ABSTRACT
The 1980s in Bangladesh was a period of crisis for the state. Throughout the decade, the state balanced the budgets, cut subsidies and sought international loans to adjust government budgets. The state had to adopt fiscal austerity, affecting its ability to provide support and services for the poor. This chapter will explore how, in this crisis, the evicted vendors of an illegal market in Khulna city, locally known as Kacha-bazaar, managed to occupy a piece of public land and what empowered them to stand there throughout the decade, and see off the threat of eviction. It stresses that particular traits of the poverty culture must be (re-)examined with respect to sustained exploitation to understand a new form or resilience of the poor in emergence in the region. The chapter discusses the act of doing nothing within a context of a city where political leaders maintain overwhelming control of the ways government decisions are implemented for the development of the city.
