
urban and rural areas and frequent natural disasters in some regions encourage large flow of
migrants from rural Bangladesh to the large cities. For various reasons Dhaka is an attractive
destination for the rural migrants. Migration to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is the focus
of this article which identifies the factors contributing to the migration process. The impact of
migration is diverse both at the urban destination and at the rural origin. At both ends there are
economic, demographic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts. This paper focuses on the
urban end. It examines the overall conditions of the underprivileged, poor migrants and the
consequences of migration on the physical and social environment on their choice of destination.
At independence in 1971 Bangladesh emerged as a country of a large population (approximately
70 million) with a low level of urbanization. Only about 4 percent of its population lived in urban
areas at that time. But a phenomenal growth in the urban population took place in the years
following independence. The urban trend remains almost similar today.
Urbanization in Bangladesh is characterized by the concentration of urban population in three
major metropolitan areas, namely Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna. The three cities together
account for nearly 50 percent of the nations total urban population. This is a strong case of

three- city primacy in urban population distribution. Dhaka alone contains over one- third of the
countrys total urban population. Dhaka maintained such single city primacy status for the last
several decades and is likely to do so in the near or even distant future unless very radical
programs are implemented for decentralized urbanization and reduction of the Dhaka- bound
migration flow.

Rural to Urban Migration and Urbanization:

There are some kinds of migration steam: rural-rural, rural-urban and urban rural. Poor people
move rural to rural res where agriculture work is available. But the main form migration in many
developing countries is rural urban migration, for example in Bangladesh two-thirds of all
migration is rural to urban and this flow is increasing very rapidly.
Migration is broadly defined as a relocation of residence for a specified duration and various
reasons (Hossain, 2001). Migration incorporates all kinds of movement of people from one place
to another. It may take place within a particular geographical boundary of a country and then
beyond its boundaries.
RUM is the movement of people from the country side to the urban centre. Migration may be
permanent in nature or it may be temporary. People may choose to migrate voluntarily or they
may be forced into it. Both at the urban destination and at the rural origin there are demographic,
economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of migration which is diverse and deep.
Rural-urban migration is the movement of people from the countryside to the city.
This causes two things to happen:
1. Urban growth - towns and cities are expanding, covering a greater area of land.
2. Urbanization - an increasing proportion of people living in towns and cities.
Urbanization is a continuous process through which rural peoples life style is migrated to
industrial and commercial areas. Urbanization refers to the concentration of people in cities
(many of the world's cities have populations of more than 5 million) and towns. A social trend in
which people adapt to life styles, residential patterns and cultural values of those who live in or
near cities. Urbanization is the process by which more and more people leave the countryside to
live in cities (Cambridge Dictionary).

Urbanization generally refers to a process in which an increasing proportion of an entire

population lives in cities and suburbs of cities. Historically, it has been closely connected with
industrialization. Urbanization initiates industrialization-led economic growth and transition
from agricultural-based income and employment to no-agriculture based livelihood
opportunities. Rapid urbanization causes shift in rural livelihood base and often result in
migration of the farm laborers to off-farm activities in the cities. Thus urbanization, migration
and development are inter-linked and the relationships between migration and urbanization,
between urbanization and development and between migration and development are well known.
The relationships are a two way phenomenon. With each pair one variable may be the cause as
well as the effect of the other.

Benefits and Costs of Urbanization:

Benefits:
Economies of scale arise as a result of economic growth. When suppliers and consumers are in
closer proximity to each other, this allows for savings in communications and transportation
costs. Large cities also offer a variety of employment opportunities with higher wages, all of
which may help accelerate the pace of technological innovation. Urban growth also allows
governments to provide services such as sanitation, water supply, electricity, and transportation
more efficiently.

Costs:
Against these benefits, a major consequence of rural-urban migration is excessive urbanization.
There is a very strong link between excessive urbanization and rural-urban migration. Migration
has increased urban populations significantly over the years. A common view held by
policymakers and economists in developing countries is that urban growth rates are excessive.
This view is brought about by the large numbers of unemployed or underemployed young people
in many Asian, African, and Latin American cities. Most economists however, believe that
urbanization is an inevitable consequence of rural stagnation and successful economic
development, not an undesirable force that must be suppressed. Migration instead should be
recognized as an equilibrating response to disequilibrium elsewhere in the economy. Excessive

urbanization leads to high rates of city congestion, crime and poor infrastructure such as proper
sewage systems, clean drinking water and other amenities. There is also the problem of chronic
unemployment which is also a key cause of crime, as people need to find ways of putting food
on their tables. Excessive urbanization has brought with it the creation of large slums and shanty
towns, as new migrants find it difficult to get proper housing. In developing countries, slum
settlements represent over one-third of the urban population; in many cases they account for
more than 60% of the urban total.
The cost of travel associated with large cities begins to rise as urbanization becomes excessive,
because congestion takes place which wastes resources such as time and fuel. The expansion of
cities causes the cost of providing basic services to increase; as a result the quality and
availability of existing services deteriorate rapidly. Excessive urbanization and the problems
associated with it are all examples of negative externalities. Negative externalities lead to market
inefficiency, which would cause market failure to occur. In the case of urbanization, market
failure can come in the form of excessive urbanization, or city sizes that are above the socially
desirable level. As the Economic Review states, this occurs because there is a divergence
between social costs and private costs. This is shown in the figure below:

The Cost of Migration and Excessive Urbanization:

MSC
Cost,
Rev

MPC

Po

MPB
Q*

Qo
Size of cities

In the figure, marginal social cost (MSC) is above marginal private cost (MPC), because the true
social cost is equal to the private cost plus the cost migration in excess has on a city by causing
overcrowding to occur. Since marginal social cost is greater than the marginal private cost, this
demonstrates that there is excessive migration. Potential migrants are faced with the choice of
whether or not they should leave the rural areas for the cities. They will migrate as long as their
benefits from migration exceed their costs. In other words they will migrate up to the point
where marginal private cost (MPC) is equal to marginal private benefit (MPB). This point is not
efficient because it takes place at Q0, while the efficient city size is Q*. The distance Q0-Q*
represents the excessive urbanization that takes place or the degree to which cities are too big.

Factors of Rural to Urban Migration in Bangladesh:

The factors of migration are characterized by two major categories - one is Pull and the other is Push.
According to Braun (2004), people tend to be pulled to the areas of prosperity and pushed from the areas
of decline. Push factors attribute to the negative characteristics operating at the centre of origin whereas
pull factors identify the positive characteristics at the centre of destination (Dalta, 2002).

Actually, migration is the combined effect of both push and pull factors (Everett, 1996). Within
Push-Pull Model push factors are operative at the rural end while pull factors are operative at the
urban destination. Push factors push people toward the cities and pull factors attract them. Urban
bias is held responsible for RUM (Han, 1999).
RUM is a multi-causal phenomenon. It is usually compound by environmental, social, economic,
political and other factors. Much of the literature on migration focuses on RUM as a result of
environmental or economic crises. But a large proportion of RUM are due to marriage and other
familial reasons (loses of husband, divorce, joining family/relatives etc).
The following table summarizes the findings of several studies (Islam, 1999; Ullah, 2003;
Haider, 2010) on factors of rural migration to urban Bangladesh.

People move because they think life will be better in Urban areas

There will be factors which PUSH them from where they live now (RURAL ORIGIN)

PULL them to a new place (URBAN DESTINATION)

Table: Push and pull factors of RUM in Bangladesh:

Push Factors

Landlessness
Adverse person to land ratio
Frequent and severe natural
disasters (drought, flood, monga,
river bank erosion)
Homelessness
Loss of income sources
Unemployment and poverty
Absence of industries
Law and order situation
Village politics
Lack of social and cultural
opportunities (education, health
care, recreational facilities)
Do not like village (particularly
rural rich)

Pull Factors

Job/Earning opportunities
Easy access to informal sector
Higher incomes/Rural-urban
wage differentials
Rural urban disparities in social
amenities and services
(education, health care,
recreation)
Positive information about the
city (garments factory jobs)
Better livelihood
Fast and colorful life in city
Joining families/relatives
Willingness to change and see
new places

Reasons behind Dhaka bound Migration Flow:

For the millions of rural poor in Bangladesh, Dhaka is an attractive destination. Migrants in
Dhaka predominantly come from the Northern and Southern parts of the country. Comilla,
Sherpur and Barisal are the top three districts from where rural urban migrants predominantly
come (Ishtiaque and Mahmud, 2011).
Compared to any other place in the country, Dhaka offers the best chance for economic
opportunity. Administrative headquarters and civil employments, financial and banking services,
international commerce and business are all largely concentrated in Dhaka (Islam, 1999). More
than 80 percent of the garment industries of Bangladesh are located here. With these industries a
large number of young female came to Dhaka.
Despite the growth of formal sector industrial and other employment, Dhaka is dominated by the
presence of a huge informal sector of economic activities. It has been estimated that about 65%
of all employment in the city is in the informal sector (World Bank, 1999).Work in the informal
sector has a potential role in influencing RUM.
Many migrants seek opportunities in the informal sector and make their living. Here a large
number of people are involved with the informal economy of rickshaw pulling, hawker, roadside
business, junk collecting etc. Others find jobs as drivers, mechanics, carpenters, barbers, daily
laborers and personal servants. Anyone can make some kind of living in Dhaka. Various
economic activities and variety of services tend to support a continuous influx of migration in the
city. A large segment of the migrant population tends to be uneducated, unskilled and ill
equipped for the city. Yet they migrate with expectations of a better life in the metropolis.
The migrants carry with them the hope and dream of better living and livelihood. They come to
the city to fulfill their needs and desire which cannot be fulfilled in the rural areas as rural
Bangladesh lack opportunities. Migrants are usually concerned with the benefits they hope to
gain by moving and usually give less thought to the problems that they will incur as a result of
the process.

