CONTROL, NEGOTIATION AND FORM OF MIGRANTS' URBAN HOME, Bangladesh
CONTROL, NEGOTIATION AND FORM OF MIGRANTS' URBAN HOME, Bangladesh
A THESIS SUBMITTED
2013
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the thesis is my original work and it has been written by
This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university
previously.
12 August 2013
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to convey my utmost gratitude to National University
journey back in 2009. My study would not have been possible had the Deans office
of the School of Design and Environment (SDE) chosen me. My gratitude goes to
Department of Architecture (DoA) and its administrative stuff, each of whose support
has been essential during the challenging years of my PhD candidature. I am also
study leave in the first place and hence allowing me to elevate my skills, expertise
and knowledge. I wish to thank all the associated stuff of Khulna University, whose
support has been crucial for a smooth completion of this quite demanding pursuit
abroad.
supervisor, Dr Joseph Lim Ee Man. He has certainly been the father figure to me
2008, Dr Joseph has been the most eager, supportive, compassionate, often critical
through this research, I would owe primarily to his constant engagement with my
and to his relentless encouragement to dig deeper into the socio-spatial issues of
me and in my abilities, and he indeed knew how to extract the gem out of this
demanding as mine has been. There were times, when I was initially upset by some of
iii
his decisions. But at the end of the day, all of Dr Josephs decisions brought along
outcomes which only added value to my research and helped me become a better
academic.
Widodo must be mentioned first. He deserves a mention not only because of his role
Thesis Committee (TC). I, in fact, have not found many at NUS, who has been as
tricky domain of informal settlements while I was doing the Independent Study
Modules under him in 2009 and 2010. He has been equally encouraging during the
track. He helped my work to focus on where it should have focused and hence retain
its disciplinary affiliation. In addition, Dr Wong Yunn Chiis most valuable critiques
thesis and orient it to the right direction initially. Wong Chong Thai Bobbys
comments and his patience presence during my numerous presentations before the
Thesis Committee also helped a lot. The theoretical module on domesticity under
Dr Lilian Chee certainly helped me change the way I used to look at architecture
Chee Kien and the many serendipitous encounters with him at different niches of
NUS at the most crucial of moments during my candidature certainly gave me timely
confidence and imparted the essential sense of control over whatever I was trying to
present or write.
iv
the Disciplines of Architecture and Urban and Rural Planning from Khulna
University, who helped me, collect spatial/architectural data and socio-economic data
my fieldworks every possible way they could. These two were always there whenever
I was in need of them. My colleagues Hafizur Rahaman and Rashed Bhuiyan from
NUS, and Apurba Podder from Cambridge, who are also akin to my brothers, have
been inspirational above anything. There have also been a number of key informants,
mostly residents from different migrant settlements in Khulna, who have been
essential for easing up my field work tasks. Particularly Zinnat Ara from Rupsha
Char, Shamsunnahar from Matiakhali and Kader Sardar from Runner Math have
been the most cooperative in the ways they have helped me access these informal
settlements and find the appropriate personnel and households for my research. I must
also thank the UPPRP office in Khulna, Bangladesh and particularly Toslima Khatun
(SIA) for letting me access their information, guiding me to and through the
appropriate places and introducing me to the right people all of which proved most
useful eventually.
Words are not enough to describe my familys contribution not only to my PhD but
also toward my academic career so far. The family members inspiration and
encouragement to pursue the academic path have remained the key driving force for
me. This translated into their selfless support and understanding of my particular way
of life over the years. My parents always wanted me to attain the highest academic
ranks, and they did everything possible to make it into a reality. They have continued
to look after my wife and our two children, particularly during the stretch of months
when I had to be away from home. It is also during these times, my brother Sheikh
Munirul Hakim, although he lives in Dhaka himself, continued to extend his mental
v
and financial support to my wife and children every occasion I needed him to.
Although younger than me, he had become my guardian angel during these long
busy government office himself, kept taking care of many of my interests back home
while I was away. My family members tried their best to fill in the vacuum I left for
Finally, I must thank the one person, who has been the constant source of confidence
in my life. Shaila, my wife, has remained the sole inspiration throughout my entire
present physically or virtually, she has been always there for me even if it has
generally been the contrary from my end. She kept the house, single-parented my kids
while I was absent, took care of their schooling and medical needs, and still found
some time everyday to keep me assured that everything was all right. One does not
thank his/her loved ones in Bangladeshi culture; I would not do that either. Instead, it
deepest of gratefulness toward her for whatever she has done for me to help me
call them in my research, whom I am grateful to above all else. I am still uncertain of
the level of contribution my research is going to make. But whatever that has been
achieved through this research, it must remain profoundly indebted to these so called
poor who gave me their precious time, sacrificed their privacy by letting me in and
The amount of cordiality and help I have come to receive from each of these migrant
families, and their intent for participating in my interviews made my task easier than I
could ever expect. I cannot but feel privileged for getting this opportunity to work and
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get related with a number of these people who represent the bulk of Khulnas urban
population. This, I believe, has remained one of the most significant achievements in
my life.
All praise for Allah almighty for everything I was bestowed upon till today.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration ii
Acknowledgements iii
Table of contents viii
Summary xiii
List of Tables xv
List of Figures xvi
Glossary of Terms xx
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Background 3
viii
2.2.3.1 Informality 29
2.2.3.3 Assemblage 37
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction 78
ix
3.7.3 Mapping and architectural drawings 95
- Freehold 128
x
- Use rights 156
5.2.2 Threads of themes: settlement tenure, control & spatial boundaries 162
xi
6.2.2.3 The politics of infrastructure 225
Bibliography 259
Appendix 275
xii
SUMMARY
a mid-sized third world city. The subjects are the successful city-living migrants,
who, once homeless in their rural place of origin, could actually accomplish some
form of ownership of land or dwelling after migrating to the city. The underlying
both public and private formal sectors grossly failed to deliver housing for these sheer
volume of migrant populations. Here, the primary question remains, What socio-
spatial mechanisms explain once homeless rural migrants re-making of home in the
city?
is carried out first. This shows that ordinary migrants home-making (hence urban
form) has historically been subject to the influence of often detrimental top-down
policies. What began with British colonization of Bengal in 1757, it shows that land
(and related economic) policies for a predominantly agrarian society have till now
continued to negatively affect the home-making of rural peasant and the city-living
maintained by the elitist regimes (e.g. governments, affluent class) for fulfilling their
own politico-economic objectives and hence controlling the masses. In that, binary
xiii
concepts (e.g. formal-informal, legal-illegal) have become frequently used categories
Using the same conceptual framework, it shows that permanent migrants living in
Khulnas informal and illegal slums and squatters have devised for themselves
alternative socio-spatial practices that compensate for their scarceness of space and
the years become customary, where these practices have all been based on openness,
to the standard or formal, yet help them cope with urban contingencies.
Using a more inductive stance, findings from these two parts are synthesized, while
hence seeks to explain how under modern conditions the various formally-defined
conditions (e.g. illegality or informality) have been dealt with by the migrants
everyday socio-spatial acts of negotiation. It is here that all involved parties continue
compromises and adaptations are made in the processes. This is how, this research
suggests, the more successful amongst the migrants could actually make home in
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LIST OF TABLES
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Research contribution 12
Table 1.2 Chapter objectives and chapter arrangement in the 14
dissertation
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 Literature review framework 17
Table 2.2 A typology of slums 39
Table 2.3 A classification of land tenure types 43
Table 2.4 A classification of informal tenure types 44
Table 2.5 Indicators for architectural patterns of displacement 48
Table 2.6 Indicators for architecture-migrancy pairing 51
Table 2.7 Threads and gaps in knowledge 52
Chapter 3
Table 3.1 Study framework for proposed research 102
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 Moments of scarcity and urban form (1972-1990) 117
Table 4.2 Moments of scarcity for urban poor and urban form: post- 122
SAP Bangladesh
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Threads of themes: settlement tenure, control and spatial 162
boundaries
Table 5.2 Settlements and influential actors involved 196
Table 5.3 Threads and themes from primary data analysis 208
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LIST OF FIGURES
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Actual population in Chandigarh 1998; informal settlements 6
in 2000
Figure 1.2 Disciplinary affiliation of research 10
Figure 1.3 Research framework 13
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 A typology of informal settlement locations 41
Figure 2.2 Relation between Privacy, Control and Territory 55
Figure 2.3 The Social Phenomenology framework 62
Figure 2.4 Conceptual model 77
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Problem statement in graphics 80
Figure 3.2 Khulna in relation to Bangladesh and India; administrative 82
boundaries of Khulna
Figure 3.3 Present Khulna characterized by mosaic-like distribution of 83
poor migrant settlements within formal developments
Figure 3.4 KCC jurisdiction map 85
Figure 3.5 Growth of migrant settlements 86
Figure 3.6 Correlation between social and spatial in the analysis of 98
collected data
Figure 3.7 Interrelation between various dimensions of temporality 100
Figure 3.8 A typology of informal relationships 101
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Khulna urban-form: pre-colonial and under EIC 107
Figure 4.2 BIWTA rest-house built on the remains of Mr. Charlies 108
residence and office; Colonia-influenced house owned by
Mr. Shailen Ghosh
Figure 4.3 Khulna Master Plan 1961; Khulna under British Raj 113
Figure 4.4 Khulna urban-form: post-1971; post-1990 to present 121
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Location of Motiakhali area; built-form distribution in space 129
Figure 5.2 Mr. Ziaruls house plan in Motiakhali; photograph showing 131
xvi
Mr. Ziaruls house and rented Katcha units
Figure 5.3 Location of Runner Math; built-form distribution in space 132
Figure 5.4 Location of Railway Guards Colony ; built-form 134
distribution in space
Figure 5.5 Typical row-house unit transformation in Railway Guards 135
Colony; single storey row-house like arrangement of
Railway employees housing; fencing used to mark property
line as in private estates; informal house on Railways land
inhibited by outsiders
Figure 5.6 Location of Rupsha Char Bastee; built-form distribution in 137
space
Figure 5.7 Settlement transformation phases in Rupsha Char Bastee 138
Figure 5.8 Actual location of Rupsha Char Bastee, with the riverside 139
Ghats, shrimp industries and other enterprises along the
riverside on its right; (left) same area as projected on KDAs
Master Plan 2002
Figure 5.9 Location of Panch No. Ghat settlement; built-form 141
distribution in space (location of Harijan-para is seen on the
north of settlement 3); satellite image
Figure 5.10 Location of Sath No. Camp; built-form distribution in space 144
Figure 5.11 Two Bangali-owned houses within Bihari refugee camp 145
Figure 5.12 Location of Bakkar Bastee; built-form distribution in space 147
Figure 5.13 Bakkar Bastee: (1) location of TDP office; (2) houses on 149
encroached lakeside land under control of Mr. Bakkar and
his associates; (3) newer lakeside encroachments by other
people; (middle) building under construction within the TDP
office compound; (right) lakeside view of TDP office, and
lakeside encroachments
Figure 5.14 Location of Peoples Panch Tala; built-form distribution in 151
space
Figure 5.15 Panoramic view of Peoples Panch Tala showing buildings 153
and spaces
Figure 5.16 Location of Quaium Shaheb er Gola; built-form distribution 155
in space
Figure 5.17 Panoramic view of Quaium Shaheb er Gola showing 156
buildings and spaces
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Figure 5.18 Location of Vastuhara; built-form distribution in space 157
Figure 5.19 Three plans showing three different realities of Vastuhara; 159
remains of one of the first Katcha house prototype; photos of
Mr. Dipu and the pond on area 3, which he is lease-holding
Figure 5.20 Land allotment slip given to Vastuhara residents in 1977; a 165
meeting proceeding from 15 April 2011; Vastuhara
institutional buildings
Figure 5.21 Personal space and primary territory 168
Figure 5.22a Territorial analysis 1 170
Figure 5.22b Territorial analysis 2 and 3 171
Figure 5.23 Christian groups claimed area within settlement; Christian 172
migrants building on the grey-water pond
Figure 5.24 Village forming around Vastuharas south and west 174
periphery; vacant land on Runner Math; and, high boundary
wall with barbed wire on the western boundary of settlement
2
Figure 5.25 Boundary condition of the studied settlements 175
Figure 5.26 Non-dwelling and non-commercial functions within 176
settlements; locations of religious buildings
Figure 5.27 Houses where both landlord and tenants live alongside 180
Figure 5.28 Village-like spatio-physical organization of households 180
Figure 5.29 Datum-like structures; phases of physical transformation of 182
dwelling units; adjacent plots purchased and built on
Figure 5.30 Households with various income generating activities 185
Figure 5.31 Institutional buildings and income generation spaces 187
Figure 5.32 Negotiated territorial boundary 192
Figure 5.33 Norms of building practices 198
Figure 5.34 Rules and norms of construction 200
Figure 5.35 Add-ons as building norms 201
Figure 5.36 Customary spatial/building practices 202
Figure 5.37 Landlords territory, tenants territory and negotiated 203
territory
Figure 5.38 Community leaders household spaces compared 205
Figure 5.39 Decision-making structures of migrant settlements 206
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Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Typical Land Allotment Slip for Vastuhara; brick-built 219
house with wooden floor and CI sheet roof
Figure 6.2 Compromised control mechanisms 224
Figure 6.3 Infrastructure politics 226
Figure 6.4 Settlement 10 building 1 undergoing renovation works 232
overseen by building representatives from Mayors party and
of his same regional origin; ex-office building is claimed by
the same supporters, to be used as clubhouse
Figure 6.5 Shared functional space leading to social exchange between 233
landlord and her tenants in settlement 5; territorial
encroachment of public street during dry seasons; spiritual
corner in bed room space in settlement 3
Figure 6.6 NGO signboard describing the nature of their involvement in 235
settlement 5; house interior transformed to workspace for
producing export-oriented commodities
Figure 6.7 Two adjacent formal plots of land stitched together to form 239
a single plot in settlement 6; house accommodates
community school in settlement 6; transformation of
dwelling unit according to changing situations
Figure 6.8 Less is more examples of spatial management instead of 241
newer constructions
Figure 6.9 The home-scarcity framework 253
xix
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
A
ADB Asian Development Bank
B
BAL Bangladesh Awami League one of the two main
political parties in Bangladesh. It is credited for its key
role in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan during
Bangladeshs War of Independence in 1971
Bangali People who are ethnically from the region of Bengal
(within Indian Subcontinent) and whose primary
language is Bangla
Bapari/Mahajan Traditional trader/merchant class who became wealthy
after being appointed by the British East India Company
during colonial times for supplying raw materials and
marketing mainland European products
Bari Although often denotes to the physical house, it indicates
to a sense of rootedness and closely resembles the
western notion of home
Bariwala Literally meaning the house-owner
Barrios In all Spanish-speaking Latin American nations, these
are dense settlements and dilapidated building structures
built on steep mountainsides, having socio-physical
conditions akin to slums
Basha Literally meaning nest, referring to the transience and
temporary-ness associated with urban lives
Bastee Derived from the root bashati, meaning a place for
human living; however, in Bangla it is curiously used to
designate similar places such as slums
Bastee-bashi People who live in a Bastee
Bengal Refers to the Mid- and South-Eastern deltaic locations of
the undivided Indian subcontinent formed at and
around the estuarine confluence of the great Ganges-
Brahmaputra river system. This area, following the
partition between India and Pakistan in 1947 was again
xx
divided into two separate provinces for these two nations
assuming the names West-Bengal and East- Pakistan
respectively. Following a bloody war, East-Pakistan got
liberated from Pakistan in 1971, which now is known as
Bangladesh
Bhadralok The westernized Indians who since the 1820s started
acquiring their education based on English language and
emulate English culture, and had served the colonial
machine accordingly
Bigha A local unit for land area measurement;
1 Bigha = 1340m2, or 14,400sft
Bihari A particular refugee groups originating from the Indian
state of Bihar
BIWTA Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority
BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party, one of the two main
political parties in Bangladesh formed by President Zia
(an ex-Army General and one of the key sector
commanders during Bangladeshs War of Independence
in 1971). Zias tenure saw Bangladeshs first Martial
Law (army-backed government), but also an
unprecedented development drive not seen in post-
independence Bangladesh before
BRAC One of the largest NGOs in Bangladesh and in the world
C
Camp and Colony Derived primarily from English, these are two local
expressions referring mainly to refugee settlements and
low income government-funded housing areas
respectively
CDC Community Development Committee community sub-
groups formed by a small groups of inhabitants from
informal settlements; mainly composed of female
members, CDC structure is designed by the UNDP-led
UPPRP project
Char Low-lying lands that are formed on the river edge due to
siltation
xxi
CI sheet Corrugated Iron sheet the most popular roof and wall
material now a day for low income population groups
CSS Christian Service Society
CUS Center for Urban Studies
D
Dalil Formal title deed
Desh A word meaning both country and countryside,
signifying a sense of belonging through a bond with the
land (either a nation or a particular region or locality)
Deshi Of or from desh
Deshi manush Kinship networks, e.g. family members, friends or even
known persons from same regional origin
E
EIC East India Company
F
Favelas In Brazil, these are similar low income settlements as the
Barrios
FGD Focused group discussion
Freedom Fighter (Muktijoddha in Bangla) refers to those civilian
personnel who fought against the Pakistan Army during
Bangladeshs War of Liberation in 1971. The term
Freedom Fighter, which has an emotional connotation,
however is also used in Bangladesh to gain financial and
political (read unfair) advantages
G
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Gecekondu Literally means it happened at night in Turkish low
income settlements that consist of both slum-like and
consolidated forms of housing environment
Ghar The physical house/dwelling unit in Bangla
Ghat Loading-unloading quay
GIS Geographic information system
Godown Government-owned silo for storing food grains
Gola A privately owned depot (e.g. for firewood)
Goli Narrow public alleyways
xxii
H
Haat A temporary marketplace that usually takes place on two
particular days in a week (as in open-markets in Europe)
Harijan A lower caste Hindu population group usually engaged
in works such as cleaners or sweepers
HBE Home-based enterprise
Hukou A Chinese internal VISA system
I
Imam Bara Shia Muslims religious shrine containing a symbolic
grave of their religious leader
IMF International Monetary Fund
IOM International Organization for Migration
ISI Import Substitution Industrialization a post-WWII
economic policy targeting especially the developing
nations, advocating for the replacement of major
consumer imports by promoting their domestic industries
(textiles, household appliances etc.) aided by protective
tariffs and quotas to help new/infant industries
J
Jotedar Rich raiyats who held large chunks of rural land through
long-term lease from the city-living absentee Zamindar
Jute Mills Suffix used for any jute industry in Bangladesh
K
Kampong Village-like settlements in South-East Asia; also refers to
informal living places such as slums
Katcha Non-permanent houses
KCC Khulna City Corporation the public agency headed by
elected Mayor and represented by 31 Ward Councillors
in the city of Khulna, Bangladesh; it is responsible for
collecting local holding taxes and provisioning all urban
services (e.g. roads, drainage, sewerages etc.) but not
utilities (e.g. electricity)
KDA Khulna Development Authority responsible for
Khulnas spatial planning and physical development.
KDA operates under the direction of central government,
xxiii
and is headed by appointed bureaucrats or army officials.
KDA has a higher statutory power to control larger areas
than KCC and thus greater scope to plan and implement
projects that directly influence the physical growth of
Khulna
Khas land Central government-owned public land, intended to be
leased for both agricultural and non-agricultural
purposes. The most eligible for Khas land are the
landless poor, and other significant contributors
(persons/groups/institutes) to society and/or economy
L
LGED Local Government Engineering Department
LPUPAP Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation Project
M
Maath Playground or any public open field
Madrasah Muslim religious school
Mandir Hindu temple
Manush Person or people
Marwari Rich immigrant businessmen from Rajasthan
Mastan Mafia boss or violent person
Mathbar Rural community leader
MNC Multinational Company
Mughal The most influential Muslim rulers of the Indian
Subcontinent
Muktijoddha See Freedom Fighter earlier
Murubbi Community/family elder
Muslin A high-quality cotton-based fabric produced by East-
Bengal weavers that were worn even by the European
royalty
N
Nagor Town or township
Neta Leader (political)
NHA National Housing Authority
O
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development
xxiv
P
Panchayet Traditional community-borne body of social elites
responsible for community-level decision-making and
dispute resolutions an imported concept from North
India
Para (As in Harijan-para), a suffix denoting a particular space
and place (usually in villages) where a particular group
of professional people (e.g. weavers, fishermen) reside
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
Pucca Any construction that makes use of permanent materials
R
Raiyat Cultivator peasants in undivided India, who were mostly
Muslims
REHAB Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh
RMG Readymade garment (industries)
S
Samaj The social setting of which ones Bari is part of;
literally meaning society, in the Bangladeshi context
Samaj implies more a community an immediate
social milieu constituted primarily by neighbours,
relatives, friends and deshi manush within a larger socio-
spatial setting
SAP Structural Adjustment Program restructuring economy
and reducing government intervention as part of a
Neoliberal market expansion policy. SAP policies
include currency devaluation, managed balance of
payments, reduction of government services through
public spending cuts/budget deficit cuts, reducing tax on
high earners, reducing inflation, wage suppression,
privatization, lower tariffs on imports and tighter
monetary policy, increased free trade, cuts in social
spending, and business deregulation. Third world
governments were also encouraged (read forced) to
reduce their role in public spending by privatizing state-
owned industries including the health sector, and
xxv
opening up their economies to foreign competition
Sardar Labour leader
SPGRC Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee
T
TDP Town defence party
Thana Smallest administrative jurisdiction in Bangladesh
U
UN United Nations
Unnayan Development
UNDP United Nations Development Program
Upazila Alternative name for the smallest administrative
jurisdiction in Bangladesh
UPPRP Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction Project
V
Vaidya A traditional river-faring snake charmer nomad group
Veri Bandh Embankment or dyke
Vita Literally plinth; but allegorically it refer to the root or
anchorage where one originates from; is the piece of
land, often ancestral, on which Ghar is grounded
W
Ward Councillor Selected public representatives from each of KCCs 31
administrative wards
Waaz Open-air Islamic program
WB World Bank
WTO World Trade Organization
WWII World War 2
Y
Yatimkhana A residential facility (generally for orphan boys) that
occurs simultaneously with an educational institute
Z
Zamin Land
Zamindar & To raise revenue base for EIC, a new breed of land
Zamindari revenue collectors selected from elite Hindu families;
Zamindari refers to the land constituency under a
Zamindars control
xxvi
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Humans are perhaps one of those species which is capable of making itself at home
by negotiating with almost any condition of extremity, dearth and nothingness. This
has always fascinated me. Raised in a typically third world urban society, and having
a background of working in and studying on the urban slums (Bastee as they are
called locally), I have had numerous encounters of varying degrees with these
spatialities and the inhabitants who live there (Bastee-bashi in Bangla). As numerous
(e.g. Gans 1962; Perlman 1976; Neuwirth 2005; Nijman 2010), these places of the
poor, or more specifically those of the migrant poor, are often places of hope, of
production, of refuge and retreat, and above all, places of residence amid many
extremities. I have always wondered about the socio-spatial processes through which
these migrant poor, once homeless and resource-less in their rural places of origin,
still manage to re-make home in the city. Coming from an architectural background, I
have remained interested in finding out how do various shortages and lacks coupled
with volatile tenure status go on to produce useful forms, spaces and eventually
communities. This personal urge has been further strengthened by a few numbers as
they follow.
Globally, urban population increased around 800% to 1200% during years 1950-
2007, compared with a rural growth of 100% to 300% during the same period. In less
developed nations, compared with a mere 18% in 1950, currently 44% of their entire
population is urban. It has been rural to urban migration above all that has contributed
to such phenomenal growth (UN 2008: 7). It is widely believed that mass rural-urban
migration during these post-WWII decades was instigated mainly by the top-down
western policies, which promoted the ideas of modernization and industrialization for
1
the developing nations (Leys 2005). Slums and urban informal settlements have
since continued to proliferate in the cities of these nations, and have remained the
2030, slum-dwelling population in the world would double and reach 2 billion. Yet,
in the gross failure of third world governments in housing provisioning, and in the
(Peattie 1999: 137). This is also what my PhD is about. Simply speaking, the aim
migrants living in the selected third world citys many slums, squatters and informal
locations. By using the term successful, I refer particularly to those migrants who
despite their dubious tenure status1 and without any formal sector support have still
unit or both. For having a focus on ownership process, this research therefore
political processes that helped migrants acquire and maintain land- and/or house-
ownership in their efforts to becoming permanent in the city. These mechanisms and
under modernity, which this research argues, has been used by both poor migrants
1. As illustrated in the literature review (Chapter 2), most of the slums and squatter
settlements in which these migrants reside have either illegal or unresolved tenure status.
2
1.2 Background
the conditions arising in Khulna (Hakim 2009) - a mid-sized city2 in Bangladesh. The
during the post-WWII decades when Khulnas urban form experienced significant
during this period of time when the governments role in delivering important
industrialization enticed the national think-tank during this period, while alternative
traditional ones. To further clarify the broad assumption that ordinary people produce
their own physical environment in their own informal ways by using their own
means, this study seeks to look at the production and control of migrants spatio-
physical environments in relation with the socio-political contribution from all social
or illegal-legal dilemma and hence explains the aforesaid conclusive model, has not
2. Cohen (2004: 25) argues that most urban growth over the next 25 years will not take
place in mega-cities at all but will occur in far smaller cities and towns. UN (2008: 15)
also confirms that it is the medium-sized cities (with populations >5million but
<1million) in which the second highest number of people (23% of overall global
population; most will be in the smaller towns) are expected to reside by year 2025.
3. Agency is the capability, the power, to be the source and originator of acts; agents (or
actors) are the subjects of action, deployed in debates over the relationship between
individuals and social structure...(and) pertain...to the nature of individual consciousness,
its ability to constitute and reconstitute itself, and...the extent of its freedom from exterior
determination (Rapport and Overing 2003: 1).
4. This has been stressed by Keivani and Werna (2001: 69) in their work on the Modes of
housing provision in developing countries that systems or modes of housing provision
can be defined by the processes through which such provision is achieved...based on the
identification of social relations and interactions of agents involved in all aspects of
housing provision, i.e. production, exchange and consumption.
3
elaborately in Chapter 2). The need to realizing, and the intention to contributing to
The proposition, on which this problem statement is based on, hence is that the built
actors or agents inhabiting it (Habraken 1998: 28). Thus interactions take place
context of Khulna, the home- (and land-)less peasant, who once migrated and started
living here permanently hence symbolizes a very important agent since they
component of market triumph, has still remained a homeless subject in the city.
Neither governments, nor the proponents of the market (e.g. industrialists, foreign
donors, NGOs etc.) had to offer any mechanism to reinstate the migrant into any
(sense of) home. Therefore, in order to make home and attain a sense of permanence,
the migrants had (and still have) to engage into interactions with agents mostly higher
in terms of social class, power and authority. Interaction between them as such is
what determines the spatial control mechanisms and hence the physical form of
individuals. Later, as modern public sector agencies such as KDA and KCC5 were
5. KDA (Khulna Development Authority) is formed in 1961 to manage spatial planning and
physical development of Khulna. KDA works under the central government and headed
by appointed bureaucrats. In contrast, Khulna municipality was heightened to the rank of
Khulna City Corporation (KCC) in 1984. Its jurisdiction is divided into 31 administrative
wards. KCC is headed by an elected Mayor while its 31 wards are represented by elected
representatives. The main task of KCC is to deliver services, and collect holding and
utility taxes, with very little power to control the physical development of Khulna
(Ahmed 2003). KDA, on the other hand, has the statutory power to control larger areas
than KCC and thus greater scope to plan and implement projects that directly influence
its physical growth. Although a severe co-ordination problem persists, roles of both KDA
and KCC still remain vital with regard to the building practice of migrants.
4
However, as none of the formal/public-sector actors was successful in delivering
migrants the most important ingredient of home-making - i.e. land (tenure), migrants
still managed some form of ownership (although informal and illegal mostly) using
social elites, religious bodies, NGOs etc. The processes involved in getting land for
government land had all been benefitted by this key socio-political relationship. A
constant process of reciprocity a situation, in which both ordinary migrant and the
elite are mutually benefitted considering their own intents, has always underscored
this relationship.
people on the receiving end. How things are usually done in the developed world
cities hence remains simple. Both public sector and formal private sector decide what
and how things (e.g. housing) are to be constructed and delivered, while the citizens,
being decided. The respective roles of the formal sectors and the citizen do not
change much. This model thus remains largely linear. Compared to this, affairs in
third world cities are rather curious. Albeit modern in the way these cities seem to
operate, rules seldom take effect. It is also here the public/formal-sector agencies
grossly fail to perform the roles they are supposed to perform in conceiving,
producing and delivering housing6. Paper plans and shadow governments remain
6. Keivani and Werna (2001: 66) informs that less than 10% of the total housing stock is
actually delivered by third world governments; this includes all sorts of provisioning,
chief amongst which are housing for public servants, middle-class housing and low-
income housing (excluding housing for the lowest-income groups or homeless people).
5
plenty but lacking validity and legitimacy altogether. Yet, even amongst this absence
and failure of the formal, the most ordinary of the citizen still devise ways to get
residence can even be found amongst the most planned of grids as in third world
Chandigarh (Figure 1.1). Informalization has also been reported in the depiction of
Figure 1.1: (Left): actual population in Chandigarh 1998. (Right): informal settlements in
2000 red circles show the existing slums and the dark dots show homeless squatters
locations (Source: Sarin 2009: 111).
In these societies as in Khulna, through what processes then this formal-informal co-
existence continues to grow and mature? How does, for example, a poor migrant get
modern times? What may be the alternative models for explaining such ownership of
Western societies? How are these material lacks compensated and through what
interest that makes all the actors assume a negotiated stance? What role these
6
different actors/agents play in this compensation process? What are the spatio-
physical outcomes of these processes at the different levels of the urban form?
otherwise re-defined, the associated definitions and explanation should be used rather
Migrant and migration: the term migrant applies to persons, and family members,
moving to another country or region for the betterment of their material or social
conditions and improve the prospect for themselves or their family at origin (IOM
2004: 40).
its length (permanent, temporary, circular etc.), composition and causes and includes
(Ibid: 41). Internal migration refers to movements of people from one area of a
country to another for the purpose or with the effect of establishing a new
residence. Internal migrants move but remain within their country of origin. Rural to
the city, i.e. the citys slums, squatters and various informal settlements where the
permanent rural-urban migrants have been living during the post-WWII decades of
Generally, migrants can be found living in all the slums, squatters and informal
7
settlements7. But as will be demonstrated in Chapter 2, many settlements both large
and small may also be found that lack the necessary physical and legal attributes to be
used throughout this dissertation as a broader and more generic terminology that
encompasses mainly the residential activities of the migrants in the city. A more
detailed critique of the associated concepts (slum, squatter and informal settlements)
research. In some occasions in this dissertation, the terms slum and informal
three dimensions, ranging from the scale of courtyards to cities. It may often be
represented by specific properties (e.g. density). Urban form may also refer to the
overall size or shape of the urban area, or its degree of articulation into discrete
settlement units (villages, blocks etc.). In this dissertation, urban form refers to the
concepts; one, built form (implying urban form in three dimensions and at the scale-
level of dwelling units; and two, settlement form (the form of discrete units
dimensions: (1) Spatial and temporal dimensions: formal structural properties across
diverse geographic scales and time periods; (2) Societal dimensions: ideological,
political and socio-economic factors; and (3) Experiential dimensions: emotions and
7. The Challenge of Slums recognizes various migrants as the residents of slums, but
continue to use slums as their places of residence (UN-HABITAT 2003: 10).
8
values related to the residential biography of individuals and households (Lawrence
1995: 58). Home is also relative and place-specific. In Bangladesh, the meaning of
home is rather ambiguous and complex. The Bangla word bari, although often
denotes the physical house, also indicates to a sense of rootedness, and closely
resembles the western notion of home. On the other hand, ghar denotes the
physical house/dwelling unit(s) built on the vita, i.e. the piece of land, often
which ones bari is part of. To be at home means to be part of the samaj within a
The primary question this research asks and seeks to answer is: what socio-spatial
the urban context of Khulna, despite the failures of Governments and formal private
sectors to provide housing for the poor during modernization and industrialization?
9
disciplinary boundary. In addition, the sheer volume of available scholarly works8
outline a disciplinary boundary for this research, it can be said that works of four
interrelated subject areas have been primarily considered (Figure 1.2). The key
control are drawn and discussed with reference to works done in behavioural
Demography studies
Post-colonial studies
Subaltern studies
Socio-spatial
Country studies
UN documents
on demography (migration,
Informality
construction of
urbanization, population etc.) and home under
conditions of
modernity
UN documents (mainly those by
settlements has been studied on the basis of their respective tenure types. A total of
neighbourhood tissues being studied and documented using architectural tools and
techniques. In addition, 10 focussed group discussions have been carried out during a
8. A Google Scholar search on 11 May 2013, using the keywords slum, squatter,
informal settlements, housing and home returned with figures 5,120; 1,780; 1,020;
176,000; and 3,880 for scholarly literatures respectively.
10
three-phased fieldwork (detailed in methodology chapter 3). Another 6 key
disciplines may sometimes appear unfamiliar to and burdensome for some readers. A
could have been more useful. And as in most academic research, inclusion of
additional study subjects and quantitative figures would have made generalization of
understanding of the New mobilities paradigm and its spatial implications (Sheller
and Urry 2006), this research outlines a particular context and hence aims to grasp the
diversities associated with this context by analyzing its urban physical spaces
This research also illustrates how the deliberately constructed and maintained scarcity
of resources (especially land) by influential elitist agents has lead to the creation of a
research further shows how these binary conditions have been exploited by the elitist
actors and successful migrants alike, in order to construct and maintain control over
their individual territories, leaving significant consequences for third world urban
11
form. It also reveals how the material manifestations of these contradictory
environments, have over the years established these environments as critical spatio-
physical sites for socio-political interplays between the ordinary migrant and
With reference to the levels/areas of contribution, Table 1.1 summarizes the possible
The framework (Figure 1.3: overleaf) phases out the key components for this
research:
12
Figure 1.3: Research framework.
13
1.10 Structure of dissertation
Table 1.2 outlines the organization of the chapters in this dissertation. Objectives for
each of the chapters are followed by brief descriptions of the key themes covered by
14
Chapter 2: Literature review and conceptual framework
2.1 Introduction
world city, this chapter begins by outlining a literature review framework. With
regard to the broad question and objectives stated in Chapter 1, this framework
identifies key scholastic materials from various allied disciplines interested in the
assembled under five main threads. Through this review, a few niches appear within
existing knowledge, which are summarized under gaps later in the chapter. On the
basis of the reviews and the knowledge gaps, a conceptual framework is proposed
that helps frame the specific objectives, identify variables and select indicators.
academics historically have been putting together efforts to comprehend the socio-
order to identify the elements and mechanisms that bring about spatio-physical
1. Sheller and Urry (2006) coins the term New Mobilities Paradigm to point to this
contemporary era of numerous movements.
2. Herbart Gans (1962)s The Urban Villagers Group and Class in the Life of Italian-
Americans; Turner (1976)s Housing by People; Rapoport (1988)s Spontaneous
Settlements as Vernacular Design; Serageldin (1990)s The Development and
Morphology of Informal Housing; Heynen and Loeckx (1998)s Scenes of
Ambivalence: Remarks on Architectural Patterns of Displacement; UN-HABITAT
(2003)s The Challenges of Slums; Roy (2004)s The Gentlemans City: Urban
Informality in the Calcutta of New Communism; Kellett (2005)s "The Construction of
Home in the Informal City"; Dayaratne and Kellett (2008)s Housing and home-making
in low-income urban settlements; Datta (2009)s Home, Migration, and The City,
Spatial Forms And Practices in a Globalising World; Nijman (2010)s A Study of
Space in Mumbais Slums; and Kim Dovey (2012)s Informal Urbanism and complex
15
transformation at the many levels of migrant settlements. Likewise, with regard to the
broad research question, the key object here is to work out a theoretical-conceptual
structure that helps identify the context-specific social and spatial components
underlying the migrant environments. These benefit migrants to retain some form of
ownership to material property (land and/or house) and become permanent in the city.
framework that to help the study of host environments in relation with historically
migration and urban form, though not plenty, thus remain confined within certain
timelines and referring only to an in-situ context of the host city. Studies on migrant
spaces, at least those in the third world urban context also do not maintain reference
with the many forms of rural-urban interactions3. A diachronic reading of the spatial
micro-level policies on the shaping of rural and urban spaces, particularly considering
modern third world urban form thus necessitates the inclusion of all the forces of
industrialization).
The micro-level studies on migrants dwelling spaces and forms in this research thus
adaptive assemblage are a few amongst a host of scholarly literature that looks at
various migrants everyday socio-spatial environments.
3. Lynch (2005: 6) identifies five ways in which rural and urban may be linked: food,
natural flows, money, people and ideas. As later chapters reveal, peoples social network
(discussed here under People category, p. 106) and hybrid spatial practices and socio-
cultural customs and behaviour (discussed under Natural flows category, p. 92) remain
important components in the shaping of physical dwelling environments. A home in the
city, in many cases, hence retains reference with the long lost rural home.
4. This includes the broader structural conditions formulated by supra-national institutions
(World Bank, IMF etc.) and implemented by national and local governments.
16
the required variables as stressed in the earlier paragraphs, five key theoretical-
empirical areas are chosen and reviewed subsequently. Table 2.1 outlines these
phenomena which are of interest to this research, disciplinary areas where the
reviewed literature originate from, and explanations why they have been chosen and
In the context of Bangladeshi cities, studies that seek to investigate migrants settling-
particularly true of the research conducted in and about Khulna. Apart from a very
17
transformation in Khulna in relation with various socio-political forces historically.
Devoid of any particular focus on migration and its consequences at the lower level
spatial form5, these studies provide partial accounts of: (1) spatial distribution of
significant phases of in-migration (Dudek and Van Houtte 2008: 39, 45); and (3) a
variables such as settlement location, number, size and age; residents demographic
of these studies provide a birds eye view of the situation, and suffer from not
In the context of Dhaka, similar dearth of research is also found. Works (such as
Kemper 1989, DCosta 1994 or Ghafur 2010s) amongst many things, mention of the
they are all generalized studies as none focuses solely on the phenomenon of
migration as a driver for urban form6. These are not architectural studies either, since
they outline frameworks and suggest of a methodology useful for discussing urban
incorporating both global and local forces (e.g. colonialism, economic doctrines,
these works.
5. Adapted from Habraken (1998); it states that lower the level of spatial form, lesser is the
participation from agents, hence is their public character.
6. Although migration as a contributor to urbanization has been identified on several
places; see Kemper 1989: 380; DCosta 1994: 702; Ghafur 2010: 7.
