Bangladesh: People with no permanent addresses denied services
People with no permanent address are facing immense difficulties getting services, including national identity cards, passports, birth registrations and government jobs.
Affected individuals stated that they were having difficulties exercising their basic rights as citizens because they did not own land or apartments as immovable property.
They also said that it was difficult for each individual to own land, as many people in Bangladesh became homeless due to climate-induced river erosion.
In December 2021, prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the construction of a house for Asfia Islam on government land so that she could get a police constable job.
Asfia was initially turned down for the police position as her father had no land.
Though Asfia was lucky, hundreds of people were denied the government job for not having a permanent address like her as their cases were not taken to the notice of the PM.
Earul Islam said he could not join as a sub-assistant agriculture officer at the Department of Agricultural Extension despite passing the preliminary, written, viva-voice, and medical tests in 2018.
‘I was not allowed to join even after passing all the required examinations. I am a citizen of this country. It is not my fault for not having any land or flats in the country. I was born in Dhaka and currently reside here, but I am unable to purchase a property. The police verification gave objection to the authorities, and they halted my appointment,’ Earul told New Age.
He said that he felt unfortunate as a low-income citizen of this country.
‘My age limit for government jobs has passed. I do not have any other hope but to get the job,’ he added.
Association for Land Reform and Development executive director Shamsul Huda said, ‘It was a failure of the state that it could not provide services to the people for not having a permanent address.’
‘About 60 per cent of people in rural areas are landless as they own below 10 decimal lands,’ he said referring to various studies.
In a written verdict, the High Court said that a mere change in address of residence cannot deprive a qualified candidate of employment after Earul and seven other candidates filed a writ petition with the court.
Only an inconsistency between the addresses mentioned in the job application and shown in the police verification report cannot be grounds for depriving a candidate of appointment to any position, according to the verdict posted on the Supreme Court website on November 16.
The bench of justice Kashefa Hussain and justice Kazi Zinat Hoque delivered a short verdict on October 24, 2022, on the issue.
The court observed it while disposing of a writ petition filed by eight job seekers in 2021, including Earul, challenging the legality of depriving them of jobs as sub-assistant agriculture officers based on the police verification report.
The court directed the DAE to appoint the petitioners within 30 days of receiving a copy of the verdict.
The petitioners were all qualified candidates for the post of sub-assistant agriculture officer and duly passed the preliminary and written examinations, and finally, viva voce, and also passed the medical test.
The case document revealed that the police found most of the petitioners living in rented houses and not at the addresses they put up in their online applications.
Supreme Court lawyer Md Kamal Hossain, who appeared for the petitioners, told New Age that if anyone was denied government jobs for having land or a flat, it was unjust to them.
‘People are also discriminated against based on their wealth under the system. No one should be deprived of their rights if they do not own land,’ he said.
Kamal Hossain said that the DAE had appealed to the Appellate Division against the High Court order.
DAE deputy director (legal and support services) Mohammad Shahidul Islam told New Age that the government has the policy to appeal to the highest court in any case.
A permanent address is defined in the Registration of Births and Deaths rule as a place where people have been living for a minimum of three years, people have been living at a new place for the time being after their permanent address is engulfed in river erosion or for any other reason, or people have been living at a new place after purchasing land.
Referring to the rule, the court observed that a person’s place of residence can change depending on the circumstances under which he or she lives.
Election commission secretary Md Jahangir Alam told New Age that one needed a permanent address in any place across the country for obtaining a national identity card.
‘If any person sold the land of their ancestors, they can show any piece of land for his or her previous generation. Without having such documents, how will we give the national identity card,’ Jahangir said, adding that those documents are also connected to the database on the birth registration certificate, where a permanent address appears.
He said that their server is also attached to the education board, and they could be easily found.
Bangladesh Public Service Commission secretary Md A Hamid Zamadder said that the commission only recommends government candidates for jobs after examining their merit.
‘It is an independent commission. Land ownership or permanent addresses will be determined by the government or the ministries concerned, he explained.
Former Dhaka University sociology department chairman Nehal Karim said that a person could not buy a flat or land in Dhaka city with his only income regardless of his job status.
‘Dhaka’s land or flat prices are now similar to London’s. The government should ease the process of giving civic services to those who do not have a permanent address. Denying service to its own citizens was unjust,’ he said.
Aside from the government job, several private organisations conduct police verifications to determine if a person has a valid permanent address.
Md Jummn Dhali, a security guard at Trust Security Service Limited now posted at Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited’s Agargaon office in the capital, said that he did not have any permanent address as his house at Bhanumallik village under Janjira upazila in Shariatpur district washed away due to river erosion.
‘I have no house anywhere in the country. Seven months ago, my office started verifying my permanent address for security reasons. I have given my permanent address on my national identity card as Shahidnagar in the Lalbagh area, and it was my previous rented house. They did not find my address valid after visiting the place,’ Jummn told New Age.
He said that his office asked him to correct the address on his national identity card.
‘I was asked to give my address in Shariatpur. My house was washed away by the river. How could I show my permanent address? I am now living on my small earnings from my job, which I now have to stake.’ said a frustrated Jummn.
The draft report on Bangladesh Disaster Related Statistics 2021 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics showed that 53,862 acres of homestead land were damaged by river or coastal erosion between 2015 and 2020.
The government does not have any statistics about the number of landless people without a permanent address.
The upazila administration in the climate-affected Satkhira district, with the help of local NGO Uttaran, found 19,981 landless people alone in the upazila in 2020.
Supreme Court lawyer, Sara Hossain, said that if people from all walks of life did not get equal services, it would be a violation of the constitution.
‘One of the major reasons people in our country become landless due to river erosion is climate change,’ she pointed out.
Many people living abroad are also denied passports for not having a permanent address or a piece of land of his/ her or ancestors.
Nahid Akter, a private company employee, said that she became landless after selling their paternal property at Rampura in Dhaka in 2010.
‘When I applied to the passport office, I was asked to provide my permanent address. I was at a loss about what to do. I had given the address of my brother-in-law’s house in Dhanmondi for issuing my passport,’ Nahid said.
A 40-year-old woman working at a private company also said that she was unable to get a national identity card because she did not own land or a flat.
New Age
