In effort to help the Bihari people, the Bangladeshi government offered to give the Bihari citizenship with their country, but a majority refused in hopes that they may return to their homeland of Pakistan. Most of the Biharis who remain in Bangladesh live in small houses and apartment buildings within camps built for them by the Bangladeshi government. Although the Bihari in general are relatively poor, the Bihari of Bangladesh are generally categorized into two separate economic classes, the rich and the poor. The poorer Bihari are forced to share one room apartments with up to two or three other families and cannot afford to have their children attend school. The richer Bihari families are sometimes able to live in their own single bedroom houses, and are able to send their children to school.
Overpopulation is a primary reason for multiple families sharing living space.
Since 1971 the Biharan population has almost doubled within these camps, while the building of new dwellings has been almost non-existent. Since most of the Bihari live in the cultivated plains, they are easily able to grow a many different kinds of plants and crops. These crops consist primarily of rice and are generally used to feed their own families. The government also supplies a sparse amount of food and supplies to some Bihari families. The Bihari leaders still maintain that they would still like to be relocated back to their homeland of Pakistan, while a new generation seems to disagree because most of the younger folk have never even set foot on Pakistan soil, so to them, Bangladesh is their home.