18
As scholars discuss urbanization in relation to migration, urbanization is discussed
mostly in terms of population increase and demographic changes in the city (Afsar
(e.g. water and air pollution) and socio-economic outcomes (e.g. increased violence
and crime, economic gain and empowerment etc.). When spatial outcomes are
growth of slums and pressure on housing (Islam 1999: 13-14). These studies provide
only a top-down view, focusing on the breadth of the socio-spatial problems arising
from urbanization not the depth. Ghafur (2010)s study on urbanism, however,
neoliberal conditions has become subject to the market forces. He shows, with a
theoretical inclination, how present neoliberal condition has for its own gain led to an
overall privatization of the housing sector. With the help of planning bureaucrats and
with active political patronage, here private formal sector (developers) grabs land and
making option for growing number of urban poor (migrants). Although not directly
relevant to the present research objectives, Ghafurs work stresses the importance of
aim at and assess the alternative dwelling perspectives in order to grasp the in-
depth understanding of lived lives in spacein its hierarchical relation to the urban
how the migrant populations manage to survive and (occasionally) prosper in the
destination city, have seek to investigate the livelihood (and survival) strategies of the
19
city living migrant chiefly (Huq-Hussain 1996; Siddiqui 2003; Hakim 2010; Hossain
2011). While defining these migrants living places as slums and squatters, many
social, political and economic strategies at different intervals ranging between pre-
migration and present times. A few amongst such works have dedicated special
this research. Although some architectural/spatial analyses are there, yet they mostly
fail to provide any analysis of spatio-physical transformation (at least) at the level of
example, Huq-Hussains article implicitly mentions about the need for privacy
particularly amongst female migrants (Ibid: 97). Yet she still does not follow this up
with spatial evidences that show how this particular need is eventually being
socio-spatial consequence. Similar is found in the other articles. Although there are
mentions about the importance of kinship-networks (Shakur and Madden 1992: 75)
and active political participation (Hossain 2011: 9), their spatio-physical analysis
appear to be mere descriptions of inert house forms and spaces, construction materials
economic forces in the shaping of urban form at the level of the concerned dwelling
there is a common important lesson these studies seem to offer. They all highlight the
need for including a temporal dimension for studying migrants urban adaptation
20
process; this is akin to the need for a morphological study as frequently used in the
study of built environments. This approach certainly allows tracing back various
the host city. It helps understand the occasions for transformation of spatial practices,
behaviours, spatial needs, customs and habits and hence the overall urban form in
response to changing circumstances. This approach also helps compare the possible
evolution in permanent migrants social identity the uplift from a mere rootless
Globally, a number of studies have been carried out during the post-WWII decades
2007; Colombijn and Erdentug 2002; Davis 2003; Eriksen 2001; Fenster 1996;
Lozanovska 2003; Pieterse 2000). Within the Western scholarship, the latter has
found most attention compared to the former, as scholars tend to show more interest
western urban environments. Efforts are given to comprehend the driving forces and
Tensions arising from this radical influx of immigrants mostly from former European
colonies have led to the publication of critical works8. It hence comes to no surprise
postcolonial discourse.
21
Although scarce, some authors have actually aimed to analyze the relation between
economic, social and ideological perspectives have been analyzed in relation to citys
physical growth and overall fabric. Similarly, Kezer (1998: 11) talks about Ankara,
where structural changes within the state and its institutions triggered unprecedented
contestations over space by opening it to new uses and users while displacing the
old. Zheng et al. (2009), in the Chinese context, also analyzes how the city living
migrant-workers housing preference for the fringe (rural) areas is increasingly being
challenged by urban expansion. Shao et al. (2008) examine the spatial clustering of
migrants in Bangkok and analyze that on the basis of various social networks.
Weiping Wu, through her two versions on rural migrants spatial distribution in the
reform-era Chinese city (Wu 2008; Wu 2010) highlights how these migrants are,
being subject to hukou, are spatially trapped within a few particular locations in
Arif Hasan (2010b), in his Migration, small towns and social transformations in
international emigration) have had both positive and negative effects on the urban
and refugees illegal subdivision of land on the citys fringe areas as local
governments prove inept to project and deliver housing for these groups.
Simultaneously, the older city core becomes more crowded with the growth of
informal businesses after the affluent class gradually moved out to peripheral new
8. Please refer to, Ashcroft B., G. Griffiths and H. Tiffin 1989, The Empire writes back:
theory and practice in post-colonial literatures, Routledge, London and New York.
22
towns (fuelled by foreign remittance flows). This same remittance that has kept
contributing to national GDP growth has also led to the creation of socio-spatial
and poor belonging to both informal and formal sectors. All these processes,
elite class (Ibid: 49). This groups political influence on both informal voter
Hasan recognizes, is conceivably the most important social component that underlies
Now, in terms of the studies on immigrants assimilation in the West, they only cover
a certain (and very exclusive and) affluent portion of the third-world mobile
population, leaving the bulk of the others, i.e. the rural to urban movers, to be
migration in the third world city has remained one of the most cultivated areas of
research during the past 5-6 decades, these have been interested solely in the socio-
dwelling objects at the receiving end (Chan and Zhang 1999; Deshingkar and Grimm
2004; van der Hoeven 2000), with focus on, for example, employment and income
(Todaro 1969). And when these migrants have been studied as research objects,
On the other hand, as rural migrants in the city are looked at as subjects, i.e. as actual
people as they are, micro-level studies here actually attempted to understand their
23
down process) (Hakim 2010; Kuhn 1999), gender (Fan 2003), effect of remittance to
origin (Fletcher 1997) etc. Similar have already been seen in the works on
Bangladesh as well. Other available theoretical threads that are concerned with
internal migration, mostly focus on issues pertaining to climate change9 (Black 2001),
just a few.
migration and urban form from above not through migrants own eyes. In a few
cases when such studies tend to focus on the migrants actual day to day space-
making practices as in Abu Lughod (1973)s, they originate in disciplines other than
urban form and spaces; neither these aim to measure the spatio-physical
provide any theoretical direction either, which helps comprehend the spatial practices
by the migrant population for claiming a sense of ownership over their dwelling
environment.
Settlements where migrants live in the city are commonly referred to as slums,
squatters or informal settlements. Migrant settlements, i.e. their places and spaces are
9. Migrants, when compelled to live outside their places of origin (due to war, climatic
disasters or political views), assume the title of a refugee (IOM 2004: 53).
10. For example, diachronic study of formal and spatial transformation of migrant
settlements, their neighbourhood characteristics and dwelling environments in relation to
changing levels of density.
11. Interestingly, UN-HABITAT recognizes the potential heterogeneous and spatial qualities
in slums and with its dwelling communities; yet, it is probably due to their interest in
indicating a more global picture and stressing on the stature of this great problem that
led to their usage of the term slum in the first place.
24
reduces the scope for grasping the possible heterogeneity and multi-layered meanings
associated with and manifested in these spaces. As Roy (2011: 226) cites Echanove
and Srivastava (2009) to portray life in Dharavi12, places like Dharavi, these authors
claim, are perhaps amongst the most active and lively parts of any city that have
developed without any public funding or support. These are also places of intense
understanding such a place solely by the generic term slum ignores its complexity
and dynamism.
(Kellett and Napier 1994) also does not help much. Although these concepts are
appreciative, these still appear ahistorical and apolitical without asking for any
particular reference to the dwellers past and for not considering dwellers many
as the number one force behind it13 (Abu-Lughod 1973; Correa 1989; Halpern 1966;
Neuwirth 2007; UN 2008; Wu 2010). Yet, even the most provoking of all UN
calling these spaces as slums and its inhabitants as slum-dwellers, and thus take the
agency away from the latter. So a clarification on the concepts of slum, squatter and
The terms slum, squatter and informal settlements share a few common threads.
Although there are clear conceptual differences14, they all indicate to an actual
12. Located in Mumbai, it is considered as the largest slum in South Asia, housing more
than half a million population at a density of 3000persons/ha (Nijman 2010: 8).
13. UN (2008) summarizes this; Table 1 in Appendix provides a comparative matrix.
14. For example, UN and other agencies argue that the ideas of informal and slum are not
the same as informality can exist in areas which do not have conditions akin to slums and
vice versa (Jenkins and Andersen 2011: 2).
25
physical space that suffers from various sorts of lacks. A slum, according to UN-
HABITAT (2003: 12), is defined as an area that suffers from various inadequate
levels of physical and legal characteristics (e.g. poor structural quality, inadequate
space for decent living, overcrowding, inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and
infrastructure, insecure residential status etc.). A squatter, on the other hand, is seen
as an area having illegal land tenure, accumulated through organized land invasion or
gradual accretion. Informal settlements, on the other hand, are residential areas
which may have dubious land tenure; these are also officially recognized (planned)
areas where housing regulations have not been maintained while house constructions
are largely carried out without the help of professionals (Willis 2009: 403). The
sharing of a common negative attribute by these three, i.e. the lack of something one
assumes, has led to their interchangeable use by even the global level agencies (as in
However, the term migrant has often been interchangeably used, for example, with
slum-dweller (Mangin 1967; Karan et al. 1980; Mukhopadhyay and Dutt 1993;
Rapoport 1988; UN-HABITAT 2003). They have also been found described as
2007; Kellett 2005; Kudva 2009; Roy 2005), indigenous (UN 2007), peasants
(Halpern 1966), urban poor (Noe 1981; Roberts 1978; UN-HABITAT 2003; UN
2005), and floating population (Li 2006) when considered in the less developed
2001; Fenster 1996; Gallagher and Tucker 2000; Hutchison and Krase 2007; Pieterse
2000) and belonging to a particular race (Mercuse and van Campen 2000) when
Bangladesh also commonly identify that migrants constitute the most of the slum
dwellers (Ahmed 2007: 8; Angeles et al. 2009: 11; Miah and Weber 1990: 145;
26
Rahman 2001: 49; Shakur and Madden 1991: 69); yet they go for frequent labelling
Labelling migrant spaces crudely as slums and squatters also does not allow
overlooks the all important time-space continuum16 that migrants remain part of
notwithstanding their spatial implications. This, similar to Datta (2009: 4)s assertion,
The tag of slum-dweller also has deep political implications primarily for
migrants everyday lived spaces. Rather than devising a taxonomy based solely on
dwellers) of their places of living, this research aims to look at their ordinary
mainstream city dwellers. However, the migrant needs to be identified because he/she
elements in the city, much in the same way during his/her rural times. Even if these
people have been away from their places of origin for many years while their new
urban-born generations would probably never return to the rural homes (Hakim
2009; Hakim 2010), it is still not hard to find, even amongst these apparent slums, the
15. For example, Kellett and Napier (1994) frequently use the term squatter; this however
leads to the question, Who exactly they are talking about here? and Isnt it reducing
scopes for incorporating at least all the ethno-cultural differences these squatter-people
may actually have amongst themselves?
16. This remains one of the major threads of debates regarding the international immigrants
in western cities; referring to the previous section, one may recall terms such as multiple
belonging; transnationality, juxtaposition and overlapping; flow, porosity and
connectivity; layered structures of nodes and networks etc, all used to ascertain that
migrants sense of belonging has much to do with their past and places they used to
reside previously.
27
clear existence of village-like zoning and other land-use17 on the basis of religion,
language and regional origin (Hakim 2009; Nijman 2010). So when studies
homogenize the origin and history of these migrants by labelling them as slum-
fundamentally compromised.
Moreover, there could be different groups of non-migrant urban poor, whose poverty
could be attributed to reasons other than that of the migrants. Satterthwaite (2005:
22) criticizes equating the poor or illegal settlers with migrants this way, since many
migrants probably have attained the stature of a mainstream citizen through decades
dweller essentially indicate to the present legal and material aspects with regard to
the migrant citizenry while keep ignoring their history, a definite past (of the first
becoming a true citizen. In most cases, describing the places and spaces of the
political existence; it also overshadows their efforts to becoming during their long
of common peoples history of urbanization in the global south. Such acts also
So for research purposes at least, a need is felt toward using terminologies that look at
the settlements exactly as what they mean within their local context18. Rather than
17. During fieldworks, I came across interesting concentration of people and equally
interesting village-like zoning on the basis of race, profession etc. within the same low-
income settlements akin to any typical Bangladeshi village.
18. Local expressions often provide clues about what these settlements mean actually in that
particular context. For example, in Turkish, Gecekondu is a somewhat equivalent
expression to that of slum in English, where this word literally means it happened at
night. For years Turkey's low income residents (who currently constitute about half of
Istanbuls entire population) have continued to build at night to take advantage of an
ancient law stating that if such constructions start at dusk and people could move in by
28
investigating these settlements and their inhabitants in terms of what they lack, an
alternative view in terms of what they have may also prove useful here. For this
reason, this research prefers using a less prejudiced term migrant settlements to
2.2.3.1 Informality
According to Castells and Portes (1989), the idea of the informal must be viewed in
congruence with three aspects. One, informal is only conceivable in the presence of
and interactions adapt to variable shapes depending on its social conditions and the
political orientation of the government. In any country, for example within a closed
market system, small businesses often operate as extensions of larger firms. So there
interactions between the state and the informal is what operates there. Two, the labour
personnel, such as migrant workers, ethnic minorities and women, who, for both
social and demographic reasons, are not able to access formal economy and its labour
sunrise without being discovered by the authorities, they would gain legal standing and
could not be evicted without a court fight (Neuwirth 2005: 8). Similar is with the Bangla
version of the slum. Bastee in Bangladesh is the most frequently used expression for
slums. Yet, Bastee is derived from the root bashati, meaning a place for human living
(Rahman 2001: 50). Camp and Colony, derived primarily from English are another two
local expressions referring mainly to refugee settlements and low income government-
funded housing areas respectively (Hakim 2009).
19. Although defined as a binary, the notion of formal and informal are grounded in particular
cultural, social, institutional, economic and political realities of particular contexts.
Moreover, what are formally classified as informal settlements, are not a concept that
residents recognize or apply to their reality (Jenkins and Andersen 2011: 1). Formal
standardization as urban planning was primarily meant for the benefit of colonial elites.
Yet in present post-colonial conditions, urban planning mainly benefits the new elites. In
all formal situations, some form of informality should be present. Formal and informal are
not separate sectors but co-exist in complex inter-penetrated manners (Ibid: 3).
29
market. Informal economy hence evolves through a process of social struggle and
economic activities by these people are also often characterized by stamina and
political patronage. Squatter settlements, which flourish on public land, can be seen
as one such example (Ibid: 26). The process of informalization hence can be
viewed not as a social process. Rather, it is the expression of a new form of control
characterized by the disenfranchisement of the state. For the latter, the loss of a
formal control mechanism over all informal activities is compensated by short term
acts of legitimation and renewed economic growth they offer (Ibid: 27).
arrangements that no longer fit these peoples real condition and experience.
Informal economic acts tend to be flexible and ad hoc, while they make use of more
primitive (modes of) exploitation. These acts are more small-scale, face-to-face,
some particular social groups that differ from the mainstream in any prevailing
society. For example, migrant communities may frequently be found living in ghetto-
like enclaves. Informal economic activities thus may take place as the migrants, for
being confined within this enclave, would often combine residential functions with
sense of autonomy also develops within the social sphere (Ibid: 32).
30
Nezar AlSayyad discusses informality in the neoliberal urban (spatial) context. The
current era of market liberalization and globalization, he says, has given rise to a new
belong to both formal and informal sector at once. In spatial terms, informality has
assumed new forms and new geographies in terms of developments that may serve as
logic which emerged under the context of liberalization (AlSayyad 2004: 24-25).
The processes of urban informality also vary greatly between contexts and in
relation between squatter groups and the state, in the Middle East the similar groups
Ananya Roy (2004) discusses how in neoliberal Kolkata, the ruling communist
government used to make strategic use of both formal and informal spatio-political
accomplish both political objectives (ensure vote and loyalty) and to serve the interest
of large-scale developers, Roy shows how the same government machines (formal)
and party cadres (informal) were used in combination. A number of events were
the citys peripheral lands. These urban poors need for remaking home in the city
was exploited by the ruling regime to prove the regimes legibility and power. This
home-making also helped develop agricultural land into sellable plots; promises were
given to these populations for their wellbeing and eventual settlement. In this, the
without proper land records (maps or a master plan) was left alone for decades as
31
disputed properties. Government then would engage its party workers on a day-to-day
basis to look after this large number of people by managing for them the gradual
access to urban services and infrastructure. With the absence of any formal/legal
deliberately maintained with regard to peoples land tenure. This in turn, would
A lack of policies and regulations regarding land development on these disputed sites
was also maintained quite strategically. These migrants, left without a choice and for
being promised of future service provisioning cleared up these sites using their own
free labour, and turned these into habitable places. Yet this very land which they
were once allowed to live on would only be appropriated back later by the same
provider (government) in the name of public interest (actually to give way for large-
scale private-sector development projects for the upper-middle class). This tactic
frontier plots of land and putting in the same efforts, knowing they might be evicted
once again.
The power of the state therefore was derived from certain regulatory manipulation,
maps). Coupled this with the activities of ever-present party workers and cadres, this
would keep options open for relentless negotiations between government and other
actors on matters related to land right, proper title and land use. This territorialized
uncertainty thus would guarantee the flexibility of the state to retain its grip on the
grass roots as it would be required periodically. This strategy by the higher power
hence gave rise to grass-root politics by the minor groups, even if their part was
insignificant initially.
32
2.2.3.2 Subaltern studies
history is another interesting track that again shows a theoretical insight for this
research. Proposed mainly by expatriate Indian scholars and later followed closely by
other Asian scholars, these works emphasize the fundamental relationships of power,
people, those who did not and could not belong to the elite class (Roy 2011: 227,
citing Guha 1988). The subaltern politics hence means micro-level politics of
disenfranchised grassroots people outside that of the civil society in order to claim
habitation and livelihood. Needless to say, these efforts for claiming habitation or
involves two key qualities: opportunistic entrepreneurism and political agency (Ibid).
Similar has been echoed in Partha Chatterjee (2004)s concept of political society,
in which the latter is seen as a construct between the political relation between ruling
elites and urban subaltern population groups. Although most citizens in recently
reality they are not part of the civil society whatsoever. Yet they are not outside the
reach of the state machines nor are they excluded from the political domains. As part
after and controlled (Ibid: 38). Politics emerge out the developmental policies of the
and habitation. So to deal with them, authorities do not treat them similarly as they do
with other legitimate groups. Yet, as they remain important for their sheer number in
33
with these groups as convenient instruments for the administration of welfare to
On the other hand, these groups accept their illegal activities, but continue to claim
habitation, livelihood and government welfare as matters of right. They also conform,
for example, they would move out if provided with suitable alternative sites for
resettlement. Although some welfare claims are met, the other claims are not regarded
by officials as justifiable, in the fear there would only invite further violation of
public property and civic laws. So negotiations with regard to these claims take place
group with similar groups, with more privileged and influential groups, bureaucratic
personnel and with political parties and leaders. However, for their power to vote in
(Ibid: 40-41) argues, The field of citizenship overlaps with that of governmentality.
Considering this rather political relation between the subaltern and the elite, another
concept requires attention here. Put forward by Asef Bayat, and developed mainly in
the context of the Middle East, it discusses the silent, compromised and hidden acts
of the subaltern population that is used for getting access to livelihoods and housing.
In his From Dangerous Classes to Quiet Rebels: Politics of the Urban Subaltern
in the Global South, Bayat (2000: 542-543) critiques20 the typical association of the
20. He also critiques contemporary studies, and their ideas of the passive poor (for
portraying the urban poor as a marginal man and also for generalizing and disregarding
the various ways in which the poor in different cultures deal with poverty; see Bayat
2000: 538); the surviving poor (for portraying them as merely as victims and hence
denying them of any agency thus such peoples resistance efforts, advancements,
opportunistic endeavours and many social associations are neglected; see Ibid: 539); the
political poor (for being Latin America-centric and hence failing to grasp again that
apart from mainstream political associations, urban poor may also have other social
networks and culture-specific ties that could help them achieve their aims; see Ibid: 540).
34
term resistance with urban poors effort in third world cities. For him, the term
resistance phenomena and therefore undermines the more quiet and incremental
both sides have a stake in ensuring a deal comes out right. Deals are put together.
Deals are worked out together (Low 2010: 3). These considered, the idea of
encroachment by the ordinary by Bayat (2000: 545) in the third world Asias
context. Quiet encroachment, hence represents the silent, persistent yet pervasive
advancement of the ordinary on the propertied and powerful that helps the former to
survive and improve their lives. Marked equally by quiet, largely atomized and
prolonged mobilization, and by episodic collective actions these are open and
the struggles and gains of the agents take place not at the cost of fellow poor or
themselves, but of the state, the rich and the powerful. These grassroots activism are
neither necessarily defensive nor resisting but cumulatively encroaching as the actors
This is also how the notions of order, modern city and urban governance are
and negotiations between the poor and the authoritative elites in their everyday lives.
21. It comes as no surprise that in many disciplinary areas, and in the understanding of
diverse acts, the idea of resistance is equally pronounced alongside the idea of
negotiation (as in Mondal 2006: 153).
35
Their actions may be collective and hence viewed as political only when they are
confronted by those who threaten their gains (Bayat 2000: 546-547). For example,
the poor do not directly challenge the effect of globalization. Rather, in their quest
for security, they get involved in constant negotiations with globalization to maintain
or seek autonomy in any space remained unaffected. At the same time, (through this
beget significant social changes in urban structures and processes (Ibid: 553).
Two goals drive this quiet form of action. One, redistribution of social goods and
conditions, locations and labels), and other life chances essential for survival and
minimal standards. Two, there is a need for attaining autonomy, both culturally and
politically, from the regulations, institutions and discipline imposed by the state and
modern institutions. The poor tend to function as much as possible outside the
boundaries of the state and modern bureaucratic institutions. They base their
rather than on modern notions of individual self-interest, fixed rules and contracts.
This remains the most practiced mode of relationship not because these people are
essentially non- or anti-modern, but because the conditions of their existence compel
Such entrepreneurism is best evident in the ways the subaltern populations continue
to engage in activities in many visible forms and spaces (see, for example, Tunas
2008). In many cases, such activities run parallel to official developments in both
overt and covert forms, and by taking advantage of loose official systems and its
spatio-political cracks and niches (Kudva 2009; Perara 2009). Or, as Koolhaas (2002:
36
179, 184) tells of Lagos, the formal infrastructure of planning seemingly useless
and restricting to the intensions of the subaltern, also provide the all important grid,
within and through which these peoples entrepreneurial activities take place while
affecting urban spaces and forms. This is also akin to occupancy urbanism through
which the urban subalterns assert territorial claims, practice vote-bank politics and
penetrate the lower, porous reaches of state bureaucracy (Roy 2011: 228).
2.2.3.3 Assemblage
models that have ever been used in the architectural analysis of informal forms and
spaces. This framework has its roots in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix
Guattari (1987), while it was later developed into assemblage theory by DeLanda
interconnectivity and flows between its constituent parts. It is more like an organism
and functions of parts and wholes emerge from the flows among them. It is not a
structural set of predetermined parts which are organized to work a particular way. It
is more a whole that expresses identity and claims territory. For example, a street may
signs, police, shoppers, cars, hawkers, rules, footpaths, goods, trolleys all come
together as it they are parts of a single organism to become the street as we know it.
Yet the relation between these components, for example, the relations between
footpaths and roads or between the interconnections between public and private
37
spaces, remain crucial. In that, assemblage is a dynamic phenomenon, which is
The key quality of assemblage theory hence lies in its ability to use acts of
boundaries are inscribed and erased, and the ways identities are formed, expressed
and transformed22. In the territorialization process, wholes form from parts and
assemblage a zone of order, a sense of home, and a stable space. In present urban
territorialization by which stable territories are eroded (demolition, slum eviction etc.)
(Ibid: 354-355). Assemblage theory is particularly useful for its ability to explain a
number of twofold concepts associated with informal settlements. For example, in the
form involving minor adaptations and tactics in contrast to the fixed ideals of
Master Planning. These two, therefore can only be explained when the dynamic
relation between them are understood. They cannot be seen as separate nor as
22. AbdouMaliq Simone (2004)s People as Infrastructure is a similar piece of work, where
he discusses ordinary peoples open ended, unpredictable, flexible, mobile and
provisional acts in order to sustain the changing politico-economic realities of the
megacity. In his words, people engage into a conjunction of heterogeneous activities that
take place in the presence of seemingly incompatible institutional rationalities and modes
of production. Connection between places, people, action and things remain inseparable,
as tactics are formed in the interstices of complex set of constrains. People seem to derive
maximum outcomes from a minimum of elements; rules are formed form processes of
endless convertibility turning commodities, found objects, resources and bodies into
uses previously unimaginable or constrained.
23. This reminds of Christopher Alexander (1966: 3)s A City is not a Tree, where he talks
about Berkeley street corner. Here he highlights the interdependence of various designed
and non-designed (natural) components of the socio-physical environment, which, in
combination creates an overall system. It is the unchanging receptacle in which the
38
2.2.3.4 Settlement process
Raharjo (2010: 10)s PhD outlines a useful framework for understanding informal
settlements in terms of their tenure types, spatio-physical formation process and types
of built environment that result from such formations24. His research, although
with a simplified review framework that provides useful benchmarks for a number
of key variables. These variables are: type of settlement process; settlement location;
Raharjos thorough reviews (Ibid: 15-36), the following paragraphs summarize each
of his sections. These sections are used later to contribute to the research findings and
analysis scheme for this present research. To keep the discussions concise, only the
summaries are presented without citing the many different authors. Additional
references are only used as felt necessary for further explanations of the variables.
changing parts of the system such as people, newspapers, money, and electrical
impulses can work together.
24. Please refer to Table 2.2 for a typology of slums.
25. Focusing mainly on urban Indonesia context, his primary research question is, How do
continuity and changes of the built environment mediate the process of tenure attainment
in Kampung development? (Raharjo 2010: 4).
39
Types of settlement process: looks at how informal settlements develop with respect
to time and in terms of the (formal) influence of the state. As such, informal housing
follows a reverse pattern to that of formal housing, as tenure security is only ensured
once the buildings are constructed initially. Informal development follows two paths;
involving sudden and simultaneous arrival of invaders and occasional clashes with
authorities. Here the invaders remain well aware of their responsibilities, posses a
sound understanding of the political situation, and tend to have good time
management. Sometimes civil society groups may also be involved in the process. In
terms of land invasion, three types can be characterized: organized, collective and
formality since land being mostly legal. The last type scattered invasion, usually
Accretion, on the other hand, refers to the more gradual settlement process. For
example, initial house construction by workers may take place informally beside the
factories where they work, while the factory-owner may remain silent for these
workers being of his/her interest. However, non-workers may join in later in the
house construction process without seeking consent from the factory-owner. Various
negotiations may take place later between these groups and the owner regarding their
property may occur in two ways: traditional and modern. In the traditional model,
Permissions and consents of these elders are sought for by potential occupants before
40
they move in. The modern form of control, however, takes place in a more developer-
like manner as illegally subdivided land is allowed to be occupied for a fee. There is
also a third model where landowners build without state authorization on titled
property mainly for the purpose of rent and seldom for sale.
other hazards yet job locations remain nearby. Escarpments are common to Latin
America; Favelas in Brazil or Barrios in Venezuela are two such examples. These are
mountainsides. These settlements do not have any streets or paved roads; people
move up and down on foot using steep stairs. The third location is the infrastructure
margin the unused space between infrastructure facilities and used public or private
lands (e.g. space underneath the bridge, gaps between railway line and boundary wall
settlement formation is inner urban block pockets of vacant land behind formal
commercial or residential blocks lining main streets. The formal facades keep these
informal ones invisible and protect them from thoroughfares. Construction sites and
41
cemetries are another two locations frequently subject to encroachment. In both cases
however, people who were once building construction workers and cemetery keepers
Actors and roles they play: seven groups of actors could be identified each of whom
landowners who put their land up for sale. The operators actually the informal
speculators and developers, who after buying land from the providers illegally
subdivide land for sale targeting particularly the low-income customers. Suppliers are
brokers and contractors for customers; this group mediate transactions and construct
buildings for a fee. The state is the regulator; but as discussed in the earlier sections,
their role is often compromised and many regulations are systematically negotiated.
Facilitators are public and private formal sector organizations who would often
agencies are formal sector organizations (e.g. banks) that fund land purchase.
Tenure security: can be defined as the right of all individuals and groups to effective
protection by the state against forced evictions, where land and house remain the
most important and inseparable components. Land tenure, on the other hand, is a
mode by which land is held or owned, or the set of relationships among people
concerning the use of land and its products. Land tenure is influenced by social and
political context of a certain locality. Yet, a complete tenure security imply neither
complete nor any right to sell, develop or sublet land and vice versa. Table 2.3
Depending on global practices, this table consists of both formal and informal, and
traditional and modern tenure practices. Here, traditional refers to the type falling
42
rules and laws, which may concern the whole community other than some individual.
Within these systems, tenure security and subsistence opportunity arise out of kinship
amongst and membership of the community group. Here land remains a social
resource; an individuals relationship with land gives him a sense of place and
Table 2.3: A classification of land tenure types (Source: UN-HABITAT 2004: 8).
Geoffrey Payne (1997)s classification of informal tenure is also an important one for
overleaf. What becomes evident from this discussion on various tenure types is that
43
types of tenure and tenure-security are not necessarily related. For example, so called
house owners in informal settlements might well be able to buy and sell properties,
while a formal-sector renter of an apartment may not have the rights to do the same.
So integration of informal tenants with a formal land/housing market may not serve
the purpose of these tenants at all. It is more likely that as formalization would take
place through the granting of legal tenure, the tenants would sell their property and
44
Transformation: occurs as a result of socio-spatial interventions from both dwellers
and external actors (e.g. the state, NGOs, influential personnel etc.). However, it is
the latters intervention that leads to two opposing consequences: either improvement
take place between the tenants and external actors during either of the processes. For
the purpose of this research, discussions are made only about the improvement and
in two ways: physical upgradation and regularization. For the former, various utility
nations, legalization plays the key role behind the conversion of extralegal property
into liquid capital. It also involves infrastructure improvement as part of its holistic
nature. Indeed, not all informal settlements are feasible for regularization. Also,
regularization does not always take place on the present site; relocation can be viewed
as another type of regularization when current site is deemed unsuitable for future
Many acts of negotiation and resistance may underlie both settlement upgradation
and eviction by external authorities. Such acts prove essential for preventing eviction
and/or stabilize and extend illegal tenants tenure. Intermediaries may be used;
government officials may be approached, and money can be spent during a prolonged
subaltern politics. All these socio-spatial interplays, that involve negotiation, hence
45
2.2.4 Migrancy and built environment
in the third world, little has been contributed to knowledge in the built environment
disciplines (Fenster 1996; Cairns 2009); such works are hard to find with regard to
urbanization in the western world also. For example, Roberts (1978), Karan et al.
(1980), Bapat (1981) and Hardie (1989) represent a generation of researchers who
had attempted to describe migration-induced urbanization in the global south but with
a more top down approach. Only a handful of works (such as Perera 2009; Kudva
2009; Treadwell 2003), although partially, have in fact tried to show how the
the host built environment. And as most of these studies do not, works such as
Nabeel Hamdis outlines a useful framework. His analysis of low income housings
spatial environment departs from the subsequent understanding of the actors, politics
(i.e. various interests that people bring into a particular scenario) and place (Hamdi
proves useful for measuring the nature of ownership one enjoys in a low income
to the extent required for an efficient and methodically sound professional practice in
such settlements. In that, it does not seem to delineate any theoretical thread and clear
variables. Housing literatures in general also do not study its users (here the
migrants) in relation with a larger context maybe with some other spatialities in the
city, or with some other people or kinship network outside his physical house in the
Mainstream studies in architecture are also often criticized for being myopic and for
not having interest to relate their studies with the larger picture (Knox 1987). For
46
example, Kostof (1989) draws a superb account on why and how settlements should
be seen as a continuum beyond the rural-urban divide, yet very seldom talks of the
role and intension of people (actors and agents) driving it. Architectural studies by
this particular generation can be criticized for not being eager to count the actual
agents, i.e. the people and their socio-political-economic acts behind the processes
of urbanization. To answer the present research question, there is a similar lack of any
When compared with the in-depth works done in the allied disciplines (e.g.
working in the migrant settlements and with the migrant population. Kim Dovey, a
prominent architectural scholar with his expertise on working with the informal
settlements and urban informality are available (he mentions Turner 1976; Davis
2006 and Neuwirth 2005), we do not have any well-developed theories of how such
urbanism works (Dovey 2012: 351). On the other hand, research on slums is often
aspatial, as if the ways in which they have been designed the detailed materiality,
spatiality, density, amenity and spatial structure are of interest only to the degree
that they affirm the idea of poverty and disadvantage as a prelude to transformation
(Ibid: 365). Study on permanent rural migrants spaces, the social and spatial means
they deploy for home-making and the resulting spaces and built forms thus have been
found relatively unattended, taken for granted, or confused with something else.
There is however two important works that have seek to investigate the correlation
47
disruption, deconstruction, and otherness) as an instigator of creative practices and of
cultural change (Heynen and Loeckx 1998: 100). Referring to the architectural
works, the authors hypothesize that the intricate and complex practices of
others must have some architectural implications (Table 2.5). In a world provoked
Implications Indicators
Condition and - Pre-displacement conditions: critical moments in life un-balance and
consequence of
confusion; destabilization and disruption of a normal order of life;
displacement
appropriation, confrontation, tension and contestation over same space.
- Post-displacement consequences: variable meaning and ambiguity in
host fabric that cannot be understood with existing wisdom: semantic
gaps (lack of meaning or illegibility of prior meaning e.g. new use of
public as private); semiotic gaps (lack of presence of meaning hidden
existence and practice), and praxeological gaps (absence of well-
defined practices to guide movers behaviour); juxtaposition of forms,
habits and conventions in host environment.
- Improvisation, intuition, risk and creativity involved for adjusting to
present situation; new signifying practices, creativity and re-
codification of signs (using imitation, mimesis or traditional form and
spatial practices even alien to the host society).
- Unstable and contradictory forms, spaces and practices (conflict with
meaning in an oppressive, such as in a racist environment); creation of
a closed system against an existing forceful and oppressive system;
self-contained nature impeding hybridization and mediation.
26. Generally refers to the works of Pierre Bourdieu, Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Carteau.
48
Process of - Borrowed signifiers (image and form); meaning and practices from
settling down
other fields to produce new layers of meanings; metaphoric expression
of architecture using multiple external references including icons,
formal citation, and typological links from outside; metaphorical
transfer of architecture in ordinary practices (e.g. dwelling and
building).
- New situation leading to new practices, technology, forms and
meanings; borrowed and displaced building elements; contradictory
environment leading to ambivalent meanings; metaphoric transposition
(e.g. squatters inhibiting a city that does not exist on the master plan).
- Bricolage (combination of experiences belonging to different and not-
coherent whole such as rural forms in the city or vice versa, or colonial
architecture with local-influenced faade and western luxurious
interior).
- Problem-solving strategy to bridge reality with imagination; hybrid
architecture (architectural ambivalence, such as colonial architecture).
Role of - Architecture as receptacle/medium (architecture bear, represent and
architecture
manifest imprints of socio-culture due to conditions of displacement).
- Architecture as instrument (built environment as instigator of cultural
change architecture used as spatial tool for regulating behaviour and
discipline as did the Colonial rulers; new laws, new spatial regime and
territory, new philosophy, destruction, replacement, abolition;
demonstration of authority, purpose-serving).
- Building/dwelling as stage (creating theatrical space of negotiation
people try out new roles, new text, new costume and body language,
new social relation; active and passive roles).
Identity - Constructed as a process resulting from displacement; identity is
formation
formed by identifying with roles, names and behaviour offered by
(cultural)
social environment; mimetic appropriation produces shift, selection,
recombination and interpretation yet ever-dissatisfaction leads to
ever-search in outside sources; transformation and multiple
interpretation; ever-evolving and relative.
and acts of migration as a coexistence of the binaries. His analysis entails the
49
buildings), constitution of places and the delimitation of territories, migrancy is
mostly about uprootedness, mobility and transience. The situation gets complicated
constantly challenged through the material, social, cultural and emotional re-
construction of exotic or alien dwelling units scattered around the host built fabric. A
cultural norms and forms that operate within the host society. For the migrant to
27. This notion can be explained with the concept of Multiculturalism; the expectation that
immigrants would simply arrive, settle, and assimilate, has been tempered by an
assumption that immigrants might settle in their new destinations in ways that openly
acknowledge and express their own cultural origins, even in ways that sustain links to
their places of origin. Under a multicultural conception of national or metropolitan life,
the split loyalties that accompanied migrant dislocation are given public expression.
Architecture and migrancy accommodate each other in an altered way...Architectural
reterritorialization takes place not according to the dominant territorial logic of the host,
or according to some universally assumed principle of settlement. Rather, it is expected to
articulate the diverse styles of settlement that distinctive immigrant cultures bring. Under
the logic of multiculturalism, national and metropolitan citizens take comfort In the Image
of a reconstituted architecture of places, regions and territories. These are places that have
been rearranged and disturbed perhaps, but they are also places that are understood to
have been culturally enriched and enlivened, and are consequently celebrated (Cairns
2003: 7).
50
architecture is made to operate as a defensive mechanism (Ibid: 7). If contemporary
dwelling is co-constituted with migrancy, then this sets challenge for architecture's
means...not only changing places; it also means changing the nature of places (Ibid:
8). When architecture and migrancy are juxtaposed, one can expect an unwieldy
stream of associations...from the obvious to the cryptic, the significant to the trivial,
the reliable to the anecdotal, the threatening to the comforting (Ibid: 17). Altogether,
architecture and migrancy can be correlated and work for each other as Table 2.6
outlines.
2003).
Relations Indicators
Architecture- Exotic architectural forms, styles and motifs and their interaction with
by-migrants
everyday life (Chinatowns); less articulated forms (expat-towns in non-
Western world); settler (colonial) territories; politics of cultural
production; vernacular form (Bungalow); hybridity; out-of-place-ness;
unorthodoxy; ever-evolving agency of migrants; informal architecture.
Architecture- Marginalized architecture of refugee camps and shantytowns; overlooked
for-migrants
agency of migrants; architecture of emergency and poverty; large-scale
and bureaucratic operations; coded with economic, logistic, structural and
material efficiencies; portable architecture, architects as migrants.
Architectures Optimism, enthusiasm and possibility of enrichment against nationalism
migrancy
and territoriality essentially promotes humanism; architectural
typological logic over social needs disarticulation of form and function;
macroeconomic forces of globalization; home instead of housing since the
former associates mobility while the latter does not; mobility and
settlement.
Drifting Instability of language; slippage of meaning; memory/anxiety of displaced;
intersection of migrancy and its diverse languages; denaturalized bond
between being and place; agent in relation to its productions, its laws and
the world that it creates; a capacity to see oneself somewhere else;
entrapped between the place of birth and the place of desire; pluri-local
places; ongoing, multiple, intermittent and intensified investment in place.