Origin of the Migrants:

Dhaka is the prime focus of Bangladesh. It is considered as the nucleus of the country. It is not
surprising; therefore, that Dhaka is always the first choice for rural-urban migrants. Bangladesh
consists of 64 districts wherein the two largest slums of Bangladesh have migrants from 40 districts. Comilla,
Sherpur and Barisal are the top three districts from where rural-urban migrants predominantly
come. Migrants come both from northern and southern Bangladesh.
Chittagong is the second largest city of Bangladesh and is known as the port city. Chittagong
plays an important role in serving the rural-urban migrants of neighboring districts.Sylhet is also a rich
divisional city and it also serves its surrounding districts. That is why people of north-eastern and
south-eastern districts generally feel no pull from Dhaka. In the case of the northern and southern
parts, there are three big cities- Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal. These cities lack employment
opportunities and financial dynamism. For this reason people from their surrounding districts prefer to
go to Dhaka than to them.

Impact of Migration:
The overall physical environment in an urban area is determined by some specific facilities such
as housing, sanitation, sewerage, drainage, drinking water supply, gas supply, electricity, garbage
disposal and waste management. In Dhaka city these services are extremely unsatisfactory and of
poor quality, which is due to rapid increase of urban population (in-migration of the rural poor to
Dhaka city) and limitation of resources. There is a chronic shortage of housing, congestion in
public transport, acute crisis in supply of water, gas and electricity. Increasing pressure of
population upon the civic amenities has resulted in air, water, noise pollution and an increase in
urban crimes. The city is characterized by high level of poverty and social vulnerability, shortage
of housing, infrastructure and social services, poor quality of physical and social environment
and inefficient urban management (Hossain, 2006).
The impacts of migration are:

1. Shortage of housing facilities and squatter settlements:

Shortage of housing is quite acute as the prevailing situation fails to accommodate the rapidly
growing city population. As a result slums and squatter settlements are widespread in different

areas of Dhaka city. It has been reported that, all the thanas of Dhaka Metropolitan area have
slum population. Slums and squatter settlements have mostly developed in the peripheral thanas
of Mirpur, Mohammadpur and Demra (Hossain, 2008). Actually, most of the slums of Dhaka are
composed of rural migrants from various regions of the country. They come to the city in search
of jobs, in most cases for the sake of survival and find themselves shelter less. This situation
compels them to live in slums.
Dhaka alone contains about 3.4 million people in 4966 slums. (Ishtiaque and Mahmud, 2011).
The population density of the slums is extremely high. Most of the slums and squatters have a
single room for the whole family that makes them highly congested and unhealthy.
Slums dwellings in Dhaka can be found in such low laying areas as ditch embankments and on
the edges of lakes, rivers, sewers and near the road side and railway line. Most of the slums have
temporary structure with semi-permanent building materials (thatch, bamboo, wood, straw and
scraps). The practical situation of all these settlements indicates a dreadful life with poor lighting
and ventilation. Due to the location and the forms of these houses basic services and amenities
cannot be provided in these houses. This poor housing, lifestyle and dwellers activities are
creating not only environmental problems but also social crime. In many of the slums, overall
conditions in housing service and health are worse than those in the rural areas. Indoor pollution,
degradation of air quality, increase incidence of communicable diseases is attributable to this
poor housing. The health conditions in slums are extremely bad and hazardous for both dwellers
and other citizens. Fire is a common hazard in the citys slum areas. Over the years, the situation
is aggravating and it is becoming a threat for the serious environmental disaster of the city.

2. Delivering of basic services:

Additional people have created tremendous pressure on the urban utility services. Dhaka city
faces problems in almost all areas of its basic utility services.

2.1. Gas and electric supply:

The slum dwellers do not have access to the gas supply. They use various traditional forms of
fuel like wood, straw, cow dung and waste paper for cooking. Access to electricity is far from
universal and sometimes access to these services is accomplished through illegal means.

2.2. Water supply and sanitation facility:

In Dhaka 49% of the population have access to piped water supply and the remaining have to depend on
private hand pumps and unspecified sources. People living in slums do not have access to piped water.
Piped water is unsafe to drink directly. Inadequate safe drinking water increases health risks.
Only a small portion of the city dwellers have access to sewerage system. None of the slums get proper
sewerage service from Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA). A large number of people use
open space, ditches and drains for defecation. Particularly the slum poor have no proper fixed toilets.

2.3. Garbage disposal and waste management:

There is no proper arrangement of collection and disposal of garbage. Garbage is usually
dumped along the road corner, open areas, unused lands, and ditches into nearest water bodies.
Only 9% of the slum population manages to get solid waste management services (IOM, 2010).
As a result both household waste and human generated wastes go directly or indirectly into the
low lying lands, open spaces or water bodies of the city and causes a number of environmental
and health problems.

2.4. Drainage facilities:

Poor drainage system brings sufferings to the city dwellers. All areas of Dhaka experience rain
water stagnation. The situation becomes worse during flood. The flood water submerges and
quickly destroys the low lying and slum areas.

