Are there any effective initiatives from the government and private sectors to promote the permanent development of those who cannot even afford three square meals a day?
It was noon on a chilly winter day at the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka’s Kalyanpur slum. Nilufar Begum, 53, had just finished all her chores. She cooked, cleaned, and took a bath, and now taking a break to catch some sun.
She lives in her small one-room shack with six family members, but no one is home right now. Her 36-year-old son – diagnosed with cancer – has gone to a doctor’s appointment at a hospital in Mohakhali. Her daughter-in-law and three grandchildren are visiting relatives in Cumilla.
She will take her lunch – stir-fried collard greens and lentils – alone in her empty home. Around 51 years ago, in 1973, erosion in River Meghna completely submerged her home in Bhola. The then 2-year-old Nilufar, holding her mother’s hand, moved to Dhaka with her two sisters.
Taking a stroll down memory lane, Nilufar spoke fondly of her early days in Dhaka, “When I came to Dhaka in 1973, we struggled a lot for food. We did not know anyone here. Me, my mother and my two sisters faced constant danger. I was the youngest at that time.
“We were living in a slum adjacent to Mohammadpur embankment. My mother began working as a domestic help. We used to eat whatever food the householders gave us. Sometimes we would ask people for food. When I grew up, my mother admitted me to a school. But I could not continue my studies due to financial issues.”

Slaving away from seven
Nilufar started her career as a domestic help when she was only seven, in a bid to bring some money home to her family.
Describing her experience, Nilufar said, “But at such an early age, I did not like working. I told my mother that I would not stay here. I asked her repeatedly to take me away. My mother told me that if I did not stay there, she would not be able to feed me.
“The family that used to work for had a child around the same age as me. I used to work as a domestic help for the family and took care of their child. Both the husband and the wife were job holders.”
Nilufar worked for that family in Mohammadpur for a year, until they left Dhaka. Her mother then got her work in another home in the city’s Asadgate area. Unfortunately, her new employer was abusive.
“They forced me to do arduous work such as sweeping the whole house and washing a lot of dishes. I was only eight years old, so I could not do it properly. They fired me shortly.”
When Nilufar was nine years old, her mother took her to break bricks for building construction. Her mother also worked as a bricklayer. Along with her mother, Nilufar also broke bricks to earn some cash.
She had an accident during the construction of a road adjacent to the agricultural market in the Mohammadpur area. Which ended her career as a construction worker.
“One day, I was breaking bricks, and the hammer crushed my hand. I cried a lot. My mother told me I did not have to work here anymore; I could just sit there with her. Later, I got a job as a domestic worker in another home in the Adabar area.”
Victims of child marriage
When Nilufar was 12 years old, she started selling pitha (cake) on the roadside. She used to sell several types of pitha, such as Bhapa, Patishapta, and Chitai. While running a shop unattended as a just a child, she faced one of the darkest chapters of her life.
A nearby food vendor victimized her. Speaking of the incident made Nilufar emotional, tears ran down her cheeks.
While selling pitha, Nilufar caught the eye of a much older man named Anwar Hossain – who also sold food from a nearby shop. He kidnapped Nilufar for a week, held her against her will, and sexually assaulted her. He married Nilufar without her consent.
During her week-long disappearance, Nilufar’s family searched the whole city for her, and even went to the Mohammad police to lodge a missing person case.
After a week, her husband brought Nilufar to her family. “I used to cry a lot. I asked my husband why he kidnapped me and forced me to marry him. I begged him to take me to my mother. After that dreadful week, my mother was relieved to get me back.
“My mother had not consented to my marriage, but she had no choice.”
Life is an uphill struggle
Nilufar’s husband did not provide for his family properly. They even had no place to stay. Nilufar’s mother gave her a small place to live next to her home in the Mohammadpur slum. Nilufar began working as a domestic worker in nearby homes and provided for her family with great difficulty. Her first child died a few months after birth.
As a climate migrant, Nilufar’s life has always been an uphill battle. With tears in her eyes, she stated, “If the River Meghna had not destroyed everything we had, then we would not have needed to come to Dhaka.
“We would not have suffered so much like refugees in this city.”
Choking with tears, she continued, “There is no end in sight to our misery. I have never been able to afford fish or meat for my family; I could never wear new dresses. I cried to my mother so much. She used to say that my father did not work, how would she afford new dresses? “I will not wish this life on my worst enemy.”
1988 flood in Dhaka city
As the day crawled towards afternoon, Nilufar’s mother Anwara, and younger sister Shahana came to visit her. The duo also lives in Kalyanpur Slum, on the next lane. Shahana was born after Anwara came to Dhaka as a climate refugee.
During the 1988 flood, Nilufar’s family fell into great hardship. Nilufar was pregnant. She was expecting her second child. Nilufar, her husband, mother, father, three sisters, and her elder sister’s daughter took shelter in a center on Iqbal Road in Dhaka due to the flood.
“The flood washed away all the homes in our slum. My parents, sisters, and my husband, the entire family, stayed at that center for two months. I had my second child Roni there,” she said.
When the flood waters receded, Nilufar’s family came to the opposite side of the Government Bangla College in the Kalyanpur area of Dhaka and built a home on empty land with pieces of wood.
She added, “The slum was set on fire in 1989, the year after the flood. In that fire, everything in my home burnt to ashes. My entire family narrowly escaped their demise. Nine residents of the slum died in that fire.
“When the fire destroyed everything, we started living here again in a shack with a polythene roof. Because, we did not have the money to build a house with tin.”
Nilufar continued, “After the fire destroyed everything we had, I had no money to move. Our financial situation became even worse. We did not have money to buy groceries. I used to go to the market in the morning and bring home discarded raw vegetables from the street, cook them.

“We used to have only one meal a day.”
Hearing Nilufar’s words, her mother and sister started shedding tears. These are not the memories they wished to relive.
Nilufar and her family have been living in Kalyanpur slum for 36 years, since 1988. This slum has caught fire four times, and miscreants have demolished the slum six times so far. Nilufar has been able to buy tins for her house after saving some money.
Nilufar’s husband was lazy. He was more interested in roaming around, or just staying at home, instead of earning money for his family. So, Nilufar took a job at a garment factory with the help of a relative in 1989.
Her job there was to cut cloth yarn, and her monthly salary was a meagre Tk12.
“At that time, Garments did not pay salaries properly. Even if they paid for a month, they would keep the salary for three months in arrears. Since income from the garment factory was not regular, I started working as a domestic worker again,” she said.
A vicious cycle of child marriage
Nilufar has three daughters and one son, a total of four children. After educating her eldest daughter up to class five, she pulled her from school due to financial hardship and married her off at the age of twelve.
Nilufar’s middle daughter passed the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination. However, she, too, could not continue her education and was married off at the age of sixteen.
Her youngest daughter got married at the age of fourteen after she reached class 10. She is currently an SSC examinee, and her husband is educating her.
Defending her decision to marry off her young daughters, Nilufar said, “I had to marry them off. Young girls cannot live in slums for too long, scoundrels harass them incessantly. They even threaten to harm or kidnap young girls.
“Slums are unsafe for girl children, so parents marry them off early to protect them from young men.”
Endless suffering
Nilufar said her family never wanted to come to Dhaka, but the destruction of her ancestral home by the River Meghna left them no choice.
She added, “Our lives were already difficult, but after coming to Dhaka, it turned hellish. We did not benefit from coming here, and our lives did not improve. We faced nothing but misery after coming to this city.”
Her mother Anwara and sister Shahana supported her words.
Nilufar’s son is suffering from cancer, and her husband died last month. He had a heart attack after hearing the news of his son’s cancer. The family has no other source of income. She is now taking high-interest loans to treat her son.
With a tired voice, Nilufar said, “I am 53 years old now. At this age, people live a secure life. I still walk around selling clothes on the streets, so that I can earn enough for a fistful of rice. If I stay at home for a day, no one will be able to eat.”
“We, the people who have lost everything, have been living in Dhaka for 51 years. But there has been no improvement in our lives. We still must toil to earn two meals a day. We do not even have a place to bury ourselves when we die!”
Nilufar was sobbing silently, with her mother and sister joining her for consolation. Evening had fallen in Kalyanpur, Nilufar went back inside to light a lamp. Even a thousand lamps would not be able to battle the darkness faced by these climate migrants.
Climate migrants in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than seven million people in Bangladesh have been displaced due to climate change since 1971.
A 2021 World Bank report states climate change will displace over thirteen million people in Bangladesh by 2050. The Dhaka city corporations say nearly 2,000 people move to Dhaka daily, 70% of whom are climate migrants.
Nilufar has no clue that there is a conference called COP where stakeholders hold discussions on solving the climate crisis and helping the victims. She is justified in believing that no one cares about poor climate refugees like herself.
It should be noted that there has not been a specific, standalone declaration or funding package solely dedicated to climate migrants at COP29.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the inclusion of migrant health in the COP29 declaration, highlighting the significant impact of climate change on the health and displacement of vulnerable populations.
Harjeet Singh, renowned climate activist and Global Engagement director at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said, “Certain places in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and many other countries are at risk of becoming uninhabitable because of the sea level rise and melting glaciers.
“Under these circumstances, they will have to move. We respect their right to relocate, but we will have to provide them with a lot of support when they are migrating. There are also challenges with the host community as cities in our part of the world are not ready to receive migrants.”
He continued, “We know that insufficient support has been provided to climate migrants in the form of adaptation. So, we are looking at an incredibly challenging situation, and we do not have a proper policy framework in developing countries to deal with that.
“And of course, there is no support coming from developed countries to help these climate migrants, develop policy framework, and help people who are being forced to migrate. So, the situation is extremely complex, and it is getting worse with increasing climate change impacts.”
New initiatives key to tackling crisis
Chief Executive of Center for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD) Md Shamsuddoha said, “Migration from rural to urban areas is increasing. Urban areas should be migration friendly.
“Urban areas should develop their capacity, not only to accommodate people, but also to provide essential facilities such as water, education, health, and livelihood opportunities.”
He further stated, “Developed nations should take responsibility for climate migrants. But it is an arduous task, as a developed country will not take responsibility for migrants in another country. They may, however, consider labor migration.
“That is why we need to accommodate our population who are internally migrated. We need to ensure their job security, food security, and provide them with essential services and utilities.”
Climate-Resilient Migrants-Friendly Towns
The CRMFT project was initiated in 2022 and completed in 2023 as a pilot case for Mongla. This initiative is currently ongoing in Patuakhali, Kuakata, and Borhanuddin municipalities.
The International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) has been working on the concept of Climate-Resilient, Migrant-Friendly Towns (CRMFTs) to address the growing challenges posed by climate change and migration in Bangladesh.
Providing more details, ICCCAD Research Officer Munia Tahsin told The Climate Watch, “ICCCAD is basically a knowledge partner in this project. We designed the Mongla town adaptation plan with a target population of 42,606 people.
“Twenty towns and municipalities have initially been selected based on their climatic stress and economic potential.”
CRMFTs are designed to withstand the impacts of climate change, such as floods, droughts, and sea-level rise. This includes building raised platforms, flood-resistant housing, and stormwater drainage systems.
BRAC Urban Development Programme Project Coordinator Shahriar Mohammad Farhad said, “Around 13,000 low-income people are beneficiaries, including at least 3,000 under the Mongla pilot project, and 10,000 in Patuakhali, Kuakata, and Borhanuddin municipalities.
“The number will increase further when the initiative reaches all segments of the population in all municipalities.”
This article is supported by the CPRD-CW Reporting Fellowship 2024