51
2.3 Summary: threads and gaps in knowledge
migrants home-making process in the city. It also helps identify a number of key
areas that are necessary for framing the research methodology. Table 2.7 summarizes
these important directions and looks at the gaps that appear. Depending on these, a
framework is proposed at the final section of this chapter, aiming to facilitate this
Table 2.7: Threads and gaps in knowledge (derived from literature review).
52
discussed as conditions processes are ignored. Studies such as
leading to informality, while forms/spaces of informality are
informality remains the scarce and inadequate28 for grasping
mechanism to resist and/or how question on micro-processes
negotiate with these
- Subaltern studies identify key - Draws examples from India mainly
economic resources, and - No architectural studies actually use
explain how in modernized any subaltern studies frameworks to
third world nations various investigate the spatial consequences of
actors engage in persistent the politics of the governed or silent
political acts to access those encroachment of the ordinary both
focusing on power relations and space
- Assemblage theory explains - Theory is mainly for studying twofold
twofold concepts (formal- concepts (e.g. formal-informal); but
informal) lacks a clear analytical framework;
- Shows how social and spatial generally conceptual and less tested
boundaries are inscribed and (and hence less developed)
erased, and expressed and - Requires supplementary theoretical
transformed using support to be optimized for particular
territorialization and de- studies (e.g. Dovey 2012, adds
territorialization complex adaptive systems)
- Nature of tenure and - Framework to study settlements only
ownership identified as key down to the level of morphology; not
components for informal developed enough to study dwelling-
settlement process level transformations
Migrancy and - Well-developed methods for - Theories, though only a handful, are
built
studying ordinary developed with reference to Western
environment
environments context chiefly
- In relation to migrancy, - Theories are not adequately tested
architecture is used by - No direct relevance with the question
migrants both as an arena and asked in this PhD; there are variables
a means to achieving developed by these theories that might
permanence and identity be useful only
28. Akin to earlier architectural studies, Dovey and King (20011)s Forms of Informality
discusses form-making at the urban level (and in terms of urban morphology). It however
does not discuss the informal peoples space-making practices at the lower-level of
settlements in relation with possible socio-spatial compromises, and also in consideration
of the obvious constraints (spatial, economic) that informality is prone to.
53
2.4 Conceptual framework: justification
Notwithstanding their lacks, the literature review certainly clarifies one thing. Any
construction of dwelling units, securing land tenure in whatever temporary forms that
may be, or even provisioning of infrastructure these all require being in control.
People, who use these functions, need to have a sense of ownership and hence the
true of the migrant settlements where tenure status is ambiguous while the meaning of
this, the research begins with a theoretical thread called Home, which focuses on the
social dimensions of built environment in relation with the spatial. Later, the concept
of Privacy, the key variable of home is further elaborated. This exploration leads to
the realization that privacy is a goal, for whose attainment various control
mechanisms are used by actors who seek for it. In the interest of architecture, focus is
territoriality is used throughout this research to demonstrate how the various actors
have been involved in different spatial practices for retaining control of their
The diagram as in Figure 2.2 (overleaf), which is further developed in the later
29. This is discussed elaborately in the next section under conceptual model.
54
Figure 2.2: Relation between Privacy, Control and Territory (framework borrowed from
Altman 1975: 7).
Crudely, as in the housing literature, the word home is used, for example, to indicate
something that needs to be possessed (Turner 1976: 81). Home is also used
interchangeably with (the acts of) abode/dwelling (Ibid: 103; 146). Other housing
scholars from both worlds, such as Patton (1998: 268), Payne (1984: 120), and Singh
(1992: 200) associate home with tenure, affordability and building respectively.
What all these studies commonly imply is that for home-making, there is a need for
unit or an overall settlement. With regard to the research question that aims to
independent variable.
The theories of home, as will be seen in the next section, have the qualities to
55
interested particularly in post-WWII conditions, during which the global mindset
However, in the interest of this research, the home framework focuses on conditions
particularly prevalent in the developing nations. The key role of this framework is to
seen in the reviewed literature and also in the problem statement, the crucial role of
framework that enables the measure of these actors role in the production of
migrants home in the city. In that, the chosen home framework has been further
tailored and elaborated to aid the measure of spatial control mechanism of migrants
physical home environments, with reference to all the actors involved. On the basis
of the literature review summary, following arguments aims to justify the selection of
b. Home is the sphere of the daily life and the arena in which
fundamental restructuring of society is materialized (Buchli 2002:
210-211, on Soviet society). As seen in European cities, changes in
the layout, meaning and use of domestic space is revealed in the
changes in ideology, economics, social organization and the
morphology of particular urban quarters at the scale of the city
(Lawrence 1995: 59).
56
(Lawrence 1995: 65); in fact, it spans across the body to
transnational space (Blunt and Dowling 2006: 27-29).
Migrants home-making efforts, as Saunders and Williams (1988: 81) put it, open up
a range of crucial and interrelated issues beyond its material dimensions, and thus
beyond the primary levels of the dwelling. If named, household structures and
autonomy, and consumption would only be a few amongst them. Within the
57
developing world characterized by resource-scarce governments and bureaucratic
planning regimes, rural migrants home-making thus necessitates the strategic use of
all the spatio-political niches, loopholes and cracks within the formal system. As
highlighted in A home in the city (UN 2005), it is exactly in these cracks and niches,
spatio-political boundaries between the migrant and external elitist agencies are
constantly being negotiated. Such negotiations, to a large extent, determine what sort
of home is made.
conditions. The transition from village living to city dwelling comes as a trauma for
many of the neo-urbanites. Drawing examples from urban Mexico, Stea (1995: 194-
196) shows that these newly urban population commonly lacked the necessary
coping mechanisms to adjust to the modern ways of life once they were suddenly
exposed to it. As found, the initiation of the modern idea of a citizen had actually
structure in terms of how social responsibilities are exercised at the public spatial
the level of family to the local municipality became largely absent. For any such
need, households started clinging more to the friends and family network. A similar
effect may also be found in modern apartment house interiors, where a conflict
between cultural needs and modern needs lead to a fundamental transformation of the
spatial organization of the house interior (Ibid: 191). This discussion, however, points
to the way in which personal and social identities are found being shaped under
the contextual conditions of a place (Lawrence 1995: 56-57). Considering these, the
concept of home and its spatial practices seem correlated with the sets of complex
etc.) between individual and larger society, and mediated by sets of affiliations.
58
Collectively, these affiliations define and are defined by duties and claims, rights
and obligations, and social status and role of persons and groups. These influence
self, social and place identities, and shape how the notion of home is interpreted in
specific situations in a given time (Rapoport 1995: 28). Altogether, this particular
lives of individuals and groups (Lawrence 1995: 65). Given the historic socio-
political context of Khulna, and considering the significant relation between the
societal and physical dimensions of home, the home framework necessitates the
1995: 66).
The Weberian idea of action relates to the physical world; it subjectively links
objective social meanings with an activity, which involves the physical world as a
condition of action (Werlen 1988: 183). Houses and settlements for someone like
expressed through social actions and interactions (Herbert and Thomas 1990: 261),
question about home-making: What kinds of relationships link which people to what
attributes of which setting30, why and through which mechanism? It emphasises the
fact that a sense of home only emerges when certain sets of relationships between
people and their system of settings in which the physical house becomes the primary
setting or anchoring point. Yet, many studies of home, conducted primarily in the
59
home (Ibid: 40). The dwelling remains the setting for the family, writes Sebba and
acquires unique psychological and social meanings, which...turn it into a home, i.e.,
which establish particular relationships between people and that setting. Discussion
on social process yet again focuses on the internal members of the household.
which one considers home as sets of relationships with others; relationship with a
wider social group and community; and relationship with the physical structure
(and shelter). This research again was developed in the context of modern western
possible ways of home-making thus remains absent here. One fails to understand
the possible other alternative mechanisms underlying. Similar concerns are echoed
in the works of prominent scholars. In his studies of home, Lawrence (1995: 58)
asserts, its societal dimension, i.e. the political and socio-economic factors that
define home, are frequently ignored. Stea (1995: 183) also that usually ignored is
the fact that ones ability to maintain an identity between house and home that is,
actually to dwell in the place one regards as home are strongly related to the socio-
political economy of the country (context) in question. This need for realizing the
theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes provides
30. Setting is a precise locality at specific points in time (Lawrence 1995: 54).
60
Referring back to the problem statement and literature review, the most interesting
dwelling form, which can also be viewed as creative and often autonomous. The
flexibility of these forms owes to the manageable presence of external elitist actors
and hence is shaped by the reciprocal decisions these actors and the migrants make.
Here constraints are used as advantages, while the distinct presence of many forms of
and negotiations with both horizontal and vertical actors both formal (governments
central and local, NGOs) and informal (political leaders, businessmen, landlords),
which is maintained generally in socially amicable ways, becomes the most essential
Somerville (1997). This framework helps understand the societal processes of home-
sense of each other by complementing each other and combining variables from
allied disciplines (Figure 2.3). Here, privacy suggests mainly of the spatial notions,
identity refers to the psychological notions and familiarity to the social (relational)
notions. Since studies of home are commonly carried out with a phenomenological
focus, Somerville argues that a social dimension is also essential to comprehend the
meaning of home since a mere phenomenological dimension of home runs the risk of
neglecting the economic and material meanings and hence of becoming inept to
recognize the social relations behind the process of meaning making. A social
61
social relations and/or tenure issues as in here, for example, as an essential social
Figure 2.3: The social phenomenology framework showing three essential dimensions
for a Social Construction of Home (prepared in accordance with Somerville 1997).
According to this framework, each household makes its own world within
boundaries which it erects against the world outside. At this level, familiarity is most
strongly linked with privacy, because the power to exclude others is essential for
securing a place for ones own (close kin), with shared personal activities, lifestyles,
requires certain economic resources and legal rights which act as the means to
dwelling for that household. Lack of such means or security results in homelessness,
and in such conditions domestic familiarity and privacy tend to break down, and the
income and security of tenure are therefore essential for domestic privacy, identity
and familiarity (Ibid: 236). To forward this argument, focus is given on the Privacy-
Identity pairing, since they link spatial with social which is also the focus of this
62
research. Identity can be seen as a formation by the interplay of privacy practices
the society leading to demands for privacy. Privacy is constructed through a dialectic
interaction between the inside and outside of a boundary of a particular type (e.g. as
room within a house or dwelling within the settlement etc.). The ability to remain
private demonstrates the power to decide for both individuals and households
whether or not to engage with strangers and to what extent. This ability guarantees
continuing economic and legal relations to gain economic benefits and legal rights.
For example, in modern day Europe privacy practices involve both physical and
63
privacy. Privacy may also be achieved through the psychological
establishment of personal space (Ibid: 232-234).
Identity is formed through a process of dialectic between self and other for
experience; it is the loss of the familiar (for refugees or migrants driven out of home)
64
is a loss of identity to a considerable extent. Domestic relations are dominated by
65
of households; within households, it is the shared activities,
lifestyles, furnishings, decorations etc. amongst close kin.
Successful creation of familiarity hence requires certain economic
resources (income) and legal rights (tenure security) means to
support and manage a household and the security of possession of a
dwelling. Without these, domestic familiarity and privacy tend to
break down and identity of the household unit is also weakened
(Ibid: 235-237).
Going back to Somerville (1997)s model, few mentions of an external force behind
the shaping of ownership is found. And when the issue of ownership in relation to
external forces is discussed, the experiences of the western democratic society (hence
formal) does not help much toward the understanding of complex social processes
meaning of home through sociological categories such as class, gender and tenure
(Ibid: 229), they mostly use concepts of domestic (in-house) relations and household
structure rather explaining how in the developing world external (elitist) actors and
their networks fundamentally influence the process of ownership of land and houses.
in the shaping of home they again depend too heavily on western experiences (as in
Mallett 2004; Blunt A. and R. Dowling 2006). In other cases, they share experiences
from the global south but without any discussions on the influences of external social
Adapting a Western model for the proposed research has other downsides too. Since
the life priorities of the western subjects are different compared to the slum-living
migrants from the developing world, any research on the meaning (and process)
associated with home demands for a change of priority while choosing variables.
66
feminism etc.) dominate home research in the western context (Somerville 1997:
dimensions) find greater significance in the research framework for studying rural
migrants home and its spaces in the non-Western context. The nature of democracy
that is practiced in the developing world is also questionable compared to that of the
these places social relations exogenous to the immediate level of the house tend to
and with reference to the context of class-based third world societies, Rapoport
(1995: 45)s initial question could be further elaborated. Given the circumstances, it
should be asked: What sort of social relationship link which classes of people to
what attributes of which setting, and through which (informal) mechanism and to
This relationship, in which the urban poor in the developing world engages with the
powerful elite, is more complex and informal compared with its counterparts of the
framework. Even in the dearth of economic resources and considering the market-
governments welfarist principles and rule of law. In the absolute presence of the
On the basis of Somervilles framework and in light of the literature review, it can
now be argued that the notion of privacy, i.e. the idea of being in a decision-making
67
position of ones own environment, by being in control of tenure (an anchorage)
considering the poor migrants socio-economic status. For the same reason, scholars
have viewed home tantamount to ownership, and affirmed its key role for security,
family and continuity of any household (Dupuis and Thorns 1996). These
earlier in the reviewed housing literature. Nevertheless, how one acquires the
ownership outside the formal mechanisms and hence continues to enjoy his/her claim
has not been elaborated and incorporated in Somervilles model. This requires further
regulates interaction with others (Altman 1975: 10). Similar to the way the boundary
barriers are also used by persons and groups in response to changing circumstances to
control others access (Ibid: 27). Privacy hence can be defined as a selective control
of access to the self or to the ones group. The following characterize privacy:
68
boundary control mechanisms to address crowding. A person or
group may increase distance from others. He/she may use more
vigorous nonverbal behaviours to communicate undesired intrusion,
or may even put in clear territorial boundaries (Ibid: 8).
2. There are three reoccurring themes of privacy. One, the desire for
privacy the most essential component of home-making involving
multiples social units or actors (e.g. the permanent migrant and other
elitist actors with varying interests, in this research). Two, analysis of
privacy and its boundary-control mechanisms need to be viewed as a
bidirectional process, (e.g. involving both inputs from external
actors to the migrants, and vice versa). Three, the definition implies
selective control (a dynamic process), where privacy practices
assume different forms in response to different circumstances over
variable periods of time (Ibid: 18).
implication. It accommodates the influence that a person can have on other people, on
spaces, and even on ideas in both active (initiating or offensive) and passive (resistive
and defending) ways (Edney 1975: 1109). In the built environment, the key to
69
perceiving change rests in the idea of control. Control then can also be defined as the
ability of the actors (interested in the built environment) to transform parts of the
parts with or off the built environment involves some form of controlling actors a
somebody from ones own turf (Altman 1975: 104). Actors who territorialize the
environment bring individual interest to the field, and transform it to their likings,
using acts of personalization. These actors in control may contest for a particular
where the individual develops some form of comfort, control and tacit rights. Yet in
all cases, actors use their territories to increase power and control. Thus territoriality
can be defined as an act of achieving and retaining control over a particular segment
of space; for the latter, control is essential for achieving a fundamental goal of
humans, i.e. the freedom of choice in their environments (Edney 1975: 1109). If
territory provides control (i.e. desired level of privacy), people act tolerantly to crowd
70
Built environment can then be viewed essentially as a territorial organization, as a
space under the control of various actors/agents. In order to control form, the agents
must possess the capacity (read power) to transform space which is constructed by the
form is a prerequisite for controlling space. Control of space denotes the ability to
defend that space against unwanted intrusion. Space under control is territorial, and
primarily as an instinctive act is the ability to close a space for restricting entry
(Habraken 1998: 126). The very act of inhabitation i.e. that of occupying space and
selecting what comes in and what stays out is essentially territorial. Territory hence
can be recognized as space into which only certain items may enter. Following are the
71
legal deeds are used to keep boundaries under control (Altman 1975:
128). Local enforcements, whether formal or informal, establish (the
allowable) territorial depth within broader urban fabric (Ibid: 145).
Form hierarchies eventually reflect the common values of agents
who within certain accepted constraints, mutually interact with
external material, technical and economic conditions.
72
readjust to ensure adequate understanding of others boundary
processes and ensure proper communication of their own.
73
control and a less-than-evident territorial ownership or marking of
the place lead to cases of heightened crime rates (Ibid: 116).
74
actors, two or more territories may be housed under one large
territory without affecting the physical form. In addition, actors who
inhabit a particular territory maintain the right to control the
movements in and out of that territory as in a landlord-tenant
situation (Habraken 1998: 136).
75
included agents must, as a rule, accept the imposed limitations on
what filters through the higher level (Habraken 1998: 139).
acquired territory. The resulting house form always remains open to territorial
shops, bakeries, and other residential scale commercial activities are common
occupancy may also trigger unforeseen variations in the original use and form (Ibid:
155). Once form is present, just as a container, life makes use of it, adjusting it and
constancy. Territorial interpretation of a given form hence may lead to new forms
and new meanings (Ibid: 156). Given a fixed territorial structure, different forms may
also be placed in it. Various built forms and variable control distributions may go
with the same territorial structure. The building may operate in either territorial depth
In light of prior discussions, a framework is proposed here that aims to explain how
third world city have continued to enjoy ownerships of land and dwellings amongst
widespread resource scarcities and even without any formal/legal title. In that, a five-
stage literature review has been carried out, in which: (1) contextual works (in
Bangladesh and Khulna) have been reviewed; (2) global-level theoretical and
empirical works from allied disciplines were studied; (3) discussions have been made
about how home is socially constructed with further elaboration of the concept of
privacy; (4) the concept of control has been discussed as both an object and subject of
76
privacy needs and practices; and (5) empirical-theoretical discussion on territoriality
has been used to establish territorial practices as a way to studying various control
arena for various social controls. It also identifies necessary indicators, depending on
Figure 2.4: Conceptual model Control and Social Construction of Home (prepared mainly
in accordance with Altman 1975, Habraken 1998 and Somerville 1997).
77
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This chapter details out the strategies and instruments for carrying out the research.
Initially, it begins with the further elaboration of the stated problem in Chapter 1 that
helps a better substantiation of the primary research question. The sub-questions are
then derived in line with the stated objectives and with the help of the conceptual
respective aims and field of data that each covers. This is followed by an introduction
to the context, here Khulna, the third largest urban agglomeration in Bangladesh.
studied and rationale for their selection. Discussions on research type and strategy
come next, succeeded by a brief discussion on research subjects (and their selection
rationale). The next two sections briefly discuss the research instruments and data
outlines indicators and the concerned variables essential for data collection.
This research, depending on the earlier theoretical and empirical studies, is premised
on the fact that rural migrants home-making occurs at the interstices of the formally
third world city lead them to assume a unique informal way of life (AlSayaad
2004). Considering the fact that many of these migrants have been living in Khulna
for more than two generations now and many have managed to own a house or a
plot of land even in the absence of the formal sector, this research begins by assuming
that the building and spatial habits demonstrated by them are in fact manifestations of
negotiations have remained vital in compensation for the formal sectors absence in
78
the delivery of land and dwelling units. Over the years, as demonstrated by Walton
(1992:132) and Watson (2009: 176) in similar third world contexts, the top down
policies have been implemented mainly to serve the formal sector economy and its
elitist proponents. This has been observed even in the modern policies of the
European Colonia across the human settlements of the global south1. Yet, it is the
ordinary migrants marginalized by various forms of domination who still retain some
settlements), and play with and manipulate space to negotiate with authorities (as
described by Cupples 2009: 371 in similar contexts). In the present day, these
manner described by Bayat (2000) as silent encroachment. These migrants may also
be engaged in activities in many visible forms and spaces (as in Tunas 2008) that
typically take place alongside formal sector developments and take advantage of the
loose formal system (Kudva 2009; Perara 2009). Ordinary people such as these
various imaginative and alternative ways which was not considered by the planners
initially (as highlighted by Koolhaas 2002: 179 and 184 in the case of Lagos).
informality) have come to coexist over the years, while it is the many spatio-political
manipulations of these binaries by both migrants and the elitist actors that have
guaranteed an urban home for the former and a greater political control of the
ordinary masses (e.g. migrants) by the latter. For this, often the formal bodies (e.g.
government offices, NGOs) act and operate informally, while the informal migrants
79
mutually beneficial socio-political arrangement between ordinary migrants and socio-
services and amenities (e.g. housing) in their absolute deficiency in the context of
Khulna, socio-political relation with influential elites hence has remained crucial.
Both synchronic and diachronic studies are therefore required that aim to investigate
the different forms of negotiation between the actors, their spaces, of the rules, and
the way they affect the built environment of the concerned settlements during
context thus becomes essential to fully appreciate the settlement- and household-level
urban form needs to be looked at and assessed in relation with the modern socio-
80
spatio-physical transformation at the level of migrant settlements. These considered,
Q1. In what ways have the modern policy regimes contributed to the spatio-
period that began with the post-Enlightenment Englands colonization of the Indian
targeting the agrarian countryside of Bengal (hence peasantry) had left grave
consequences for both its rural and urban areas. These transformations have also been
addressed in the case of Khulna. Modern however also includes the postcolonial
policy environments in Bangladesh to date, which have all been influenced by global
industrialization and need for modernization of the former European colonies. This
regimes have deliberately created different forms of scarcity in the lives of peasant-
Q2. What socio-spatial practices by the permanent migrant help control (hence
81
and building practices in the context of Khulnas migrant settlements. Individual
settlements share attributes of both legality (formal) and illegality (informality). With
regard to this challenging context, both private- and public-level spatial practices and
their consequences are highlighted. It also underscores the motivations behind such
demographic and cultural forces at work. Recognition of the roles of involved elitist
actors, particular socio-spatial rules guiding the building and construction practices
Figure 3.2: (Left) Khulna (circled), in relation to Bangladesh and India (Kolkata can be seen
on the left hand side of Khulna); (right) administrative boundaries of Khulna darker portion
is indicative of the present city boundary (Source: Dudek and Van Houtte 2008).
82
This research has been carried out in Khulna, the third largest city in Bangladesh with
its municipal area alone (KCC 2010). With its 37th ranking amongst the worlds
fastest growing cities (Citymayors 2007), it also has the highest concentration of
urban poor amongst all the coastal towns and cities in Bangladesh (Ahmad 2005: 16).
Khulna has one of the largest concentrations of poor settlements in the country as
well (5080 of varying size and classes), with half a million people living there
presently (CUS-UNDP-KCC 2011; Figure 3.3). Most of these poor however are
2. National level data is used where local level data was unavailable.
83
3. Low income groups constitute around 70% of the entire population
in larger cities like Dhaka but manage to enjoy only around 20% of
its total land area (Hoek-Smit 1998: 15-16 citing Islam 1986); in
terms of national average, less than 30% of these poor people are
actually owners of some kind of land. Other forms of tenure include
tenancy in private house and government housing, sub-tenancy, rent-
free stay, illegal occupation and pavement dwelling (WB 2007: 36).
The trend however is that the more expensive living in a city,
diminishing is the rate of ownership. In cities like Dhaka, around
53% of the migrants live in private slums, while the other 44% squat
on public land. Commonly, about 14m2 space is being enjoyed by a
family of five members (Afsar 2003: 4).
Considering the perspectives of the disciplines of economics and politics, the tenure
status of land or house, with its implications for personal control, is considered as the
most critical element that defines what makes a house a home (Johnson 1971, as
cited in Lawrence 1995: 55). Differences occur within and between cultures in terms
of ownership of houses (Ibid: 56). For example, the term home is used by Turner
(1976: 81) to indicate something to possess, while Hamdi (1991: 165), uses
such as Habraken (1998: 79) and Patton (1998: 268), who associate the terms
ownership and tenure respectively to designate home. Similar has been echoed in
the works of De Soto (2001: 7-8). The conceptual model in Chapter 2 also identifies
control as the key element for home-making pointing essentially to the need for a
secured tenure and hence the need for ownership as the key prerequisite for home-
84
making and continuity. This research remains interested in the migrant-dwellings and
settlements that have been owned, formed and maintained by the ordinary ex-
of varying population size and land area (Figure 3.5) are hence selected based mainly
on the nature of ownership each of these settlements and their inhabiting migrant-
owners enjoy. The key area of interest remains in the ways each of these settlements
has succeeded to attain the present form of ownership using various socio-spatial
Khulna.
Post-partition industries
spatio-physical environment 6
85
smaller dots). It is during this particular period of time, massive inflow of rural to
during the first phase of industrialization when public-sector industries (mainly Jute)
were thriving, Khulnas population grew from 60,000 to 420,000. The population
further rose to 850,000 in 1998 (from 550,000 in 1981) (KDA 2002: 40) owing
As discussed, it was during these two phases when most of these selected settlements
Khulna.
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10
86
3.5 Research considerations
This section outlines the strategies and instruments intended for this research. As part
of this proposed methodology, it covers the research type, research strategy and the
the ordinary third world city, and hence reveals the un-anticipated. In that, it assumes
a qualitative stand, using qualitative means for data collection and analysis and an
are referred to. But these numbers are not claimed to be representative; rather, these
are generated from the different phases of the fieldwork, and are intended only to
supplement the arguments and findings. The strategy for this research is a
multidisciplinary sources, it defines the problem and proposes its own framework
collection from the particular context of Khulnas migrant settlements. With regard to
this framework, the systematic analysis of the initial findings in Chapters 4 and 5 lead
to the identification of a number of themes and threads, which are further analyzed
87
3.5.2 Strategy: combination of synchronic and diachronic
This research is both diachronic and synchronic. It relies on historical data for
constructing the backdrop against which the effects of various land-related policies
on ordinary peasants (and later migrants) lives are assessed. A five-phased analysis
1757 by the East India Company) is carried out using secondary sources. At the level
decades because this is when modern urban planning and industrialization started
the various socio-spatial negotiations between different actors at these two levels of
migrant settlements. In both cases, primary and secondary sources are used
present spatial practices for territorial control by migrant-owners are also recorded
both depth and breadth of ordinary migrants home-making efforts and its associated
socio-spatial processes.
dwelling units, and their spatial transformation are used in this research to
migrants socio-spatial negotiations. This research is hence scoped for studying types
88
of migrant settlements at their different scale levels. As discussed earlier, it
Khulna, as these different types are considered as the centre of different home-
making efforts. Types are defined according to tenure status of the resident migrant.
research, the primary criteria for initially selecting and later categorizing of the
selected settlements. This different ownership types also benefit a comparative study
and reveal how different settlements facilitate home-making differently. For example,
using different processes and with different spatio-physical consequence. This also
spatial attributes of each of the settlements and individual dwelling units possible.
on home, which establishes home as a larger system beyond the mere level of the
house. There is however another level beyond the city (migrants rural home), which
this particular level is to observe whether or not and to what extent migrants present
socio-spatial practices are correlated with the practices of their rural place of origin.
both their place of origin and present domicile), spatio-physical outcome of migrants
home-making efforts should therefore display some sort of hybrid forms, spaces and
89
movement, it seeks for the spatial-physical manifestations of a possible relation
between migrants rural places and practices within their present dwelling
environments.
Additionally, literature reviews are carried out to understand the national-level land
Although this research does not assume his methodology, it shares the same
environment first position of Hillier (2008: 216), which views social processes as
evidence of spatial forms in the built environment. Based on the conceptual model
data/information on the spatio-physical attributes and looks into the above mentioned
the social mechanisms (social activities, interactions and structures) are assessed
The research assumes a more bottom-up approach that takes account of migrants
elite actors roles are gathered using both primary and secondary sources and
methods, migrant spaces and their physical forms remain areas of primary interest.
For an understanding of migrants lived spaces and forms, their own versions of their
90
factors (local cultural aspects, mid-sized city, Muslim majority locality etc.) and a
lack of research on rural migrants dwelling environments in the third world city, a
successful and permanent of the migrants in Khulna. The subjects for this research
are the migrants who were once-homeless in their rural home, and later migrated to
Khulna and have been living with their families in this mid-sized third world city for
at least two generations. By using the term successful, particular reference is made
to those migrants who despite their dubious tenure status (illegal or lease-holding
population is unlikely to go back to their villages since many of them does not have
any land or homestead to return to, their selection for this research gives an
time constraint. And albeit many nature-driven forced migration (IOM 2009: 260-
262) and seasonal pushes continue to send people to cities like Khulna, such
movements do not necessarily imply that these neo-movers would stay permanently
networks; see Hakim 2010: 72). All these short term or iterative movements however
91
Since there are no established parameters to define permanent in relation to
migrancy, the criteria of the two generations in fact places a useful bracket to
include the significant decades for this research belonging to global socio-economic
because it is during these decades under market economy when most notable rural-to-
urban exodus in history took place in the third world cities. As the pace of rural-
urban migration is believed to have decelerated (Hogan and da Cunha 2001: 7736), it
becomes crucial to find out about this particular generation of migrants assimilation
economy, yet denied of any residence by the proponents of it (i.e. formal authorities
The primary unit of analysis for this research is the individual migrant household. For
that, 34 dwelling units (4-5persons/household) are studied. These are selected from
during the pilot fieldwork that helped refine the final data collection framework and
also the triangulation of the finally collected data for better validity. Another 10 focus
group discussions were also conducted in each of the settlements. Finally, a total of 6
key personnel were interviewed that includes a KDA Urban Planner, an Ex-
Improvement Assistant or SIA), an urban historian, one senior resident of Khulna (an
Ex-refugee from Kolkata, and later Jute Mills employee), and one shrimp industry-
owner.
92
For selecting particular migrant owners, targeted sampling has been used4. Initially,
snowballing technique was used by establishing contact with one migrant and later to
reach other migrants from his/her same regional origin using his/her social network.
While selecting migrant-owners and their households, variety was maintained. For
example, migrant owners were selected according to religion (Muslim, Hindu and
community) and ethnicity (Bihari or Bangali). It was ensured that households with
Considering the units of analysis and the sorts of data required, this research
addition to this, a number of supplementary instruments are also used for collecting
remained the main strategy for data collection. A total of 12 months out of a total 48-
months PhD candidature were used for data collection through a number of fieldtrips
reconnaissance fieldwork was initially carried out in the first year of PhD
candidature. A second exploratory survey was conducted in the second year; Annex:
Tables 5, 6, 7 give details of all of these field-trips. In all cases, different settlements
(according to tenure types) were looked for, resident migrants were discussed with
and social networks were established. These trips also helped identify a few threads
and themes, which, during the final phase of data collection appeared useful as they
93
provided with necessary directions to further modify and amend the preliminary data
collection framework. Two more field trips (5-months each) were carried out in the
final two years of candidature. A 6-months evaluation period between these two
phases was planned and carried out. This helped assess the quality and quantity of the
collected data, and also the appropriateness of the data collection instruments for the
first phase of the final fieldwork. This helped make necessary adjustments for the
final phase. Following sections briefly outline the data collection methods and the
particularly concerning the land and housing sectors in Bengal and Bangladesh, a
review of historic documents and relevant literature were used as secondary sources
in Chapter 4. Archived materials (e.g. historical maps of Khulna) were also used as
necessary.
individuals in their daily lives, what they see as important, and how to provide
interpretations of the accounts they give of their past, present and future (Roberts
2002: 1). Biographic method particularly involves life stories and oral history (Miller
2008: 61), which this research used mainly for household-level and settlement-level
data collection respectively. Considering migrancy (whose both past and present
home-making efforts are essential), both methods proved useful since both of them
seek to provide accounts of how people make sense of their lived experiences in the
construction of individual and social identity. The contextual location of a life story
94
also allows exploring the generative interplay between individuals and culture that
contexts in which they occur, life history narratives convey a sense of how individual
Everyday life techniques hence seek to understand social experience based on how
and generalized version (Boylorn 2008: 306). It focuses on details and seemingly
that might otherwise be silenced and misinterpreted (Ibid: 307). For this research,
information on everyday practices for personal space and territorial control was both
The locations of migrant settlements noted for spatial practices in the migrant
households were mapped in Khulna. Other sites, which are of importance for
migrants everyday livelihoods (e.g. sites with religious significance or sites for
also recorded. Zeisel (1984: 89-90)s techniques for observing physical traces are
5. This method is particularly highlighted by Altman (1975: 127) for territoriality studies.
95
hence used for particularly studying the house interiors and the house-neighbourhood
behaviours, practices and rules that have rather consciously or unconsciously been
left behind. These are both identified and documented. A number of questions such
as how an environment got to be the way it is, what decisions its decision-makers
and builders made about the place, how people actually use it, how that
particular environment meets the needs of its users were considered while
illustrations and detailed architectural drawings were prepared particularly for the
diagrams and field notes were taken alongside the architectural drawings. Ample
photographs and video recordings were taken equally of house interiors and house
FGDs help learn about the biographies and life structures of group participants; in
the presence of a moderator (here the researcher), information from the participants
are drawn out on topics which are of interest to the research (Berg 2001: 111). FGDs
were used for collecting settlement history mainly, although some helped understand
the spatial practices as well. FGDs were conducted with the non-participating
households. For this particular research, FGDs helped draw out the same information
provided later. Thus it helped better triangulation of the same household-level data on
96
3.7.5 Key informant interview
Urban Planner was interviewed to understand the actual planning process by KDA
and grasp KDAs real motivation behind the way they plan. The Ex-Councillor
from present opposition party (BNP) was also interviewed since in many occasions
his name came up as a patron while working in settlements 2 and 3. His interview
and his role in their decision-making structure. Similar remains true of the shrimp
settlements 2 and 3 was of interest. The UPPRP official (SIA) was interviewed to
collect initial working information on various tenure types and cross check the
validity of the primary findings following the pilot surveys. The urban historian was
interviewed to cross check the validity of secondary data on Khulna, which are used
the context of post-WWII refugee movement, his settling down process in Khulna as
part of a refugee family from Kolkata and also to understand the housing condition of
levels (household, neighbourhood and settlement), while the findings span across
particular methods are used in this research. These are descriptive morphology (focus
practices and social world analysis. Commonly recurring themes and threads in
chapters 4 and 5 are finally interpreted in Chapter 6, using common and disparate
97
practices. In all analysis however, reference is
form through historical processes and social agency (Bauer 2006: 316). Urban form
and its processes of formation and transformation are therefore defined by the acts of
agents6. The interest here is then in those who have agency in the urban landscape,
and how much influence they exert in matters of decision-making, both individually
time) rather than by authoritative plans. In the historical studies of urban form, the
concern for agency also prove vital as it recognizes cultural and social processes
shaping urban landscapes in the past and also as it links particular periods of urban
formation and transformation to certain agents (as in Ibid: 67). Considering that urban
6. The direct agents are the landowners, developers, architects/planners, and whose
activities can be examined by using documentary sources.
98
individual migrant settlements and house-neighbourhood fabric in Khulna seem
appropriate.
This leads to the preparation of maps, plans and sections, and a description of
policy environments and show how they can be viewed as deliberate constructions by
histories, which classifies them according to existing tenure categories, also advances
There is the individual lifeworld and the collective structure of shared meanings that
are derived from the lived experience of everyday practice (Knox 1995: 217). It is
through the actual day to day activities and strategies that people negotiate shared
everyday realities, routines and ideas (Gurney 1999). In terms of the research
question on territorial practices, the built form may suggest of a territory, but it is
the ongoing acts of occupation that fix and maintain the actual extent of claim. The
actual boundary is indicated less by the acts of building but more by the lower-level
chosen for this research because of its focus on details, and on the sameness and
repetitive themes, and make comparisons between existing theories and territorial
practices by the migrants to control various boundaries of their urban home. Everyday
life approach is also useful for analyzing qualitative data since it enables the
99
identification of themes and threads amongst otherwise monotonous daily life
interrelated levels (as in Knox 1995: 217). Table 3.1 (column 4: highlighted) shows
three hierarchical levels of analysis, of which the dialectics between institutions and
settlements. The latter two levels are considered suitable particularly for the analysis
of in-house and house-neighbourhood level spatial practices of the present day. This
The third method is the analysis of migrants social world where the social
100
interactions. As Herbert and Thomas (1990: 261)s model (Figure 3.7) points out, a
study into such interactions takes account of a number of origins and destinations and
also of the flows (e.g. past influence from rural times in the migrants lives).
and familial/kinship ties. Attention is given to the different roles (of the involved
agents) that bring into play varying levels of social interaction. Some of these roles
may be separated from another as others may well overlap but each contributing to
the multiplicity of social relationships which form the base of interaction (Ibid: 262).
Figure 3.8: A typology of informal relationships (Source: Herbert and Thomas 1990: 262).
For the present research, ideas are taken from this above model considering the
way these agents have been contributing to settlement sustainability even if most of
them are viewed as illegal. This method of analysis is used to identify particular
making structure and their diverse forms across different migrant settlements (as in
Table 3.2 summarizes the overall methodology for this research in light of the earlier
101
Pre-Colonial Post-Colonial
Sub-
Bengal under East-Bengal &
unit(s)
threads
method
Subjects
Analysis
British Rule Bangladesh
variables
Sampling
Variables
Questions
Indicators
quantum &
Theoretical
(1757-1947) (1948-Present)
Instruments
-
-
-
-
Personal space and primary territory
Territorial occupation
Territorial practice and public territories
Boundaries between settlements and outside world and personalization
Contextual aspirations
as a response
55 households
Incremental growth Need for
X
Income generation
photographs, videos
industrialization
territorialization
Social gains
diagrams, illustrations,
10 migrant settlements
Negotiation of territorial boundaries
Territorial practices for
Dynamics of
10 FGDs (7-8persons/group)
territorial boundary
34 house-neighbourhood tissue
circumstances and cultural customs)
Settlements, nature of tenure and involved actors Actors
102
Rules for newer construction
Rules for extension of existing buildings
Rules for community level construction and space use Rules
processes
Table 3.1: Study framework for proposed research
Customary norms and culturally approved practices
X
FGDs, diagrams
Type of leadership/headship &level of spatial control Territorial hierarchy
Decision-making
structured interviews,
Migrant households; migrant community (settlement-wise)
Hierarchical decision making structure
transformation
bureaucrats
morphology
modernity
Settlement
Growth trend
maps, diagrams
Scarcity as a
(Settlement size and spatial distribution; spatial
- Urban Khulna
Literature review,
transformation
- 6 key informants
Khulnas spatio-
structured interviews,
level spatio-physical
Political leaders, NGOs,
urban historian, planning
Planning and policy environment
- 10 migrant settlements
Urban history; descriptive
transformation under
transformation
constructed condition
(Policy; master plan; by-laws)
Chapter 4: Urban form in Khulna
4.1 Introduction
describes how various policy ideas, conceived at the global level, have continued to
influence local level policy thinking, leaving grave consequences particularly for the
understanding this historical backdrop, i.e. the local (municipal and national)
economic and political circumstances in relation with the global, which eventually
resulted in mass emigration and became the key driver for the evolution of third
Based on both primary and secondary data, discussions begin with an examination of
promote trade and maximize their own economic gains) on the predominantly
These doctrines, however, were again promoted by the western think-tank as a cure
Bangladesh make up the final sections, where impacts of globalization and the free
market on the rural and urban socio-spatial structures are highlighted. For all of these
1. Bengal refers to the Mid- and South-Eastern deltaic location of the undivided Indian
subcontinent formed at and around the estuarine confluence of the great Ganges-
Brahmaputra river system. This area, following the partition between India and Pakistan
in 1947 was divided into two separate provinces for these two nations assuming the
103
argument that urban spatial transformation in Khulna (and indeed in Bangladesh) can
resources were unevenly distributed, and where specific groups of people or their
settlements were denied access to scarce resources (chief amongst which is land)
while prioritizing and often fulfilling the objectives of various top-down projects of
elitist actors (both local and global). Population displacement of various forms
(including rural-urban migration) and their settling down process can also be seen as
(Xenos 1989: 8). It is through the East India Company (EIC), this policy was infused
into its Indian colony (which Bengal was part of) leading to a systematic replacement
of its traditional agricultural products (silk and cotton). Cropping pattern was altered;
cultivation of cash crops such as indigo and jute were prioritized to feed British
mainland industries and benefit their export to European markets (DCosta 1994:
peasants to reduce the cultivation of rice and cotton (Nahiduzzaman 2003: 58). EIC,
which initially monopolized Muslin2 trade, later preferred creating a new market for
British textile products following industrial revolution by replacing the same Muslin.
