AS many as 5.4 million people live in the slums spread over six metropolitan cities of the country, namely, Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal in as many as 9048 slums. As much as 37 percent of the capital's population lives in slums. These staggering details were revealed in research findings jointly undertaken by the National Institute of Population Research (NIPORT) and University of North Carolina.

While the eviction drives continue we should also have a compassionate view of the plight caused to these slumdwellers. For all we know, these slums did not come up in a day; the rise and steady growth of slums over the years is attributed to the patronage and protection by political musclemen alongside willful negligence on the part of successive administrations.

It should be remembered that these very slum-dwellers serve as cheap service providers of all kinds to the city's comparatively lower and middle income groups. A large section of these city-dwellers is also engaged in keeping our cities clean despite the fact that they themselves live in slums. A good number of them are also engaged in all kinds of odd jobs earning their livelihood.

On the other hand, many of the slums are said to be breeding grounds for all kinds of criminal acts in the cities serving as haven for drug addicts and drug traffickers including those dealing in small firearms. At the same time, however, we should bear in mind that this has also come about due to the explicit support of local musclemen under cover and influence of godfathers claiming links to political parties.

In any event we strongly feel that a proper and lasting program should be undertaken for rehabilitating the slumdwellers including those evicted from city's market places and footpaths allowing them to continue with their livelihood and living in places exclusively earmarked for them. Surely today's caretaker government is best suited to undertake this task.