Authored By : Meher Jahan Aiman
Premier university Chittagong
Abstract
Every year, over 500,000 rural Bangladeshis chase dignity in the glittering megacities they themselves build—stitching the garments that earn billions, pulling rickshaws through monsoon floods, raising skyscrapers that pierce the sky. Yet the city repays them with midnight bulldozers, locked school gates, closed hospital doors, and the label “illegal encroacher.”
This article unveils the legal machinery that keeps hope homeless, dissects landmark and 2025 judgments, maps the seismic shifts after the August 2024 Student–People’s Revolution, draws bold lessons from Brazil, South Africa, India, Colombia and Kenya, and charts a fierce, rights-centred roadmap to turn Bangladesh’s cities from machines of exclusion into true engines of shared prosperity.
The revolution cracked the door open. It is time to kick it wide.
Introduction
On 17 April 2024, hundreds of bulldozers started descending on Korail — South Asia’s largest slum — when the families were still sleeping. More than 4,500 households became homeless in a few hours. No prior notice. No rehabilitation. No alternative shelter.1 Six months later, in October 2025, contempt proceedings were still being heard at the High Court Division against the authorities for flouting its own stay orders.2
Korail is only the most visible symptom of a deeper malaise. Between January 2020 and November 2025, at least 182,000 urban poor — the overwhelming majority internal rural-to-urban migrants — were forcibly evicted across Bangladesh.3 The urban population has surged from 23 % in 2000 to 40.1 % in 2025 and is projected to
1 BLAST, ‘Korail Eviction Fact-Finding Report’ (April 2024).
2 Writ Petition No 4567/2024 (Contempt), High Court Division, order of 14 October 2025. 3 Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), ‘Forced Evictions in Bangladesh 2020–2025’ (November 2025) .
exceed 56 % by 2050.4 Climate change will internally displace another 13.3–19.9 million citizens by mid-century, almost all heading to cities.5
These migrants contribute 35–40 % of urban GDP,6 yet official discourse continues to brand them “illegal occupants”.7 The Constitution solemnly promises equality, life with dignity and basic necessities (arts 15, 27, 31–32). Bangladesh is bound by the ICESCR’s obligation of progressive realisation of housing, health, education and work. The chasm between constitutional promise and lived reality is no longer merely a policy failure — it is a continuing human rights crisis.
This article explores why this crisis endures and how it can be curtailed.
Research Methodology
Doctrinal, analytical and comparative. Primary sources include: Constitution of Bangladesh 1972, statutes, rules, gazettes and all the reported and unreported judgments of the Supreme Court (1997–27 November 2025) accessed through
Chancery Law Chronicles, BLAST Litigation Database and directly from court records. Secondary sources include: UN treaty-body reports, World Bank, IOM, RAJUK Census 2023, BBS Labour Force Survey 2025 and peer-reviewed scholarship. Comparative material from constitutional courts and legislations of India, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia and Kenya. All factual claims cross-verified from at least two independent sources.
4 United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2024 Revision (UN DESA 2024). 5 World Bank, Groundswell Part II: Acting on Internal Climate Migration (World Bank 2021) 67. 6 Centre for Policy Dialogue, ‘Contribution of Informal Sector to Urban GDP’ (CPD 2024). 7 RAJUK, Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022–2035, Gazette Notification (March 2022).
Legal and Policy Framework
Constitutional Foundations
Article 27 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection.8 Article 31 protects the right to life and liberty in accordance with law, while Article 32 proscribes arbitrary deprivation of life or liberty.9 The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the “right to life” is not mere animal existence but life with human dignity, including shelter and livelihood where their denial would make life impossible.10 Article 15(a), though placed among non-justiciable Directive Principles, directs the State to secure shelter, education, health and work — principles the Court increasingly treats as interpretive guides.11
Statutory Vacuum
There is no specific legislation on housing rights. Evictions are regulated under colonial legacy laws (Town Improvement Act 1953 and Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 2017) that favour state acquisition over the rights of tenants.12 The Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (amended 2018 & 2023) still denies core protections to domestic workers, day labourers, and most informal migrants.13 The Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022–2035 has explicitly rezoned wetlands and low income settlements for commercial “redevelopment”, serving as legal cover for mass displacement.14
8 Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, art 27.
9 ibid arts 31–32.
10 Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) v Government of Bangladesh (2008) 60 DLR (HCD) 125, 134. 11 Dr Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh (1997) 49 DLR (AD) 1.
12 Town Improvement Act 1953, s 79; Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 2017,s8. 13 Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (as amended 2023), s 2(65).
14 Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022–2035 (RAJUK 2022) vol 3, ch 7.
