Anwara Begum has an M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the Calcutta University. In 1995 she obtained a Ph.D. on a Commonwealth Scholarship, in Urban and Regional Planning from the Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, UK. Her study fields are urban area development priority, housing and settlements and the problems of social and economic deprivation of the urban poor, Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction, education for poverty reduction and rural-to-urban migration.