Hundreds of handloom factories were force-closed while those who resisted had their
fingers and arms amputated (Ibid: 48). EICs reversal of trade policy from buying
names West-Bengal and East- Pakistan respectively. Following a bloody war, East-
Pakistan once again got liberated from Pakistan in 1971, which now is Bangladesh.
2. A high-quality cotton-based fabric produced by East-Bengal weavers that were worn even
by the European royalty.
104
processed in Kolkata and to be sent to Britain later led to the de-urbanization at the
periphery3 and overcrowding at the old core as experienced in larger urban centres
like Dhaka. Heavy duties were also levied by the Company on locally manufactured
Role of smaller urban centres, which were once producing cotton- or silk-based
products themselves through the efforts of traditional craftsmen and artisans, hence
serving as nodes for stimulating growth in peripheral areas, cities in Bengal served as
satellites to the ports that were themselves satellites to the metropolitan economy.
Port-oriented suction process thus had distorted urbanization of the Eastern part of
periphery was created replacing the long established symbiotic one. Railways
connected only those parts of East Bengal to Kolkata that used to produce products of
British interest. These deliberate acts of supply chain disruption and dislocation of
industries in most parts of the country created a disjuncture between raw materials
taking place. To raise revenue base for EIC, a new breed of revenue collectors called
the Zamindar was officialised through Permanent Settlement Act in 1793 (Ray and
Ray 1975: 82-83). Although Zamindars acted similarly as local-level tax collectors
for the earlier Mughal rulers, their roles and territories had now been re-defined under
EIC in the shape of British estate and landlord system. The idea was to raise the
Settlement Act thus dispossessed peasants of their ancestral land that they were in
3. Nahiduzzaman (2003: 48) also reports that shutting down of Muslin factories left
hundreds of associated artisans and traders jobless; most of them went back to agriculture
105
control for generations; land suddenly became a commodity the property of the
Zamindar (while) the landlord became the landowner; land now was bourgeois
landed property (Bose 1986: 4). This act also led to the situation of endless
exploitation and repression in terms of relation between Zamindari and its subjects
slab for the Zamindar, it did not do so for the peasants. The revenue collection right
of the Zamindar hence left him free to charge any amount of rent from his peasant
subjects (Nahiduzzaman 2003: 51). The EIC also abolished the village Panchayet
system and other traditional social institutions, which the Mughal rulers effectively
used to promote social stability and perpetuate the existing order (Ibid: 48).
Through the inaction of Permanent Settlement Act, class division was also elevated to
from former Hindu royalty or from the ritually high-ranking literati of Hindu priests,
scribes or physicians (Bose 1986: 84). On the other hand, most of the Raiyats
(cultivator peasants) were Muslim (Nahiduzzaman 2003: 49). Two other important
groups also became important: Jotedar and Bapari/Mahajan, and Bhadralok. The
Jotedar were the rich Raiyats who held large chunks of land through long-term lease
from the city-living Absentee Zamindar4; who would later sub-lease this land to
peasants and sharecroppers, and lend money to peasants in high interest. The Bapari
and Mahajan were the traditional trader/merchant class5 who became enormously
wealthy after being appointed by the EIC to supply raw products and marketing
European commodities. Since EIC had never allowed this class to become their
competitors by setting up industries themselves, later in the early 19th century many
while the rest had to take up other related jobs in crowded urban centres.
4. Who would actually live in the city/towns and visit his estate in selected times of a year.
5. Some were also the former Nayabs, i.e. the local administrators for absentee Zamindars.
There were also the Mathbars the local community leaders (Ray and Ray 1975: 84).
106
declining larger ones, and became petty Zamindar themselves (Ibid: 49). However,
Khulna, once a small trading centre for wood, fish, honey and salt, grew in
importance after EIC first set up a riverside guard post. It was followed by the
setting up an Indigo factory near the existing bazaar, re-named later as Charlies
haat after the EIC official Mr. Charlie (Figure 4.1: left). This officer brought along
with him from India, a tribal group called the Harijan6 a lower Hindu caste, who
formed the main labour force for him as locals were not willing to engage into indigo
farming initially.
of
Rajasthan known as Marwari who soon became the key driver for Khulnas economy
donations to erect academic and religious buildings, public parks; building housing
6. Harijans can still be found living in clusters in different areas of Khulna employed mostly
in locally perceived lower-level works such as sweepers and cleaners. One such group
has been identified by this research, who are living in one of the 10 studied settlements
(Pach No. Ghat Harijan Para).
107
for their own etc.). The Marwari, located mainly in Boro Bazaar and Daulatpur
(Figure 4.1: right), controlled most businesses in Khulna, and followed their own
traditional way of life. It was these people, who also introduced Panchayet (a
With Kolkatas industrialization, Khulna became its key supply centre for raw
agricultural products including jute. As Figure 4.1 (left) shows, the initial
landless peasants had already started forming small village-like clusters on this
were erected near river-side trading locations (Ghats). Non-white elite class (traders
and Zamindars) were also erecting lavish Bungalow hybrids along the colonial
enclave to demonstrate their intimacy with the colonial masters. These also helped
them express their newly acquired socio-economic supremacy over the rest both
spatially and materially (Reza 2008: 15; Figures 4.1 and 4.2).
Figure 4.2: (Left & middle) BIWTA rest-house built on the remains of Mr. Charlies
residence and office; (right) Colonia-influenced house once owned by Mr. Shailen Ghosh, an
affluent Hindu Zamindar who left Khulna after partition; house was later taken over by
Muslim League leader Mr. Khan-E-Sabur (Source: left & middle Apurba Kumar Podder;
right Hafizur Rahaman).
108
4.2.2 Bengal under British Raj (1858-1947)
The taking over of India from EIC by the British Empire led to some other significant
industrial products while docile city dwellers (to) becoming potential consumers
(Ghafur 2010: 4-5). Again, improvements were uneven at the level of the city; only
the economically and politically suitable centres (such as Kolkata, Dhaka, and later
Khulna) were under consideration. However, this mode of thinking about the city
dweller and driven by the Victorian zeal for cleaner habitat led the colonial rulers to
a feeling that the Indian society, now living in towns and cities, need to be sanitized
surveillance for the elite class while eventually creating a deeply divided
(Chakravorty 2000: 65) dual city7 (as in white city and black town; see Bissell
2011: 210). These division lines or the cleavages of duality was characterized by
structure and way of life in general (Ibid: 209). This duality was evident in Khulna
too (Figures 4.1 and 4.2: right). A fortified colonial enclave could by now be noticed
As Miah (2002) reports, these informal villages were home to most of the city
dwellers. Essential for Khulnas economy, these villages housed the service people
for the colonial masters and wage labourers for river-based trading. Yet municipal
services were never extended to them. However, at the first half of the nineteenth
7. See Figures 4.2 and 4.3; they show how the scheme of a divided city was articulated
even in Khulna during Colonial rules.
109
emerged who were called the Bhadralok8 (read gentlemen-class) (Nahiduzzaman
2003: 50). This group, attuned to colonial doctrines, also called for an improved and
Plan adoption for major cities (Ghafur 2010: 4). They mimicked British Masters and
Zamindars bungalows and erected them alongside the white enclave. In 1884,
Khulna was declared a municipality, while a rail network was laid out to connect it
with Kolkata promoting further riverside trading activities and formation of newer
habitats9.
Pakistan. The separation from India in 1947 was based on the claim that the Muslim
minority had never got their fair share of social, political or economic fruits by being
discriminated by Indian Hindus, and neither would they if things stay as it was. So
Pakistan was born with two ethno-geographically distant parts: East- (now
8. It refers to those Indians who since the 1820s started acquiring their education based on
English language and culture. This neo middle-class formed an autonomous social
group, (and) was internally consistent and differentiated from the other component parts
of the social body. These westernized elitist Indians came mostly from the traditional
high casts (e.g. Brahmins) and filled the bureaucracies of any existing Indian state.
However, questions were raised about how much westernized these class could become
with regard to the British standards of fairness and justice (Torri 1990: 2).
9. This was also probably prompted by the ever declining socio-economic conditions of
rural peasants. Nahiduzzaman (2003: 60) reports that although the Permanent Settlement
Act was abolished and tenancy rights (opening up of a rural land market ability of
peasants to sell or mortgage land that they previously leased from Zamindars) were given
to the Rayats through the Tenancy Act of 1885, the situation still benefitted the Zamindars
and Jotedars more than the Rayats. The enactment of Tenancy Act was in fact a more
political response to many events of peasant protests and resistance movements in
Bengal that were ongoing for decades. In reality, most Rayats were poor; to deal with
sudden hardships, borrowing money from or selling/mortgaging lands to Jotedars were
the only options available. Eventually, many of these Rayats became landless and turned
into the formers agricultural slaves. Zamindars, on the other hand, were still given the
authority to collect rent from Rayats. Tenancy Act, although clearly gave them power to
increase rent in certain situations, left no provision as such for the Rayats. The obvious
reason this policy was biased because Zamindars had their representatives in the policy-
formulation process while peasants had none. So as this systematic exploitation
continued, it was by the first half of 20th C, most of these Rayats would become heavily
indebted to the moneylenders while 74.6% of them downgraded to landless farmers (only
7.7% held land of 10 acres or more). In 1930s-1940s Khulna, 51% of the peasantry was
either sharecroppers or agricultural labourers (Ibid: 61-62).
110
Bangladesh) and West-Pakistan. In the East, Muslim peasants were the majority,
while a vacuum in leadership was still there as the educated elite class was
represented by the Hindu Zamindars, who, after partition had already migrated to
India. In the West however, the already existing Muslim landlordship was joined in
by rich Muslim immigrants from India following partition. Thus the West Pakistans
dominate and exploit the resources of the agrarian East much in the same way the
Hindu elite were doing prior to partition (Choudhury 1972: 243-244). Thus, this
period akin to prior times, had once again already started experiencing a scenario of
The policy thinking during Pakistan was also influenced by post-WWII global hype
for modernization and industrialization, and a subsequent shift of focus away from
agriculture. During this, it was widely held that transformation of former European
colonies from traditional to modern would enhance the latters productivity and help
global (read Anglo-European) economy to thrive (Leys 2005: 109-110). There were
the military-backed national government of Pakistan in order to fulfil its own needs
for revenue, to create an ally with business elites, and also to satisfy important foreign
donors. Again, it was the Easts agrarian social system that was affected and became
industrialization of the East (e.g. Jute) and take the profits back to the West and
colonial times, raw agricultural products were exported to West Pakistan to support
its own industries, while East Pakistani businessmen were only allowed to market the
products produced by the West. Revenue collected from the Eastern industries was
111
needs of its tenets were again systematically overlooked by the ruling regime.
seldom crossed the 30% mark. While East-Pakistan typically earned 50-70% of
Pakistans total export revenue, its share of import remained around 25%; the net
transfer from East to West during the 20+ years of nationhood was worth USD2.6
again failed to benefit the actual producers the peasants and the modern factory
homeless although industries were making good profits10. On the other hand, without
any real incentive from agriculture turned into surplus labour in his own home, and
Immediately following the partition of Pakistan and India, Khulna experienced two
urban labour movements. The partitioning was both preceded and followed by violent
communal riots11 on both sides of the border, prompting mass exile of both Hindu
and Muslim population (later termed as refugees) in and out of both Pakistan and
India. The bordering districts of East Pakistan (as Khulna was) received most Muslim
refugees who came mainly from the Indian states of West Bengal and Bihar. Oral
histories collected during fieldwork (Hakim 2012) suggest that two types of Muslim
10. As early as in 1950s, East Pakistani Jute mills were supplying 75% of total global
demand for Jute (Sengupta 1971: 2279).
11. Riots were politically fuelled, particularly by the Muslim leaderships of undivided India
leading eventually to the massacre of tens of thousands of people each side of the border.
The key intension was to demonstrate to the British Viceroy of India (who was also in
charge of a peaceful British exit from India following the post-WWII crisis in Britain) that
Muslims and Hindus would never be able to live alongside each other peacefully and a
partitioning of India according to religious lines was inevitable. As the dominant Hindu
leadership opted for an undivided India, it was the socially and politically oppressed
Muslim populations, whose voice was politically exaggerated, used and later culminated
into massive acts of violation involving both parties.
112
refugees settled in Khulna. The first type was the Bangla-speaking and better
educated ones who could easily mix with the locals. As they settled in, they would
spread out all over the older core area of the city. Many of these in-coming refugees
exchanged houses and properties with the outgoing Hindus, while many others were
able to make a claim on the abandoned Hindu properties through the help of local
political figures12 (Figure 4.3). The second type of refugees was the non-Bangali
Bihari. Despite Muslim, it was due to their different cultural background (e.g.
different dialect), the Biharis could not mix easily with the locals like the Bangla-
speaking ones could. They were also less educated and came mostly from rural Bihar.
Similar to some of the rural migrants in Khulna, nearly 15,000-20,000 of them came
in quickly and suddenly, and hence had to settle themselves in clusters of slums and
Figure 4.3: (Left) Khulna Master Plan 1961 (industrial area in yellow) (KDA 2002a: 11);
(Right) Khulna under British Raj (in accordance with Miah 2002).
12. This informal process was further helped by the enactment of a curious law called Enemy
Property Law, which gave the state absolute power to confiscate or appropriate any
landed property in the interest of the Muslim state owned (previously or presently) by
any Hindu personnel. The term Enemy, quite obviously, pointed to any existing or
exiled Hindu personnel. The informal processes of obtaining abandoned properties, it is
locally believed, were benefitted by the inaction of this law.
113
By 1947, Khulna would already become the major jute trading centre for Kolkata,
where trading houses and processing industries were mostly owned by the Hindu
Marwari. However, after partition, most Marwaris left Khulna, while their businesses
were taken over by the state. Basing on Khulnas reputation and its well established
trading network, the first state-owned Jute Mills was established in Khalishpur area in
1952. An additional 11 of such mills followed while other heavy industries owned
by both public and private sectors, such as Jute Mills, Newsprint Mills, the
Hardboard Mills and the Shipyard also started operating under state ownership (Miah
2002: 67; Figure 4.3). A few other private-sector industries were also established all
By this time however, Khulna had already earned its name as the industrial town of
East Pakistan. The second sea port of the country was also established near Khulna.
rural agriculture and agricultural peasants led only to the increase of rural to urban
exodus. Setting up of the formal sector industries in response to ISI13 thus pulled in a
large number of rural landless peasants to Khulna. What were only 42,000 in 1947,
Khulnas population grew to almost 100,000 in 1961 (KDA 2002a: 40). It is during
this phase of rapid urbanization in Khulna, the 1961 Master Plan14 was prepared. The
plan was designed in the manner similar to those schemed for British towns during
late 1940s to 1960s (Chaudhury Undated: 1-2; Figure 4.3 - left). In 1961, Khulna
13. Import Substitution Industrialization was a neoliberal economic policy that advocated for
the replacement of major consumer imports by promoting domestic industries (textiles,
household appliances etc.) aided by protective tariffs and quotas to help new/infant
industries (Ahmed and Sattar 2004).
14. Master plans were imported both in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan,
and were viewed by their respective political leaders as a key instrument for modern city
development (it was also during this same time when Chandigarh was planned in India).
In East Pakistan, they were initially designed by a British consortium of consultants for
three fastest urbanizing cities in the 1950s and 1960s (Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna).
Master plans however, were statutory tools introduced by the British with the aim to re-
construct Europe from the rubbles of WWII. They were the physical interventionist
instruments and often with political implication, which made use of zoning, density
control, building regulation and planning standards for projecting development.
114
Development Authority (KDA) was established with their stated aims of Urban
Planning; City Development; and Development Control (KDA 2012). KDA was also
Noteworthy about KDAs Master Plan was the fact that it completely failed to project
the rate of urbanization and sort out the type of housing that would be mostly needed
settling down in numerous slum-like settlements in and around the city. A new
township was also laid out in Khalishpur in 1962 alongside the industrial
(140m2) were constructed and allotted to more than 2,329 Bihari families in a
subsidized price (Miah 2002: 68). A number of larger plots were also developed in
precondition for welfare and social control (Ghafur 2010: 5) thus remained elusive
for those who deserved it most. Neither the central government nor their local
administrators or political machinery did anything effective to house the key force i.e.
the migrants behind a labour-based economy. As it appears, the planning and laying
out of Khalishpur Township not at any point was prompted by the need for housing
these mass of migrants who were the essential workforce for Khulnas industries.
(and its local political leaders), which, driven by the newly acquired zeal of a Muslim
15. Most of these migrants actually originated from three particular coastal and riverside
locations, which until now have remained the exclusive hinterlands to Khulna in terms of
migrant-sending (Angeles et al. 2009: 18).
115
nationhood laid out Khalishpur rather eagerly to house the Bihari refugees instead of
the poor local migrants (Figure 4.3: right). The laying out also had uprooted the local
residents of Charerhat and Khalishpur villages as local stories suggest. And even if
developed small-sized apartments for the lower-income groups at a later stage, the
supply and affordability was always on the shorter side compared with the actual
Although state-owned, the nearby Jute Mills did not provide much accommodation
for their workers either. Only around 528 rentable flats were constructed in
2002: 112). But these numbers were far from adequate when compared against the
actual demands from another few thousands lowest ranking factory workers and other
migrant population employed in the informal sector all over the city. Informal
accommodate these thousands of migrant workforce. Migrants who could not manage
a job in these formal sector industries used to settle in other riverside (and most cases
peripheral low-lying) locations such as Boro Bazaar (Figure 4.3: right) and in
peripheral villages such as Tootpara, from which other informal job locations (e.g.
War of Liberation can be viewed as a clear case of failed Governmentalism and an era
provisioning for the masses of migrants, the situation remained unchanged if not
worse. Globally, 1970s was a time of economic downturn (most prominent was oil
crisis), growth in international financial transactions and rise of MNCs (Gleeson and
116
Low 2000: 270). In planning terms it was time that saw the ...rise of neoliberal
ideology (which) challenge(d) the notion of the Plan as superior rationality. All
forms of regulation (e.g. zoning) were questioned, while the benevolent role of
change where localities would be shaped by global forces (Castells 1992: 76).
(e.g. RMG, shrimp etc.) sectors, even if their establishment in certain locations could
more market-oriented by relaxing tariff barriers and hence ease imports. De-
(now agricultural goods could be imported even if at the cost of sacrificing local
agricultural sector) was also experienced (Ahmed and Sattar 2004: 11). Compared to
the earlier episodes, a much greater number of landless peasants therefore made their
way in to the Bangladeshi cities including Khulna. Table 4.1 summarizes the
correlation between various policy environments of this period and their impacts on
rural peasants and city-living migrants lives, and hence to the general urban form in
Table 4.1: Moments of scarcity and urban form (1972-1990) (Prepared in accordance
with Afsar 1999: 237; Ahmed 2003: 298-299; Ahmed 2007; Choguill 1993; DCosta
1994; Karim 2007; KDA 2007; Khanam 2004; Miah 2002; Rahman 2007; WB 2007).
117
Post- - Idealistic but - Mass in-migration - Squatter settlements
liberation
whimsical after 1971 war of formed at both city
1972-1973
development scenario, liberation and 1974 centres and peripheral
without required floods added to areas
resources and without existing housing - 27,000 low cost
any realistic plan for shortage housing units built
implementation - Inadequate job in nation-wide, although
- Urban authorities public and private most were
aimed to control industries concentrated in
squatter settlement - insufficient housing Dhaka
growth even for formal
- Public delivery of sector workers
multi-storied - Flawed tenant
cooperative flats selection process:
targeting the neediest invasion and project
emulating, but quite abandonment
superficially, the - Creation of housing
Singapore model of cooperatives failed
hosing for all in the absence of
follow ups, control
and incentives
First Five - Housing subsidization - Subsidy proved - Funds directed to
Year Plan
considered (by unfeasible in the prestigious sectors as
1973-1978
provisioning low cost presence of a large ministers housing,
land and rentable number of claimants conference centres,
tenement blocks) and for a resource- flood embankments,
- Experiments with scarce government Thana head-quarters
low cost ideas such and tourism
as minimum shelter, infrastructure
nucleus shelter, site- development
and-service projects,
workers housing and
temporary settlements
1975 - Squatter - Forced resettlement - Clearance of slums
Rehabilitation of squatting and squatters from
project; at odds with migrants to city centres
already prevailing peripheral low-lying - Many migrants
global experiences areas of the city, sold/exchanged the
and practices; this away from informal land they received as
was politically places of income part of rehabilitation
118
motivated, and generation and project and kept
prompted by urban without affordable coming back to the
elites (including means of city centre
media personnel) communication - New slums formed
Two Year - Township models and - Serviced plot price - Nationally,
Plan
site and services was 2.4 to 7.8 times government delivered
1978-1980
schemes continue to higher than the an estimated 8,500
be considered as affordable range of low cost units and
solution to housing the average income 1,200 plots for the
shortage households; it was urban poor
way beyond rural - In Khulna, around
migrants affordable 713 plots were given
range to the landless
squatters for a fees
Second - Shift in housing - Labour unions from - Public sector
Five Year
policy thoughts public-sector programs remain
Plan
1980-1985 lower standards set in industries abolished; limited to a few land
place of high-quality more informality development and
housing/land delivery created infrastructure
- Decentralization - No government improvement projects
considered; goal was policy obliged - Export oriented
to shift development private sector shrimp industries
activities to newer industrialists to start to grow in
urban centres to provide basic safety Khulna (Figure 4.4:
reduce pressure off nets to migrant right)
bigger cities and workers including - Support settlements
promote local growth housing (slums) grow along
Third Five - Civic facilities for all; - Low-income blocks - KDA allotted a total
Year Plan
building low-cost could not address of 2984 land plots in
1985-90
semi-permanent the needs of a few the six residential
housing units using million of least areas it developed
own resources and income population - Of these, around
increase stock by - Incomplete steps fail 1000 were targeted
providing plots, to improve situation for lower-income
utilities and easy - Transfer of employed in formal
finance government-owned sector not for
- Encouragement to housing stock to lowest income rural-
private-sector private owners urban migrants
investment
119
4.2.5 Post-SAP Bangladesh (1990-present)
Khulna. First, the proponents of market liberalization and free trade (World Bank and
industrialization is what holds back sustained growth. WTO, as a party to MNCs (and
their local partners) hence had influenced the governments to shift its focus away
shrimp processing industries were established along the riverside zones of Khulna
scaling, packaging, construction etc.) had also started to grow alongside these
factories and in Khulnas rural hinterlands. As Table 4.2 suggests, with declining
Bangladeshi cities had also become a major destination for jobless peasantry (or
16. This closely resembles the Chile model of 1970s which was the first test-case for the
Neoliberal doctrines (Murray 2009: 380-381).
17. From 1990s onwards, aided by supportive government policies (tax reduction for export-
oriented items production and setting up of export oriented industries), shrimp farming
boomed particularly in the South-Western coastal zones of Bangladesh. Low investment
and high return lured millions of agricultural farmers to give up their traditional way of
double or triple cropping (per annum) and assume shrimp farming instead. Currently,
more than 1.5million people are employed in this sector in greater Khulna region alone;
this has led to the reduction of peasants involvement in traditional crop-based agriculture
from 80% to 25% (Datta et al. 2010: 230-231). This drastic social-environmental-
economic transformation, however, had left its adverse consequence as well. Amongst the
most immediate outcomes, a gradual decline in rice yield and increase of soil salinity has
remained most prominent. Farming by obstructing and confining the natural water flow
(by digging and constructing shrimp rearing ponds of various sorts and sizes) has often
led to sudden outbreak of diseases. Water stagnation and sedimentation, decrease of
grazing fields for livestock, loss of fish stock in rivers due to shrimp fry collection also
remained the common reasons behind the adverse affect on coastal peasants livelihoods.
In social terms, newfound affluence invited social stress in many cases leading to court-
cases to resolve land disputes even amongst family members. It has also invited large-
scale land grabbers to the remotest of rural areas, often from distant urban areas, to use
their political powers to get hold of state-owned Khas land, which were once enjoyed by
landless rural farmers. Many peasants, even with legal title, were evicted forcefully from
their ancestral lands to make way for large-scale farming and their politically connected
120
Figure 4.4: Khulna urban-form: (left) post-1971; (right) post 1990-present (Source: Miah 2002)
Newfound prosperity also gave rise to new elites and deeper spatial segregation; in
KDAs townships for the middle class (e.g. Sonadanga R/A; green circle Figure 4.4:
left), land price multiplied within a single decade. As older migrant settlements have
become more crowded, many newer and smaller settlements formed to accommodate
the influx of new migrants. And as more of these private industries were erected, the
the formal sector, none provided accommodation for its workers or furnished any
fiscal incentives for workers housing (Hakim 2012). The promoters of market
liberalization, i.e. World Bank also has struggled with devising a suitable strategy on
how the masses of so called surplus labour, who are now serving the interests of the
market economy18, were to be housed. Instead, they would now focus on advocating
121
responsibility from state to poor households in order to reduce public sectors
governments (local and central) also failed to produce policies that oblige these
withdraw from the direct production and provision, and facilitate or enable the private
sector, formal and informal, to provide land, housing and services (Ghafur 2010:
10). In reality, the only private sector apart from the illegal informal settlements
that have remained involved, for at least during the last three decades in providing
living in the fringe areas of the city. The role of mainstream formal private sector 19,
quite unsurprisingly, has remained limited in the provisioning of land plots for
Table 4.2: Moments of scarcity for urban poor affecting urban form: post-SAP
Bangladesh (prepared in accordance with: Ahmed 2007; Ahmed and Sattar 2004;
Choguill 1993; DCosta 1994; Karim 2007; Khan 1999: 171-172; Khanam 2004;
19. REHAB (Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh), which comprises of 1081
member farms and claims to have delivered around 200,000 apartment units and have
developed 120,000 land plots during the past two decades after their inception
(http://www.rehab-bd.org/rehab_at_a_glance.php), are not known for their deliverance of
affordable apartments or plots of land to the urban poor.
122
condition locations (e.g. low-
- Involvement only in lying fringe areas)
planning and - NGO involvement
developing land, accelerates
infrastructure and
services
- Stimulate environment
conducive for private
sector involvement
- On-site upgrading, - Eviction of slum
National
Housing renovation and dwellers continues and
Policy
development with brutal means being
1993
conferment of regularly used
occupancy rights; - NGO run and
commitment for government approved
service and utility poverty alleviation and
provisioning environment upgrading
- Community projects also get
participation and affected
involvement of NGOs - Lack of commitment
become accepted and coordination
norms between agencies
- Home-lending - No further progress to
program by disburse housing loans
Bangladesh Bank for urban poor
announced for funding
poors housing; NGOs
to act as intermediaries
Fifth Five - Intention to improve - De-agrarianization - Nothing substantial
Year Plan
quality of poors life continues:, peasants is accomplished
1995-
2000 by providing adequate involvement to crop- except from the
infrastructure; based agriculture introduction of a
envisioned reduces to 18% from few small-scale
development of low- 33% in the previous housing credit
cost multi-storied decade schemes and low-
buildings for - Landless condition of cost plots
resettlement peasants worsens
- WTO and inclusion of owning to both natural
agriculture into disasters and man-
GATT; government to made causes
123
significantly cut
involvement in
agriculture and
subsidy
Revised - Urban poor is - Governments unwilling - Very little
National
recognized an essential to provide housing upgrading takes
Housing
Policy part of economy and services fearing it place
1999
issues regarding their would encourage
tenure security and further in-migration
access to basic - Policy not fully
services were to be realized; unclear policy
addressed leading to
- In-situ slum upgrading misunderstanding and
programs received in- lack of coordination
principle approval between different
government agencies
Draft - The Poverty Reduction - PRSP does not mention - Slum eviction
National
Strategy Paper (PRSP) migrants housing without
Housing
Policy is proposed for - Policy remains resettlement
2004
Bangladesh, persuaded unapproved due to continues; but
again by World Bank deadlocks arising from slums continue to
and IMF volatile political form and exist in
- PRSP includes policy situations city centres
agenda for - Although LPUPAPs - LPUPAP had its
provisioning housing impact was significant, effect on
for challenged groups yet in its seven-year settlements built
(e.g. single working tenure (2000-2007), it environment
women, elderly and could only manage through upgrading
the disabled) around USD1million of services and
- UNDP and grant money, and utilities; it also
Government funded generate a meager sanctioned small
Local Partnerships for USD0.1million from loans for house
Urban Poverty the savings of its construction and
Reduction Project members. Despite improvement
(LPUPAP) launched having a good idea, it - In Khulnas
on 2000 in 11 towns suffered from lack of migrant
and cities for the funds and could not settlements, 133
improvement of contribute more CDC and 1226
services, utilities and groups (23,000
empowerment of poor persons; 92%
124
community members female) had
completed more
than 200 slum
improvement
projects
Present - Advocacy for - Impact of these - UPPRP is having
times
innovative policy; policies yet to be similar effect as
allows advocacy evaluated LPUPAP had;
groups to engage in - Despite local although confined
negotiation with government and in the settlement
governments and seek UNDPs involvement level,
funds from donors in settlement upgrading improvements of
- UNDP and works, eviction and drainage, streets,
UNHABITAT funded displacement threats service areas and
Urban Partnerships are ongoing mainly even house-forms
for Poverty Reduction from land-grabbers and are evident in many
project (UPPRP) supported by of the settlements
launched on 2008 bureaucracy (e.g. (although many
KDA, police etc.) remained the same)
4.3 Summary
This chapter has looked at the structural insufficiencies and imbalances as a product
doctrines reveal that little has changed in terms of top-down policy formulation and
Bangladesh. Pertaining mainly to the land administration sector in the context of this
predominantly agrarian society and starting with the early colonization of Bengal, the
migrants in Khulna. In order to fulfil both economic and political objectives, this
discussion reveals, these many modernist policies have been used by the ruling
125
regimes and their elite collaborators leaving dire consequences for Bengals (and later
relation with the new socio-spatial binaries in the city (e.g. standard-nonstandard,
have been found with the cases in this chapter, can hence be viewed as a means to
threads and themes through the socio-spatial analysis of migrant homes in Chapter 5,
which shows how the aforesaid binary co-existences are deliberately constructed,
maintained and used by various actors (including the migrants themselves) in the
126
Chapter 5: Settlement history and spatial practices
5.1 Introduction
relation with migrants settling down process in Chapter 4, this chapter focuses more
respectively: (1) settlement history (tenure, ownership and control, and spatial
structure (type and nature, actors and rules). All sections are prepared using the most
reference with external actors role in their present status of land tenure and house
drawings are organized in a way which makes use of only the required number of
examples. Not all the instances and evidences from all 10 settlements and 34 dwelling
units are analyzed simultaneously for describing each of the phenomena. The idea is
not to generalize findings. Rather, efforts are given to identify and explain these
summary concludes by mentioning the common themes which emerge from the
themes, along with those from Chapter 4 are carried forward to Chapter 6 where they
(From here on, a particular household within particular a settlement, for example the
127
5.2 History of settlement
This section begins with the discussions on tenure history (and spatio-physical
history also discusses the earlier forms of ownership that the migrant residents from
Freehold
Settlement 5: Household/plot: 3-10; Density: 550-900 persons/ha
Motiakhali (approx.)
informal settlement clusters on city periphery (Figure 5.1). In most cases, the
families are common on a single plot of land) (Figure 5.2). This, however, is the most
emerging type amongst all low-income migrant settlement types in Khulna. Many of
these are often unidentifiable as slums. Although poor people live here, there are
certain attributes of these settlements for which they are hard to be categorized as
slums. In many cases, rented dwelling units are brick-built. The tenants also share the
same utilities as those of the landlord on-site source of water, electricity, sanitary
toilet, separate space for cooking and bathing etc. In most cases, government funded
free community clinic and primary school could also be found nearby. Settlement 5
hence refers to a private property, acquired through the purchasing of land during
Khulnas initial industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s. Which were originally low
128
lying agricultural lands (for paddy cultivation mainly) in Khulnas South-Western
fringe areas, were later subdivided illegally (without any clear land use map or
Figure 5.1: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Motiakhali area (Source: KCC
2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image (Source: Google Earth
2012).
These plots of land were originally purchased for a very cheap price by people with
small informal jobs or by third/fourth class employees (and migrant workers) working
etc.). Cultivation and cropping was carried out with the help of peasant-migrants from
1990s, when many government-owned industries were closed down in Khulna while
private sector shrimp industries boomed both retired employees (from government
industries) and newly wealthy class (from shrimp business) started purchasing land in
this peripheral location. These two groups investment in land led to the sudden
escalation of land price and drew in more speculators. Many other people, who were
not originally from Khulna, also started purchasing land in this area. This is also
production (Chapter 4). So as peasants started making their way in to Khulna and
129
lands took this opportunity and constructed portions of their agricultural land into
more profitable rentable units. Some migrants were also allowed to stay rent-free in
exchange of their service to look after the property and help the landlord with his/her
everyday activities (e.g. business, agriculture, household works etc.). In all cases,
thatching and mud. Permanent houses are only (re)constructed later through a gradual
(particularly those close to city centre) were already crowded and high-priced, this
type quickly became the most popular mode of accommodation for the bulk of the
newer in-migrants. It was during the latter half of the 1990s, population density
escalated while peoples demand for utilities and services became important
enough1. It was hence to draw the attention of local Ward Councillor, as some form
In terms of social relation, this co-living of the landlord and his/her tenants is
Bangladeshi society2. Generally a single room is rented by one migrant family, while
services and utilities are commonly shared between the tenants, and often also with
the landlords family (Figure 5.2). In this, the tenant benefits financially from sharing
everyday services, utilities and spaces with the on-site landlord. Tenants social
world also extends beyond his/her personal network; benefit occurs from getting
immediate access to the local social network of the landlord for getting access to jobs
and other livelihood opportunities (e.g. healthcare, education etc.). This accepted
subordination to the landlord also helps receive important institutional support (e.g.
1. As density increases, so does the number of voters; so with the increase of density (and
through persistent lobbying) local public representatives (e.g. Ward Councillor)
commonly extend their activities in such areas.
2. Indra and Buchignani (1997: 26) discusses how in rural Bangladesh, landless people
make innovative use of kinship and other ideologies legitimating reciprocity and mutual
aid to re-establish themselves rent-free on the land of others.
130
NGO loans become easily available for having a legal address rather than living
addition to the rent money received from the tenants. For example, the landlords
political importance increases as the Ward Councillor now gives him/her importance
individual tenants to vote for him, the Councillor recognizes that if the landlord
Registered leasehold
Settlement 4: Area: 1 Acre (approx.); Household: 200+;
Runner Math Population: 1000+; Density 2500p/ha
playground (Maath) for surrounding villages while a small sporting club building
(named Runner Club) was erected illegally by a group of local youth. An ex-refugee
131
government official (from Kolkata) later leases it from Government and starts
cultivating it for agricultural farming. In 1972, the migrant farmer working for the
leaseholder constructs house and starts living on this land as a caretaker and bribe
the club away. In the following year, after a dispute with the leaseholder regarding
harvest sharing, this migrant farmer issues an injunction to current leaseholder with
although a government official, never came back to reclaim this lands possession4.
As it becomes an abandoned property, now many start showing their interest in this
land. So as in 1976, a local political leader eyes on this land, and sends two of his
Godown (silo for storing food grains) to start residing here (Figure 5.3: right).
Figure 5.3: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Runner Math (Source: KCC
2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image showing location of
Runner Math in relation with the location of Government Silo (Source: Google Earth 2012).
All of these three migrants (the Sardar brothers and the farmer) happened to be from
the same district of Barishal5. Hence they would invite a few more families to live
3. It, by law, becomes governments Khas land, which the Government can lease to anyone
it deems eligible.
4. Since this official was a refugee himself, he feared local resistance and possible clash
with this farmer who is now backed by locally influential personnel.
5. One amongst the three particular coastal and riverside locations in Bangladesh, which
until now has remained the exclusive hinterland to Khulna in terms of migrant-sending
(Angeles et al. 2009: 18). Generally, people refer to other people from his/her same
132
with them all having their roots in Barishal. In 1979, during the tenure of army-
backed President Zia, a local college was established (read in his admiration).
Political leaders from Zias party (BNP6) used this occasion to appropriate Runner
Math by evicting the squatters and erect a students hostel there. The earlier lease by
now was cancelled; Runner Maath land was now allocated to Zia College through a
long-term lease. But knowing through insiders that this was actually a plot to evict
them and a hostel would never be erected at Runner Math, these three migrants now
aggressively start inviting their known people (relatives, friends etc.) all landless
ex-migrants like they themselves from different corners of the city to live alongside
them. They would also set the criteria that everyone who comes here must be from
the Barishal region. During the next regime of the military dictator President Ershad
in early 1980s, a vacant order was decreed by locally influential people interested in
Runner Math. But the migrants, now led primarily by the Sardar brothers, again use
their power to mobilize the Godown labour to neutralize the eviction threats. Another
eviction threat from the local MP was again resisted in early-1990s; although the MP
proposed that all Runner Math inhabitants would be rehabilitated to a new site, the
Sardar brothers declined his proposal. Instead, they went on to convey a strong
message to this MP that a relocation would lead only to the reduction of votes in the
upcoming national election. Knowing that their group role would be decisive for any
MP and Ward Councillor during elections, each new threat therefore was invariably
followed by the arrival of more migrant families. By 1995, Runner Maath becomes
full with houses. In 2008, during another non-political military regime, the local
land administrator was finally reached after several months of lobbying. As he was
now convinced and his office was bribed, leasehold for 25 years was finally obtained.
regional origin (e.g. from same village, or who speak the same dialect) as Deshi
Manush.
6. BNP stands for Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is one of the two major political
parties in Bangladesh formed by President Zia (an ex-Army General and one of the key
sector commanders during Bangladeshs War of Independence in 1971). Zias tenure saw
Bangladeshs first Marshal Law (army-backed government).
133
Public rental
Settlement 10: Area: 14.34 Acre; House: 600+; Pop.
