backspace makes a ^H character

At work we have an old database we log into using rxvt terminal with ssh -X. When accessing the system from a Debian 8 machine the backspace key works normal but on my new system with Debian 10 and my Ubuntu 18.04 laptop, the backspace keys prints a ^H on the screen. To delete a character I have press Ctrl and h keys. How can I make this work with Debian 10.
I've been reading about this but honestly i feel like im just going into a rabbit hole. I don't know if i need to change something on the server side or my desktop. This is also happening to my coworkers that just moved to Debian 10.
Thanks.