3. Urban poverty:
Dhaka city has a dichotomous reality. It is a place of deprivation and plenty, growth and
congestion, poverty and wealth. There is a sharp contrast between the rich and the poor. The
incidence of urban poverty resulting from rapid urban growth is indicated by the proportion of
slum dwellers in Dhaka who live below the poverty line. High density of population makes the
environment of the slums more than abominable.

Aiming to get a better job, thousands of extreme poor migrated to the urban centers to improve
their lives and after dashing their hopes they take shelters in slums, the ultimate destination for
rural poor in urban lives.
Urban population is growing at an estimated 3.7 percent per year in Bangladesh and almost 68
million people, representing more than one third of the entire population, will live in urban areas
by 2015, according to official estimation. About 35 percent of the population in the six largest
cities live in slums, 20 and 23 percent of whom are poor and extreme poor, respectively. A recent
international study showed that about 500,000 people every year move to the capital city Dhaka
from coastal and rural areas.

4. Unemployment/informal sector activities:

Most of the migrants involve themselves in the informal sector activities. People employed here
get less monetary benefits. In many cases they adopt unfair means for livelihood like smuggling,

begging, drug trafficking, trafficking of women, prostitution etc (Nasir&Pervin, 1997).More

often, the migrant may fail to get in town the appropriate job he wants. The long period of
waiting for job increases his pecuniary cost and psychological tension. Often he ends up getting
no job at all, and thus remains unemployed. What is worse, he may out of frustration choose
criminal paths for making a living.

5. Anti social activities:

Now Dhaka has emerged as a city of crime and insecurity. Among the many negative social
consequences of migration are the increase in the incidence of crime and violence. Social unrest,
theft, robbery, hijacking, kidnapping, murder, illegal rent or toll collection, frustration, drug
addiction is prominent among the serious city problems.

Criminal and anti-social activities are found to be located especially within slums. Quarrel, clash,
conflict in the slums and squatter settlements is a regular phenomenon which creates noise and
violence that disturbs the nearby city dwellers. Thus a healthy social environment in the city is
being threatened.

6. Surviving Pattern of Women and Children Migrants in

Urban Bangladesh:
Migration is an important aspect of globalization and has implications on local, regional and
international development. Women and children are vulnerable segments of population almost in
every part of the world. It is also true for Bangladesh because of its social inequality, unfavorable
economic condition, political climate, joblessness etc. The large-scale migration of women and
children to urban areas is not entirely a recent phenomenon, nor is it equally common in all parts
of the world.
In Bangladesh, landlessness and the modernization of the agricultural system, frequent natural
calamities, as well as prevailing poverty and the scarcity of work in the villages forced many
women and their families to migrate to the cities. The movement of entire poor nuclear families
to the city opened up new opportunities for women to enter the cash-earning economy and to
contribute to family income. Poor womens participation in Dhakas informal economy is crucial
to the survival of most of the poor households living in the slums and squatter areas of the city.
Within nuclear families, very often, the household heads income is not sufficient to maintain the
entire family in the city. Hence, women have little choice but to involve themselves in some kind
of income-earning work, and this work has a vital role in the initial stages of urban adaptation.

Surviving Pattern of Women Migrants:

Womens movement to Dhaka has opened up new opportunities for them to enter the cashearning economy and address poverty. Poor women have always been active participants in the
rural agricultural economy, earning some cash but mostly receiving payments in kind for their
families. Although seasonal fluctuations affected the demand for female labor in the agricultural
economy, the lack of work outside the agricultural seasons and the deteriorating economic
conditions in the villages in recent years have led women to follow the household head to urban
destinations. The demand for poor womens work is ever present in Dhaka. To ensure the

survival of the family, they have little choice but to undertake wage-earning activities of various
kinds. Many of the migrant families are composed of a very young population and the household
heads income is generally inadequate for maintaining the entire family. Although earning cash
for the family is vital, the lack of education among women, which is more prevalent than among
men, restricts them when choosing or competing for wage-earning activities. They also have to
combine income-earning activities with their responsibilities for household work and child care.
As a result, many of these women are limited to part-time or self-employed home based work for
which they may not earn as much as those who work full-time outside their homes.
Migration affects women in different aspects depending on the category to which the women
belong such as - Married women who migrate along with their husbands
- Unmarried women who migrate alone or with other unmarried girls
- Married women who stay back while the husbands migrate (both short term or long term)
- Women who have migrated in the past but are back now to their own village
- Old women
Issues that affect women in the context of migration
- Low wages
- Nonpayment of wages
- Gender disparity in wages
- Forced sex work & trafficking
- Violence, domestic violence
- Exploitation of single women
- Lack of education & neglect of childrens education
- Lack of health services for self as well as children
- Reproductive health issues
- Lack of identity papers

- Breakdown of social network such as self help groups in the destination

- Social exclusion
- Non application of registration of birth and marriages
- Food insecurity & malnutrition
- No legal mechanism for protection
- No awareness on rights and facilities of protection

Surviving Pattern of Children Migrants:

Migration of rural children is an increasing phenomenon in Bangladesh. It is mainly because of
unbalanced development between city and village, growing unemployment or under
employment, landlessness and lack of opportunities in the villages. Most of them come from
underprivileged families and their family backgrounds are broken and standard of living is low.