Railway Guards Colony 3,000+; Density 520p/ha
(Figure 5.4). Both house interiors and adjacent land have since been illegally
practices were further compounded by the gradual occupation of the entire Railways
estate and nearby Ghat (loading-unloading quay) by a local Mastan (mafia boss) in
the mid 1980s. This migrant-turned-Mastan (who would be later elected as a Ward
Councillor) continued to erect slum houses within the vacant spaces of this planned
settlement until 1999. It was generally the migrant population from his home district
that were allowed to settle in those houses. Railways authority was unable to do
anything about it because this Mastan was supported by the local politicians from
Figure 5.4: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Railway Guards Colony (Source:
KCC 2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image showing the
housing area, and the riverside Ghats on right (Source: Google Earth 2012).
It was this Mastans unofficial approval that was also required even for an officer to
move in to an officially allotted formal housing unit. After his fall in early 2000s,
134
most slum-households were relocated to another nearby site7 (settlement 3). But by
now, this newly reclaimed territorial control encouraged railway staffs to construct
even more informal/illegal houses, roads, plantations and other structures within this
1
3 2
Figure 5.5: (Left) plan showing typical row-house unit transformation in Railway Guards
Colony (1) Verandah transformed into master sleeping area; (2) open yard becomes semi-
covered space used for cooking, water storage, bathroom and toilet, and entrance; (3) Katcha
building attached with permanent structure as family size increases; (top right) single storey
row-house like arrangement of Railway employees housing (Source: Google Earth 2012);
(bottom middle) fencing used to mark property line as in private estates (see plan) Katcha
house is in the background; (bottom right) informal house still on Railways land inhibited by
outsiders remains of Mafia bosss legacy.
However, getting access to Railways housing remains highly contested since this
government-provided (subsidized and hence affordable) housing for the third- and
fourth-class employees in Bangladesh has been scarce. The number of housing units
supplied has always been on the shorter side compared with the actual demand. Thus
many officers kept staying in these houses for decades, even after they got transferred
to other posts. This also led to curious situated practices amongst the realm of
7. Although a few such houses can still be found in the settlement (Figure 5.5: bottom-
right); it has been learnt that some new arrangements have already been made between
135
selling out possession rights of the dwelling units to new incoming officers.
Although owned by the Railways, it has been the tenants investments in these
properties over the years8 that made them behave like private property owners. For
getting allotment and extend their stay (e.g. after being transferred), officers actually
have to bribe their own colleagues (office staff from Railways Internal Welfare
vacating soon and would be ready for moving in require a constant tapping of social
These three settlements, in the traditional sense, are all squatters. It is their de facto
status in terms of land ownership that brings them together under this particular
category. However, there are subtle differences in the ways they have been developed
through squatting on government land and public housing. Variations can also be
noticed in the way they have continued to make socio-political arrangements for
5.6). Habitation begun on this southern peripheral land of Khulna in the early 1960s,
136
and has even since been developed gradually. A local Ward Councillor (called Ward
coastal hinterlands. As businesses grew along the riverside, this settlement continued
erected followed by gradual landfill; later came the construction of roads and other
infrastructure and eventually services and utilities were provided. Self-help, support
from local traders and industry-owners, KCC and more recently NGOs and the
UNDP-led UPPRP-project have all been the means through which this gradual
Figure 5.6: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Rupsha Char Bastee (Source:
KCC 2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image showing the
settlements area and the industrial/trading area along the river (Source: Google Earth 2012).
This settlement is located right alongside one of Khulnas oldest riverside locations
that consist of numerous Ghats supporting the wholesale fish markets (Notun
Bazaar), wood trading and river transport stations (Figure 5.6: right). Migrant
settlements such as Rupsha Char have actually been developed over the years as
137
in and around Rupsha Char area turning it into one of the most bustling (and
densely populated) trading zones of Khulna. Many supporting businesses for the
industries (e.g. ice factories to support shrimp trading, or saw-mills to support wood
trading) also grew alongside. Similar to the Shrimp industries, the abundance of
cheap labour also influenced the gradual development of other new businesses
along the river (related to construction industry, these are: storage and supplying of
Figure 5.7: Showing settlement transformation phases in Rupsha Char Bastee (the most
influential actors involved in each phase is also mentioned).
Land in and around this area is therefore highly priced and contested amongst all the
parties mentioned. Because of the Char character of land and devoid of a definite
boundary (as Chars are always shifting and morphing), land tenure status of all
parties (including the fishery giants) remain dubious and subject to the
Rupsha Char Bastee also includes disputed areas within its boundary. Eviction threats
persons/groups/institutes who wish to use it for public benefit (Hossain 2010: 77).
10. For example, the shrimp industries and all other present enterprises along the river-edge
are located on the even newly formed Char land (hence Khas land). Yet, eviction drives
138
are also frequent11. Around 40% of its 26 Bigha12 land area is a highly contested
terrain between migrants13, a Christian community14 and the industry owners (i.e.
elites). Tenants are not landowners here; but a few amongst the 2000+ households on
the southern part of the settlement have been granted temporary leasehold, while the
rest on the northern and middle part of the settlement (disputed) live without any
Figure 5.8: (Right) Satellite image showing the actual location of Rupsha Char Bastee
(marked), with the riverside Ghats, shrimp industries and other enterprises along the riverside
on its right (Source: Google Earth 2012); (left) same area is projected on KDAs Master Plan
2002; this designates the marked (Rupsha Char Bastee) area as mixed-use and commercial
location. Riverside Ghats and enterprises are shown as parks (Source: KDA 2002a).
never target them. In addition, KDA (Khulnas planning authority)s Master Plan 2002
designates this area for parks and major arterial ways (Figure 5.8).
11. The latest threat came in August 2012 during the third phase of my fieldwork; a local
fishery mogul, who has been interested in this disputed land for many years, once again
had made an attempt to evict the migrants using his bureaucratic connections. In this
particular instance, an eviction notice was served through the local Police
Commissioner (prompted by this influential businessman) although police do not have
any legal authority to do so. This threat, as in earlier cases, was eventually neutralized by
mass protests, persuasion and the political intervention by the Mayor.
12. A local unit for land area measurement; 1 Bigha = 1340m2, or 14,400sft.
13. The older migrants claim that this portion of land was actually a paddy-field owned by a
Hindu Zamindar. This Zamindar, before his emigration to India after partition in 1947,
had donated this land for the welfare of poor people. Since the Christian Missionary in
Khulna was amongst the most active philanthropic organization (and also a non-Muslim
organization), the Hindu Zamindar is believed to had trusted this missionary more than
the land administrators of the Muslim state of East Pakistan. Devoid of any land
ownership record (due to its being a Char land) or without any official document that
shows if any declaration of donation was made by the Zamindar, the migrants claim that
the successive heads of this Missionary have since acted partially and favoured only the
Christian migrants rather the migrant community as a whole
14. Christian migrants (converts), on the other hand, claim that this land belongs to CSS
(Christian Service Society the local Missionary, and a descendent of a European Baptist
Mission set up in the south-eastern riverside of Khulna in 1860 following the
139
Due to its sheer population size (hence very important as voters of national/local
elections), and for its economic importance to local industries, migrants however
could develop a negotiated relation with the land authorities during these 50+ years.
Although documents in black and white do not exist, it is the verbal promises
particularly from the Mayors and Ward Councillors from different political regimes
that assure migrants to carry on with activities such as invest in permanent houses,
rent them and even sell possession rights15 to willing buyers. Migrants frequently
mention of and associate all KCC Mayors, and a particular Ward Councillor
belonging to BNP behind whatever progress (and resilience16) they could produce till
date towards Rupsha Char Bastees sustenance and fight for legalization.
The migrant settlements at Panch (5) No. Ghat (settlement 3) is believed to be located
on a site which is more than one hundred and fifty years old. The reason being that it
is located right next to the CBD of Khulna the Boro Bazaar, a trading place around
Early 19th C (elaborated in Chapter 4). The suffix Ghat with the settlements name
also refers to its proximity of Khulnas main water transport station near Boro
Bazaar. A truck/lorry stand and the central railway station17 are also located adjacent
to this Ghat area (Figure 5.9: right). It is also within 15-20minutes walking distance
of Khulnas most affluent housing area and the central bus station. The present
establishment of salt and indigo business by EIC; see Miah 2002: 591), and they are
allowed to settle here by CSS and given the guardianship to protect this land.
15. Since no formal title exists, people who move out basically sell out their claim on the
possession of land/dwelling unit that they developed throughout years of occupation.
Often the whole homestead (land plot and house)s claim is sold out together.
16. This ex-Councillor, who now holds a key post in Khulna BNP, is said to have been the
most essential of allies for these Char-living migrants socio-spatial sustenance. In
addition to his important role as an everyday anti-eviction activist, migrants mention of
episodic hard times, such as of a post-fire hazard period in 1994 when he had fed the
entire fire-affected community for around a month using fund collected through
donations.
17. This is the same railway station which during British rule, was used for travelling
between Khulna and Kolkata.
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Bangladesh Railways underutilized land at the periphery of its sprawling housing
area18 near the city centre (Figure 5.9). Although it is believed that a village-like
settlement had existed earlier right next to the thriving Boro Bazaar area, it was the
establishment of the Ghats and the stations that heightened the demand for cheap
labour and had constantly invited additional migrant population. Following the War
the mushrooming of makeshift shacks around this area since this was the only place
in the city where informal jobs were readily available. It is widely held that the
inhibited by some of this particular batch of new migrants. It is through their efforts,
this low-lying land was developed gradually. As this was a low-lying land, these
people had to raise the courtyards and build houses on high plinths. Thus a number of
ponds were dug out over the years, while the paddy field had gradually been
Figure 5.9: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Panch No. Ghat settlement
(Source: KCC 2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space (location of Harijan-para is
seen on the north of settlement 3); (right) Satellite image selections showing respectively
(from top to bottom) settlement 3, Panch No. Ghat, Railways housing, Khulna Railway
Station, ferry terminal and truck/lorry station. Glimpses of Boro Bazaar can also be found near
the truck/lorry station (Source: Google Earth 2012).
141
Tenure history of settlement 3 again demonstrates some interesting forms of
Railways) property, Railways has never had any real authority to control this vast
asset19 as seen also in the case of settlement 10. During the initial settling down in
these lands during 1970s, it was not very hard for these migrants to find some corrupt
agricultural products such as fish or monetary bribe). It is also learnt that a few such
officers were also sympathetic particularly toward people from their own area of rural
origin. However, things started to change in the early 1980s during the military-
in the case of settlement 10). In addition to the more designated housing areas for
Railways employees (e.g. settlement 10), he took control of the present day
settlement 3 area as well. This Mastan, who was also a political leader of the then
ruling party, started populating all these areas with migrants particularly from his rural
area of origin (Barishal). By 1990, settlement 3 assumed the name Ershad Sikder
Bastee20 and continued to serve additional purposes including housing his own
musclemen, act as the remote location for his illegal businesses (drugs, arms and
possibly prostitution), and play the role of the most essential vote-bank during
election times. However, after his eventual confiscation and execution in early 2002
during the BNP regime, thousands of these migrants have had their houses
demolished. Those living within the formal housing area (as in settlement 10) were
19. Bangladesh Railways for example, owns around 2.5km2 of land right at the central area of
the city; almost all of it is derelict and unutilized. This large chunk of land however, was
originally acquired by the British rulers as they envisaged rail sector to be the dominant
mode of transport in the future. However, Railways less-than-expected expansion during
Bangladesh period (due to road-oriented development) has pushed this organization to
such a low level of resource-scarceness that they cannot even afford to pay for a proper
maintenance of these assets it possesses let alone develop them for purposes such as
housing. Thus most of their land property is squatted (as in settlement 3), illegally rented
(as in settlement 10), informally rented (e.g developed as hawker market) or disputed
(generally with KCC).
20. Ershad Sikder was the name of the Mastan. His name can be found in the Murderpedia
website. See, http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sikder-ershad.htm.
142
also evicted of their houses21. Yet again, the Mayor and local Ward Councillor
appeared on the scene realizing the political importance of this large number of
migrant populations (read voters). There was also a push from UNDP-led settlement
upgradation project (LPUPAP). Now, a more formal negotiation took place wherein
a segment of the actors (e.g. Mayor, UNDP) acted as intermediaries between the
Railways authority and the evicted migrants. A new plan was laid out in 2002 for
housing particularly this batch of migrant population, evicted from the formal housing
areas. New locations within the settlement were selected, while gaps within existing
areas were also filled in. Depending on family size, each household was allotted either
one or two (12X15) sized plots. A new name to this settlement (Greenland) was also
given by LPUPAP. Later in 2008 in the most recent effort by KCC, another process of
rehabilitating members of Harijan22 community was initiated after evicting them from
other KCC lands in Khulna. A newer site on the northern part of this settlement was
chosen by Mayors office and local Ward Councillor23 and named Harijan-para
(Figure 5.9: middle). Although railway authority was not keen to turn their land into a
rehabilitation site, the Mayor (backed by ruling regime) insisted to make use of
this otherwise under-utilized land for public purpose. However, for all residents of
settlement 3, the tenure status still remains de facto; migrants are neither allowed to
construct any permanent structure, nor any assurance is given about the maximum
Settlement 7, which is locally known as Sath (7) No. Camp is originally a Bihari
Refugee Camp located right at the centre of Khulnas oldest and largest planned
township of Khalishpur. The Muslim Biharis, who took refuge in post-liberation East
21. A few such houses can still be found in settlement 10, who could still sort out some
mechanism to stay back (Figure 5.5: bottom right).
22. A lowest caste Hindu community, who are generally found involved in perceived lower-
level works such as sweeping and cleaning; a number of them work at KCC as well.
23. Although elected public representatives are not theoretically authorized to decide on any
operational issue of public-sector organization such as Bangladesh Railways.
143
Pakistan after riots in India, turned into refugees once again as Bangladesh got
liberated from Pakistan in 1971. The Biharis, who came to Pakistan and became
Pakistani citizen, naturally supported West Pakistan instead of the native Bangali in
the latters War of Liberation. So after the war was over and East Pakistan became
were murdered during the war, while even more took place after the war was over.
The Bihari houses were ransacked and seized, while Biharis were forced out of their
Figure 5.10: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Sath No. Camp (Source: KCC
2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) location of Sath No. Camp and other
two refugee Camps within Khalishpur township (Source: Google Earth 2012).
For Sath No. Camp, it was the International Red Cross, who came to protect the
Biharis from the violation and gathered them on this present site that used to be an
open public space previously. Around 40 tents were set up, in which these families
24. In addition to the three camps in Khalishpur there are another two Bihari Camps that exist
in Khulna. A number of similar camps also exist in other major cities in Bangladesh. As
these people still dream of a return to Pakistan (although they never lived in the Pakistan
mainland), the latter has never been keen to recognize them as its citizen. Although
Muslim the Biharis are, they differ ethnically and culturally from Pakistani ethnicities
and culture as they did with Bangladeshis. Pakistan also considers them as potential
burden since the Biharis are mostly illiterate and unskilled for any formal sector job. Thus
this whole issue has since remained political between the successive governments of
Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the Biharis remained stranded in these camps.
144
continued to live until 1978. Around this time, President Zias pro-Muslim BNP
government would already have assumed power; this made access of Islamic NGOs
(such as Rabeta Al Islam) easier into this politically sensitive settlement and
construct permanent house-plinths for the inhabitants. Other NGOs also joined in and
continued to operate with similar rehabilitation works (e.g. Concern and Caritas
provided sanitary latrines). Later in the 1990s, KCCs first intervention saw the
construction of permanent roads and erection of light posts here. By this time
however, additional refugee population came in and filled in the gaps between
existing plots of lands increasing the number of plots to 135 and families to 162.
Gradual encroachment of the adjacent lake also took place both to extend present
household space and to house new refugees. Now as settlement 7 has continued to
consolidate over the past five decades and many Biharis has left25, some Bangladeshi
(rural-urban) migrants also moved in (by buying possession rights) and started living
alongside the Bihari refugees within this settlement or adjacent to it (Figure 5.11).
Figure 5.11: Two Bangali-owned houses within Bihari refugee camp the fortified nature of
both these houses is noticeable; right: location of Mrs. Nurjahans house; left (red dotted) Mrs.
Nurjahans house on Khalishpur Central Mosque property but entry to her house is through
settlement 7; (left green dotted) house location of another newly gentrified Bangladeshi
(rural-to-urban) migrant.
25. It has been widely reported that although Pakistan did not recognize Biharis as their own
citizens, many registered themselves as Bangladeshi nationals, managed a Bangladeshi
Passport and eventually left Bangladesh for Pakistan. Some Biharis also left these camps
once they became affluent. Some previously affluent ones never actually had to leave in a
camp. Because of their better educational and social status they could already integrate
with the pre-liberation Bangladeshi society and escape violation.
145
Presently, the political importance of the Bihari population and their claim to this
settlement have both been reinforced as most of these refugees were issued a
Official recognition
Settlement 8: Area: 0.23 Acre; Household: 35; Population: 200+;
Bakkar Bastee Density 2220p/ha
Settlement 9: Area: 4.6 Acre; Household: 750+; Pop.: 4,000+;
Peoples Panchtala Density 2160p/ha
invasion that took advantage of the host communitys needs and eventually
culminated into acquiring an official recognition. As the name suggests, this small
Bastee within the Khalishpur Township was erected and controlled by Mr. Bakkar, a
formerly prominent Labour Sardar from the nearby Crescent Jute Mills. This gradual
Khalishpur housing area felt the need for enhanced vigilance and security due to a
Khalishpur Housing Societys Chairman, and having discussed with the local Ward
Councillor, a decision was taken to erect a semi-government guard post called TDP26
(Town Defence Party) in this area. Since provision for no such space was originally
considered in Khalishpur Master Plan, a small lakeside patch of open land was
instead chosen for this purpose in the central zone of Khalishpur township (Figure
5.12: overleaf). The committee also decided that Mr. Bakkar should head this defence
26. TDP can be seen as something similar to community police; but its key difference with
community policing is that setting up a TDP post requires approval from central
Governments ANSAR and VDP Department. So even if setting up a TDP post is
communitys need driven and run by communitys chosen members and paid by the
community, it requires prior approval from local public representatives and
administrators.
146
and patrol activities since he was a proven Freedom Fighter27 (Muktijoddha in
Bangla) and also because of his reputation as a formidable Labour Sardar during his
Figure 5.12: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Bakkar Bastee (Source: KCC
2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image (Source: Google Earth
2012).
Although this was a demanding duty (generally night-shift works involved, with risks
of fighting dacoits), the remuneration from being a TDP employee was scant. The
expenses of the whole process were borne exclusively by the community; financial
contribution from government was negligible. Such demanding work also required
adequate manpower. All these made Mr. Bakkar think opportunistically. He therefore
asked for additional members for additional members to be included in his team for
dwelling units needed to be erected around the TDP office to house the families of the
27. Freedom Fighter is used to refer particularly to those civilian personnel who fought
against the Pakistan Army during Bangladeshs War of Independence. Freedom fighters
enjoy a host of state welfare benefits. The term Freedom Fighter, which has an emotional
connotation, however has also been used in Bangladesh to gain financial and political
(read unfair) advantages. Although not all, many influential individuals use their
Freedom Fighter status to acquire state benefit, influence public-level decision making
processes, and receive political attention often far beyond the levels they are otherwise
entitled to.
147
TDP employees (including his own) considering the nature of work involved. This
proposition was agreed upon eventually, and a total of 25 houses were built on the
lakeside using bamboo platforms. Mr. Bakkar, who was an ex Sardar, had by now
also become the undisputed leader of this small but important settlement. His TDP
colleagues were all his own men some of them used to be his co-workers in the
Jute Mills, while the rest were either his relatives or deshi manush from Faridpur.
Outside, this settlement began to be identified with his name while the makeshift
Now as the TDP office became a permanent (and important) establishment for this
community, and Mr. Bakkar and his team have long been serving this community,
they made an approach to the local Ward Councillor in 2000, requesting if these
respective occupants. Although the Ward Councillor and KCC were interested, titling
ministry (Ministry of Housing). Mr. Bakkar and his affiliates then went on to bribe
one of Khalishpur Housing Authority personnel to make him lobby for them in the
Ministry of Housing office in Dhaka. This effort failed since at that particular time
government was not allotting land plots to any individual. They however, kept
lobbying through their known political channels and during different political
regimes. Through all these, by 2002, they could only manage to include their names
in the official book of land records as present occupants (hence claimants) of this
28. The makeshift nature of dwellings owed to three factors; one, these houses were needed
to be erected quickly; two, these migrants were not allowed by Khalishpur Housing
Authority to build permanent buildings here since they did not have any legal land title;
and three, they were generally poor migrants who before coming here were living in
shacks and shanties generally they did not have financial capacity to build otherwise.
148
land. As lobbying for a formal title is ongoing still, a Holding number29 has been
approved by KCC for each of these households ensuring some form of recognition
3
Figure 5.13: (Left) Bakkar Bastee: (1) location of TDP office; (2) houses on encroached
lakeside land under control of Mr. Bakkar and his associates; (3) newer lakeside
encroachments by people not residents of Bakkar Bastee (Source: Google Earth 2012);
(middle) new semi-permanent building under construction within the TDP office compound;
(right) lakeside view of TDP office, and lakeside encroachments as seen over the lake.
Presently 35 families live in Bakkar Bastee. Older houses (that are based on land
through years of earth-filling) are constructed mostly of brick and roofed with CI
sheet30. The newer houses on water however are still being built on floating bamboo
platforms. Some homesteads also have small gardens which again has become
possible through the partial filling up of lakesides. Many original TDP workers left
this settlement and new replacements came along by purchasing the possession
right of the vacant house/land. It is also believed that Mr. Bakkar himself still owns
at least four houses. It has also been learnt that with every transaction related to
possession right between leaving and incoming tenants, Mr. Bakkar receives some
amount of money. Neighbours say that Bakkar Bastee is in fact a good business
29. A Holding number allows KCC to include particular households to its municipal tax-
base. It also helps determine the amount of municipal tax for that household. A Holding
number holder has to pay yearly tax to KCC.
149
proposition for Mr. Bakkar, and that new plots of land would continue to be created
by earth-filling the lakeside and would be sold to new buyers. Location 3 (Figure
5.13: left) is said to have been filled in and sold in the same manner, although Mr.
Bakkar denies it. Some neighbours seem sceptical about the new building within the
TDP office (Figure 5.13: middle) assuming that it is not actually an extension of the
present office as the TDP workers claim it is. They say possession right of this
building would again be sold to some new intent buyers as in the earlier cases. But
since Mr. Bakkar has aged and become politically disconnected so, he does not
himself decide things (hence enjoy the monetary outcome) entirely anymore. There is
possible that they also claim their stakes from any benefits that accrue from any
Ltd.) land. It is one of the very few examples in Khulna where multi-storied buildings
and vacant land have been simultaneously invaded by both Jute Mills workers and
non-workers, and yet has been able to manage some form of official recognition.
However, this process of invasion of industry-sites could be related back to the events
disproportionately scant housing supply by the public sector industries at that time
made even many of the formal sector Jute Mills workers to assume informal
modes of dwelling. It is within this context, when jute production reached its peak in
late 1960s and early 1970s and was yielding a fair amount of foreign revenue,
numerous full time and part time workers still could not find their place in the Jute
30. TDP employees are not allowed by the Housing Authority to construct any permanent
roof since they do not posses any formal land title.
150
Mills owned workers housing31. This particular housing area, once owned by
Peoples Jute Mills (Figure 5.14) which still is considered as one of Khulnas largest
jute industries, therefore became a key location for these many workers eventual
place of refuge.
Figure 5.14: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Peoples Panch Tala (Source:
KCC 2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image showing both
the studied location and the rest of the site (Source: Google Earth 2012).
Although many of the workers were already living on this site informally, it was the
post-War of Independence era of early 1970s, which saw even more migrants to make
their way in to Khulna from the war-torn country sides. As reported, a few political
leaders from the ruling regime and Jute Mills labour union helped these migrants to
initially settle down within this formal (planned) housing estate. Jute Mills
authorities were kept quiet, while compromises were made between the politically
appropriate decisions and their administratively right laws. People both workers
and non workers also used their own social networks (kin, friends, people from same
rural region) to find a place within this walled-up premise. This process, therefore,
has gradually turned this area into a site for low-income migrant populations refuge
for who have been related to the nearby Jute industries for their livelihoods but yet
31. Even in its ailing state (many employees have had their jobs cut to reduce expenditure)
Peoples Jute Mills still employs a total of 3905 third- and fourth-class employees. Yet it
151
The construction, invasion and consolidation of these five-storied buildings32 for
which settlement 9 is called Peoples Panch-tala, has a rather curious history. The
political project by the then military government that aimed to compensate for the
housing shortage particularly for the sheer number of third- and fourth-class
government employees including the Jute Mills workers. This particular site was
selected because of its central location and relative distance from other government-
Mills tract of land was also the only available parcel, which was suitable for any
large-scale housing. The project was financed by the central government, and
designed and built in the late 1970s by NHA as a rentable five-storied (Panch-tala)
apartment-complex. Yet this building site and its adjacent vacant lands have
continuous funding and a regime change, these buildings also took more time to be
completed. In fact, after construction works were finished, none of these buildings
was actually delivered to its originally targeted groups. The whole complex was left
in a parentless state until late 1980s. These buildings neither got connected with the
municipal services nor to other public utilities. Since the buildings were not owned by
the Peoples Jute Mills authority and this portion land was already appropriated from
them by the NHA, the former was reluctant to provide any of these services to
operationalize the buildings. Thus the buildings were left abandoned until a large
living in the shacks and huts in and around the Jute Mills area (and also within this
provided a merely 385 housing units for them (less than 10%) (Shahed 2006: 31).
32. The site was first appropriated and then separated from Peoples Jute Mills area using a
boundary wall. Later, a total of four bachelor quarters and another four family quarters
152
Political support was also plenty at that particular time, and this was probably the
opportunity that these already squatting migrants were looking for. Once they moved
in and more shacks mushroomed after the flood was over, many eviction- and
demolition-drives would take place throughout the next two and a half decades. Yet,
the migrant workers kept coming back and resettled both in the buildings and on the
vacant lands outside the buildings making particular use of political ties and labour
union movements.
3 5
1 8
4 6
9
2 7
Figure 5.15: Panoramic view of Peoples Panch Tala showing: (1) Non-permanent Katcha
buildings on its east boundary wall; (2) Playground kept uninhabited through a decision taken
by political elites in the community annual Waaz (open-air Islamic program) takes place
here; (3) Paintwork on Building 2 of the Bachelor type quarters cost borne by tenants of this
building; (4) Small vegetable garden developed by the owner of the adjacent unit on
Building 2; (5) Ongoing renovation work on the toilet block funded by an environmental
NGO (Concern Bangladesh); (6) brick building erected by political elite (in control of
Building 2) for storage of building materials (used for business); (7) building materials to be
used for constructing a new semi-permanent (Pucca) house on the other side of the road; (8)
an earlier toilet complex built previously by another NGO for the roadside Katcha house
dwellers; (9) both Katcha and Pucca houses constructed on the western boundary wall that
separates Jute Mills land from Peoples Panch Tala.
At present, around 400 units of 15X12 bachelor rooms (in four buildings) are
multiple individuals. On the other hand, there are another 80 family units (in four
buildings) used in the same ways. Originally, a Mosque, a canteen, and at least four
small play grounds and some vacant area for future extension on the northern part
was planned. The dining halls and kitchens of this complex have already been
converted into dwelling units. Only the playgrounds and the Mosque are left un-
were designed and constructed (Figure 5.14: right), all using double-loaded corridors and
maintaining a Corbusian simplicity (Figure 5.15: 3).
153
encroached presently. In addition, approximately 150 units of semi-permanent houses
(Figure 5.15: 2). Above all, under the present ruling regime, the KCC Mayor has
issued holding numbers for each of these households giving them some sort of
Land rental
Settlement 2: Area: 0.2 Acre; Household: 29; Population:
Quaium Shaheb er Gola 190+; Density 2375p/ha
Khulna (Figure 5.16). Since older settlements (e.g. settlement 1) could not alone
provide accommodation for all the migrants, settlements such as Quaium Shaheb er
Gola came to provide affordable and customizable housing for migrants for whom
settlement 1 was either expensive, or who simply needed a bigger house. Quaium
Shaheb in Bangla translates as Mr. Quaium. However, the word Shaheb should
designate the British/white people. Gola on the other hand means a depot; this word
is used since this site, before it was converted into rentable settlement in the 1990s
had been used for wood storage and trading for about 20 years. The entire name of
2 nevertheless, differs from settlement 5 in the sense that it is a privately owned land
and much bigger in size than settlement 5 land plots, and it is is rented to migrant
tenants who build their own house according to their individual needs. Tenants here
are also economically better positioned (earn at least 50% more) having a bigger
tenants in settlement 5. In terms of site location, this one is much nearer to the city
154
centre compared with the peripheral location of settlement 5. Migrants use temporary
building materials34 here, since such a construction could easily be dismantled and re-
used as they move on to another similar site. Depending on the size of the built area,
Figure 5.16: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Quaium Shaheb er Gola
(Source: KCC 2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) Satellite image
(Source: Google Earth 2012).
Although the landlord lives in the same site, he lives in a separate two-storied
building near the roadside front of this settlement (Figure 5.17). Contrary to
settlement 5, the landlord does not share services and utilities with his tenants here;
therefore the day to day interaction between them is limited and so is their belonging
with the tenanted space (Figure 5.17). Tenants are either already known to the
landlord, or they are someone who had to come through the landlords known
kinship/regional network to be qualified to live here. The landlord hence does not rent
family also originates from this same Upazila35. The activities of local merchants and
34. Generally bamboo structure, floating bamboo-plinth and CI sheet roof and walls.
35. The landlord is actually a descendent of a rural elite family; so renting out spaces to his
deshi manush also confirms the continual conveyance of information about the landlord
(and his family)s urban affluence and elevated social status. Although not true for this
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fishery industrialists mentioned in the discussion of settlement 1 provide similar
income generation opportunities for the tenants in settlement 2. Several NGOs and
the UNDP-led UPPR project also operates here providing microcredit and
2
4 5
3
Figure 5.17: Panoramic view of Quaium Shaheb er Gola showing: (1) landlords house on the
left of site entry behind this was the original wood Gola, which now is the site for
toilet/bath area; (2) houses built on rented plots; (3) low-lying land with stagnant water less
maintained because tenants are not allowed to use it for any purpose; (4) Rafiq er Dokan a
small grocery cum firewood shop owned by Mr. Rafiq, who is also a resident in this
settlement; (5) riverside embankment cum road (Rupsha Veri Bandh Road) and logwood
trading along the road.
Use rights
Settlement 6: Area: 15.8 Acre; Household: 1,200+; Population:
Vastuhara 8,000+; Density 1250p/ha
cleansing began to take place in all major Bangladeshi cities 37. Later in 1974, the
government would initiate a site and service scheme by handing over small parcels
landlord, this rural-linkage is a very common and tested mechanism that many affluent
persons (particularly politicians) practice in Bangladesh. Many local-level public
representatives typically live in the city but maintain a persistent linkage with their rural
constituency (where they get elected during national poles). This resembles of the
absentee Zamindar phenomenon as discussed in Chapter 4, where the Zamindar would
actually live and build in the city but would maintain a strong tie with his rural assets
(rural property and peasant subjects) for his social, political and financial gains
36. UPPRP however, does not invest in infrastructure projects because of the unsecured
nature of tenure here due to private ownership.
156
of land free to the homeless in the city38. Governments party machine39 was used to
select eligible squatters from a few locations of Khulna, including the Dukbangla
(Khulnas city centre) area, Bangladesh Railways land and Daulatpur. These people
were later relocated to the newly acquired low-lying site on Khulnas North-Western
periphery40. Referring to their homeless status, this settlement (and a few more in
major Bangladeshi cities) was given the generic name Vastuhara41 (Figure 5.18). A
Master Plan was prepared by NHA (Figure 5.19), while in 1978, semi-formal title
of a total 713 plots of land (30X15 size) was handed over to this destitute
Figure 5.18: (Left) KCC jurisdiction map showing location of Vastuhara (Source: KCC
2012); (middle) built-form distribution in space; (right) satellite image showing Vastuhara in
relation with the urbanizing city all around it; highlighted areas immediately around
Vastuhara are all formal sector developments prominent amongst them are middle- and
higher-class housing projects implemented by KDA (Source: Google Earth 2012).
37. Resulting from the pressure exerted on the government by the political elite and the press
(Choguill 1993: 329-330).
38. This attempt however contributed less to solve the actual problem of low-income
housing; it was rather designed more to justify governments socialist idealism. Of course
low-cost land was the number one reason why this remote area was chosen in the first
place; yet, in a country, characterized by pseudo class-discrimination, this effort could
also be depicted as clearing of streets from dirt.
39. Mr. Sufian - a prominent labour-leader in Khulna and local government representative
(both from the then ruling party) were in charge of this relocation process.
40. Almost 6km away from the city centre even in present conditions, this Vastuhara site
used to be a derelict land, now under the jurisdiction of Governments Ministry of
Housing. Presently, it is looked after by one of ministrys wings, the NHA and Khulnas
city planning and regulatory authority, KDA.
41. Vastu means to reside or the act of dwelling while hara means devoid of; together they
state of a condition of homeless-ness or uprooted from home.
157
Some families were also allotted more than one plot of land due to their larger family
size. Many, however, were allotted multiple allotments due to their better relation
with the party leaders. Nevertheless, not all the recipients of land stayed back in
Vastuhara. Since it was quite far away from job locations, some would already sell
these plots and go back to the city centre slums. The situation was further
condition (water logging was common) also made clear that an overall earth filling
would be required should any building or construction works were to take place.
During the following months, these few thousand people therefore would continue to
live in the makeshift shacks, and engage in earth-filling the whole site. Several
months later, semi-permanent houses (brick plinth, wooden structure and CI roof)
were erected in each of these 713 plots of land with NGO (CURITAS)s financial
support (Figure 5.19: bottom-left). But unlike that in the original land use plan, only
about 16 acres of land (out of a total 33) was actually delivered in the form of these
713 plots. Although public spaces and amenities such as parks and graveyards
were provisioned in the first Master Plan, those were never provided. In contrast, a
number of others who were also relocated alongside these fortunate 713 households
were not allotted any plot of land whatsoever. They would now start squatting on the
northern park site (area 2) and the southern graveyard site (area 3) of this formally
Later between 1983 to1987 under military-backed President Ershad, the park site
was cleared of the migrants for making space for third and fourth class government
employees (mainly defence officers) housing. Being driven out from the construction
site, these migrants now resettled on all possible vacant spaces of Vastuhara; this led
42. Actually a paper called allotment slip was initially handed-over signed by the
governments land administrator (DC), and witnessed by NGO representatives. This slip
158
to the further densification of the 42 plots of land where some migrant families were
constructed through government funding while 42 plots of land (each 2,500sft) were
created and sold out to external buyers. These buyers, however, never returned to
claim possessions of their purchased land plots because these purchased plots were
already being squatted by non-allotted migrants. Some parts were also being
2 2 2
1 1 1
3 3 3
Figure 5.19: (Above) three plans showing three different realities of Vastuhara: (above-
middle) Vastuharas original Master Plan showing location of 713 plots on area 3, while a
park on north (area 2) and a graveyard cum Mosque area on south (area 3); (above-right)
Vastuhara as of today, where area 2 being completely transformed in the same way as in a
formal sector housing; (above-left) 2011s proposed Master Plan by NHA it shows a
complete replacement of present dwelling environments with 58 Corbusian blocks (5-storied
- 200X22), each meant for housing 60 families; (bottom-left) remains of one of the first
Katcha house prototype, built by CARITAS in 1978; (bottom-middle) new middle-class multi-
storey house on area 2; (bottom-right) Mr. Dipu, the second generation of one of Vastuharas
original inhabitants and a local level political leader of Bangladesh Awami League (current
ruling party) showing the pond on area 3, which he is lease-holding presently.
159
In the latter half of 1990s, the entire area constituted by these 42 unclaimed plots was
Colony) (Figure 5.19). These inhabitants were never evicted since. Meanwhile, the
western fringe Khulna city would already close in on Vastuhara. By early 2000s,
KDA would already lay out grids of a new site and services township (Figure 5.18:
right); the plots were later sold out to the middle class clients. This made land price in
(through the many years of efforts by the inhabitants) than those developed by KDA.
This made KDA to develop (by land-filling the lake) another 37 plots of land on the
northern periphery of Vastuhara and again sell them to external buyers. These plots
of land could not be invaded as in the earlier 42 plots; these were middle-class buyers
who would quickly erect buildings akin to any typical middle class housing areas
Vastuharas future involving the local land administrator (DC), Mayor (from the
same political party that is in power presently), city-level political leaders of the same
party and the particular Vastuhara residents, who are also leaders and supporters of
this party propositions were made for a change in Vastuharas name43. Possibility
urban poor was also discussed here (Figure 5.19: above-left). This politically
charged decision and its top-down (and exclusionary) nature however makes any
160
Many in Vastuhara are actively involved in party-politics, which often yields a
certain level of personal gain44. Yet, despite the political difference there may exist
between the inhabitants45, they also remain closely bonded and move strategically
together when it comes to the question of existence for Vastuhara as a whole. The
elders) and used mainly for arbitration, decision-making and management of the
where some ruling-party peoples involvement is always ensured (someone like Mr.
Dipu46). This constant affiliation with political parties seems to have helped
Vastuharas sustained growth and development over the years. This is evident in the
example of the 2011 meeting as mentioned earlier. In order to formalize their claim
on Vastuhara land, migrants ability to arrange a meeting involving the local land
administrator, key leadership of the ruling party and also the persistent lobbying of
the concerned ministers all tell of the political capacity of these once-destitute
group of migrants, who now boast themselves as a community. Needless to say, such
politics, involving both everyday and episodic events, are carried out in order to
harness the best possible level of sustainability for their place of habitation.
44. I came across Mr. Dipu who belongs to the current ruling party; one assumes that this
association with the larger power has played an important part in giving him the needed
opportunity to leasehold a large pond for fisheries (Figure 5.19: bottom-right).
45. During early 1990s, events of severe violence in Vastuhara could be noted; supporters of
each of the two main political parties are said to have engaged against each other
regarding the political control of Vastuhara. Violence also led to the killing of residents
and eviction.
46. Amongst others, Mr. Dipu actually was invited to the 2011 meeting on the future of
Vastuhara (discussed earlier) as a community representative. Although it was a
political meeting since no local BNP leaders or BNP-supported Vastuhara residents
161
5.2.2 Threads of themes: settlement tenure, control and spatial boundaries
The following table summarizes the key threads and themes in terms of settlement
tenure, ownership and control, and spatial boundaries as they occur in the prior
Table 5.1: Threads of themes: settlement tenure, control and spatial boundaries
rentable units not approved by to manage a place in the city; strangers are
KDA. not allowed to come and start living
immediately.
