Over 4,340,000 people of 867,904 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated under the Ashrayan and other programmes across the country during the regimes of the Awami League since 1972.
With the handover of 18,566 more houses to the homeless and landless families on Tuesday, the total number of landless and homeless-free districts reaches to 58, and the number of upazilas will rise to 464 across the country.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday distributed 18,566 houses along with the ownership documents of land among the beneficiaries through a video-conferencing from a function at her official Ganabhaban residence in the capital city of Dhaka.
Previously, the prime minister distributed 63,999 houses in the first phase, 53,330 in the second phase, 59,133 in the third phase, and 39,365 in the fourth phase of the Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa across the country.
Under the project, each landless and homeless family is provided with a semi-pucca house on two decimals of land, with ownership jointly granted to both husband and wife. Each house consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, and a veranda.
Project details said that 266,012 landless and homeless families were rehabilitated in the first, second, third, fourth, and the first stage of the fifth phases of Ashrayan Project-2.
The rehabilitation programme for homeless people was initially introduced by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1972.
Following the footsteps of her father, PM Hasina initiated the Ashrayan project in 1997 to provide ownership of houses and lands to homeless and landless people.
Since its inception, the Ashrayan project has rehabilitated a total of 771,301 families, benefiting an estimated 3,856,505 individuals. Across all programmes, 4,340,000 people from 867,904 families have been rehabilitated, including 2,910,265 people from 582,053 families under the Ashrayan Project.
During the programme of handing over the houses, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the houses being given free of cost under the Ashrayan projects are bringing self-dignity and self-respect for the homeless and landless people.
“Houses are being given free of cost under various Ashrayan projects. So, the living standard of the landless and homeless people has changed which brought self-dignity for them and made them self-confident. It is important for Bangladesh’s development,” she said.
Indian leading English-language magazine India Today in an article writes; Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ‘Ashrayan Project’ under which homes are built for homeless and displaced people in Bangladesh, has played a key role in achieving the goals of poverty eradication, hunger eradication, gender equality and women’s empowerment, among others.
“Her innovative Shelter Scheme, to transform Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous country by 2041, has been able to bring about positive changes in inclusive development by aiming to provide houses for landless, homeless, and marginalized people in 64 districts of the country”, writes the magazine in its April 15 issue.
Whereas examples of low-interest loans for land purchase are found in several countries around the world, Bangladesh becomes the first country to offer free land ownership with houses to its marginalized citizens in order to bring its backward communities into the mainstream, India Today notes.
“Beneficiaries under this scheme are not only provided with accommodation, but they are also provided with various training, daily allowances during training, and loans after training to make them economically self-reliant,” the report states.
“The scheme includes empowering women by giving them half ownership of land and houses, providing free electricity connection, providing clean water by installing one shallow tube well for every 10 families, and providing food assistance under three months of VGF to the resettled families initially,” it reads.
The India Today report also lauded PM Hasina’s development, known as the “Sheikh Hasina model”.
The ‘Ashrayan Project’ is a unique example of how a house can be a major tool for overall family welfare and social development.
