Woeful tale of a city
Shahid Alam assesses the decline of the nation's capital
As I was going through Salma A Shafi's Urban Crime and Violence in Dhaka, I was struck by a sprinkling of emotions, ranging from acute nostalgia for a Dhaka that I had grown up in, then an essentially large town which was not bad to live in, to acute cynicism about what it has essentially turned into, a crime and violence infested glitzy mega-slum, which has, for several years at a stretch, been assessed by an international rating organization to be the worst, or second worst, city to live in anywhere in the world. The capital of Bangladesh has, when judged against even the modest large cities of the planet, with all their attendant problems, simply become unlivable. But people live here, and continue to add to the city's population with each passing day, adding to the woes that have taken an iron grip over it, including that of alarming urban crime and violence. Salma A Shafi, an architect and urban planner, undertakes a study of crime and violence in Dhaka city generally covering the period from 2001 to 2008, although the data and information generated from both primary and secondary sources have been obtained during the period from 25 August 2005 to February 2006. She does a competent job in chronicling the types and trends of crime and violence the people of Dhaka have to experience and live with, analyzing many of the causes and effects, and offering suggestions on how the situation could be improved. In Shafi's words, her objectives in undertaking the study were to: "Increase awareness and knowledge about the nexus between urban crime, violence, poverty and ineffective urban governance. Develop a body of evidence-based knowledge. Suggest appropriate measures to combat urban crime and violence." And, what does she hope to ultimately achieve? "It is hoped that the findings…will contribute to adoption of policies and programmes by the government that will improve living conditions of the urban poor by mitigating violence and promoting safety and suggest ways of upgrading urban life and poverty reduction programmes, thereby promoting pro-poor governance." Forlorn hope, but that is the cynic in me talking; nonetheless, as things are going on in the crime and violence front, it will take a Herculean effort, one bordering on the miracle, to turn things around. New York city did it several years ago, and Dhaka, in terms of financial resources, planning, leadership, vitality, and innovativeness, is no New York city. The author acknowledges the challenges of implementing any combination (and that is what it will take) of solutions, while indicating some of the factors that have negatively affected the health of the capital city: "…any solution is easily offered than enforced, particularly in Dhaka city where community identity is being almost lost due to unplanned urbanization and lack of socio-cultural ties among residents, particularly in new settlements or residential areas." Exactly! It seems that all roads lead to Dhaka, which, people from all parts of Bangladesh have decided, holds Aladdin's lamp for fulfilling all their aspirations and desires. With the vast improvement in physical communication from even twenty years ago, people are taking advantage to over-populate Dhaka into an unplanned, or ill-planned, mega-slum, while leaving their own districts and communities behind to struggle with underdevelopment. But people find that, on coming over, there is no eldorado in Dhaka. But they come because successive wielders of political and economic power have left them little choice but to do so if they want to have a shot at making fame or fortune, or, ideally, both, including by crooked methods. Shafi touches on various aspects of society that have contributed to the situation in Dhaka: "The deterioration of discipline and teaching standards in educational institutions, a general breakdown of moral values in society, lack of employment opportunities, shrinking scope for taking part in healthy outdoor and indoor activities…are among the factors pushing a large part of the juvenile population towards violence, hijacking, drug addiction and other criminal and anti-social activities." And, incisively, "…the popular belief that poverty leads to crime is not the only reason for crime and violence and deterioration of law and order. Rather, a lot of blame is to be attributed to increasing corruption in everyday life and unhealthy competition in all stages." Drawing on the survey results of her study, she identifies six reasons for the crimes taking place: poverty, criminals receiving protection from those in power positions, unsatisfactory relations between the police and the judiciary, corruption in the police department, innocents landing in jail, and criminals going scot-free. Notice the preponderance of dysfunctional governance in this grouping. The respondents in the survey characterize Dhaka city as what amounts to this reviewer's depiction of it as a glitzy mega-slum: among other uncomplimentary epithets, they have called it a city of hijackers, insecurity, garbage, anarchy, lawlessness, and crime, in that order of emphasis. And, going by the responses to different queries of those surveyed, the secondary sources used, and, indeed, a general perception that may be found among the city dwellers, one can detect a common thread running through all of them. "Organized criminal gangs function in Dhaka city and pose a serious threat to the security of city dwellers," observes Shafi. "Their main consideration is money. They have very good links with politicians, government functionaries and the police, precisely the sections of the administration responsible for maintaining law and order. Most of the time they are immune from police action and the legal process." While Shafi concentrates primarily on the immediate factors relating to urban crime and violence, she brings up nuggets of important observations that have relevance to the wider society of Bangladesh. For example, "After the early seventies, income distribution has changed drastically. Rising income (consumption expenditure) and inequality have reduced the nation's potential for poverty alleviation." And, especially with the debate over microfinance going on, "…out of 30 percent of the total population identified as ultra-poor, micro-credit has reached only 12-15 percent." Furthermore, "though the political system, including the governance of the country, is supposed to be based on democratic principles, it is surprising that very little democracy is practiced within the parties themselves." Then, "Now student politics and terrorism have become synonymous…." And, "In a very crude way the two major parties have supported growth of religious fanaticism over the last 15 years by not restricting their sectarian actions…." Urban Crime and Violence in Dhaka is compact and does not resort to redundancies. However, in Chapter 6 ("Observation of Public Spaces"), editorial carelessness may be observed in that the introduction to the next public space to be covered should ideally have been highlighted through italicizing the paragraph or emphasizing it in boldface; as they have been presented, they appear to be a continuation of the previous section, whereby the reader gets an unpleasant jolt. Nonetheless, Salma Shafi has come up with an illuminating book on an ugly facet of Dhaka. She eloquently portrays the poignant helplessness of its victims: "Majority of respondents mentioned not receiving any support or aid during their personal experience of crime and violence and therefore did not complain to law-enforcing agencies about the incidents. Those who complained stated their dissatisfaction with police procedures and also progress of investigation. In the end respondents mentioned that resorting to personal safety measures was the best precaution to combat crime and violence and also the only remedy."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments