MILLIONS of urban poor who dwell in the capital’s 4,000 slums are being deprived of their basic amenities despite the constitutional stipulation due to the apathy of the successive governments. Based on the plight of the poor, as per a national daily reports, numerous number of NGOs are doing brisk business. Being deprived of the basic amenities necessary for saving life and adorning life, life standard of the slum dwellers remain sub-strandard and total development is at a brink. Entangling a large number of people into poverty and deprived of ‘government support to provide amenities’, the state could not become a middle-income country. While the prime agenda of any government is to eradicate poverty, the NGOs capitalize on the poverty to earn lavishly, though a few are solemnly triumphing in their quest to eradicate urban poverty.
Article 15 of the Constitution stipulates, ‘It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to attain, through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people, with a view to securing to its citizens – the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care’. But the government left the responsibilities of providing health service, education as well as water and electricity supplies to the slum dwellers with select NGOs and associations of the beneficiaries.
Economists wonderingly ask the legitimacy of NGOs to make profits by providing education and health service and supplying Dhaka WASA’s water to the slum population. There is no scope to deny the slum people of their inherent constitutional rights to get water supply from WASA and get direct access to the government’s health service and education facilities, an economist said. Besides, some NGOs are allowed to run their micro lending business in the slums, though, the slum dwellers have the right to get credit from the state-run banks. The government assigned the NGOs to provide the services but only a handful of the slum dwellers get them. The two City Corporations provide healthcare services to the slum people through NGOs while ICDDR’B report underscored that NGOs providing healthcare are not at all effective.
We find a tendency in our government to keep the NGOs happy by giving them business opportunities is misplaced. Without adequate supervision it is negligent to rely on NGOs to provide services to the people honestly.