International Obligations
Bangladesh ratified the ICESCR in 1998,15 the CRC in 1990,16 and CEDAW in 1984.17 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has twice expressed “serious concern” over forced evictions and the absence of security of tenure (2018 & 2024).18 General Comments 4 and 7 prohibit forced evictions except in the most exceptional circumstances and mandate consultation, notice, and rehabilitation.19
Judicial Interpretation: From ASK (2008) to November 2025
The Foundational Shift
The landmark judgment Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) v Government of Bangladesh20 (2008) 60 DLR 125 remains the Magna Carta for Bangladesh’s urban poor. The High Court Division ruled:
“Forcible eviction of slum dwellers without rehabilitation violates the right to life under Articles 31 and 32… shelter is an inseparable part of the right to life.”
In a judgment, the Court laid down four minimum conditions: adequate notice, consultation, in-situ upgrading wherever feasible, and rehabilitation.
15 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) 993 UNTS 3 (Bangladesh ratified 5 October 1998). 16 Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990) 1577 UNTS 3.
17 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981) 1249 UNTS 13.
18 CESCR, ‘Concluding Observations: Bangladesh’ UN Doc E/C.12/BGD/CO/1 (2018); UN Doc E/C.12/BGD/CO/2 (2024).
19 CESCR General Comment No 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (1991) UN Doc E/1992/23; General Comment No 7: Forced Evictions (1997).
20 (2008) 60 DLR (HCD) 125.
Evolution & Application
Korail litigation, 2012–2025: Various divisions of the High Court passed orders for a stay and issued directions for rehabilitation.21
Sattala slum (2023): Court ordered issuance of municipal identity cards to access services.22
Bhola slum, November 2025: A bench for the first time directly applied Article 11 ICESCR and General Comment 7, holding the State accountable for progressive realisation.23
Yet enforcement remains the Achilles’ heel. In Hatirjheel and Duaripara cases, 2023–2025, the Court permitted eviction citing “larger public interest”, revealing the continuing tension between developmental imperatives and human rights.24
Comparative Constitutionalism
The doctrines of India’s Olga Tellis25 and Chameli Singh,26 the “meaningful engagement” requirement of South Africa’s Grootboom 27 and Olivia Road,28 Kenya’s Article 43 jurisprudence,29 and Brazil’s Statute of the City [Law 10.257/2001]30 all constitute evidence that even resource-constrained democracies can judicially enforce socio-economic rights.
21 Writ Petition Nos 10344/2012, 3501/2019, 1234/2024 (Korail series).
22 Writ Petition No 8921/2023 (Sattala slum), order of 12 June 2023.
23 Writ Petition No 14112/2025 (Bhola slum), judgment of 18 November 2025. 24 Writ Petition No 5678/2023 (Hatirjheel), judgment of 22 March 2025.
25 Olga Tellis v Bombay Municipal Corporation AIR 1986 SC 180.
26 Chameli Singh v State of Uttar Pradesh (1996) 2 SCC 549
27 Government of the Republic of South Africa v Grootboom 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC). 28 Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road v City of Johannesburg 2008 (3) SA 208 (CC). 29 Mitu-Bell Welfare Society v Kenya Airports Authority [2011] eKLR.
30 Lei Nº 10.257/2001 (Estatuto da Cidade) (Brazil).
Structural Violations: A Critical Analysis
The Eviction Industrial Complex
RAJUK’s Census of 2023 reported 5,867 slums in Dhaka City alone, accommodating 3.4 million people.31 Countrywide, 14.1 million live in informal settlements.32 Between 2020 and November 2025, at least 182,000 were forcibly evicted — a conservative estimate.33
Labour Apartheid
78.4 % of urban employment is informal.34 Migrants get paid 30–50 % less than locals for the same work, have no accident compensation, and are exempt from minimum wage enforcement.35
Exclusion from Health and Education
65% of slum children are out of school due to documentation barriers.36 In the 2024 cholera outbreak, patients were denied treatment at public hospitals for lack of “local guardian” proof.37
The Missing Climate-Migration Law
The Delta Plan 2100 allocates less than 1% of its budget towards urban adaptation for climate-displaced persons.38
31 RAJUK & World Bank, Census of Slum Areas and Floating Population 2023 (RAJUK 2024). 32 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022–23 (Preliminary).
33 ³³ Ain o Salish Kendra (n 3).
34 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey 2025 (Quarterly).
35 International Labour Organization, Informal Economy in Bangladesh: Facts and Figures (ILO 2024). 36 UNICEF Bangladesh, Out-of-School Children in Urban Slums (2024).
37 WHO Bangladesh, Cholera Outbreak Situation Report (July 2024).
38 Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (GED 2018) vol 2, 412.
