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Asma Banu, a 35-year-old housewife, has lived her entire life in the informal settlement in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The poverty-stricken, and often forgotten, edges of the Global South give voice to the incessant plight of repression, and need, hope and survival endured by the likes of Asma. Asma’s life is a mere example of life in complete neglect at institutional support frameworks, where steady decline, persistent forced relocations, service cutoffs, and unabated poverty form a grim reality of life in the most high-density economically deprived regions.

In search of work, Asma’s mother and sister brought her here as a young girl from Cumilla. Then came her marriage, and like many women, moved his house during and was settled here. This is where her parents in law, migrants from Dinajpur long ago, are settled. Her husband was a garment worker but had to stop pursuing he now works as a daily labourer, an economically endured shift that was required, not preferred.

Regardless of these problems, Asma continues to work hard as far as her children’s education is concerned. Because of the family’s financial challenges, her daughter was only able to study until Class Eight and was subsequently married, while her sons attend a local government school. Sometimes the family struggles to get even the most basic medical supplies needed, much less medical care. She recalls,when my husband developed kidney issues and was unable to work, we had to eat what our neighbours gave us. I still shudder when I think back to those times.

Sometimes family matters can become even more challenging. According to her, throughout the duration of their lives the most difficult issue to deal with was the constant threat of eviction. Colony inhabitants have faced eviction several times over the years. With no available housing options, they lived on the local school grounds and then moved on to reconstruct their homes. Asma claims, it is nearly impossible for most wage earners to afford constructing a single room today, which requires between 35 to 40 thousand Taka (BDT).

A Global Pattern: Slums Across the Global South

What Asma describes is not unique to Chattogram. Similar narratives arise from Kibera, Nairobi, Dharavi, Mumbai, and Khayelitsha, Cape Town. In Kibera, one of Africa's largest informal settlements, over 250,000 persons live without secure tenure rights, electricity, or proper sanitation. In Dharavi, with approximately one million inhabitants, entire communities have constructed complex informal economiesand live under the shadow of eviction resulting from redevelopment. On the other hand, Cape Town’s informal settlements stand testimony to racialized urban exclusion since apartheid-era spatial injustices.

Across these cities, the informal sector and its workforce form an interface between the poor and the urban economy yet these people rarely enjoy the rights and recognition of formal citizens. These communities constitute the workforce in construction, cleaning, transport, and manufacturing and they bring to life construction projects in precarious dwellings, mostly without basic infrastructure.

Urban Exclusion & SDG 11

The situation of informal-settler groups links directly into Sustainable Development Goal 11, i.e., "inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities." However, global urbanization trends undermine equitable growth, pushing harder-working-poor from city centers with no possibility of affordable housing or provision of basic services. UN-Habitat discusses how over 1 billion people worldwide live-in slums or informal settlements, and this number continues to grow.

This is no crisis of accommodation, it is a crisis of rights, citizenship, and dignity. Informal settlers generally do not receive legal acknowledgment and hence cannot even tap basic utilities or emergency services, vote, or be admitted in courts for the protection of their rights. Their contributions toward urban economies are not recognized, while their shelters are considered illegal.

Policy, Power & the Right to the City

The problem persists partly because the urban policies treat informal settlers as if they were nuisances only temporary on the scene, rather than as permanent citizens. Evictions are used by governments under the guise of beautification or clearing for development projects with backing by powerful real-estate interests. Almost never are their adequate provisions for relocation or compensations with slum clearance programs in cities like Mumbai, Nairobi, or Dhaka/Chattogram.

Hopeful examples do exist. Participatory slum-upgrade programs in Thailand (Baan Mankong), community mapping in the Philippines, and legal recognition of tenure in Brazil demonstrate some avenues of inclusive governance that can turn informalareas into orderly urban spaces.

Urban planners and international agencies also have to observe the principle of "the right to the city" that all urban residents, regardless of income or legal stature, have the right to live, to work, and to shape the city.

Recommendations for a More Inclusive Future

Legal recognition: To grant informal settlers tenure security, governments must establish legal frameworks and make room for community-led land rights documentation.

Community participation: Planning should be participatory and slum dwellers should have a say in decisions affecting their neighborhoods.

Services First: The right to water, sanitation, electricity, and health services should be prioritized regardless of legal status.

Global funding mechanisms: Institutions such as the World Bank and UN-Habitat need to fund community-driven upgrading projects and not top-down evictions.

Regional cooperation: South countries should come together to exchange policy instruments and best practices for dignity-based informal settlements management.

Asma Banu's narrative is symptomatic of a broader global trend. Chattogram to Cape. Town, informal settlers live in a world of ambiguity and disconnection. But understanding them as full urban citizens with rights, needs, and voices is not only a moral imperative, but an imperative for sustainable urban development.

Md. Muaz Hussain is an Urban Planner, Development Professional & Researcher

Disclaimer: Views in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect CGS policy.