- Connections with city-living ex-rural elite
to secure a place; a more Master-Servant
(traditional) relation becomes evident.
- Many fear of eviction once the - Emigration, incoming refugees and migrant
Settlement 4
Registered leasehold
were invited, Mr. Dipus presence even amongst his own party leaders ensured some level
of community participation to the least.
162
- Planning and construction of - Most emerging type driving urbanization at
Freehold
Settlement 5
rentable units not approved by the city fringe area.
KDA. - Urbanization by peasants and migrants; and
through Master-Servant interactions.
- Hard to categorize settlement as slum due to
its access to services and utilities.
- Allotment slip is yet to be - Informalization of formally planned housing
Use rights
Settlement 6
converted into a proper title area (for low income migrants) by official
deed. Chances are waning as bodies themselves.
government considers new - Political use of settlement and its spaces
(experimental) schemes. through: (re)naming, allotment,
(re)territorialization and decision-making.
- KCC and other public-sector - Relatives, Deshi-Manush and Jute Mills
Official recognition
Settlements 8, 9
first column of Table 5.1, however, is in no way absolute. As the second column
suggests, the actual tenure status has in fact remained unsettled for most of these
neither formal nor absolutely informal. One therefore questions the meaning of the
47. Apart from the privately owned properties as in settlements 2 and 5, and the official
leaseholders such as settlement 4.
163
term official and the role official plays in the upgrading and sustenance of these
settlements. As observed, there are two forms of official that are commonly at work
NHA, KDA and Khalishpur Housing Authority etc.); and two, the Local Government
institution the Khulna City Corporation (KCC). So as seen in most cases, it is the
second amongst the official organizations which is KCC, has proved more
useful so far. For understandable reasons (e.g. legitimacy and local accountability
that counts during poll times), the Mayor and the Ward Councillors have remained
the key actors playing important roles in officially recognizing these settlements and
helping migrant groups to obtain de facto security (by issuing holding numbers). On
the contrary, for there has been no need for local-level accountability and legitimacy,
the role of other bureaucratic departments has remained the opposite49. And when
embroiled with corruption and ineptness. This, for example, has been seen in the case
of settlement 10, which is mentioned under Public rental category, yet allowed to
operate and grow informally by the Railways officials. Similar was the role of
sector organizations (NHA). Figure 5.20 (above-left) shows the typical Land
Allotment Slip, which was issued by NHA in 1977. However, this is the only official
164
document that each of the allotted households possesses till date. What makes this
document interesting is that it does not mention anything about the type of ownership
the migrant recipients are entitled to. No supporting document was provided by NHA
either, which would explain the relevant terms and conditions for inhabiting the land-
that they are the owners of this land. A walk through this settlement would also
certainly support this claim because most areas within this settlement clearly assume
heavy investments in the various permanent constructions) that one would never be
cynical about its tenure status (Figure 5.20: bottom). Yet, it is only in 2011, it became
clear that NHA had actually rented the land at a rate of 10 Taka/month/plot (Figure
5.20: above-right).
Figure 5.20: (Above-left) Land Allotment Slip given to Vastuhara residents in 1977; (above-
right) portions of page 2 from proceeding from a 15 April 2011 meeting; this formal meeting
was held between NHA officials, Khulnas land administrator, local political leaders from
present ruling regime, and Vastuharas elders. The meeting was intended to update the current
land tenure situation in Vastuhara, and discuss a government proposal for replacing present
land tenure with government funded mass apartment blocks; (bottom from left to right)
Vastuhara High School, Vastuhara Central Mosque and permanent house replacing the Katcha
house.
165
One only wonders why tenure details were not clearly articulated on the Government
allotted slip or stated to the recipients while land was being allotted initially. One
also becomes sceptical about the true intension of the then government (and its
associated political machinery). Given the circumstances, three particular reasons can
be hypothesized. First, it is through the partial deliverance of this site and services
scheme, the government could actually demonstrate (its political idea) to the public
and to its donors (e.g. World Bank). Second, this unsettled tenure status kept the
migrant settlers interested in the Government (hence its local level political leaders)
a permanent title would actually have liberated the former. Third, in-between-ness
was also important for NHA and Land Administration departments alike, since they
would have realized that these peoples tenure status needed to be kept just as
would have left options open for future interpretation and manipulation of the
How does, then, one comprehend the actual nature of tenure for each of these
settlements since the definitions associated with the theoretical categories appear less
meaningful in the day to day affairs of Khulnas migrant settlements? This is exactly
combine all sorts of extra-legal tenure types under a general category, does not help
much. It does not facilitate a clear understanding of the tenure status of settlements
which have partial recognition from some government agencies while others, quite
paradoxically, does not recognize their existence. Although land rental from private
sought for building activities here. From this, one fails to understand the exact sort of
50. Land administration is one of the most corrupt public sectors in Bangladesh (CARE
2003).
166
On a similar note, Payne (1997)s classification although having a more detailed
mention of involved actors/agents, and their political role in the actual state of
tenure and its changing parameters. The rather complex and shifting nature of tenure
for each of these settlements, which, to a large extent depends on the interpretation
and intension of the involved elitist actors/agents, hence is a rarity in the aforesaid
and spatio-physical in which the ordinary migrants engage in order to sustain their
claim on the piece of land or dwelling unit remain generally absent from both of
acts of negotiation between tenants and owners during and following the settlement
process, the understanding of how settlement boundaries at its many levels are
controlled still becomes an area of interest for a further and deeper understanding of
This section highlights the spatial activities in which the permanent migrant engages
This includes those spatial activities, which can be viewed as responses to and in
spaces, which are selected from three different settlements. House-spaces are marked
and outlined in terms of front and back and contact zones (private and semi-
private areas). Photographs are used also to show the nature of display that each of
167
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Figure 5.21: Personal space and primary territory (left to right) S4H4, S1H3 and S3H4
house plans compared: (Row 1) house-front areas; (Row 2) private zones including female
areas; (Row 3) semi-private zones; (Row 4) photos showing public front of the houses.
168
Figure 5.21 shows that in all of these households, there are zones which could
traditional sense, yet the same zone also falls under the semi-private or more public
category as well. The same space that is used for an entry to the house is also often
used for cooking and dining. A clear distinction between private and public zones is
hard to delineate. Often the most private of spaces (toilet and bathing space) are
found located outside the house. In fact, for around 80% of the studied households,
this finding remains constant as private and public space often overlap into a single
space. The opposite is also evident where the neighbours are allowed to use private
functions (bathing and water collection) located within the private house (Figure
5.34: middle). On the other hand, the photographs show that a desire for maintaining
a conventional level of privacy still remains strong. None of these houses actually
provides any direct opening on the front streets (except for the Goat-house on S4H4)
compromises are made between insider and outsider, and between public and
private zones of spaces. In the particular scarce context of these settlements, these
findings show that privacy practices (hence, boundary control) remain a negotiated
boundaries and areas adjacent to the house are marked, maintained and protected by
norms or particular practices such as surveillance) and non-verbal means (e.g. signs,
marking device, moveable objects etc.) are deployed51. Particularly the public
51. Rules and norms are discussed in section 5.4; surveillance is discussed in Figure 5.22:
analyses 1 and 2. Other non-verbal means are shown in all three analyses in Figure 5.22
169
alleyways within informal settlements (called Goli locally), on which the houses are
both personal and group encroachment on the basis of neighbours approval. For
boundary demarcation, small trees or little shrubs of vegetable are used instead of
170
Mosque property, a pond Small steel-door to informally exit to
earlier now a playground;
2
the playground area also used for clothe
Bangali landlord is a tenant of drying
this property but has to use
the Bihari colony for entrance Kalloos hotel; landmark restaurant and
busy tea-stall where all letter to this
Steel- otherwise anonymous settlement are
gateway addressed to and delivered; Kalloo is one
for entry of the oldest residents of settlement 7
and exit
to house; Small grocery shop cum
adjacent shop-owners residence
photo New steel gate (photo
shows it below) funded by Ward
Councillor; road started
to be used by outsiders
(particularly bikers) for
thoroughfare; gate
installed to retain privacy
of the bathing space
Imam Bara (Shia
Ruling party leaders Muslims religious
photo on house wall shrine); yearly festivals
conveying landlords take place here; used &
political power; this maintained by Bihari
reduces eviction threat community (photo below)
from Mosque Small grocery shop cum house; shop
committee & helps remains open in night times also
stay safe in this non-
Bangali community Newly gentrified Bangali migrant-
High boundary wall house within this Bihari settlement;
enclosed courtyard; invisible activity
on the Mosque side
Water tank, washing, Day-school built and
bathing and toilet area; run by a local NGO;
space bustle with both rooms used by
activities; space is other NGOs and
managed respecting UPPRP committee
the female users time for meetings as well
171
Commonly, encroachment has a negative connotation with regard to territorial
practices. But in the context of migrant settlements, encroachment into each others
as much as the words Violation or Invasion (as in Altman 1975: 121) make sense of
migrants initial encroachment of public property, they appear less meaningful in the
Although primary territories (house premise) are not given up readily, the public
territories (neighbourhood streets and open spaces) are given up and shared quite
often particularly through long years of living together and mutual understanding of
Figure 5.23: (Right) Christian groups claimed area within settlement 1 marked within this
area are the locations of two ponds (disputed and hence ill-maintained) whos ownership is
claimed by both KCC and Christian Missionary; (left) Christian migrants building stilts on
the grey-water pond.
Indeed, undesignated and ambiguous territories are to be found among the migrant
territories by the users, resulting often from the lack of a clear definition of
boundaries. Areas as such could be viewed as grey zones (both physically and
metaphorically), where the tenants, being tentative about who is actually in control,
do not engage in the usual spatio-physical practices to assume territorial control. This
172
is further exacerbated by the presence of other contesting actors. As seen in
settlement 1 (Figure 5.23), the central ponds are located on the decade-old disputed
portion of land which both Christian Missionary and KCC claims to be theirs52. Since
KCC does not have the necessary resources to regularly monitor this property, while
CSS keeps sending Christian population groups to settle down on the ponds
peripheral locations, the remaining of the pond area have gradually turned into a
encroachment is also common around the pond-sides, where the users commonly
high (commonly 7 to 8) boundary walls (Figure 5.24: right). All such walls are
(private) and institutional (public) owners. For a non-permeable nature of these walls,
neither visual nor physical access is possible; walls here play the role of a separator.
On the other hand, the remaining of the settlements has rather permeable boundary
conditions through which they could grow horizontally. In the case of Vastuhara, for
example, a small village is already forming on its west and south-west corner (Figure
5.24: left), which were, not many years ago, a paddy field owned by distant villagers.
New roads are being constructed and connected with Vastuharas grid iron streets,
attracting potential new buyers every day. A similar finding characterizes settlement
4 where the present dwellers are already considering a purchase of adjacent land right
173
outside its western boundary (Figure 5.24: middle). The purchase is a likely prospect
due to the under-developed nature of this land and also for its low price for being
Figure 5.24: (Left) village forming around Vastuharas south and west periphery; (middle)
CDC leader showing vacant land on Runner Math periphery house building has started
taking place already; (right) high boundary wall with barbed wire on the western boundary of
settlement 2; walls are built by CARITAS, LGED, BIWTA and Bangladesh Bank Housing.
Figure 5.25 summarizes the boundary condition for each of these settlements. As the
illustrations show, although a few are bounded with or being separated by high
interesting public interface in the way the many non-dwelling functions are being
distributed along their main approach roads. Among 9 out of the 10 settlements
(except for settlement 5 due to its scattered and sprawling nature), even if the
dwelling environment is generally hidden from the public eye, the roadside secondary
facilities, wet markets, firewood stalls etc.) commonly draw in people from both
neighbouring and distant parts of Khulna city. Complementary to Dovey and King
(2011: 20)s Inner urban block category where the formal facades keep the informal
ones invisible and protected from thoroughfares, here in Khulna the spatio-physical
174
is
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9 10
175
5
5
5
5
5
5 5
4
5
1 3
5
5
5 5 5
5 5
5
5
5
6 7 8 9
Road Places of religious significance
5
Settlement boundary (tentative) Educational and health facilities
Figure 5.26: (Above) non-dwelling and non-commercial functions within settlements; (below)
locations of religious buildings (from left to right): Baptist Church on the grey water pond in
settlement 1; Harijan-para Kali Mandir in settlement 3 (upper view is from 2011, and lower
is from 2012); second Masjid (mosque) in settlement 6.
There are also religious, educational and health facilities that can frequently be found
within these settlements (Figure 5.26). All of the religious institutions in and around
these settlements are run by the donations and various contributions made by
176
respective migrant communities. On the other hand, the educational and health
facilities are commonly funded and managed by NGOs54. In addition to their spiritual
also serve another important purpose. Presence of these rather positive functions
Bastees) helps earn a good name for these communities. As outsiders send their
children to study in the schools within these settlements (settlement 6), or as people
come for their daily prayers in the Mosques of these settlements (settlement 1), more
opportunities are created for the migrant communities to mix with outsiders having
faiths might even come and join in; Figure 5.26 (middle-circled) shows a Muslim
woman waiting before the Harijanpara Hindu temple at settlement 3 for a spiritual
particular buildings and spaces are used in a way to facilitate their social
With reference to the theoretical discussions in Chapter 2, this section discusses the
raison dtre of the territorial practices and activities that have been highlighted so
far. Three particular forces can be identified; these are: context-based aspirations,
incremental growth and income generation. Where appropriate, discussions are also
54. Only in the case of settlement 6 (Vastuhara), a secondary school is run by the community.
177
5.3.2.1 Contextual aspirations
According to Ghafur (2004: 268), home is the centre of a holistic existence of any
providing a place for living, home is where people are grounded socially to the
extent that it gives them social identity (e.g. a boy is called the son, or a woman is
called the wife of a certain home). However, the concept of home in the traditional
sense becomes meaningful only when home is viewed as a part of the Samaj55. To
part of the Samaj (Opcit.). In his discussions however, Ghafur does not elaborate on
the aspirations that underlie the ownership of home he mentions of. Therefore,
home-ownership makes sense only when discussed in relation with the contextually
significant concepts namely: Zamin, Vita, Ghar, Bari, Basha, Bariwala and Desh. As
all of these terms have been frequently mentioned by the migrants, there is a need to
refers to that middle-class urbanite whose social status has been upgraded by a
in the city. In view of the vast majority of tenants compared to (land/house) owners in
addition, there are significant social benefits from this pertaining to someones social
55. Although literally means society, in the Bangladeshi context Samaj implies more to a
community an immediate social milieu constituted primarily by neighbors, relatives,
friends and deshi manush within a larger socio-spatial setting.
56. More than 20% of the city dwellers are landless slum-dwellers in Khulna (almost all of
them are considered ex-migrants) (KCC-LGED-UNDP 2009); amongst these slum
dwellers, 27% own a house while 66% are tenants (Ahmed 2005: 10).
178
status within the Samaj57. For example, for the migrant landlord whose house is
rented to the NGO for a school (as in Figure 5.35: right), the house now becomes a
symbol of her socio-spatial elevation. It now expresses the migrants upgraded social
status to that of a Bari-wala within her Samaj, and continues to act as a physical
The term Bari, in Bangla, means both a homestead and place of origin (village)
(house) and the Vita58. Having none of these, the city house, however, is naturally
called a Basha (meaning birds nest), referring to the opposite the transience and
temporary-ness associated with city life. No rented house in the city is called Bari.
The urban house becomes anonymous and un-contextual due its lack of connection
with Desh. Roy (2004: 149) refers to desh as a word meaning both country and
countryside, signifying a sense of belonging through a bond with the land. So, it
in the condition of a migrant would like to become a Bari-wala (and possess a piece
of Zamin and Ghar) in the city any way possible. It is only this particular status that
migrants. A new identity thus would eventually be created within a new Samaj.
members of Samaj59 (Figure 5.27). Figure 5.28 also shows the occurrence of village-
57. For example, being a Bari-wala also plays an important part during marriage talks
between families. Men or women, whose parents own an urban house are ranked socially
higher, and deemed more eligible over those who do not own any (e.g. renter).
58. The literal meaning of Vita is plinth; but allegorically it refer to the root where one
originates from, to the grounded-ness of the particular household with this particular piece
of land in the agrarian society, to the memories of the ancestors associated with this piece
of land, and to the sense of identity that occurs from these phenomenon in combination.
59. Discussions on Settlements 2 and 5 in Section 5.1 underscore similar issues with other
socio- political gains from being a Bari-wala.
179
like microcosms with dispersed arrangements60 even within the land-scarce
settlement elites61.
Figure 5.27: Houses where both landlord and tenants live alongside (from left to right): S5H1,
S1H1, S6H4 and S8H2.
Figure 5.28: Village-like spatio-physical organization of households; larger forms are living
areas while the smallest ones are the locations of toilets and baths. Kitchen locations are
shown by the mid-sized forms; (from left to right) S6H1, S3H4 and S4H3.
60. Please refer to Muktadir and Hasan (1985) and Ahmed (2006) for similar discussions.
61. Dispersed arrangement of houses (Figure 5.28) also helps claim larger portions of vacant
land. Concentrating house forms on a single location would have allowed others to make
180
5.3.2.2 Facilitate incremental growth
Incremental growth has remained the most frequently occurring way of formal-spatial
migrant houses, trade-offs are made between comfort and savings as Peattie (1994:
138) demonstrates. It is not that living in shacks or lesser houses is pleasant. Rather,
pleasure tend to occur from being able to make a living (or even become a Bari-wala)
without much investment and from that, saving valuable dimes for dealing with
There are however, a number of forces that usually instigate incremental spatio-
possessions, escalating household needs (e.g. growing family size) and offsetting
transformation may take place, (a) using existing infrastructure as datum, and (b)
using house form as core and adding subsequent parts to it in response to changing
as in, (c) a particular part may morph into different shapes and usages, and (d)
adjacent plots may be stitched together into a third generic shape (Figure 5.29:
overleaf).
a claim; this also reveals of a long and persistent power difference between migrant
populations even during their initial encroachment of land decades ago
181
TDP (Town
Defence Party)
office
Boundary wall
separating
Peoples Jute
Railways
Mills and
Water
housing area
Tank
a
b Katcha
house on
platform;
low
Front road
developed;
house built
with brick;
Construction of an
additional storey
using NGO loans;
needed for extra
Road widened;
shops converted
to rentable
rooms as KCC
marshy shop added income and status shops are
land by on roadside upgradation before erected in front
riverside house front daughters
marriage
KCC
Shop
Figure 5.29: (a left to right) an overhead Water Tank, a boundary wall and community
defense office used as reference, against and around which all incremental constructions took
place in Settlements 3, 10 and 8 respectively; (b) phases of physical transformation of S1H1;
(c left to right) verandah transformation in S8H2, S10H1, S2H1 and S7H4; (d left to right)
adjacent plots purchased and built on in S1H3, S6H3 and S6H4.
182
Examples in Figure 5.29 demonstrate how the various manipulations of house form
(and its spatial components) have continued to help the migrant dwellers to cope with
categories b and c highlight how some culturally constant spatial elements had to
however has eventually facilitated incremental growth. In S1H1 for example, the
archetypical rural vernacular form i.e. the hut with a verandah has been
completely transformed into a rather hybrid form within a span of four decades.
Likewise, in the four cases under c (S8H2, S10H1, S2H1 and S7H4), particularly
the verandah had to give way to a house-front firewood shop, a master bed room,
the elder sons bed room and a public water collection/bathing area respectively. As a
now appears on the upper floor in S1H1 (b - circled); likewise in S8H2 (c), again a
middle-class inspired drawing room appears on the north-west corner of the house
were once carried out in the verandah (cooking and living), now take place in the
courtyard and in the master sleeping area respectively (circled). These are all acts of
spatial negotiation and tradeoffs that migrants had to make for coping with essential
livelihood issues. Here, form and space have been used as the key instruments for
attaining it.
Income-generation and employment can be viewed as the two main reasons why
home-based enterprises (HBE) are frequently found in Khulnas low income migrant
ranges between 20% to almost the entire households income. Household members,
particularly the women (who are also illiterate and conservative), gets an opportunity
to stay at home, fulfil their domestic responsibilities and still earn some very
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important sums of money. In most cases, it is the female members of the family who
would run a little business and continue funding her incremental house building
efforts using, now a days, one or a multiple of NGO loans. Although there has been
mixed reports about the usage of NGO loans62, yet the ones who could productively
use this loan, for example to finance an ongoing business, tended to possess a better
house made of brick and CI sheet. This however supplements an earlier assumption
that in-house income generation activities lead to better housing environments, e.g.
living and other functional spaces, commonly it is around one-fifth to a half of the
house space that is used for some sort of income generation depending on the nature
generating space is normally associated with houses that have rentable rooms (Figure
5.37). Generally, these findings remain consistent for all ten settlements surveyed. In
addition to the economic return from renting of whatever small space available in the
renting. Often, both renting and non-renting activities (e.g. shop) are both found
generation activity in settlements chiefly depends on the location of and the demands
62. In numerous cases, NGOs have either pushed or tricked women to borrow for starting a
business, where the women were clearly unwilling to borrow (for some does not like
borrowing while many did not have any running business). Although aware of the fact
that such a loan would not be used for businesses, NGO operators still lend these women
since the formers job description makes him/her to disburse as many loans as possible.
63. This substantiates the hypotheses mentioned in Tipple (1993: 530) and Mahmud (2003:
322). But again, this is too uncritical a claim; many inhabitants amongst the surveyed
settlements cling to home-based works because they simply cannot afford to find a work
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that are created by these businesses or economic production functions. This has
already been seen, for example, in the discussions on settlement 1 and its surrounding
5 5
5 5
5
Figure 5.30: Households with various income generating activities, starting clockwise from
top left corner are: S3H1, S1H2, S1H4, S8H2, S7H1 and S6H3.
Income from renting may assume two forms; one, in which the landlord could be
living in the same dwelling unit or in a separate unit immediately alongside the
tenants unit (Figure 5.2: left and Figure 5.30: S8H2); and two, the landlord may be a
prior resident of the settlement but now an absentee who lives outside the settlement
could also be of two types generally. One, tenants are low-income individuals, who
elsewhere, and he/she does not possess any resources apart from the house that he/she can
use for income generation.
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are either permanent migrants or circular/seasonal migrants. Their preference for
particular types of rentable space depends on their migrancy status. It has been
found that most of the permanent ones are older, and live with their families (wife,
children and some with grandchildren) in the city since they do not have any asset
(land, house or livelihood) left in their rural place of origin. On the other hand, the
seasonal or circular migrants are younger individuals in their 20s and 30s (both
male and female). They do not have their families living with them because they are
generally single, and they have their families and some sort of asset back home. They
only move between their village home and the city to compensate for the lack of
income during dull cropping seasons (e.g. when there is no job available in the rainy
season) or following a hazard (e.g. mega-cyclones, which occurs in every 2-3 years in
Khulna and severely affect its rural coastal hinterlands). These migrant groups often
look for small rentable rooms, as seen in the case of S1H1 tenants (Figure 5.37).
However, in both cases, it is mostly through the kinship network i.e. family members
and deshi manush that rentable houses and rooms are searched for. To-let signs are
settlements. In case of the permanent migrants with families, they have tended to
settle down after 2 to 3 initial movements commonly during the first decade of their
stay in Khulna. They choose locations and units which suit them most, first socially
(e.g. deshi manush lives alongside) and then economically. On the other hand, for the
mobile types of migrants, and particularly for the newer ones, there are not many
spaces available in the older settlements. They tend to live, as a sublet (paying or non-
paying) with their city living relatives or friends or in the newer, and low quality
settlements in the peripheral locations. For the older ones of this category however,
who have established for themselves a pattern of visiting Khulna during certain times
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reserved by the house-owner in many cases the same deshi manush, whose house
In case of the institutional renters, it is usually the NGOs now a day, who would rent
a room for a particular duration in a day, or a full-time room, or a whole house for
right). Generally, rent money is paid on a monthly basis, while the migrant
community members and their children remain the exclusive users of these facilities.
Similar facilities which are run by governments, however, are not to be found within
these settlements because by doing that government most likely fears it would
Community
centre cum
elementary
school
Primary
School
room
Figure 5.31: Locations of primary school in settlement 1 (left); and community centre in
settlement 3 where income generating activities take place (right with photo of embroidery
work being done inside). Noteworthy is the relative locations of respective community
leaders house in each case (house plans). Although both funded by NGOs and Donor
projects, it is only by these leaders approval one could use these otherwise public spaces for
personal income generation.
On the other hand, NGOs, who are government-approved formal sector organizations,
are not known for running similar facilities in the middle- or higher-class
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neighbourhoods in Khulna either. They act this way partly due to their foreign
and partly because government officials (and their bureaucratic procedures) would
various production activities64, two types could be named in the way space is utilized
in each. One, production takes place using a third space, where the space is neither
part of the household nor owned by the migrant landlord. Such space may be part of a
community school (Figure 5.31). No rent is paid for using this space as well because
these buildings are not owned by any individual. Rather, access to this space and its
continued use is maintained by the controlling power some particular persons hold
over the community65. In the second form of income generation activities, generally
the migrant owner is engaged since it happens within the realm of his/her own house.
Often a room can be partially or flexibly used for these purposes (settlement 2).
Although rare, a whole upper floor may be constructed for production activities
(settlement 7). In particular occasions, the whole plot may be used for this purpose
(as in settlement 6) while the migrant owner living elsewhere. In addition, shops
In addition to the financial gain the migrant landlord enjoys from renting, there is also
a social gain that both landlord and renter enjoy. For example, in the case of the
64. This typically includes stitching and embroidery, raising poultry and livestock, tailoring,
food-items preparation, fish scaling, wood workshops, storages, and above all operating
shops, restaurants and stalls.
65. This person (e.g. the community leader/elite) has been further discussed in Section 5.4.
188
individual renters and their relation with the migrant landlord, both economic and
social gains are yielded. Although generalization is not possible, yet income from
renting remains a major source of earning for many of these migrant households.
plot size and hence how much space is available for renting. However, in large
illegal settlements (e.g. settlements 1 or 3) where plot size is smaller, income from
renting counts much below 30% of average households income. Interestingly, these
settlements are also home to the more well-off compared with all the other studied
settlements because of their proximity to job locations (for settlement 1, shrimp and
settlement 3, proximity to Ghat) and hence having multiple earning members in most
of the households.
In contrast, in the smaller and more legal settlements with a larger plot size
renting may count from 50% to 90% of households overall income. Yet, it is not the
monetary return alone that remains the only gain from renting; there are associated
social gains for both landlord and tenant as well. This can be seen, for example, in
settlement 4, which consists of 10-15 rentable units within a total of 200+ households.
Within this settlement, it is generally maintained by the community elders that houses
could be rented to the deshi manush only. Initially, it seems very harsh and to some
extent, irrational. But a closer inspection reveals that this settlements very sustenance
suggested in the settlement history, all migrants living in settlement 4 originate from
the greater district of Barishal. This homogeneity, further aided by their closed rent
policy however has allowed this community to remain united particularly during
numerous eviction threats. The community leaders, who are also residents of this
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mechanism in some way seemed more beneficial compared to the financial outcome
from renting.
In the case of settlement 5, social benefit from renting occurs in a different way.
Although the tenants here are not necessarily from the same rural origin of the
landlord, their intermingling culminates into a third space (Figure 5.37: left). A few
shared zones emerge, such as cooking, bathing, washing, toilets and childrens play
area within the single-storey house compound, where particularly the female
dissent and loud quarrels amongst tenants are indeed frequent; this is also expected
service points66. Yet, on the following day, same interactions and exchanges start
can be sensed here due to the homogeneous socio-economic status of the tenants. In
terms of social benefit, this owner status also puts the poor landlord often in the
culminates in a more family-like bond between the two parties. This reveals of the
tenants similar social status with that of the landlords as well. In addition, this
landlord now assumes the guardianship of this few families social worlds. Therefore,
it is not uncommon that during national or local polls, campaigns aim to convince
more the landlords and less the tenants. This has also been highlighted under
66. For example, in S5H1, there are 4 families that occupy the household premise using a
single toilet, a single bathing area, and a single water collection point on a daily basis;
while in S5H2, 11 families share the similar number of facilities
67. Such as sharing of spaces, inter-borrowing and lending of money and other stuff (e.g.
cooking oil, rice etc.) and solely trust-based transactions (no written documents
maintained for any kind of financial transaction e.g. for paying rent or borrowing).
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In many cases, home-based enterprises in low income settlements have been
described as sites for exploitation (as in Tipple 1993: 531) since mainstream
remain unable to bargain for any additional benefit because of their informal status.
Similar can be said of settlements 1 and 2, which are located adjacent to the main
home to the essential worker population for these industries and trading posts, a
variety of supporting works to these facilities, such as fish scaling, box making,
parking for rickshaw-vans etc. are also commonly carried out using the home-spaces
of these settlements. On a different note however, these settlements then can also be
viewed as support settlements for the industries and trading activities. These
migrants and the sustainability of these settlements depend, to a large extent, on the
economic-political support that these industry owners offer them quite often. Political
supports by this elite class, particularly to neutralize eviction threats, or for financial
support during social events (marriage, death and medical treatment) therefore
establish these two parties as close allies. So in the global marketplace, when Khulna
Shrimp sells at a competitive price, the economic benefit must be viewed in light of
the roles these social relations play. Over the years, such relationships have also been
established between the migrant producers and other customers68 of their products
that also have helped the former to soften their illegal tenure status. Such
relationships thus also have earned migrants the essential external recognition of
these apparently illegal settlements. This, the migrants feel, would lead to the
gradual replacement of the negative image usually associated with these settlements
(e.g. places of crime and social ills) by more positive attribute like places of
production.
68. These customers can be the subcontractors and suppliers for offices or industries, NGOs,
and people from neighbouring middle-class communities
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5.3.3 Dynamics of territorial boundary
a b School cum
storage
c d
Work
School
Previous
Landlords
Verandah area
Shop
Bath
Tea Tea
stall stall
seat
Shop
a b c
Playground
Figure 5.32: Negotiated territorial boundary: (above a, b) time-based use of interior space in
Settlements 4 and 1; (above c, d) multiple use of interior spatial organization due to changed
demographic circumstances at S2H1 and S1H1; (middle left to right) house-neighbourhood
tissue showing time-based use of public territories at settlements 10, 3 and 4 respectively;
(bottom left to right) photographs of the same public territories at settlements 10, 3 and 4.
Figure 5.32 demonstrates the dynamic nature of the territorial boundary manifested in
the everyday spatial negotiations at both household and public levels of the studied
settlements. In the instances of Figure 5.32 (above: a), a portion of the interior space
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of the community building is used particularly in the afternoon hours for embroidery
works carried out by female members of neighboring houses. The same space
however is used for an elementary school in the morning. In the example of S1H2
(above: b), a NGO-run elementary school runs in the morning while the same space is
used in the afternoons for fish basket storage. In (above: c and d), the original spatial
needs. For S2H1 (above: c), verandah has been turned into elder sons bedroom after
he got married, while cooking (circled), dining and living now take place within the
master sleeping area. In S1H1 (above: d), her personal bedroom (north-west corner)
is sacrificed by the widow landlord for accommodating the newly married daughter
and son-in-law; her new space is now used also as a living area, a space for running a
Saree business (upper circled) and for dressing (lower circle). Similar fluidity of
territorial practice may also be noticed in the public level examples (above: middle
and bottom). The playground in settlement 10 (middle and bottom: a) is also a sacred
place which is not to be encroached. Every year a number of religious gatherings take
place here. In settlement 3 (middle and bottom: b), household premise of S3H4 is
their houses. So this apparently private property and its boundaries also have a public
dimension to them. The concept of boundary thus appears fluid and slippery once
again. Similar can be seen in the example of settlement 4 (middle and bottom: c),
where spaces around roadside shops and tea stalls are appropriated and used by the
community members during most parts in a day. Removable furniture is used to claim
These findings however substantiates Altman (1975: 160)s theory that territoriality
is a complex process that changes with time and circumstance. While certain well-
defined territories may exist, their boundaries may be flexible and may shift and
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demonstrate the scare circumstances (such as the lack of space or a lack of
accessibility), there are other social benefits that occur from these practices as well.
prioritizes the view that a joined family must be retained at any cost. In addition to
this cultural preference for joined family, parting of the elder son would obviously
have caused financial hardships for both parents and the son. In the example of the
widow landlady, her daughter is the only child she has. So having no other earning
member and owing to another cultural preference69, it is for her son-in-law and
daughters stay this woman was prepared to make any sort of sacrifice/compromise.
In the example of the playground in settlement 10, the need to retain the playground
in its original state (un-encroached) is both religious and political. Although such
religious gatherings a few times a year help spiritual fulfilment, organization of such
gatherings (where people from both neighbouring and distant communities are free to
take part) once again helps reduce the settlements bad name as discussed with
community as well.
In the case of sacrificed territorial claim for public use as in settlement 3, the notion
if the plot boundary is clearly outlined and the landlord is free to construct any
building within the boundary70, some vacant space around the middle of the plot is
landlords own. For neighbours being well known to this particular landlord, this
69. In Bangladeshi society, a widowed mother would typically reside with any of her elder
sons after her husband passes away. A woman is not preferred to live on her own in the
conservative Muslim family system.
70. Please take note of how structures are constructed on each of the edges of this plot.
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In terms of settlement environment, home-based enterprises and particularly those
which encroach and make use of public spaces and streets (as in the example of
settlement 4) also offer a twofold contribution. First, the shops and stalls become
social behaviours are displayed and constantly being shaped (and mostly positively
and Public Streets become sources of constant social surveillance. Both outgoing
(e.g. playing children without parents) and incoming activities (e.g. strangers to the
settlements) thus become subject to surveillance and scrutiny of the users of these
spaces. Since most of these shops and stalls operate all day long (and some even deep
into the night), someone is expected to be present always and play that vital role of a
social eye.
5.4 Decision-making
This section discusses the actors, rules, territorial hierarchies and territorial depth
5.4.1 Actors
Actors, or Agents as Habraken (1998: 7) puts them, are the individuals, groups or
institutions that inhabit the built environment, and have the ability to transform it by
making sure things stay as they choose within the territory they claim. The goal,
Habraken says hence is not to observe how agents interact, but to understand the
structure and behaviour of the form that is the cause and goal of their interaction
migrants territorial practices so far, Table 5.2 (overleaf) summarizes the identity of
actors who have remained influential and most essential during settling down and in
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Table 5.2: Settlements and influential actors involved.
As shown, a number of actors have been identified in Table 5.2. If compared with
Raharjo (2010: 23)s mentioned categories, two variations can be particularly noted
of Khulnas migrant settlements. First, actors do not have a fixed or discrete role
196
pertaining to the physical development of settlements; often it is difficult to delineate
an exact role for each. For example, in many cases in Khulna, Raharjos mentioned
provider and operator appear to be the same person (e.g. the landlord). Likewise, the
supplier may often be a Deshi Manush, who would play the role of the middle man
for free not for a fee; the associated social gain that have been discussed earlier
often remains the only remuneration. The regulator, or concerned government offices
such as KDA, as seen earlier, may often play the exact opposite role; some offices
(NHA, Land Revenue Office) may even extend its support for a fee (illegal) that it is
politicians and tenants, the formers role become similar to that of the suppliers. The
role of the facilitators (UNDP, UPPRP, NGOs), on the other hand, is often that of the
migrant settlements, often also involve in negotiation between the illegal tenants and
Second, a presence of a new category of actors can also be noted in the context of
new eight category can be suggested. This can be given a more fitting name
negotiators, considering the roles of all the influential actors who for social,
economic and political reasons have continued to support, solicit and negotiate issues
for the migrants in numerous occasions. This category however should include all the
actors both formal and informal, who have proved most essential for migrant
settlements sustenance so far. In that KCC, UPPRP (personnel), political figures and
5.4.2 Rules
Rules determine how (physical) parts are admitted or excluded from territorial space
197
territorialization, socially accepted norms and in the legal (formal) deeds. These are
all used to ensure actors desired level of control over the spatio-physical boundaries
(Ibid: 128). Local enforcements, whether formal or informal, help establish (the
acceptable) territorial depth within the broader urban fabric (Ibid: 145). In the
particular context of the informal migrant settlements, which commonly suffer from
an acute lack of physical space and legality, rules are manifested in alternative
building activities.
Figure 5.33: (Left) S8H2 plan; (middle) S8H2 photo shows how it maintains distance (set
back) from adjacent sewer drain and street; (right) Bakkar Bastee front again showing its
maintained set back from the Public street.
Without secured tenure, formal deeds either for ownership transfer (e.g. through
possession rights selling) or for other types of transaction (e.g. rent payment or
Across all the studied settlements (including the Bihari settlement 7), a common
practice prevails. This practice, which is based on primarily on trust gives high
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between parties involved. For example, in the case of possession right transfer
between an owner and a buyer, the community elders and the neighbours who share
this property boundary are asked by the present owner to witness the transaction and
show the plot boundaries to this newcomer. Although the seller, the buyer and the
witnesses jointly sign a paper to keep record of the transaction, the document remains
worthless because of the illegal tenure status of this plot/dwelling unit. Rather, what
remains most important is the mutual trust between the parties involved emerging
primarily from the fact that these parties all share the same kinship network. In most
cases, this newcomer would be a known person to the seller may be a relative, or a
friend or his/her deshi manush. Either way, a potential buyer needs to be known to
the seller before the actual selling of the possession rights. In many instances, the
seller would in fact mention (and positively certify) about this buyer to his/her
Encroachments of public land and housing areas have been the prevalent way of
certain form of respect for government boundaries where the encroaching migrant
adjacent public domains (Figure 5.33). It is done precisely to convey that although
their existence is solely dependent on the invasion of public property, such illegal
means are sought after only to the extent it is required for provisioning a mere shelter
for themselves, and are in no way at the cost of greater public life. When such
(bamboo, wood etc.) are commonly used (Figure 5.34: left and right) demonstrating
once again that it is done solely to compensate for the lack of house space, and not
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At the household-neighbourhood level, when there is a need to erect a new house or
carry out major modifications to the existing house, the neighbours would always be
would be called upon to give their verdict on the actual threshold of construction (plot
outline and limits to vertical extension) which the owner might take advantage of (as
Water collection
and bathing
point for Ranga
Miah Goli
Drain cover
Figure 5.34: Rules and norms of construction: (Left) addition of a non-permanent portion
with the otherwise brick-built house S1H1; ground level cover on public sewerage drain to
make way for ground-level tenants entry; this space behind the street-front shops is also used
for cooking and bathing; (middle) 2004 construction of new brick-built house and verandah
extension over street (marked); this projection over the road was approved by the elders for
allowing the female owner (also one of the oldest residents on this lane) a clear view of the
settlement entry from the main road; (right) S1H1 photo with non-permanent add-ons.
For public use (and also for own social and financial gain), migrant dwellers might
their own house form (Figure 5.35). However, in many cases (as in S7H4), this
process of giving away such precious little space for public purpose remains complex.
Local enforcements such as constant lobbying, convincing and even exertion of social
are also certain spatial practices in the migrant settlements, which have become
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accepted social norms. First are the events of compromised privacy for dealing with
enterprises in section 5.3. However, as in the cases of Figure 5.34 (middle and right)
for example, similar compromises also bring about further social gains equally for the
amongst the settlement. Relation between the different parties (such as between the
landlord and the concerned NGOs who generally fund such projects) is also
are frequently found, which ensure both privacy and safety of neighbourhood spaces.
For example, the cantilevered verandah in Figure 5.34 equally keeps an eye on the
entry to the lane, on the lane space itself and also on the bathing space (which is also
very close to the main road and where a number of female also take their bath). Even
if the female landlord is not present there, the presence of the verandah itself
and water collection spaces of this sort are however plenty amongst all of the
Figure 5.35: (Left) community water collection point and bath added on to S4H4 building
wall; (middle) community water collection point and bath replaces front verandah of house
S7H4; (right) elementary school erected within the household premise of S1H2.
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In addition to the architectural elements as the verandah which helps ensure privacy
of the spaces where mostly the female members congregate during particular times in
a day, most male members are also aware of those and generally avoid these times for
their own use. Similar mutual respect is also evident in the frequent events of
thoroughfare, as people living in backward properties (whose house does not have
theirs (Figure 5.36: right). It is a more negotiated spatial activity and also a customary
spatial behaviour that can be traced back to the rural practices where immediate
neighbours and kin are often allowed to do the similar. The neighbours crossing-over
is respected.
Actors who inhibit a particular territory maintain the right to control the movements
in and out of that territory, even that of the actual landlord as in a landlord-tenant
situation (Habraken 1998: 136). Agents controlling higher levels dominate agents
controlling lower levels. When higher-level agents control what goes into included
territories, included agents must, as a rule, accept the imposed limitations on what
filters through the higher level (Ibid: 139). Although many instances in support of
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this premise are on hand, alternative practices are worth mentioning as well in the
context of Khulnas migrant settlements. In the examples of Figure 5.37, there are
certain negotiated territories (area 3), which are hard to designate as a clearly
controlled zone either by the landlord or by the tenants. Although the service areas
(yard, kitchen, toilets, washing, bathing etc.) are generally under the landlords
control, the landlord in many cases shares these facilities with his/her tenants for both
2 1
2
1
3
3 3
2 2
Figure 5.37: Showing (from left to right) house plans for S5H1, S6H4 and S1H1; landlords
territory, tenants territory and negotiated territory (shared service areas) are marked with
numbers 1, 2 and 3 respectively; for S1H1, there is an upper floor where the landlord lives.
The extent of sharing varies depending on the size of land-plots and settlements. In
the cases of S5H1 and S6H4, these shared territories are more elaborated and
comprise of a higher number of functions. Due to the horizontal distribution of all the
territories, interactions between the landlord and his/her tenants are more frequent. In
S1H1, due to the compact nature of the land-plot (and settlement) and for the vertical
separation of territories (between landlord and tenant), only the toilet is shared
between the landlord and her two female tenants (the male tenant is not allowed to
use the ground-level toilet). The frequency of interaction therefore is also lower
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At the level of settlements, territorial hierarchy depends on the nature of
history section, this person in most cases is the undeclared community leader an
with better income sources (e.g. multiple earning members in the family), a tested
leader who previously have fought for communitys well being (settlement 4), or
someone who has a good political connection outside the settlement (settlement 4).
For these communities being closed and settlements being smaller, interpersonal
approval, anyone (in or outside the family) can continue to use any space for
economic production (as in Figure 5.31). Any NGO intervention at the community
level would also require this persons prior approval. However, in the larger
been observed. Although community elders are present and remain an important part
remains rather negotiated and consensual. This is elaborated in the following section.
In the smaller of the studied settlements, the community elites (leaders) clearly enjoy
the possession of a much larger property compared with other migrant residents
(Figure 5.38: above). In most cases, such larger parcels of land have been in
71. Vaidya is a traditional river-faring snake charmer nomad group, known for their magic-
healing capabilities particularly in the rural areas of Bangladesh. However, with time, this
particular group has become sedentary and has been living on the western periphery of
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possession of these leaders ever since they have started inhabiting these settlements.
Figure 5.38: (Above) floor areas of four houses compared in settlement 4; one with bold blue
outline belongs to one of the community elites (Sardar Brothers), while the ordinary ones
being outlined in red; (middle-left) portions of Vaidya Para in settlement 3 - Sardars house
compared with the neighbors; (middle-right) Mr. Bakkars house area compared with the
adjacent ones.
This spatial supremacy further validates these leaders socio-political superiority over
the rest, and hence on the communitys decision-making structure as a whole (Figure
5.39: right). This makes the decision-making structure authoritative, linear, and
clearly hierarchical. The community leader here assumes all the responsibility of
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making decisions (particularly regarding most physical transformations) at all three
levels of the settlement, which he deems best for the community and also for
retaining his socio-economic position. On the other hand, in the larger settlements,
the decision-making structure is more bottom up, complex and less stratified (Figure
5.39: left). The working of numerous NGOs and the operation of UNDP-led UPPRP
now a day led to the formation of many grassroots cooperative. They have also been
promoting bottom up processes, where one of their key objectives remains the
promotion of female leadership. The idea here has been to empower women in the
context of a rather traditional culture where neither female leadership nor female-
Figure 5.39:
(Left) complex
decision-making
structure of larger
migrant
settlements;
(right) linear and
simple (and more
traditional)
decision-making
structure of the
smaller
settlements.
206
Indeed, this bottom-up process involves some sort of local leadership from within
also capable of mobilizing the mass of the population for example, if a need arises for
resisting eviction threats. Yet, none of these two decision-making structures involves
a clear bottom up process. For example, the present female leadership structure in t
these settlements is often challenged by their male counterparts (in many cases the
male members of their family). In addition, this idea of a female leadership is after all
organizations often divorced from the everyday socio-spatial realities of the low
income migrant settlements. Thus the true nature and extent of bottom up both
of two clear decision-making processes (i.e. top-down and bottom-up) underlying the
of this permutation between two processes. Here different actors get involved in
taking decisions at different levels and about different components of the built
environment, and yet retain connections between them. This has been depicted in
Figure 5.39. In both cases however, problems and solutions are found to be
such initiatives. This nevertheless substantiates Habraken (Ibid: 227)s assertion that
even if individual actors might exercise individual preferences, their acts typically
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5.5 Summary: threads of themes
number of interesting threads. These are briefly summarized in Table 5.3 below.
These themes and threads, together with the structural findings in Chapter 4 are
Table 5.3: Threads of themes from data analysis on migrants spatial practices
Areas Theme/threads
Problems with - Boundaries between contradictory co-existences such as legal-illegal
categorization
or formal-informal remain problematic. It is quite tricky and risky to
clearly distinguish between such binaries and hence categorize them
in absolute terms of legal or illegal.
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Spatial - At the household level, spatial boundaries remain flexible and
occupation and
slippery; primary territories are maintained but can also be given up or
personalization
compromised depending on social or economic circumstances.
- At the public level, meaning of space and spatial boundaries shifts and
changes constantly. This largely depends on the social negotiations
that are made between the migrant dwellers. At this level, a number of
non-dwelling functions are used by migrants toward fulfilling a
number of political objectives. Both religious and non-religious
buildings remain important physical components that help improve
settlement image by establishing and maintaining social relations with
people external to these settlements.
Need for - A number of cultural factors affect the way in which migrants go
territorialization
about their everyday territorial practices. This particular sort of
practice also facilitates incremental growth and creates provision for
various income generation activities. Both incremental growth and
income generation however require a significant compromise with the
culturally desired spatial environment. Despite incremental growth
and home-based enterprises significant contribution to the crowding
of settlements, there are associated social gains that also result from
this particular form of territorial practice.
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Decision- - A number of influential elitist actors are identified who prove to be
making
important for the sustenance of migrant settlements. Such actors are
both formal and informal, and are both insiders and externals.
- There remain less formal (written) rules but more norms and
customary practices that act as rules as far as the spatial environment
of these settlements are concerned. For property (possession) transfer,
building, construction and modification (and even for renting in some
of the settlements) communities abide by these unwritten rules that
impart order to these settlements socio-physical structure.
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Chapter 6: Scarcity, control and negotiations
6.1 Introduction
habitats in the third world city as socio-physical outcomes of the workings of the
aforesaid binaries, this chapter outlines a framework that aims to comprehend the key
makes use of the threads of themes from Chapters 4 and 5. It holds that the proposed
to this framework. An assessment of Home (as a social construct) in relation with the
socio-political, economic and spatial responses that Scarcity elicits also establishes
constructed circumstance rather than a real condition that have been apparent in the
on how the scarce (binary) conditions have been used by the migrants for sustaining
their present tenure status in Khulna. The next section highlights a number of socio-
condition under modernity, may also be seen culminating into an environment where
everyday acts of negotiation over territorial control mechanisms. It also proposes that
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the scarcity-control-negotiation framework may be used to comprehend the spatio-
large extent embodies the modern. Finally, it is argued that the social construction of
home becomes meaningful only when its spatial thresholds and migrant peoples
many acts of negotiation are viewed in relation with the wider socio-political
circumstances (e.g. scarcity) associated with Khulnas migrant settlements. The last
section, which is also the last of this dissertation, underscores a few areas that I
and reconstructed by various actors in the shaping of urban form. Scarcity can hence
certain resources to serve eventually the interest of many prominent among which is
the interest of the market. The idea of scarcity then can be used to understand how in
a third world city, resource allocation (e.g. housing, land) and resource accessibility
manifestation of these binaries both at the levels of larger settlements and at the
1. Similar can be found in Roy (2004)s discussion of the choreographed creation of urban
informality or Chatterjee (2004)s concept of the political society in the context of
Kolkata.
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between the ordinary migrant and authoritative actors both seeking legitimacy in
Here it is argued that the idea of scarcity is found operating in three different ways in
how these have had grave consequences for its agrarian socio-spatial structure,
urban spatial transformations (this has been discussed in Chapter 4 and in Hakim and
Lim 2013). Second, scarcity is used as a validating tool by both migrants and
external elitist actors (e.g. political leaders, formal private sector, NGOs etc.). As the
authorities remain in control of the allocation of scarce resources (e.g. land and
housing services), the migrants tend to exploit the conditions of scarcity to negotiate
with authorities for space and infrastructure while legitimizing the role of the latter.
Third, the acute scarceness of space and resources are compensated by a range of
practices for economic gain) have become customary in the particular reality of
Khulnas migrant settlements. These practices, as found, are all based on flexibility,
adjustments and manipulations of the available and the affordable, and in no way
Scarcity has essentially remained a constructed condition; this has been evident
during the tenure of all ruling regimes irrespective of them being foreign or domestic.
Manipulation of various forms of scarcity has been obvious for all modern ruling
regimes (and elitist actors during each of their tenures) starting from the early
colonization of Bengal. The ruling elite class ranging from the higher level central
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governments down to that of the village Jotedar have often attempted to control this
this agrarian society, this comes as no surprise that it is the distribution of land and its
(and economy) in both rural and urban areas. This, for example, is what has been seen
thousands of peasants into landless sharecroppers on their own lands, and made them
alter their cropping/production pattern to benefit EICs trades. Similar was evident
during the British Raj, when, through some derogatory land use planning, divided
cities were purposely created while leaving the most of ordinary population outside
the sanitized zone. With an intension to conveying the supremacy of the ruling
class, this exclusion left this main mass of Khulnas population outside the
classification of a citizenry.
discriminations between the Eastern and Western parts of the same idealist Muslim
state of Pakistan. Imbalances were again created and retained through the harnessing
control, such as town planning was adapted, often at the cost of uprooting indigenous
populations to make way for the politically and economically fitting housing
success was designed and dependent on the availability of low cost migrant labour
urbanization took place owing primarily to SAPs impact on rural agriculture and
mass exodus from rural areas. Yet, neither governments nor other formal-sector
actors did provide any housing for these ex-peasants in the city. Again, the very
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system that had created an initial imbalance by upsetting the rural agrarian socio-
economic structure has been found acting inconsistently in the city by not being able
These instances hence refer back to the etymological root of scarcity in the French
insufficiency of supply, one realizes, also forms the base-work for present day market
economy and drives our growth-oriented society. These also conform that scarcities
creating a rather false sense of need or desire. Examples particularly from post-
capital that continually shifts to exploit new opportunities, and with this manipulates
exist to play the arbiters role to establish a system of rules and manage the scarce
resources for its entire citizenry (Bronfenbrenner 1962: 265). Yet, the regulatory
frameworks from governments part (e.g. urban planning) aims to control and limit
activities without taking into account the interconnectivity of limits which, when
accumulated, tend to shut down opportunity (Till 2011: 8). In undivided Bengal and
in Bangladesh for example, there was surplus of land. But their distribution and
appears as a constructed condition rather a mere period of dearth (as in Xenos 1989:
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people or settlements from accessing certain resources to serve the interest of the
market (e.g. trades by EIC). As far as the prior evidences under modern conditions
are concerned, scarcity did not occur naturally. Scarcity was often manifested as an
asymmetrical access to, and control over, finite and limited resources (here land).
ultimately be used as a political tool for people who seek to control the agrarian
masses, and thus retain power at their disposal (Harris 1989). In addition to its value
physical entity constantly shaped by the deltaic river-system. Land therefore has
always been an elusive cultural component in rural Bangladeshi society, and has
continued to do so even in the present urban context. Despite very few permanent
migrants could actually manage a piece of land while settling down in Khulna,
getting access to the currently possessed land and housing in whatever temporary
form they may be, have been the outcomes of a constant persuasion process with, and
loyalty to certain influential individuals. These individuals, one way or another, have
remained very important for the migrants everyday livelihood activities (Hakim
has always required the bargaining and the mediation of powerful actors a
the recent days, a number of NGOs and UNDP-led projects. This is exactly what has
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6.2.2.1 The politics of in-between-ness
As a continuum to the prior moments of land scarcity and the eventual uprooting of
the rural peasant, possibility of post-migration land ownership for them in the city
became even more impracticable. Land scarcity has been the result of it being
curtailed and hoarded by the public agencies2 and the gentry to manipulate land price
for profit3. No loan is made available for the urban poor for land purchasing or house
building neither from government banks nor from NGOs. Although more than
16,000 NGOs have been operating in Bangladesh in sectors allied to housing4, the
immediate return from the involvement with socio economic issues of the slums
prompt these NGOs to set a low priority on housing issues. NGOs also look for a
safer return from their investments, which the landless migrant does not guarantee.
So, as early as in 1997, 97% of the Bangladeshi urban poor did not own any land, as
private developers were serving exclusively the upper and middle classes (WB 2007:
35). Government agencies like KDA has also acted like a private developer,
developing fringe lands for profit and selling them to middle and higher class buyers.
A review of nine completed housing projects (KDA 2007), shows that at least six
amongst these are currently the most expensive plots of land in Khulna. The
remaining three identified as for low income residential areas (KDA 2012), are in
fact 150m2 land-plots for the lower-middle income groups in Khulna not the lowest.
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Land-plot distribution and dissemination of ongoing structural plans still privilege the
Khulnas 1961 Master Plan. Whilst large portions of land were zoned for industry and
housing, the British planner ignored cultural tradition, affordability and the nature of
housing required for industrial workers. This left little choice for migrants except to
settle in areas between these industries, in violation of the Master Plan intentions
(Chaudhury undated: 5). None of the nationalized jute industries in Khulna were
designed to provide adequate accommodation for its migrant workers either; not even
during their prosperous years6. Studies on three oldest and largest nationalized jute
mills in Khulna show that housing was available only to less than 10% of the entire
jute mills workers (Shahed 2006: 31, 33, 35); of these 10% however, most relied on
their deshi manush or political connections (with labour leaders or petty leaders of
political parties) to gain access to housing (Hakim 2012). In the later industrial
developments like the private-sector shrimp industries that fuelled Khulnas economy
since 1990s, still no workers accommodation or housing subsidy was provided for.
Squatting on Khas land thus has continued to produce rhizomic growth within the
formal grid. Tenanted shelters of varying size and configurations adjacent to these
industries has become the only recourse for (re)making home. When government
officials were to be involved in the settlement process, bribing to maintain stay was
frequent (Settlements 4, 8, and 10). Even for those with formal recognition
5. Ghafur (2010) similarly shows how Dhakas planning and development agency (RAJUK)
has formed a syndicate with land developers, politicians and the affluent higher middle
class.
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both ruling and opposition parties, are persistently lobbied by migrant-tenants. These
politicians assure the migrants by visiting settlements regularly and taking care of
their immediate needs (e.g. repair roads and construct public baths). Yet even in cases
where disputes about land ownership appear resoluble, the process is intentionally
lingered and delayed by the same politicians and influential personnel irrespective of
site and service project originally allotted to the homeless migrants of Khulna in mid
1970s, formalization of title has still been deliberately kept unresolved for almost four
decades now. It was only the Land Allotment Slip (Figure 6.1: left) that was issued
to migrants for 45m2 plots in 1977 instead of a formal title deed (or Dalil in
Bangla). Although entitled for such a Dalil by Government decree, the holders of
these land allotment slips (i.e. the actual owners) are still kept in a state of dilemma
Figure 6.1: (Left) typical Land Allotment Slip for Vastuhara; (middle and right) brick-built
house with wooden floor and CI sheet roof.
various public sector organizations. While migrants without a Dalil continue remain
outside the tax roll of central governments land revenue office, Khulna City
Corporation (KCC), i.e. the Mayors office continue to put holding numbers on each
of these illegal dwelling units and collect holding tax from their owners. Lobbying
6. Between early- to mid-1970s, Jute export contributed around 80% to national export
revenue (Rahman and Khaled 2011: 2).
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and political pressure from reigning Mayors7, Ward Councillors and party cadres on
other central government offices (e.g. postal, electricity and water supply services)
also ensures that these essential services are extended to these illegal settlements,
its 5080 settlements9 would improve the latters confidence in them and ensure
machinery as the provider. Thus, as observed so far, the initial formation of 9 out of
the 10 settlements have occurred through the direct patronization of political actors
and their associates (e.g. businessmen or labour leaders). Migrant population in these
settlements residing even for 4 to 5 decades still rely heavily on these patrons for all
strategically prolonged promises also help sustain these interests and obedience. In
Roy (2004: 154)s terms, this choreographed unevenness, deliberately devised and
uncertainty. Both social and physical boundaries between legal and illegal, and
differentiations between formal and informal hence appear blurred and ambiguous
7. KCCs history suggests that each of its Mayors typically got elected from the same party
that formed the central government; thus central government organizations had to respond
to the Mayors and his party workers (including the ward councillors) political
persuasions even if they were illegitimate or extra-legal.
8. This is coined as the coupling of party and state, the combining of informal party tactics
of mobilization with the formal state apparatus of infrastructure provision (Roy 2004:
149).
9. 58.9% of Khulnas urban population currently live in these so called poor settlements
(CUS-UNDP-KCC 2011: ii).
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benefitting the political actors to control this large demography yearning for
The tale of the Allotment Slip also speaks of the various motives of the political
sustains conditions that impart a sense of rootless-ness10 amongst the tenant migrants.
there has been an everyday business which ran parallel to government works.
Panchayet in the villages and party cadres in the urban informal settlements have
often played an active brokerage role between the central power and grassroots
further strengthen this control every detail of daily life from clogged toilets to
persistent search for new territories of support (read voters) through a constant
detailed land record and the simplification of land bureaucracy (by the government
itself) to formulate any such plan or land record (Ibid: 154-156). In addition, as in
Bangladesh, a legal provision called vested property law was put in place in order to
facilitate the ruling regime to informally acquire and expropriate any land in the
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Such in-between-ness can also be found in another form that may be termed as the
politics with plinths and roofs. Plinths and roofs, as an axiom, here portrays a
settlements and their rather slippery tenure status (e.g. settlements 1 and 7, Figure
4). Although not recognized on KDA maps as residential areas, these settlements
have physically expanded during the last six decades in a manner that many formal
townships and settlements of Khulna have not. Many buildings (some two-storied) in
these settlements were constructed using brick and other permanent materials, while
gentrification and property transfer remains part of everyday practice. Also, both
settlements have a long history of negotiation with elites. Settlement 1 with fish
merchants and shrimp factory owners, Christian Service Society (CSS) and KCC
initially with International Red Cross, and later with Stranded Pakistanis General
Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) and Ward Councillors and local MPs. Here,
migrants are allowed to do anything a normal owner is able to do: buy and sell
property, construct permanent building etc. Most urban infrastructure and utility
services are also available in both. Yet what makes their case interesting is the way
the permanent and temporary are made to work as a combination as migrants are not
ness, politics of in-between-ness makes its claim as an essential tool for authorities.
In many cases, the migrant dweller may compromise or give up portions of spatio-
territorial claim, for example, of his dwelling unit in order to strengthen households
privacy and social control at a higher level. In the context of severe deficiency of
space as in the (28X11) house in Figure 6.2 (left), a (6X6) verandah space has
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been given up for constructing a community bathroom cum water collection point
sense, yet giving up of a tenth of what is already scarce according to most definitions
of standard, is certainly indicative of a different set of life priorities for this owner.
In black and white, this addition ensured her family a better privacy and for her
adolescent daughter in particular who can now take her bath in the house without
having to go to the community bathroom. It also has saved the owner time that was
normally lost waiting in a water collection queue. However, the true intension of hers
is to be manifested in other gains. The female owner of this house, who is also a
in settlement 7, was ready to make this apparently costly sacrifice on the ground that
this would eventually reinforce her social position. Although not willing to give in
initially, her ultimate compliance with the communitys decision for constructing this
service area within her home certainly has earned her added reputation in the eyes of
small physical structure, therefore has had a much broader social implication. For this
owner, it legitimizes her position as a giving leader, and a competent woman for her
house premise has now become the centre-point of many everyday social activities.
For the community, this construction legitimizes communitys position as the key
decision-making body and re-affirms its authority over the control of socio-spatial
activities within the settlement. It also demonstrates the communitys strength to the
demonstrating its solidarity and preparedness for any sacrifice for communitys
betterment. The external actors, considering their individual intents, thus receive the
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message that any intervention (positive or negative) from their part must satisfy a
Figure 6.2: Compromised control: (left) part of house premise given up for community bath in
settlement 7; (right) previously vacant in-house space transformed into NGO-run pre-school
in settlement 1.
Such negotiated control in a different form may also be noticed in another dwelling-
level example (Figure 6.2 left). Here the Christian owner has allowed the Christian
being on a bigger plot of land compared with the previous case (50X22), running a
school (although very small in terms of space) certainly makes the owner to
compromise households privacy and loosen territorial control of the domestic space
to relax by sharing it with outsiders. Yet, the spiritual importance of the missionary in
the owners life, the economic gain that comes out from the small rent received, and
also the continuance of social relation with the NGO (for small loans, free healthcare
etc.) have all made this owner to decide rather strategically. It led her subscribing to
public use. Unlike the previous case with a complex decision-making structure, only
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two parties were involved here. But it is the greater socio-political gain that transpires
what hints of its commonality with the other case. In these settlements where people
are ever more anonymous than an average urban citizen, such territorial compromises
can only be seen as pieces of a persistent effort toward the formation of some sort of
identity. Any form of structure manifesting such negotiated control mechanisms, even
if they are made of bamboo and thatch, thus can be seen as landmarks that essentially
With the aim to validate their present status and in order to become visible, migrants
the settlement level in the realm of public. Irrespective of the hidden nature of all
these settlements, migrants put in efforts to legitimize their illegality by trying and
getting recognized by as many formal public- (such as utilities boards, postal service
etc.) and private-sector institutions (e.g. NGOs) as they can. Construction of physical
infrastructure hence becomes the most practiced means towards achieving senses of
anchorage and claim. Infrastructure of any size, quantity or quality, even if unfit or
less required, are all accommodated. Infrastructures, which are at once visible and
permanent investments from the part of official bodies, are believed to leave a formal
stamping on these otherwise informal and illegal spaces. All forms of exogenous
welcomed and enthusiastically pursued. NGOs having their own objectives (such as
Donor-defined so called Slum Upgrading Projects), also make use of this opportunity
and continue funding for schools and community buildings, communal and individual
baths and toilets, water distribution points, sewer drains and internal roads. Through
these interventions, different interests of both parties converge onto a single point a
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Figure 6.3: Infrastructure politics (clockwise, from top left corner): electricity meter at
settlement 1; less used toilet structure at settlement 3; school, Madrasah and orphanage at
settlement 6; community building at settlement 4; Hindu Mandir in settlement 3.
built, managed and promoted by the community itself where outsiders can also send
their children to (Figure 6.3). Likewise, in the Harijanpara Kali Mandir in settlement
district is seen sitting before this Hindu temple (circled, Figure 6.3) waiting for a
spiritual healing session to begin. Although the Mandir primarily serves the ritual
purpose of the Harijan, outsiders even from other faiths are also invited to join. The
spiritual healing session that takes place every Tuesday afternoon on the temple
12. Arabic terms referring to a Muslim religious school and an orphanage respectively. These
are both religiously significant institutions. A Yatimkhana is a residential facility
(generally for orphan boys) that occurs simultaneously with an educational institute. It is
a particularly sensitive institution in any Muslim society since Prophet Muhammad (SM)
was himself an orphan, while he repeatedly stressed the importance of taking good care of
the orphans. Madrasahs and Yatimkhanas are very common in Bangladeshi villages and
towns; they are run by different forms (and sums) of donation from both wealthy and
poor, and from both landlord and tenant. Any acts that benefit the erection, management
and continuity of these institutions are widely perceived as acts of divinity.
226
premise and is conducted by the priest, is actually a more secular event that draws in
people from different faiths and from different areas of Khulna. The non-monetary
societies by making use of the sites of both modern and traditional (religiously
sensitive) institutions and edifices again help earn a good name for the community.
Still unable to make any permanent claim on the land, migrant communitys
infrastructures are aimed to elevate their status to the level of any other mainstream
citizen and hence reinforce their claims for the volatile lands they are holding
presently. As widely held by tenant migrants, these interventions are also acts of
territorial compromise, which allow outsiders to penetrate and help them positively
transform their spatio-physical environment. In the naive eyes, these are simply
outside assistances, merely donations made to compensate for the lacks. Yet a critical
reading into this strategic loosening of territorial control shows it is also a means of
In the hunter-gatherer society of the uneconomic man, human wants are limited and
few; people enjoy material abundance with lower standard of living by being free
and human horizons. Scarcity only makes sense in relation to the context (physical,
material or conceptual) which it is part of (Till 2011: 1). Taking account of this
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manufactured scarcities, the apparently slum-like migrant spaces then can also be
processes where social and spatial boundaries are inscribed, erased (and) identities
are formed, expressed and transformed (Dovey 2012: 353). Here I emphasize
primarily on one of his slow variables i.e. density, which he believes, could
potentially push the system accorss a threshold into a new regime or identity (Ibid:
355). Based mainly on Amos Rapoport (1975)s Redefinition of Density, the idea of
Simple quantitative derivative of population density however does not reveal the
limits to density the threshold beyond which density begins to feel like crowding.
Density is thus a perceived experience and should be seen as more than the
number of people per unit area. To understand how the apparently crowded slums
continue to work just fine as effective living environments for the migrants, one
conditions, previous experiences, and social organization (Rapoport 1975: 134). The
core components that construct both the idea of crowding and density hence is the
awareness about others. This awareness is formed using all the senses, and a
sharing of spaces and facilities, as well as cultural and physical defences which help
control this awareness about others (Ibid: 135). So to understand how migrant
Desired densities can vary significantly across cultures and between places within the
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32persons/hectare; in Manhattan it is 215persons/hectare (UN-HABITAT 2013: 34),
while in Lower East side 11th Ward it is 4680 persons/hectare (Demographia 2013).
In Hong Kongs public sector neighbourhoods, population density may count as high
density came out very high, and significantly similar to local and international
2012). Similar numbers also emerge from mega-city settlements such as in Dhakas
Dharavi and Karachis Nawalane (3000 and 3400 persons/hectare respectively; see
Comparing New York with Hong Kong or Karachi hence is risky. As 215
Numbers, as inconsistent as above also substantiate Rapoport (1975: 149)s claim that
high, medium, and lower density can only be evaluated in terms of particular socio-
culturally and spatially implicit norms and the way they are perceived by the
13. Khulnas planning documents project an overall density for its old core areas at 286
persons/hectare for year 2010 (KDA 2002a: 15), and 500persons/hectare for year 2020
(KDA 2002b: 54). A recent study (CUS-UNDP-KCC 2011: 36), however, concludes that
the overall density in many migrant settlements located in and around the core area have
already reached those levels if not exceeded. In the wards 22, 21, 1 and 9 in which
settlements 1, 3, 4 and 6 are located respectively, the net population density already
recorded are: 513, 134, 55 and 178persons/hectare.
14. Density is one aspect what the idea of the city is all about; the contemporary reappraisal
of compact city discourse also highlights this. On a similar note, David Satterthwaite
(2003: 34) writes, worlds current 3 billion urban population would fit into an area of
200,000 km2, at densities similar to those of high class, much valued inner city residential
areas of European cities.
15. Theoretically, these settlements lack legal status of ownership (as squatter); lack ideal
physical qualities (e.g. space, durability, water, sanitation and other infrastructure
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settlements, following threads of alternative socio-spatial principles demonstrate
close-by living with heterogeneous population groups has been overcome by a sense
(personal) issues are viewed as a problem for the overall commune and dealt with, in
many cases, at the community level. Because resources are limited, and choices are
crippled by a lack of alternatives, only a sustained relation ensures synergy and hence
ensures access to those resources as if they are meant for all (e.g. usage of the street
space without conflict). Problem solutions are eventually quiet and negotiated,
although might be loud and contested initially. Illicit issues, such as drug trades (in
discussing might earn a bad name for the community at large and would potentially
endanger any future claim for legitimacy. Problems are hence retained within the
settlement, and efforts are given to resolve them by the help of community elites
groups) and introduction of new settlers through regional or personal networks ensure
p. 236), reduce the elements of uncertainty. This eases the need for constant
communication and hence the need for maintaining greater physical distance. This
explains Rapoport (1975: 143)s assertion that a need for constant communication is
reduced when there are fixed and recognized relationships, agreed-upon rules,
appropriate cues, symbols and markers, and also defences. The prevailing form of
necessary for a comfortable human habitation as in a slum), and/or lack formal control
over planning, design and construction (as informal settlement) (Dovey 2012: 351).
230
social organization in these settlements also elaborates Altman (1975: 80)s
hypothesis that positive relationships between people are associated with closer
interpersonal distances while people located at close distances (tend to) have good
interpersonal relationships. The more favourable the social relations are, closer is the
and lead to inappropriate actions (Rapoport 1975: 140), is also used rather
heterogeneous elements16 are politically used to retain an amicable social relation that
serve a number of purposes including the support for vulnerable tenure situation. It is
true for both illegal settlements (e.g. 1, 3, or 9) and legal settlements (4, 6), where
migrants regional identity is used to liaise and coalesce with the political (and
seldom bureaucratic) personnel having the same regional identity. For example, as in
the mid-rise slums of settlement 9, two representatives from each building are
selected who would negotiate and bargain with the Mayor in times of crisis. Although
these representatives belong to the Mayors party, their regional origin is what
matters above all. For having the same regional origin that of the Mayor, these
representatives bargain and negotiate with assurance, with trust and also with an
additional sense of bonding going even beyond the partys interest. This socio-
from a different party takes office, new representatives replace the earlier. The
migrant inhabitants, beyond their political prejudice, would now extend their
16. For example, diversity according to a particular regional dialect and geographic location,
or according to religious affiliations.
231
involvement in an unrelenting political process therefore ensure financial support by
Mayors office (through KCC and NGOs) for example, for carrying out renovation
Figure 6.4: (Left) settlement 10, Peoples Panchtala mid-rise squatter Building 1
undergoing renovation works overseen by building representatives belonging to Mayors
party and of his same regional origin; circled is a signboard by the ruling regime (Mayor)s
supporters claiming this building as a memorial club; (Right) another ex-office building is
claimed by the same supporters, to be used as another clubhouse.
Perception of density and its evaluation depends on both desired and actual level of
interaction between people and their socio-spatial environment hence the way
settlement concerned (Rapoport 1975: 142). Typically, migrant settlements are high-
public space and shortage of land for non-residential use, more forms than spaces etc.
Both individually and collectively, all these add up and lead to a negative
has been intently devised and gradually converted into practice. To overcome the
constraints of fixed private-public, communal and state boundaries, the definition and
even serving dual purposes. Through these means nevertheless, forms, spaces and
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Figure 6.5: (Left) shared functional space leading to social exchange between landlord and her
tenants in settlement 5; (Middle) territorial encroachment of public street during dry winter
seasons; (Right) spiritual corner (with deity) in bed room space in settlement 3.
Here, as in settlement 3, a room for rest and retreat equally performs as a place for
seasonally, a cooking space (Figure 6.5: middle and right). Church or Mosque
also here a solitary space for social exchange and domestic cohort is created between
the landlord and his/her tenants, and remains negotiated (Figure 6.5: left). This
relationship with tenants remain personal and is enforced by social exchange. Small
owners as such are also able to achieve greater social efficiency at a lower cost and
The urban dwelling unit of the rural migrant is often used as a space for retail and
production. Indeed, practices of using the entire household premise as a space for
233
Bangladeshi society17 (Hakim 2010). In the rural context, household space also has its
multiple uses (e.g. sleeping room also used for storage). Due to the agrarian nature of
production, open spaces are often required around which house forms are arranged
(Ali 2005; Hakim and Ahmed 2007). In the presence of homestead income-
not felt as well. In the context of the urban house, however, similar practices cannot
the space scarcity compared to rural households. Yet driven by the need to
supplement livelihoods, the unregulated dwelling spaces are often used for income
generation (as in Peattie 1994: 136). And quite evidently, the domestic realm the
only spatial resource available at the personal level is often allowed to be permeated
alliances are maintained with the actors (e.g. NGOs, local businessmen) whom the
migrants deem important. This allows both parties to gain materially and socially as
nearby export-oriented industries (e.g. fish scaling, carton making) are done within
the confines of ones house (Figure 6.6). These works benefit both; the industrialist
elite benefits from saving factory space, supply and utility cost, and most of all
crucial labour hours, while the migrant worker benefits from a flexible time
schedule (particularly for women members in a family), minimum travel cost and
17. Although a typology exists (Ali 2005: 253), a typical rural homestead includes open land,
multiple dwelling units shared amongst members of the extended family, orchards and
vegetable gardens, cowsheds and poultry house, and at least a pond (Ahmed 2006: 10-
11).
234
arrangements provide the migrants considerable leverage in retaining their occupancy
of settlement territories and leading to a more intense and vibrant mix of activities.
The elite support thus remains crucial especially to neutralize eviction threats or
during times when some financial assistance is required (e.g. donation for the medical
Figure 6.6: (left to right) NGO signboard describing the nature of their involvement in
settlement 5; house interior transformed into workspace for producing export-oriented
commodities (Saree at settlement 6, and shrimp at settlement 1).
On the other hand, NGO intervention in built environment is also noteworthy. They
prompt for trading of domestic privacy for migrants economic (and also their own)
gains (e.g. Saree making, as in settlement 6). Similar is found at the settlement level.
infrastructure upgradation by NGOs. This is an opportunity that both would take with
continuing social gains. For the migrant, NGOs remain the only government they
have ever known; NGOs, although not loved always, are still considered as the key
infrastructure and instant credit. So things initially seen as the negative components
of density i.e. enhanced activities, movements and information flows, and also the
domestic encroachments, are not in fact crowding per se. The same conditions of
round-the-clock activities (as in settlements 1 and 10), which are feared would
worsen the perception of density (Rapoport 1975: 139) becomes the most important
235
security, settlements reputation and hence a bargaining tool for safeguarding it, and
occurrence of bathing and cooking in public space. According to Dovey (2012: 358),
such fluidity of form, practices and meaning essentially suggest of slippages. Yet in
this predominantly Muslim society, the notion of privacy is clearly defined with
implications for a gendered distinction of space18. This was stressed by both male and
(settlement 1) migrants have also expressed the need for similar level of privacy
revealing that privacy is culturally desired rather defined solely by religion. So when
slippages as above occur, scarcity of space is naturally held responsible. But a deeper
look also reveals that once such slippages have become customary through decades of
scarcity merely. Instead, these slippages may also be seen as deliberate acts of socio-
neighbourhood level spaces for conducting particular private activities. The usage
of spatio-behavioural means hence helps retain a desired level of privacy within the
limits of scarcity. Familiarity with rules of spatial encounter patterns (e.g. particular
male and female time-slots for using community baths), and knowing and respecting
each others boundaries (e.g. street-level cooking stall in Figure 6.5: middle) actually
allow these people to maintain privacy within the realm of the public.
18. Considering migrants rural origin, a review of rural house forms and spaces further
substantiate that a variety of spatio-physical mechanisms, including zoning and
sequencing of open, semi-open and enclosed spaces, use of barriers (vegetation and
screen), and time-zoning are all traditionally used for ensuring a desired level of privacy
(Ahmed 2007: 12; Muktadir and Hasan 1985: 82, 84).
19. Positive outcome of a desired level of density is related to familiar patterns of interaction
between migrant dwellers and other actors who use that public space equally. Privacy is
seen as the ability to control unwanted interactions (Rapoport 1975: 140).
236
On the other hand, the feeling of crowdedness also depends on the types of income
generation activities that are performed in these settlements and in relation to their
generating activities (renting and producing) require space, both contribute to the
perception of crowdedness equally at the household level and the public level of these
into multiple rentable rooms, leading to the feeling of crowdedness at the dwelling
level. This can also be found in the extension of dwelling-level income generating
activities on the public level or in the public level encroachment for income
synergistic social, political and economic benefits are yielded from home-based
epitomize the resource accumulation mechanism for migrants; rather paying for a
136) involving a process of inhabitation20. Rather than housing that put common
people into disadvantage as seen during recent economic downturn in the US, this
the migrant. A lack of housing finance21 has also been a good thing after all; with
their irregular income, committing to fixed monthly payments would have actually
imperilled the possibility of a house at all (similar has been stressed by Peattie 1994:
136). In Khulna settlements, it is only the people with some form of regular income
(shop-owners, contracted labourers etc.) who actually seem to do well to renew their
20. This process based on customary practices and everyday activities by the agents, contrasts
the static and program-based modern building practices (Habraken 1998: 134-135).