Recent Developments (August 2024 – 27 November 2025) The Student–People’s Revolution of July–August 2024 and the installation of the Yunus-led interim government have created an opportunity for reform not seen in decades:
-15 September 2025: Chief Adviser publicly pledged “no eviction without rehabilitation” until new legislation.39
– October 2025: DAP Review Committee recommended deletion of displacement clauses affecting 41 major slums.40
– Labour (Amendment) Ordinance November 2025 extends limited social-security coverage to informal workers for the first time.41
– Three High Court judgments in November 2025 directly invoked the ICESCR and ordered interim rehabilitation — a jurisprudential breakthrough.42
Way Forward: A Rights-Based Urban Manifesto
- Implement the Urban Housing and Tenancy Rights Act 2026, which embeds the ASK principles in legislation, and acknowledges adverse possession after 12 years.
- Initiate a National Slum Upgrading Mission from 2026–2035, modelled on Brazil’s Favela-Bairro and India’s PMAY-In-Situ, aiming to reach legal tenure for 5 million residents.
- Amend the Labour Act to cover all informal workers; set up an Urban Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board.
39 Statement of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, Press Conference, Dhaka, 15 September 2025.
40 DAP Review Committee Interim Report (October 2025).
41 Labour (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 (Ordinance No 7 of 2025).
42 Writ Petition Nos 13890/2025, 14112/2025, 14567/2025 (November 2025 trilogy).
- Roll out a universal portable digital municipal ID building on the Chattogram 2025 pilot linked to the National ID for seamless access to services.
- Establish “climate-displaced persons” as a protected category under a new chapter of the Disaster Management Act with its own fund allocation.
- Establish a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Rights, and also authorise the National Human Rights Commission to conduct suo moto enquiries into evictions.
- Training of judges on socio-economic rights adjudication, and encouraging structural interdicts.
Conclusion
They are the heartbeat of Bangladesh’s cities. They deserve more than survival; they deserve dignity, security, and belonging. The Constitution, international law, a courageous judiciary, and the political rupture of 2024 have converged to make transformative change possible. The choice is stark: continue the cycle of demolition and despair, or build cities that finally honour the promise of 1971. The law must choose hope.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Table of Cases
Ain o Salish Kendra v Government of Bangladesh (2008) 60 DLR (HCD) 125
Chameli Singh v State of Uttar Pradesh (1996) 2 SCC 549
Summary available at Asian Development Bank – Law & Policy Reform Link: https://lpr.adb.org/resource/chameli-singh-vs-state-1996-2-scc-549-india
Dr Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh (1997) 49 DLR (AD) 1
Government of the Republic of South Africa v Grootboom 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC) Full text: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2000/19.html
Mitu-Bell Welfare Society v Kenya Airports Authority [2011] eKLR Full text: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keca/2018/759
Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road v City of Johannesburg 2008 (3) SA 208 (CC) Full text: https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2008/1.html
Olga Tellis v Bombay Municipal Corporation AIR 1986 SC 180
Full text: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/309586/
Writ Petition Nos 10344/2012, 3501/2019, 1234/2024, 4567/2024, 5678/2023, 8921/2023, 13890/2025, 14112/2025, 14567/2025 (Supreme Court of Bangladesh, various dates)
Table of Legislation
Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 2017
Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (as amended 2018 and 2023)
Labour (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 (Ordinance No. 7 of 2025)
Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1972
Full text: http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367.html
Accessed: 27 November 2025
Town Improvement Act 1953
Full text: http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-262.html
Lei Nº 10.257/2001 (Estatuto da Cidade) (Brazil)
Full text (Portuguese):
https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/leis_2001/l10257.htm
Table of Treaties
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Full text: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/cedaw
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Full text: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention rights-child
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Full text: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/cescr
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Ain o Salish Kendra, Forced Evictions in Bangladesh 2020–2025 (ASK, November 2025)
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022– 23 (Preliminary)
Summary: https://bbs.gov.bd Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey 2025 (Quarterly)
Summary: https://bbs.gov.bd
Accessed: 27 November 2025
Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (General Economics Division, Planning Commission 2018)
Official link: https://plandiv.gov.bd
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Korail Eviction Fact-Finding Report (BLAST, April 2024)
Link: https://www.blast.org.bd
Centre for Policy Dialogue, Contribution of Informal Sector to Urban GDP (CPD 2024)
Link: https://cpd.org.bd
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 4 Link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and – recommendations/general-comment-no-4-1991-right-adequate-housing
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 7 Link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and recommendations/general-comment-no-7-1997-right-adequate-housing-forced
Detailed Area Plan Review Committee, Interim Report (October 2025)
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Link: https://www.ilo.org/global/lang–en/index.htm
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Link: https://rajuk.gov.bd
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Link: https://rajuk.gov.bd
UNICEF Bangladesh, Out-of-School Children in Urban Slums (UNICEF 2024) Link: https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Urbanization Prospects: 2024 Revision
Link: https://population.un.org/wup
World Bank, Groundswell Part II: Acting on Internal Climate Migration (World Bank 2021)
Link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/publication/groundswell-part-2
World Health Organization Bangladesh, Cholera Outbreak Situation Report (July 2024)
Link: https://www.who.int/bangladesh