Causes of migration of Children from Rural to Urban Areas:

Major Causes
1. Poverty

2.Unemployment

3.Family conflict

4.Village conflict
5.Others

Attributes
Landless
Natural disaster
Lack of food and shelter
To support family
Jobs are not available in rural areas
Parents send searching for job
Seeking opportunities in the city

Father drove children out of home

Father abandoned mother
Torture by step father/mother
Divorce between parents
Parents disappearance
Conflict with influential neighbor
Oppressing by local elites
Voluntary migration
Influenced by others.

The migration of children to the street is the result of extreme poverty where basic needs of
social security are not met within the household. They survive abuse at home and from other
street children, live in poverty- afflicted, chaotic neighborhoods and have almost no access

educational and health services. They become vulnerable to drug use and being trafficked.
Almost every day they confront risks of being tortured, beaten, trafficked and coerced into sexual
exploitation and substance abuse.

Low
Education

Health
Problem

Excessive
Work Load
Acceptance of
Exploitation as a
Coping Strategy

Low
Income

Involve in
Illegal
Activities

Low Skill

Child labor is a major social problem found in most of the developing countries throughout the
world. But it may be said that the way most of the children are made neglected, deprived,
exploited and oppressed in Bangladesh is probably unparalleled in the world. There is another
important aspect of child labor in our country is that the suffering of the girl children here is
beyond anybodys imagination. A girl child is always expected to do domestic works without

taking into account her rights which she is supposed to exercise. Child labor could be of two
types in Bangladesh: working and street children. The working children usually stay along with
their parents or other guardians during the night. On the other hand, most of the street children
do not have permanent address and their employment depends on the availability of works.
These children mostly pass night on the street itself or some other place which does not belong to
them. Street children may be described as homeless having no local guardians or some of them
might have fled away from home. Rahman (1997) shows that urban child workers are worst hit
of the situation. Urban child worker are engaged in around 300 types of economic activities and
on the other hand rural child workers in 90 types of agricultural and non-agricultural activities
(Islam, 1998). Children are forced to work in order to extend financial help to their family and
sometimes, of course their own survival. The situation of urban children has worsened because
of decline of the traditional society, growing industrialization and urbanization, and the
migration that is heavily taking place mostly from rural to urban areas.

Part- B
Rural to Urban Migration and Unsustainability:
Rural urban migration is the principle component of rapid and unplanned growth of towns and
cities in the developing countries. Gross disparities in socio-economic opportunity between
urban and rural areas and frequent natural disasters in some regions encourage large flow of
migrants from rural Bangladesh to the large cities. For various reasons Dhaka is an attractive
destination for the rural migrants. Migration to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is the focus
of this article which identifies the factors contributing to the migration process. The impact of
migration is diverse both at the urban destination and at the rural origin. At both ends there are
economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts.
The overall physical environment in an urban area is determined by some specific facilities such
as housing, sanitation, sewerage, drainage, drinking water supply, gas supply, electricity, garbage
disposal and waste management. In Dhaka city these services are extremely unsatisfactory and of

poor quality, which is due to rapid increase of urban population (in-migration of the rural poor to
Dhaka city) and limitation of resources. There is a chronic shortage of housing, congestion in
public transport, acute crisis in supply of water, gas and electricity. Increasing pressure of
population upon the civic amenities has resulted in air, water, noise pollution and an increase in
urban crimes. The city is characterized by high level of poverty and social vulnerability, shortage
of housing, infrastructure and social services, poor quality of physical and social environment
and inefficient urban management.
Economic

Consequences of Rural
to Urban Migration in
Bangladesh
Social
Environmental

Economic Impact:
Despite the fact that the overall poverty situation in the country has improved over the years,
Dhaka Citys situation has become worse in terms of both upper and lower poverty lines
through the accelerating rate of rural-urban migration of the rural poor. Poverty in Dhaka
City is clearly seen in patterns of income, consumption and household assets.
Dhaka city has a dichotomous reality. It is a place of deprivation and plenty, growth and
congestion, poverty and wealth. There is a sharp contrast between the rich and the poor. The
incidence of urban poverty resulting from rapid urban growth is indicated by the proportion
of slum dwellers in Dhaka who live below the poverty line.

More often, the migrant may fail to get in town the appropriate job he wants. The long period
of waiting for job increases his pecuniary cost and psychological tension. Often he ends up
getting no job at all, and thus remains unemployed.

 Poor people are involved in low paid jobs and they have insufficient earnings to support their
livelihoods. Almost half of the poor households of Dhakas slums are hardcore poor whose
monthly household income is insufficient for their basic needs. Consequently their low level
of earning means the expenditure level is also low. The hardcore poor spend the majority of
their earnings on food. As a result, essential non-food items like health and education are
often neglected. In contrast, the absolute poor can afford to spend part of their earnings on
non-food items. The urban poor usually buy food items at a low cost and generally avoid
costly items. Chronic malnutrition and poor health is the result of deprivation of such
necessary food items over a long period of time. Furthermore, the urban poor lack of access
to formal sources of credit and other resources and are consequently usually forced to seek
credit from informal sources. In fact, a low level of household assets is usually paralleled by
a high level of deprivation caused by poverty including disease, hunger, malnutrition and
lack of income.