237
loans by being able to pay back instalments in time. Illegal occupancy also implies
immediate home-making for the migrant in his preferred locations. As a result they
have to spend less for housing. Whereas global average spending for accommodation
is around 40%-50% of monthly income, the squatter-owners tend to spend only 10-
15% for maintaining the otherwise non-permanent buildings. This is how the illegal
tenant could save on rent and could use that savings for upgrading their settlements22.
ways to adopt to change by moving forms, functions and flows around, while its parts
performing different functions (Dovey 2012: 356). The migrant settlements and
particularly the dwelling units can be viewed as redundant forms, which are flexible
enough to cope with the changing conditions. In response to space and monetary
producing alternative choices right at the very site where form is faced with
usage to cope with changing needs can be traced here (Figure 6.7). In settlement 6,
under a site and services scheme have been transformed to cope with a myriad of
scale food industry (Figure 6.7: top). Similarly in S1H1, its 32-year long
morphological history reveals its redundant character; Figure 6.7 (bottom) shows how
21. Though small loans for house building (equivalent to US$100-150) can now be taken
from NGOs and UPPRP cooperatives, NGOs still do not officially admit that they provide
loans for house building; yet again, both parties benefit by being informal.
22. Although not adequate, UNDP-led settlement improvement projects operating in
Khulnas migrant settlements (LPUPAP) could still make the migrant communities to
238
interventions, the house-form has morphed and thus has been able to withstand those
challenges. The process of transformation, which might look expensive initially, has
also been benefitted by the usage of locally available non-permanent (replaceable and
Redundancy also
manifests in the
entrepreneur-like
opportunist responses
during moments of
incidents, migrants
of the situation by
Following hazards,
Figure 6.7: (Top-left) two adjacent formal plots of land
natural calamities or stitched together to form a single plot in settlement 6; (top-right)
house accommodates community school in settlement 6;
eviction drives, large- (bottom) floating dwelling unit first transforms into shop-front
house after landfill in settlement 1 (P2); when widening of road
takes shop away and house front becomes the back of new
scale protests and
roadside shop, previous shop-space becomes rentable rooms
while house-form extends vertically (P3).
lobbying take place.
Particularly in larger
settlements (e.g. 1 and 6), these movements are to be dealt with by Mayor, Ward
Councillor or opposition leaders with utmost care. Although these movements seldom
bring about material compensations, yet they create other prospects. Example of a fire
save more than 100,000USD between 2000 to 2007 by saving 0.5USD per month by a
single cooperative group of 10-12 people (UNDP 2007: 7).
239
hazard in 2004, which burnt down a significant portion of settlement 1, shows how
this incident was used as an excuse to build back permanent houses. Using this rather
relevant cause that permanent houses are less prone to fire, and subsequently
negotiating with the local Ward Councillor, a number of both burnt and un-burnt
Katcha houses were quickly rebuilt into brick buildings. Thus the power of
collectivism was demonstrated while tenure claims got reinforced by using the hazard
limits of so called standards of living and aiming to redefine them using newer real-
life standards23. People remain engaged in search for certain qualities in certain places
where they are not expected to be found. Proponents of the concept of sustainability
are asking to do more with less and revert to the Miesian axiom of less is more in a
conceptual level. Spatial-tactics are often being considered better than actually
building while doing things have become a question of degrees with the right dose
(Bouman 2006: 115). Migrant forms and spaces, looked at through this lens are more
about maximizing potentials of the existing forms and spaces rather creating new
forms which are more resource consuming. Indeed, one might view this less building
criticize this bypassing the real problem of slum formation. Yet, given the space
constraints and other challenges, many of which are constructed, these are lived
forms and spaces that came out of decades-long bottom up efforts and practices. For a
240
large number of these permanent migrants, the rhizomic development of their
dwelling units have given them a sense of accomplishment which certainly has
followed an upwardly direction over the years. This has been done by harnessing the
Figure 6.8: (Left) spatial management - less by newer permanent constructions but more by
accommodating needs; effective performance of house-form even having formal and
functional incongruence (between upper and lower floors) and unplanned additions (pigeon
housing, elevated vegetable garden etc. (settlement 6). (Right) street accommodating all
additional purpose - clothe drying, playing, moving about, enjoying the winter morning sun
and rearing livestock (settlement 1).
space not even a small niche, which goes without a use. Space also remains flexible
in the sense that it readily accommodates alternative usage should demands change.
This can be seen in how a small vegetable garden is developed on top of a pigeon-
cage (upper floor), behind which a temporary poultry-shed is erected (Figure 6.8:
left). However, what now is the garden and the poultry-shed were originally
conceived as the first floor verandah and a future extension space of sleeping room
23. Saha (2011) reports of an architect-activist (who is also a University lecturer) who, with
an aim to finding out how to live only on essentials, has been living in one of Dhakas
241
considering a modification of the front part of the upper floor into a small rentable
unit. Since street-facing upper units are typically lucrative amongst rent-seekers, he
expects to receive higher monetary return as it would be required in the coming days.
In addition, the Mosque loudspeaker for Azan (call for prayer) has also found its place
on this private house facade for it is the tallest building around. It shows that the
core characteristic of this small house-form is used for social service (and for
the streets of Khulna (Figure 6.8: right), where the same narrow space is optimized
for a number of everyday activities while still serving its original purpose. So
public street hence point out to the maximization of the less at hand. Alongside this
made (see how the bicycle is making its way through!) while a much greater sum of
There indeed is social, cultural and spatial room for manoeuvre; and as both real
and constructed scarcities are worked out through the negotiation of spatial claims
and hence in the quiet interplay between the elite and the subaltern, low income
settlement forms continue to evolve. Opportunist tactics from all actors in response to
the manipulation of density structure at the level of the migrant dweller. The
perceived deficiencies and densities, at least what is presumed from outside, turns out
242
to be something not in need of external fix. Successful migrants socio-spatial
mechanisms have particular and proven ways of fixing things, which also enhance
thus seems inventive, where settlement configurations to a certain extent are allowed
interactions with the elite thus may be viewed as a usual episode in agrarian
play an active brokerage role between villagers and wider institutions (Lewis and
Hossain 2008: 48-49). So in the prevailing urban context, this may be viewed as a
episodes of land/housing scarcity in the city25. But either way, this present-day
social structure, and for someone ordinary like the migrants, compliance to these elite
influential actors (e.g. fishing businessmen), and migrant community groups (such as
CDC groups in UPPRP projects) on a day to day basis; this also determines the
ultimate configuration of the settlements. Social networks (e.g. kinship, regional and
political) also play a key role behind the shaping of these settlements as the way they
grow. The various negotiations that are made between different actors on these
24. Murubbi (community elder), Neta (political leader), NGO in-charge, Mayor and Ward
Councillor, religious institutions namely Masjid, Church or Mandir committees.
25. This is pointed out in Raharjo (2010)s review of Traditional and modern in Chapter 2.
243
scarcity thus becomes dependent on who has the power to make decision on land and
other scarce resources and how that is negotiated. Scarcity thus manifests as a
relational concept, deeply rooted in local perceptions about what and how resources
are valued, and whether rendered scarce or not. In the Bangladeshi context, this then
drives different actors to assume different roles while each of them looking to retain
Similarly at the household level, migrant populations make use of the strategies same
as those by the rural landless population by making innovative use of kinship and
themselves rent-free on the land of others (Indra and Norman 1997: 26). With
cultural approval, such practices remain rooted in the vernacular customs27. These can
be viewed as creative acts manifested in the way people make use of their social
negotiation and occasional resistance in times of need. For the migrant, this cultural
scheme of using the social in combination and often inseparably with the spatial
society, where the dynamics between scarcity and opportunity is complex and
transition a mere period of not having. As long as the periods such as those under
modern conditions would occur, they would most likely be dealt with creativity of
some sort, using elements of the built environment (land, buildings, infrastructure
244
Nevertheless, these events of reciprocity are nothing new. The discussions hitherto
also substantiate the two hypotheses that in a non-market society, people still tend to
satisfy their wants using alternative logics that incorporate reciprocity, redistribution
and exchange (Bronfenbrenner 1962: 265). People also cooperate with each other in
times of adversity to avoid high transaction costs associated with their failure to
comply (Southerton 2011: 1247). Castells and Portes (1989: 26) similarly noted that
(informalities are) flexible, ad-hoc form of economic activity that, while reviving
old methods of primitive exploitation, also provides room for personal interaction.
The small-scale and face-to-face features of these activities make living through crisis
a more manageable experience than waiting in line for relief from impersonal
third world context, these revival of old methods, and cooperation hence can be
likened with the ongoing reciprocal relation between the elite and the ordinary
Ananya Roy (2011: 223) wrote that the theorization of the megacity and its
subaltern spaces and subaltern classes provides accounts of the slum as a terrain of
manifested in the many moments of negotiation, and their spatial consequences hence
hint of a framework to grasp urban transformation in cities like Khulna. The roles of
28. Agency is the capability, the power, to be the source and originator of acts; agents are
the subjects of action, deployed in debates over the relationship between individuals and
245
6.3 Home and scarcity
acontextual; they suffer from not being able to delineate any clear indicators to
explain ordinary migrants home-making in an ordinary third world city. Works are
home culminates in the idea of scarcity in the particular context of Khulna? How does
this pair of concepts help comprehend each other? Referring back to the conceptual
model and the indicators for measuring territorial practices in Chapter 2 (Figure 2.3),
some key themes have been identified in Chapter 5 (Table 5.2). Indeed, these themes
have been used in other spatial analyses (e.g. under the rhetoric of politics) in this
Chapter. This section, however, rather briefly aims to establish a more direct
correlation between conditions of scarcity and spatial practices for boundary control
as the key variables of home. It demonstrates that the notions of both real and
constructed scarcity manifested in the many lacks, and also in the legal-illegal
dilemma or in the formal-informal impasse affect the way in which people go about
their everyday spatial acts; scarcity also affects the way they claim and control their
personal space and public territories, get familiar with it, and become able to identify
themselves both as an individual and also as a group within the urban context.
At the higher-level of migrants urban home, i.e. at the level of settlements, the notion
of ownership remains the most important component for home-making. As seen, the
policy-process necessary for obtaining any sense of ownership, i.e. upgradation from
246
and prolonged. This can be viewed as one form of scarcity a neither-nor
persistently maintained by their local level party officio (e.g. Mayor, Ward
Councillors, party cadres etc.) and government bureaucracies (e.g. Planning machine
Settlement 1, 3 or 4) have continued to convey their preparedness for paying off any
sort of fees or instalments for acquiring a formal ownership, little has changed over
the years. The same politicians (e.g. rule-makers such as MPs) who could have solved
the problem by implementing favourable bylaws for settling the ownership issue for
leaving options open for an on-site negotiation of issues chief amongst which is the
issue of land ownership. Although it has been observed that with a more settled
their dwelling environments and hence to the overall physical environment it is part
of, the process of acquiring a more formal ownership in most settlement has remained
Indeed, this leaves a certain amount of power to the disposal of this apparently
ordinary and powerless group of citizens as the migrants are. This day to day
encounter imparts them with certain know-how about how the government and its
This process, through which one acquires and maintains the ownership outside the
Somerville (1997)s theory of home. On the other hand, although Rapoport (1995:
45) views home as a manifestation of sets of relationships between people and system
247
condition that scarcity instills. Yet at large, scarcity as a socio-political creation of
modern times appears to be a successful concept that aids the authorities to control
ordinary migrants tenure and ownership situations, hence home-making in the larger
informality, and it is the informal and unsettled status of home that serves best the
informality persistently seeks to become formal and thus scarcity prevails, this
Similar neither-nor status of ownership may also manifest in migrants many acts
as discussed earlier in this chapter. Although these two have their influence on
compromises and negotiations that actually translate into the way people satisfy their
tenure status hence also hinder growth. The small size of plots and restriction on
building construction (e.g. height, construction of roof etc.) also restrict individuals to
grow socio-economically. This actual scarcity of space that originates from the
constraining situation for this particular group of ex-rural people. Primarily due to
cultural reasons29, these migrants who used to depend heavily on their home premise
248
for fulfilling their livelihood- and privacy-needs, now find themselves severely
constrained by the lack of space and material resources. This is exactly where the
various spatial boundaries are redefined by people in their everyday territorial acts
while newer (and often multiple) meanings become associated with spaces and forms
found in these settlements. Not only are various spatial negotiations made within the
territories (e.g. neighbourhood streets and alleyways) are often used in ways as in
as simple every-day acts of negotiation over the public spaces in the realm of these
settlements. This sharing of public space for personal use, yet retaining a strong
mutual respect for each others use lead to a situation in which individual gain
control of a house-front alleyway, for instance, certainly ensures that every individual
living adjacent to that alleyway would also be able to claim a certain territory from it
during certain times in a day or night. Such maximization of public space usage is
essential in terms of both household and livelihood needs since available house-space
for satisfying both these purposes is always going to be inadequate for most
inhabitants.
(1997: 234)s initial claim that the extent of being private is variable. It equally
conforms to Altman (1975: 18)s suggestion that the definition of privacy implies
different circumstances over certain periods of time. In that, however, findings from
30. Although a strong urge for an orthodox level of privacy is stressed by migrants across
different regional origin and with different religious orientation.
249
Khulnas migrant settlements impart the essential context, i.e. the idea of scarcity that
of the migrants spatial practices. One finds ambivalent meanings associated with
the architectural forms and spaces of migrant dwelling units and settlements, where
Bricolage (e.g. rural forms in the city) and Hybridity (Cairns 2003) often become
manifest. Dwelling units and settlements are used commonly as a stage, where they
become spaces and forms for mediation and negotiation while leading to the
terms of identity formation, which is one of the three main pillars of Somerville
individuals but as constituent parts of a certain group residing in a certain location 32.
250
process, which would otherwise have not been possible through the migrants solitary
effort. Different territorial acts also come coupled with added social gains, which
a lack of business space, eventually end up being proven as sources of constant social
surveillance and security for the whole community. Such sense of security, Rapoport
(1995: 30) writes, helps acquire psychological and social meanings, which turns these
spaces into homes by establishing particular relationships between people and these
with his membership of a body of citizens who all own property according to the
same set of rules and laws. Once again, the scarce condition pertaining to ownership,
i.e. the particular unresolved and negotiated state of tenure and an actual lack of space
are what lead migrants to adopt this particular collective manipulation of a number
of territorial thresholds for their identity formation. It is also through this adoption to
formed and eventually home is made in an ever evolving and relative form (Heynen
Scarcity of space thus contributes to the particular way in which a new Samaj (sense
in Section 5.3.2.1) aspires migrants to own a house in the city, it is the migrants
many manipulations and compromises with the spatial boundaries of home that
of a dwelling unit. With time, more partitions are made or a whole new floor may be
added to create new rooms for familial use or for income generation. This is how
settlement density keeps increasing while in many such cases, this increased density
251
keeps contributing in a positive manner by giving rise to everyday socio-spatial
public space. A common ownership over public space by the concerned community
thus converge the communitys interest on to a single issue. On the other hand, the
territorialization that span across a certain period of time again create a sense of
belonging and attachment to the environment that migrants create with their own
efforts and using their own resources. Familiarity, the third pillar of Somerville
economic resources and legal possession rights to support and manage a household
(Ibid: 236), in Khulnas migrant settlements, the scarcity of both economic resources
and possession rights to land are compensated by collective use of space and
to Ghafur (2004: 268)s assertion that in Bangladeshi context, the concept of home in
the traditional sense becomes meaningful only when it is viewed as an integral part of
the Samaj. The various conditions of scarcity hence also influence the re-creation of
Samaj as found in the studied settlements in Khulna, and hence aids home-making by
control demonstrate that if scopes for physical growth is constrained, there is still
33. These have been discussed elaborately in Chapter 5 and earlier sections of this chapter.
252
room for economic and social gain by making adjustments to the existing spatial
that room for socio-economic gain also exists on the higher level of settlements even
if social and spatial scarcity prevails. All these socio-spatial acts however attempt to
ground the migrant Samaj into the larger Samaj outside the settlement (i.e. urban
the association between home-making and scarcity further. Thus the situated
253
externals to control) by the migrants at the many different levels of their settlements,
influence the latters privacy practices. And it is the desire for privacy that according
to prior definitions is the primary goal of all spatial control mechanisms. In view of
this, it is only through such control over ones spatial environment, identity is formed
6.4 Conclusion
resources, lack of legality (e.g. illegal status of tenure) or lack of formal recognition
(e.g. informal economic activities and building) thus have been worked out by the
contexts.
On the other hand, for a better understanding of the concept of scarcity (e.g.
settlements show that issues pertaining to land scarcity can alternatively be resolved
254
scarcity, the issues of household privacy are compromised and compensated with
greater social gains, the concept of scarcity also sounds vague and acontextual. The
socially focused home framework in this case certainly helps since the generalized
description of scarcity tells least about what exactly scarcity means, who creates it,
who it affects most, and who benefits from this state of scarcity (Southerton 2011:
1249). These descriptions that occur from the discussions on home also tell about
how such scarcities are mediated and neutralized using the premise of home and with
what socio-spatial outcome. These findings also resonate with Jeremy Till (2011: 5)
claim that a scarcity of stuff may not necessarily be dealt with the provision of
more stuff because stuff is neutral and hence is made to work in the ways the
actors want them to work. The lack of food or hunger, he says, is not best provided by
food aid only. Doing that should essentially overlook the real causes such as
inequitable distribution, poverty and other inequalities. In the field of the built
environment, Jeremy Till criticizes, that scarcity is mostly associated with stuff and
the reaction is limited to material and technical fixes, rather than understanding
stuff in its social context (Ibid: 7). Similarly, the concept of scarcity, only after
being reviewed against a particular context as Khulna is, demonstrates how room for
bargain is left open by the powerful elites, while the same room for bargain is
used by the grassroots migrant for a sustained stay, and hence make home in the city.
The pairing of the concept of scarcity with the concept of home therefore aids a
further understanding of this social setting under a particular context. It shows how
the scarcities of space at both household and community levels are compensated by
with territorial boundaries. Physical spaces and forms here are routinely allowed to
migrants and other often elitist actors in and out of the settlements. Spatial (and
physical) is made to work inseparably with the social. A lack of stuff (space and
255
space-making resources) is often dealt not with form but rather through a process
where neutral form is viewed equally as a tool, a stage and an outcome of the
process. Scarcity and home thus complement each other both socially and spatially
and make sense of the context where home is being made. Buchli (2002: 210-211)
commented on Soviet society that Home is the sphere of the daily life and the arena in
same note, while drawing contextual examples it can be argued that Scarcity, both
actual and constructed, remains a negotiable concept. The premise of migrants home
in Khulna at its many different levels remains the exclusive arena where socio-spatial
strategies for boundary control symbolize the acts of negotiation that migrants have
As developed and proposed by this research, a further testing of the hypotheses (and
the framework) may also be carried out in other third world contexts to check their
validity against these particular socio-spatial settings. It is believed, there are also
other key areas where further contributions can be made considering them as
and may be in the context of other developing nations. The idea would be
to observe how the different land prices may possibly affect the type of
Cities where land price is much higher than Khulna, for example in
threats and rates in Dhaka are much higher than in Khulna. This is also
probably for the same reason, even within the studied settlements in
256
Khulna, settlement 1 (Rupsha Char) faces the most eviction threats. For
or expanding the existing ones, this settlement territory remains the most
contested amongst all those studied. City size and hence land price is
thus expected to influence the type of social relation and hence to the
political attention).
- Studies similar to this present research have the scope to focus more on
spaces and forms and finding out their implication on these rather
density and crowding) even amongst the present accepted level of super-
257
low-income settlement systems, socio-demographic indicators generated
statements/hypotheses.
- There may be other forms of rural-urban migration that are now on the
migration that are taking place in cities like Khulna. Their socio-
spaces.
258
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Appendix
1. Table1: The evolution of urban and rural population, the world and major
regions, 1950-2050; source UN (2008: 7)
275
Negotiation and Form of Urban Migrant Homes
Questionnaire for household survey, Khulna, Bangladesh
Research team no.____; Interviewers________________________________
A. What are the spatio-physical transformations that have taken place at the level of
low-income migrant dwellings (and settlements) in Khulna during ISI and SAP
respectively?
- Referring back to the possible roles played by elitist agencies, transformations to the
dwelling units (and settlements) will be graphically illustrated in terms of: Ownership of
land and dwelling units (type of ownership, history); Use of space (indoor and outdoor
alteration and control); Building mass (addition and subtraction, and control); System of
threshold and boundary (physical); Construction technique and material (permanent,
semi-permanent or non-permanent); and Services, infrastructure and utilities
(provisioning and delivery)
Nature of Tenure
1. What are the different land-tenure types which this migrant household held during its
stay in Khulna?
Tenure Types of Land
Type of agency
1
involved
Decision-
2
making level
Nature of
interaction
3
(contribution &
pay-back)
4 Type of
276
Influence
Timeline
2. What were the reasons behind choosing different types of tenure during different phases?
N
Reasons
1 Financial Gains
Closer to
2
Workplace
Change of
3
occupation
Presence of Kin
4
(friend, relative)
Benefit of living
5
close to an Elite
6 Forced Eviction
Voluntary
7
Relocation
Timeline
3. Which persons and/or organizations provide for and/or maintain infrastructure and utility
issues?
N Indicators Infrastructure (road, drainage etc.) Utilities (water, electricity etc.)
1 Type of Agency
Decision-
2
Making Level
Nature of
Interaction
3
(contribution &
pay-back)
Type of
4
Influence
Timeline
5. Is it needed for you to pay any property or holding tax or any other tax? What sorts are
paid? To whom?
Codes: land tax (H); building tax (B); informal tax (e.g. bribe - B)
Taxes (use codes)
Agencies to whom
bills are addressed or
taxes given to
Timeline
Tenure History
7. In which phase of industrialization a land title or a sense of ownership was acquired? Any
special help needed while transitioning from non-permanent to present status of tenure?
What is the form of return by the migrants in response to this help from the elite with
regard to tenure-disputes or tenure-settlements?
Codes: purchased ownership (P); lease (L); other informal arrangement (I)
Timeline
Form of permanent
ownership
Agency involved in
helping transition
Form of return
277
8. Is there any religious bylaw in practice (e.g. Muslim) that influence tenure?
Descriptions/indicators
Detail of bylaw
Religious Agencies
concerned (individuals,
NGO, institutions etc.)
Timeline 1 2 3
Sense of Ownership
Control
9. Social relation with which powerful class helped retain tenure status of land and building?
Q.1
10. Is there any particular community decision-making body that affects building or other
physical construction and transformation? What sort of role does it play?
Names & details of Community decision-making body affecting
construction
N
Members of
body
Roles/Functions
Protects interest of members
1
(e.g. against KDA, NHA etc.)
Lobbies and negotiates for
2
infrastructure upgrade or repair
Manages funds for community-
3
level construction or modification
4 Approves outdoor space usage
5 Approves new construction
6 Approves in-house modification
7 Approves outdoor modification
Takes decisions on non-
8
residence buildings
Arbitrates disputes regarding
9
property (land or house)
10 Facilitates household entrepreneurship
11. Who are the five most important persons and organizations within and outside the
settlement? Describe the situation during which their helps/assistances/influences are
required most?
Timeline Persons & Organizations within settlement Persons & Organizations outside settlement
12. Who does the community (leader) resort to when disputes cannot be settled internally?
Elitist agency
Central Local NGO Dono Formal Informal Local Urban Religious Communi
Govt. Govt. r private sector private sector Politician Affluent Institutions ty leader
(CG) (LG) (D) (FP) (I-P) (P) (A) (R) (CL)
Personalization
13. What is the tenure (and ownership) status of present permanent building(s) and other
construction(s)?
N Indicators Put tick mark ()
1 Owned (by purchase)
2 Co-owned (by purchase)
3 Rented
4 Squatted (arrangements made)
5 Squatted (no arrangement)
278
N Indicators Paid to Yearly expenditure in BDT1
1 House rent
2 Maintenance expenditure
3 Utility bills
4 Service bills
5 Property taxes
6 Informal fees, bribes, gifts
Other
Total
17. What non-monetary resources (material or non-material) are used for house construction
and maintenance?
N Indicators Put tick mark ()
1 Collected (& used) building materials
2 Donated building materials
3 Materials purchased in credit
4 Friends & family labour for construction
5 NGOs or others technical advice
6 Creditor (Elite)s advices
Other
Access to Resources
Access to Income
18. What are the sources of income for the household at the present time?
N Sources Contribution by Amount in BDT
1 Wages/salaries
2 Own business
3 Pension
4 Social assistance/donation
5 Casual/part-time work
6 Day-labour
Contribution from other
7
members (esp. wife)
8 Contribution from children
9 Remittances
10 Income from rent
11 Raised poultry/livestock
11 Urban agriculture
Supplements from rural
12
household/land
Other
Total
19. Who are the elitist agencies that contributed to income generation and resource
accumulation in the past?
N Indicators Elitist agency influencing income generation during different timelines
Type of Agency
1
involved
Decision-
2
Making Level
Nature of
3 Interaction
(assistance)
Type of
4 Interaction
(assistance)
Timeline
279
20. Do households receive any kind of donation that helps their basic housing needs (e.g.
purchasing of or accessing to land, house, utilities, infrastructure etc.)?
Elitist agency
Central Local NGO Dono Formal Informal Local Urban Religious Communi
Govt. Govt. r private sector private sector Politician Affluent Institutions ty leader
(CG) (LG) (D) (FP) (I-P) (P) (A) (R) (CL)
Access to Credit
21. In which situation one has to borrow? Which amongst the elitist agencies you borrow
regularly? In which (material and intangible) forms fiscal borrowings are paid back?
Which amongst the agencies provide formal fiscal borrowing (that requires written
documentations)? Which of agencies offer informal borrowing (no documentation
needed)? Can building materials be purchased in credit?
N Indicators Situations, lending Elitist agency and forms of pay-back
Situations/
1 sectors of
borrowing
Type of Formal
2 Agency
Informal
involved
Decision-Making
3
Level
Nature of
4 Interaction
(lending)
Type of Interaction
5
(lending)
Forms of Pay-
6
back
Timeline
22. Does religion play any particular role to facilitate access to credit?
Indicators Roles of religion
Purposes for borrowing
Lending Religious
Agencies (individuals,
NGO, institutions etc.), &
their name/titles
24. How the notion of private is manifested at the house-settlement interface? What sort of
household (domestic) activities are performed outside the household and at the level of
the streets and in similar public spaces? PHOTO
280
Private activities as performed at the level of public
Bathing Cooking Resting or Meeting Holding Children Cottage Parking Dispute
or sleeping guest family playing industry resolution
Toilets events
25. Is there any functional and/or spatial relation between any elite houses/properties and
migrants dwelling?
N Functional/Spatial relation
1 Sharing of common function (e.g. toilet, bathroom, kitchen etc.) with adjacent elite households
2 Borrowing of item (e.g. food, money etc.) from adjacent elite household
3 Usage of elite (or landlords) space for own purpose (e.g. agriculture or poultry)
4 Proximity to elite benefitting income generation
5 Proximity to elite providing other social benefit (e.g. sense of security etc.)
26. What functional and/or physical transformation of the house affects street fabric?
N Functional/physical transformation of house that affects street fabric
1 Change of building material (e.g. permanent construction)
2 Change in construction technique (e.g. traditional to modern)
3 Modified layout
4 Addition of income generating functions (e.g. roadside shops, small/cottage industries etc.)
Addition of non-income generating functions (e.g. extension or additional use of existing building and
5
spaces)
27. What social functions occur at the physical interface of houses and larger settlements?
DRAWING
Social function at the physical interface
Meeting and gathering through the Usage and sharing of common Personal usage for household
usage of public functions (e.g. shops) public space (e.g. street or open reasons
space for water collection)
30. What social function occurs at the physical interface of the settlement and the city
outside? DRAWING, MAP & PHOTO
Social function at the physical interface
Meeting and gathering Shared common public space Barren Income generating Patronizing
(e.g. shops, markets) (e.g. street or location for water walls activities of migrant- elites
collection) residents domicile
281
5 Communitys formal usage (school, clinic etc.)
6 Religious gatherings
32. Who are the consumers and other beneficiaries of the (social and/or material) products
produced in the house?
N Consumers & beneficiaries Timeline ()
1 Ordinary local-level residents
2 Local elitist residents
3 City-level consumers
4 National-level consumers
5 International consumers
Timeline
33. What social and/or economic circumstances led to this certain other usage (and alteration)
of domestic space?
N Circumstances Timeline ()
1 Sudden fall of income level
2 Loss of job or occupation
3 Add to present income
4 Enlargement of family (marriage)
5 Uplift social status/image
6 External influence (e.g. NGO)
Timeline
34. Which space of the house has been subject to alteration? DRAWING & PHOTO
Spaces of house subject to alteration
Verandah Living Sleeping Eating & Kitchen Outdoor/courtyard Roof Toilet
35. What sort of alteration has taken place? When were these various alterations carried out
(do these changes signify or coincide with any particular phase of rise or decline of the
industries)? Was there a facilitator required or involved in each phase of alteration? In
what particular situation his/her/its involvement was required? What was his/her/its
particular form of contribution? What form of relation migrant retain with the
contributing individual and/or organization? DRAWING & PHOTO
N Indicators Situations and assisting Elitist agency
Forms of alteration
1
and/or modification
Type of Agency
2
involved
Decision-Making
3
Level
Nature of
Interaction
4
(take note of
situation)
5 Type of Interaction
Timeline
36. What is the proportion of alteration compared to total area prior to each addition?
DRAWING
Percentage of alteration
Extent of alteration in sq. feet
282
Nature of Interaction
(take note of situation/event)
Type of Interaction
Timeline
38. What particular functional, social or cultural needs the different add-ons signify?
DRAWING & PHOTO
39. How do the alterations (e.g. change of functional usage, addition of rentable units,
enhanced density etc.) affect the built fabric of the larger settlement the house is part of?
DRAWING & PHOTO
42. What is the provision of water? Who constructs and maintains the sewage drain? Who
pays for the toilet and bathroom maintenance? Who collects garbage?
N Indicators Situations and concerned elitist agency
Decision-making on
1
public services
Type of agency
2
involved
Decision-making
3
Level
Nature of
interaction
4 (take note of elites
contribution & pay-
back situation)
5 Type of interaction
Timeline
283
Sub-question 1: On form and space
a. Who uses which part of the physical units of home for what purpose, and
under what condition?
Variables What functional How do the What are the How does What are
preferences values and more significant dwelling the
explain the ideals of a changeable function contextual
space-making good elements correlate the definitions
practices and the environment compared to the functions of of space
resulting layout manifest in the core elements? other higher categories
of rooms & layout?* What explains level units? that signify
spaces? What specific the changed How do they property
qualities are against the influence each ownership
mostly valued? unchanging? other? & control?
Levels Indicators
Rooms & Use of space: Notion of Partitioning & Sites with Ghar-Bari-
partitioned - Front-back ownership segmentation everyday Basha
space - Specialized- significance:
multiple-dual Spatial Economic - Income Bariwala
House - Sacred-profane organization of production producing
- Clean-dirty functional - Service & Gram-
Street- - Served-service needs Building utility Shohor
settlement - Plan-non plan material & provisioning
Formal structure - Religiously
Priority expression significant
functions Absorption - Educational &
Privacy other
Important practices Conventions & institutional
possessions style - Supplies
Group - Recreational
Latent needs membership Built form in
horizontal &
Formal- Environmental vertical
functional preferences:
incongruence -Climate
-Lighting
Construction
techniques &
materials
Sub-question 2: On control
b. How does the migrant exercise control over the spatio-physical boundaries of
the homes many parts & configurations?
Variables How is everyday privacy In which way a sense of How does property
practiced? territorial control is ownership manifest
maintained? in the practiced
What sorts of compromises control over various
(spatial and social) are made to spaces?
realize what benefit?
Levels Indicators
284
Rooms & Rules & zones: Appropriation of space: Levels of
partitioned - Male-female - Individual & group transformation
space - Insider-outsider levels
- Owner-member - Right-based practice
House - Master-servant
- Landlord-tenant Personalization:
Street- - Fixed objects
settlement Partitioning - Moveable objects
- Symbols & signs
Time management
Surveillance:
Common control as a larger unit - Eyes on the streets
- Habitual practices
Socially permitted level of:
- Functional overlaps
- Accessibility
Nature of interaction
2. Names and address details are provided with all interviewees kind consent
285
2 Rupsha Char Md Jala Gazi M/Musl 2 No. Custom Ghat, United Saw Mill,
private C/O Quaium Shaheb
Parvin F/Musl 2 No. Custom Ghat, Rajon Shaheb er Gola
Shahida Begum F/Musl 2 No. Custom Ghat, Suja Shaheb er Gola
Runu Begum F/Musl WAPDA Veri Bund Road, Rafiq Shaheb er Gola
Md Chan Mia M/Musl WAPDA Veri Bund Road, Abdur Rahman Shaheb er Gola
Md Shah Jahan M/Musl Notun Bazar, Bablu Mollar Gola
Md Elahi Boks M/Musl WAPDA Veri Bund Road, Rafiq Shaheb er Gola
Waresh Sardar M/Musl WAPDA Veri Bund Road, Rafiq Shaheb er Gola
3 5 No. Ghat Parvin F/Musl Near Kabarkhana Mosque, CDC Netri
Rehana Begum F/Musl
Shahida Begum F/Musl Near main Mosque
Subhas Chandra Shawjal M/Hind
Mr Mansur Sardar M/Musl
Mohan Sardar M/Musl
Md Anwar Hossain M/Musl
Patwari
Aklima Begum F/Musl
4 Ranar Math Rokeya F/Musl Purba Banik Para, Ranar Math, Community Center
Md Ismail Khan M/Musl Road no. 3
Md Sultan Khan M/Musl Road no. 2
Fatema F/Musl Road no. 1
Shamsul Haq M/Musl Road no. 1
Siddique Molla M/Musl Road no. 3
Kader Sardar M/Musl Road no. 2
Monwara Begum F/Musl Road no. 2
5 Dakshin Momtaz Begum F/Musl Taltala Hospital Road, Holding No. 77
Tootpara, Ashish Babu M/Chris Dakshin Tootpara Christian Para
Motiakhali Tohmina Begum F/Musl Christian Para (On the other end of Bridge)
Shahida F/Musl Baitul Aman Moholla
Amena Begum F/Musl Monsur Khan Sarak, Dakshin Tootpara
Sheikh Ali Akbar M/Musl Baitul Aman Moholla
Md Jomir Hossain M/Musl Dakshin Tootpara Christian Para
Rustam Ali M/Musl Dakshin Tootpara
6 Vastuhara Siddiqur Rahman M/Musl Road 4, House 211
Abdul Mannan Sharif M/Musl Road 1, House 2
Syed Shamsuzzaman M/Musl Road 3, House 142
Merezan Begum F/Musl Muktijoddha Colony
Chan Boru F/Hind Road 1, House 7
Abdul Mannan M/Musl Road 2, House 36
Asya Khatun F/Musl Road 11
Anwarul Islam M/Musl Road 1, Muktijoddha Colony
Hasina Banu F/Musl Muktijoddha Colony
Mohammad Ali Sheikh M/Musl Road 3, House 59, Semi-pucca Colony
7 Khalishpur 7 Nasir Uddin M/Musl
No. Camp Ishak M/Musl
Asma Begum F/Musl CDC Netri
Jubaida F/Musl
Nurjahan F/Musl
Jainul Abedin M/Musl
Zumrati F/Musl
3. Names and address details are provided with all interviewees kind consent
286
Mansura Begum F/Musl Sattar Boro Mias Goli
Md Afzal Hossain M/Musl Mosjid Goli
Mridha
Jibon Babu M/Hind Nirmala Goli
2 Rupsha Char Md Abdul Khaleque M/Musl WAPDA Veri Bund Road, Rafiq Saheb er Gola
private Gazi
Shahida Begum F/Musl 2 No. Custom Ghat, Suja Shaheb er Gola
3 5 No. Ghat Abdul Malik Sardar M/Musl Baidda Para
Gol Banu alias Hasan F/Musl Panir Tank
er Ma
Mira Rani Raut F/Hind Harijan Para
Shahida Khatun F/Musl Near main Mosque, CDC leader
4 Ranar Math Israil Chunnu M/Musl Road 1
Lutfor Hossain M/Musl Road 3
Haolader
Abdul Kader Haolader M/Musl Road 2
alias Sardar
Md Sultan Khan M/Musl Road 2
5 Dakshin Md Ziarul M/Musl Baitul Aman Moholla
Tootpara, Momtaz Begum F/Musl Near Catholic Church
Motiakhali Shamsunnahar Begum F/Musl Bridge Road
Ashish Babu M/Chris Dakshin Tootpara Christian Para
6 Vastuhara Mohammad Ali Sharif M/Musl Road 1, House 2
Merezan Begum F/Musl Muktijoddha Colony
Md Alauddin alias M/Musl Road 4, House 1
Dulal
Sufia Khatun F/Musl Road 7, House 11
Munira Motizan F/Musl Road 1, House 7 (AL leader)
7 Khalishpur 7 Md Shamsu M/Musl Corner of Pond
No. Camp Nurjahan Begum F/Musl Mosque trust land
Nurjahan F/Musl Pond side
Asma Khatun F/Musl CDC Netri
8 Bakkar Bakkar Jomaddar M/Musl Pond side
Bastee Md Mazhar Hossain M/Musl Pond side
Azad
Rahima Khatun F/Musl Housing Bazar Road, Khalishpur
9 Peoples Shampa Akter F/Musl Beside Peoples Jute Mills bachelors quarters,
Pachtala Khalishpur
Md Anisur Rahman M/Musl Peoples Jute Mills bachelors quarters, Khalishpur
10 Railway Md Bodiuzzaman M/Musl Railway Guards Colony
Guards Haolader
Colony
287
7. Table 5: Reconnaissance field-survey schedule (07.12.2009 to 08.01.2010)
Daily schedule
regarding core
tasks
Selection of
migrant-
settlements
Testing/adjusting
questionnaire/sch
edule
Discussions with
research
assistant(s)
Survey
Holiday
Survey
(individual
households)
Key informant
interview
(planning
authority)
Key informant
interview
(professional
planner)
Data
documentation
Feedback (from
research assistant)
Secondary data
collection
(documents/literat
ure)
288
8. Table 6: Pilot field-survey schedule (07.02.2011 to 21.04.2011)
Daily schedule
regarding core
tasks
Selection of
migrant-
settlements
Testing/adjusti
ng
questionnaire/s
chedule
Discussions
with research
assistant(s)
Survey
(settlement
morphology)
Travel back to Singapore
Holiday
Holiday
Survey
(individual
households)
Key informant
interview
(planning
authority)
Key informant
interview
(professional
planner)
Data
documentation
Feedback
(from research
assistants)
Secondary data
collection
(documents/lite
rature)
289
9. Table 7: Final field-work schedule 2011-2012
290
List of publications during PhD candidature
Book
- Hakim S. S. 2010, Of the Rough Waters and onto the City: Livelihood-
biographies of the rural migrant from the coasts of Bangladesh, LAP
LAMBERT Academic Publishing, Saarbrcken
Journal
Seminar/Conference paper
- Hakim S. S. and J. L. Ee Man 2013, Scarcity, Control and Third World Urban
Form, PhD Conference: Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment,
HERA (Humanities in European Research Area), 26-28 February, University of
Westminster, London
291