the office of Ward Commissioner to provide an alternative proof of address, even when
banks refuse to allow camp residents to open basic financial accounts.
24. The ‘Bihari’ community faces obstacles in getting Trade Licenses. The focus group
discussion respondents in the IRB research shared that only 1.3% have valid Trade
License. Due to their habitation in the camps, City Corporation often denies to issue trade
license in favor of Bihari People. Without a trade license, business owners face difficulties
accessing credit or expanding their businesses legally.
Housing and Land
25. The housing of 116 recognized Bihari Camps in Bangladesh are in dire situation. In
general, houses in the camps are tiny, usually less than 8x10 feet, and host entire
families. Residents raise their beds to make space for possessions underneath. Houses
are separated by two-foot (61cm) wide passageways shared by residents, goats and
chickens. Most of the houses consist of one room. Some of the inhabitants reside in two
storied buildings. The staircases of these two storied buildings are so narrow that it is
impossible for more than one person to climb at a time. It is found that three generations
live under the same roof. When it rains, the camp floods, toilets included. In many of the
Bihari camps in Dhaka, the floors are weak and prone to crumbling. Gaps in the walls
and under the stairways expose rusted structural steel and rotting concrete. Electrical
lines hang in webs above the hallways and are perilously frayed
26. Despite the increase in population through migration and high birth rates, the area of the
camp lands has not increased, which has led to a situation of severe overcrowding.
Residents have coped with the shortage of space by building upward (second and third
stories) instead of outward. In addition, many have built space-saving devices, such as
shelving for their belongings at ceiling level and skylights for ventilation, as there is little
to no space between the houses to allow for standard windows.
27. Another major development in housing design after the initiation of the camps has been
the renovation of kutcha dwellings into semipucca or fully pucca structures. A majority of
the dwellings built in 1972 for the temporary housing of this community were kutcha
structures made of bamboo, plywood, thatch, or corrugated iron sheets. They remained
in a kutcha state for much of the past 46 years as many of the residents felt uncertain
about their future in Bangladesh.
28. The camp dwellers are very anxious about the threat of camp eviction. They continue to
feel insecurity about their land and housing situation, despite the efforts of camp leaders
to try to negotiate with the government to stop evictions.
29. In 1993, the National Housing Society sold the land of the Bihari camps in Mirpur, Dhaka,
as plots to people in the nearby area. There are thirty nine camps populated by seventy
thousand people in Mirpur. The National Housing Society is now planning to demolish all
structures in the camps. Not being able to stop the demolition order, the community
leaders petitioned to the Supreme Court in 2001 to stop the demolition of their houses
and other properties; the court issued an injunction order to the National Housing Society
in the same year.
30. Similar trends are also noticeable in other places inhabited by this community. During the
2001 to 2012 period, nine petitions were filed on behalf of Biharis in different camps
(Mirpur, Syedpur, Geneva, Mymensingh Patgudam, Adamjee Nagar, and seventy other
camps) asking the court to stop any eviction in the camps before rehabilitation is
done. After a long period of hearings, a bench of the High Court Division of Bangladesh
Supreme Court issued a judgment on 29 March 2016 withdrawing all injunctions and stay
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