Malnutrition

Reduce Physical
Strength

Poverty

Loss of Work

Loss of Income

Loss of
Productivity

 Working and street children of our country are mainly forced to take up some kind of job in
order to survive. So it is extreme poverty which usually pushes our innocent children to
work. Economic poverty has been presented both as a direct and indirect factor that pushes
children onto the street. It is argued that children move out of the household as a direct
coping strategy, to diversify the households portfolio of income generating activities, and
that at the same time, economic poverty leads to stresses and tensions within the household,
that become an indirect cause of street migration.
Poor children are in a vicious cycle of exploitation. It starts immediately after being
employed and continue as long as they are involved. Children work in lieu of education
condemns their life to poverty. If a child cannot study, then the cycle of poverty is repeated
and s/he never gets out of the cycle. It is a life-long process from which other than very few
none of the children can escape.
The cycle follows the pattern:

Poverty
Hard Labor
Low Skill

Low
Motivation

Low
Consumption

Exploitation

Meager
Income

 Migration reduces the number of the young, able-bodied, and the relatively better educated
people in the villages. A continuous movement of this category of people from villages to
towns may cause an imbalance in the quality of human resources between rural and urban
areas, which may eventually impede rural development.

Social Impact:
The social consequences of rural to urban migration for the urban destination areas may be
examined in terms of the effects on the degree of exposure of migrants to the city, the effects
on the patterns of resocialization of migrants into the urban way of life, their acculturation
and cultural transformation, the effects of rural to urban migration on the location and
adjustment of migrants into the urban social setting and the effects on the nature of
interaction between the migrants, the overcrowding of migrants and its impact on urban
employment.

Migration is a function of certain objective social conditions operating at the rural source and
at the urban destination. Those conditions are generally referred to as rural push and urban
pull factors of migration. The interplay of these push pull factor plays an important role in
determining the flow of out or in migration. Migration is both a separative and additive
process. It separates people from the place of origin and adds them to the place of
destination. These functions of migration have important social consequences. The
immediate effect of migration is the separation of individual migrants from the origin areas.

One consequences of rural to urban migration is overcrowding. If migration takes place too
quickly or unexpectedly, the planning necessary to accommodate growth will not be in place.
Overcrowding leads to issues such as higher rents, traffic and pressure on resources such as
schools and medical centers. Urban pressures weaken traditional family values and social
control over children. Schools are not always available which further breeds vicious cycle of
disparity. Interaction between children and parents, recreation and cultural stimulation are all
lacking.

 The growth in the working population will also mean more competition for jobs. The lack of
jobs may lead to problems of vagrancy, prostitution and unfair treatment to the least skilled
workers in the workforce. Addressing the challenges in spite of their vital contribution to the
city's economy, the urban poor do not receive the benefits of city life. Their isolation is
manifested in slums, which are a reflection of inequality and social exclusion in urban areas.

The major problematic areas of urban amenities were identified as electricity, housing,
transportation and gas. Irrationally high rent for the house, owners monopoly to raise the
house-rent and lack of rental house for unmarried persons were identified the main problems
in the housing sector. The main problems in the transportation sector were identified as
traffic-jam, lack of vehicle and insufficient road.
If a country is advanced in infrastructure and basic social amenities, there is no point to
classify it as developing. To this point, it is common to see most developing countries having
limited social amenities and infrastructure. This may include schools, roads, places of
convenience, pipe borne water among others. As people troop from the rural to the urban,
they increase the usage of these limited amenities in the urban areas. This leads to massive
and quick deterioration of the amenities and hence an increase in the cost of repairs and
maintenance and thus government expenditure. The Increase in the population in the urban
areas relative to a constant land area leads to overcrowding at a particular area and most
specially the urban areas.

The dream of a better quality of life is being undermined by an increasing menace of urban
violence. There is hardly anyone who somehow or the other have not been affected by
violent acts. Violence ranges from street crime, such as muggings, mobile snatching,
robberies, and carjacking; to kidnappings, murder, drug-related violence, and organized
crime conducted by gangs; to assaults, sexual violence, and personal abuse. Exposure to
violence is psychologically traumatic and damaging. It inhibits productivity and creativity of
the individuals by inducing the state of learned helplessness and hopelessness, which is
ultimately affecting the collective growth of the society.

Environmental Impact:
Urbanization in Bangladesh is facing a crisis. The capital city-centric development strategy
has led to an explosion of Dhaka citys size, without corresponding expansion of the
infrastructure. As a result, basic urban utilities are now in acute shortage. Greenery and water
bodies are disappearing and slums have spread beside high rise buildings. Horrific traffic jam
is bringing life to a standstill, imposing huge costs on the economy.

