Housing is one of the basic needs of men. No man can lead a happy and comfortable life without having a house for shelter. Bangladesh is a poor country. A large number of people here do not have any house to take shelter. They live in the slums in the city areas. Some people live by the rail lines, some live under the open sky and some people live on the footpath. There are so many people who live at the rail-stations, at the bus terminals and at the launch-terminals. They are rootless and shelterless people migrated from the village to the town and cities. They have no shade or roof over their head.
The houses made in Bangladesh are different in sizes, designs and shapes and made by different materials. Some houses are made of brick, some are made of straw, some are made of tin, some are of wood and some others are of bamboo.
As many people of our country live from hand to mouth and they can not keep their body and soul together, they can by no means afford to build a house. There are many landless people who can not build their houses for want of land. Moreover, every year many houses are damaged by flood, cyclone and tidal bore.
Thus many people become homeless. A good number of people lose their houses by erosion of rivers.
Every year natural calamities make thousands of people homeless. For example Sidr in 2007 devasted more than 50 lakh houses that made around 3 crore people homeless. The problem has become more acute in urban areas. Many middle-class service holders spend their major portion of earnings for accommodation purpose. The number of houses in Bangladesh falls far short of what we actually need. On an average six people live in the house and most of the houses have only one room. It is extremely unhygienic.
Our government is making attempts to solve this problem. The cluster villages in various upazillas built on 'Khas lands" have provided dwelling houses to considerable number of landless and homeless families. In urban areas, an ambitious project to build multi-storied buildings to give accommodation to low-income groups is being carried out.
Housing problem is also a burning question. Goverment is undertaking various projects to provide housing facilities in urban areas. Many houses are being built to provide housing facilities of the govt employees. The house building and Finance corporation as well as many other govt or non-govt. banks and organizations are providing loans for building houses in urban areas. This programme should be expanded in rural areas to ensure housing facilities for majority of our people living in villages. Loans should be provided to them for building house at minimum interest to mitigate the acute housing problem.
