Social Issues
- Community centres should be established in all wards where they do not exist. Guidelines should be established for their conduct of business.
- In cooperation with the Home Ministry and the DMP, Community Police should be developed as a model to deal with public safety and to reduce public nuisance.
- The salis system should be promoted as a model for dispute settlement in cooperation with the Citizens’ Committees and the relevant CBO or NGO.
- Drug addiction has become the single biggest menace to the health of the younger generation. The City Corporation should devise its own ways and propose new laws with an easy enforcement mechanism to punish drug vendors. Special attention should be given to making slums drug-free. In cooperation with the private sector and NGOs, the City Corporation should pursue its own rehabilitation program for drug-addicts.
- Registration of all births, deaths, marriages and divorces should be accurately done; the whole system should be computerized.
- In cooperation with the relevant department for women and children affairs, the City Corporation should set up day-care centres and child welfare centres to help working mothers and poor children.
- In order to enhance and accelerate social, political and economic development, any city needs to adequately develop its social capital. The CBOs could be motivated to contribute to increase the social capital, and Citizens’ Committees could also be helpful in this regard. In order to encourage such endeavors, the City Corporation should recognize and award individuals for social contributions, community development, contributions to public safety, quality of life, quality of health, quality of education, helping the poor, etc.
- Initiatives should be taken to prohibit writing and postering on the walls in the city.
- In the light of projected social needs, the RAJUK Master Plan for Dhaka City should be revised and implemented expeditiously.
- New rules and regulations should be established for neon signs, billboards and advertisements so that they do not distract drivers, which will simultaneously enhance the beauty of the city.
- Additional graveyards and cremation facilities should be made available in and around the city.
- Information centres for visitors, particularly for foreign tourists should be established in strategic parts of the city.
- Every ward should have a public library with a minimum of 3000 books. Book-lending services should be established as well.
- The City Corporation must ensure that every manhole is covered properly to avoid accidents.
- The City Corporation must introduce a system in every ward so that citizens can relay their grievances daily, and their grievances should be analyzed so that remedial responses can be undertaken.
- In cooperation with the government, the City Corporation should ensure that all buildings traced to any type of heritage are enrolled for proper conservation and maintenance. These should be kept open for periodic public viewing so that the younger generation and tourists become aware of the city’s history, historical people and events.
- Zonal boundaries should be made consistent with thana boundaries.
- • The City Corporation should take the initiative in cooperation with the private sector to set up plants and power plants that transform garbage and solid waste into electricity, manure and organic fertilizer. These initiatives may be sizeable or small. These initiatives could make most of the garbage and waste productive, thus reducing the land needed for waste management and contributing to a better environment through the reduction of air and water pollution.
