Slum Dwellers’ Access to Urban Basic Services: A Study of Two Informal Settlements in Dhaka City

This study examines prevalence of slum dwellers’ non-access to the urban basic services in Dhaka city. Both the survey and interviews were used to collect information from a randomly selected sample of 30 current slum dwellers comprising both male and female of two informal settlements in Dhaka City. Findings reveal that there are some barriers given the context of Dhaka city. The major barriers identified are: absence of legal entitlements to the land and fear of eviction, supply constraint, lack of infrastructure, knowledge barrier, absence of effective GO-NGO integration, and time barrier including elevated cost. The intervention by the Non-Governmental Organizations has elevated the overall access to basic services. Again the incidence of non-access has been found to be more on female population. The study also finds some remedial measures to overcome the barriers which include; broad based Intervention through GO-NGO integration, legal entitlement to land including removal of constant fear of eviction, awareness build up, cost minimization, removing supply constraint along with time barrier. The current study has taken the initiative of examining two informal settlements which were selected based on two criteria; one is intervention by GO/NGO and the other one male-female population ratio.