Towards a child- and youth- friendly Dhaka: Co-creating a Rayer Bazar to grow up in

Bhuyan, Md Rashed, Khan, Matluba ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5546-1870, Smith, Thomas A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7221-1868, Amin Khan, Nova and Ortega Roman, Daisy 2026. Towards a child- and youth- friendly Dhaka: Co-creating a Rayer Bazar to grow up in. South Asian Cultural Studies 2026

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Abstract

From special issue: Between Chaos and Cohesion: An Explosive Re-emergence of Dhaka. Dhaka, the densest city in the world, presents unique challenges to its children and young citizens, whose rights to live, learn, and play are at stake. Only 2% of Dhaka’s children have access to play spaces and parks. Bangladesh, a signatory of United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Children continues to fail to offer opportunities for play and physical activity to children. With policymaking being top-down and rarely evidence-based, the voices of people—especially children—often go unheard. A lack of resources and open spaces, and an extremely high- density population, often are mentioned as key barriers to creating children’s play opportunities. This book chapter uses Rayer Bazar, a marginalised neighbourhood in Dhaka, as a case study to argue for a place- based approach to co-creating a child-friendly city. Understanding children’s lived experiences and aspirations is the first step towards creating an actionable child- and youth-friendly plan. We advocate for these methods to be replicated across other communities in Dhaka and beyond, ultimately contributing to a child- and youth-friendly Bangladesh.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Geography and Planning (GEOPL) Schools > School of Social and Spatial Sciences
ISSN:	1749-6764
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 August 2026
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2026 09:46
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/188712

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