Health status and its implications for the livelihoods of slum dwellers in Dhaka city. Shiree Working Paper No. 11

Abstract

Poverty and ill-health are strongly linked. Poverty causes ill-health while ill-health may also be one of the major causes of poverty. Health or physical labour capacity is one of the main assets for the extremely poor. But most of urban extremely poor people are living in crowded urban slums, live and work in unhealthy conditions, lack nutritious food, clean water and decent sanitation, and tend to be poorly educated. These conditions make illness much more likely and more serious.

This paper reports on the research conducted by DSK-Shiree into its programme areas and beneficiaries, focusing on acute and chronic illnesses and their implications on the overall livelihoods of extreme poor slum dwellers in Dhaka city. This paper reports mainly qualitative information from this research, but with some reference to quantitative data to capture the duration and frequency of illnesses and associated expenditures and losses.

Citation

Baten, M.A.; Ahammad, M.M.; Azad, T.M.A. Health status and its implications for the livelihoods of slum dwellers in Dhaka city. Shiree Working Paper No. 11. Shiree, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2013) 40 pp.

Health status and its implications for the livelihoods of slum dwellers in Dhaka city. Shiree Working Paper No. 11

Published 1 January 2013