Challenges in Accessing Healthcare and Education in Riverine Displaced Communities in Bangladesh

Riverine and char settlements in Bangladesh are repeatedly reshaped by flooding, riverbank erosion, land loss, and household displacement, while formal health and education systems remain organized around relatively stable mainland settlements. This study examines how geographical isolation, displacement-related socioeconomic vulnerability, service-capacity constraints, and institutional responsiveness shape access to healthcare and education in Charsadipur Union, Kumarkhali, Kushtia, within the wider riverine context of Bangladesh. An exploratory mixed-methods design combined a household survey of 200 respondents, 20 key informant interviews, seven focus group discussions, field observation, and secondary evidence. Quantitative analysis was descriptive; qualitative material was thematically coded and triangulated. In the study community, 65.5% of respondents lived more than 5 km from a healthcare facility, 87.0% reported access difficulties, and 88.5% rated healthcare quality as poor or very poor. For education, 71.5% reported insufficient local facilities and only 8.0% had attained college or university education. In addition, 92.5% viewed government efforts as inadequate and 72.0% rated existing programmes ineffective or very ineffective. Qualitative findings linked these patterns to transport constraints, low income, staffing shortages, weak infrastructure, disrupted schooling, poor government-NGO coordination, and limited local capacity. The findings indicate cumulative service exclusion in which geography creates an access penalty that poverty, capacity shortages, and weak institutional responsiveness intensify. Integrated, place-sensitive responses are therefore required across healthcare, education, transport, affordability, workforce deployment, resilient infrastructure, and local coordination.