The Current Situation of People Belonging to the Dalit Community Living in Bangladesh to Achieve the 11th Goal of SDG 2030

This qualitative research examines critically the lived experiences of the Dalit (Harijan) community living in Ganaktuli, Dhaka, within the context of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), i.e., making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Though at the core of urban sanitation services, Dalits are among the most excluded groups in urban Bangladesh, with systemically imposed barriers in housing, water, education, healthcare, and economic mobility. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and 100 structured interviews with Dalit households conducted from March to August 2023, this paper provides new empirical evidence to measure the multidimensional exclusion of such communities. The study proposes two principal analytical tools: the Urban Inclusion Index (UII), which rated the community at a low 0.35, and a Multidimensional Exclusion Score (MES), indicating that 80% of households suffer high deprivation in five fundamental areas. In spite of promises by the government of resettlement and some provision of infrastructure, the research finds an acute governance deficit characterized by eviction without resettlement, poor public services, and everyday struggles for survival. The research concludes that policy discourse has not been translated into effective inclusion and cautions that Bangladesh's SDG 11 path is likely to leave Dalits in its wake unless immediate reforms are implemented. The study adds to the debate regarding caste, urbanization, and social justice in South Asia and offers a replicable method for measuring urban exclusion among disadvantaged groups.