The environmental condition of Dhaka has deteriorated significantly. Dhaka is a city of

noise, air and water pollution. The rivers of Dhaka city (Buriganga, Balu, Turag and Tangi
khal) are already polluted. The rivers are becoming dead due to the illegal occupation of the
people. Almost everywhere the air is polluted. Air pollution in all indicators in Dhaka is one
of the highest in the world (Islam, 1999). There is also high level of noise pollution. Massive
traffic congestions have become regular feature of the city which leads to noise and air
pollution. Uncollected garbage increases in noxious odor. Noise, overcrowding,
inappropriate design, and stresses contribute to the growing psychosocial health problems of
many urban dwellers in developing countries, especially adolescents and young adults.
Common chemical pollutants in urban areas are lead, indoor air pollutants from fuel
combustion, toxic hazardous wastes, and ambient air pollution. A shortage of fresh water is
often why some urban households do not have a safe and adequate water supply. Pollution
has become a serious threat. The air quality remains dangerously poor. Household, medical,
and electronic wastes are increasing in volume and worsening in composition. Untreated
sewerage contaminates neighboring rivers unceasingly. Lacking Effluent Treatment Plants
(ETP), most industrial enterprises are dumping their toxic effluents into neighboring water
bodies and rivers.

Some people co-exist with garbage in the city. Land is a scarce commodity in the city.
More than 70% of the citys population has no access to land. The price of land in the city is
beyond the ability of the common people. Land filling is a very common practice in the city
especially to mitigate the land pressure. Traditionally solid wastes have been used as a
convenient way to infill land. Domestic and toxic waste are not always treated separately and

often dumped together in the same site. This creates a lot of environmental hazards in Dhaka
city (Ahmed, 1996).

Deforestation, cutting down of trees, encroachment and filling of water bodies are caused
mainly by overpopulation. This has resulted in an adverse effect on the environment of the
city. The environment of the city is physically and socially lacking because an adequate
proportion of its land has not been put aside as open space. Some of the open spaces, such as
parks, are being constantly encroached on by land grabbers with the support of those in
power. Also, the increasing presence of anti-social elements in the places (particularly in
parks and cinema halls) poses a serious threat to their proper use by citizens (Siddqui et al.,
2000). Childrens are deprived of open playgrounds. Slum children have nothing but streets
to play on.

Environmental hazards in Dhaka mainly affect poor people especially women, children, and
migrants -- the people who are least able to avoid the hazards and least able to deal with the
illness or injury they cause. Poor people are priced out of safe, well located, well serviced
housing and land sites. Hazards include biological pathogens; chemical pollutants; scarce,
poor quality natural resources; physical hazards; natural resource degradation; and global
environmental degradation. These preventable health burdens cause disease, accidents, and
premature death. Biological pathogens have the most serious impact on human health.
Crowded conditions, poor sanitation, and inadequate water supplies, poor facilities for
preparing and storing food, and inadequate hygiene contribute to biological etiology of
pathogen included ill health.

Open space is used by the urban poor to tie up cattle owned by them. Sanitation is the most
pressing issue in a majority of slums with situations varying from existence of individual
toilets which lead into open drains to public toilet. Public toilets provided in slums suffer
from lack of regular cleaning, rendering them unusable. Children defecate in drains in most
slums. Drains are open and narrow, which remain blocked due to disposal of solid waste and
absence of regular cleaning. In some areas of Bangladesh open spaces are used for sewage
and garbage disposal, creating an extremely unhealthy environment.

 Public taps and hand pumps provided in slums often dry up in summer, leaving residents
dependent on groundwater for meeting their basic needs. Water quality is poor. At times
residents access the drinking water by inserting pipes through the waste water itself. Slum
children below two years of age are underweight, and some are severely underweight.
Open space is used by the urban poor to tie up cattle owned by them. Sanitation is the most
pressing issue in a majority of slums with situations varying from existence of individual
toilets which lead into open drains to public toilet. Public toilets provided in slums suffer
from lack of regular cleaning, rendering them unusable. Children defecate in drains in most
slums. Drains are open and narrow, which remain blocked due to disposal of solid waste and
absence of regular cleaning.

Part- C
Sustainable Development & Policies

Sustainable Development:
Sustainable development refers to development that meets the needs of the present generations
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words
it's the use of renewable and non renewable resources in a manner that satisfies our current needs
without jeopardizing future availability of resources.
In 1986, IUCL and World Wild Life Fund Ottawa Declaration mentioned five conditions of
sustainable development:
1. Unification of development and conservation,
2. Meet the basic needs of people,
3. Equity and social justice,
4. Social self-control and preserve cultural diversity,
5. Preserve ecological heritage.

Sustainable development has three dimensions:

Economical

We should balance between

three of these dimensions.

