Tenure security, housing quality and energy (in)justice in Dhaka’s slums

Abstract

This article reports on a causal link from urban poverty, through tenure insecurity and poor-quality housing, to energy injustices for slum dwellers. Impacts of those injustices on residents’ well-being are identified. The prevalent physical manifestation of rapid urbanisation and urban poverty in the Global South is the incidence of slums. This article engages with the academic debate on ‘energy justice’, a relatively nascent field. This article takes a more fine-grained view of energy justice than most previous scholarship, examining the energy experience at a household scale in a specific setting of urban poverty. The contention of this article is that energy injustices prevail in informal settlements not only due to issues of governance and poverty, but also, to a significant degree, as a result of the urban poor being deprived of secure tenure and decent housing. Further, these injustices impact on people’s well-being. The latter point is explored though a capability analysis in a case-study slum in Dhaka. The case-study slum, Kallyanpur Pora Bostee, is a squatter settlement on government land in Dhaka.Key messagesThis article identifies a causality link from urban poverty through tenure insecurity and poor-quality housing to energy injustices for slum dwellers.The provision of affordable, reliable and modern energy to all citizens is enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, an aspiration which must include slum dwellers.This article establishes that energy injustices prevail in informal settlements from not only issues of governance and poverty but also, to a significant degree, as a result of the urban poor being deprived of secure tenure and decent housing.