Environmental

Social

Economic dimension:
Capital: produces a stream of goods and services into the future

Financial capital

Manufactured capital; durable capital

Human capital; stocks of learned skills

Intellectual capital; accumulation of knowledge and skills not embodied in individuals

Social capital; Set of institutions and customs

Natural capital; renewable and nonrenewable

An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing
basis, to maintain manageable size of government and external debt and to avoid sectoral
imbalances (maintain diversity).
The core idea of sustainability is that current decisions should not impair the prospects for
maintaining or improving future living standards. This implies that our economic system should
be managed so we can live off the dividends of our resources

Environmental dimension:
Sustainable development is (1) development subject to a set of constraints which set resource
harvest rates at levels not higher than managed natural regeneration rates and (2) use of the

environment as a waste sink on the basis that waste disposal rates should not exceed rates of
managed or natural assimilative capacity of the ecosystem. A stable resource base, do not
overwhelm neither the waste assimilative ability of the environment nor the regenerative services
of the environment, deplete non-renewable only to the extent we invest in renewable substitutes.
SD is about maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems, the
preservation of genetic diversity and the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems.

Social Dimension:
Achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services including health and
education, gender equity and political accountability and participation.
SD is directly concerned with increasing the standard of living of the poor, which can be
measured in terms of increased food, real income, education, health care, water supply, sanitation
and only indirectly concerned with economic growth at the aggregate.

The principle:

Protect the environment and at the same time fulfill economic and social objectives

Operational criteria:
Economic objectives should not be maximized without satisfying environmental and
social constraints.
Environmental benefits should not be maximized without satisfying economic and social
constraints.
Social benefits should not be maximized without satisfying economic and environmental
constraints.

Policies to Improve the Unsustainability Caused by Rural to

Urban Migration:
To undertake the policy programme we should have a clear idea about the causes and
consequences of the problem. The causes and effect of the focal problem (Rural to Urban
Migration) is shown by a problem tree here.

Problem Tree:

Female Abuse
Sharp Contrast
between the Rich
& the Poor in
Urban Areas

Unemployment

Child Abuse

Hijack,
Snatch,
Stealing

Air, Water &

Sound
Pollution

Social Crime

Social Effect

Economic Effect

Rural to Urban Migration

Increase of
Diseases

Deforestation

Environmental Effect

Effects
Focal Problem

Causes

Fewer Job
Opportunities
in Rural Areas

Positive
Information about
the City

Natural Disaster

Unemployment
& Poverty

Lesser Financial
Resources for
Business in Rural
areas

Homelessness

Loss of
Income
Sources

Earning
Opportunities

Better
Livelihood

 Policies to Improve the Unsustainability Caused by Rural

to Urban Migration:

Recommendation:

Improve educational facilities for quality education in rural areas, which matches the skill
needs of rural labor markets including vocational and training facilities.

Promote programs to enhance more and better opportunities for employment and
entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh to provide alternatives to distress ruralurban migration, especially for youth.

The Government should also invest in better labor market information systems and job
information services so that youth can access to better jobs and undertake migration in a
more informed manner.

Actions to prevent and eradicate child labor, especially its most hazardous forms, with
particular attention to unaccompanied child migrants.

Decentralize both administrative and developmental activities to discourage the

concentration of rural-urban migration to capital city in particular and other big cities in
general.

Local government should make proper arrangements for safety and security in rural areas for
a sound environment to make rural stay hassle and anxiety free to discourage rural-urban
migration and encourage reverse migration.

Conclusion:
This study may help the planners and social scientists for implementing and extending the
rural development programs and designing urban planning, as it gives an overview of the
people involved in rural-urban migration process, identifies the determinants as well as root
causes of migration, and find out the nature and extent of the problems faced by the migrants
and urban people at destinations. In order to have a sound overall outcome and optimize the
rural-urban migration process the study suggests some policy implications that include
increasing the education facilities in the rural areas, particularly establishing the quality
educational institutes; taking proper steps for the refugee migrants (affected by natural
calamities such as river-erosion, drought, tidal bore, cyclones etc.) to direct them to rural-

rural regional migration instead of rural-urban migration; immediate actions are required to
decentralize the administration, industrialization, commercialization to minimize the
untoward rural-urban migration flow; undertaking motivational programs to motivate the
corporate management to extend their CSR (corporate social responsibilities) facilities to the
internal out-migration prone areas to facilitate local amenities for education, health and
income generation in order to give the potential migrants incentives not to strive for internal
migration; motivating the local industrialists, merchants, and other wealthier persons towards
establishing different services-oriented institutes from the view-point of philanthropy or
trusteeship rather than profit and income generating SMEs in rural areas to lure the would-be
migrants for retention as well as the retired persons for reverse migration (urban-rural);
establishing SMEs in rural areas through Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the solvent
returned international migrants using foreign remittances to enlarge income generating
facilities for an optimal migration process; and urban facilities should be increased keeping
pace with the level of migrants and hence future urbanization should be well-planned in and
around the growing towns and cities in order to ameliorate the inconveniencies of the already
as well as inevitably potential migrants at the destination places. Finally, to optimize the
internal migration and its outcome in Bangladesh through discouraging the rural-urban
migration flow and encouraging the urban-rural migration flow, overall infrastructural
facilities, both social and physical, must deserve to be increased to provide amenities for
living a sound human life in rural areas.

References:
From different books and publications related to migration problems...pictures are taken
from different websites..