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Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh

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Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh The International Technology Management Review, Vol. 6 (2017), No. 3, 94-102 Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh Md. Anowarul Arif Khan 1 Access to Information (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Md. Mostafizur Rahman Khan 2 Access to Information (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Mahmudul Hassan3 Access to Information (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Firoz Ahmed 4 Access to Information (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Shah Md. Rauful Haque 5 Access to Information (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Abstract Community radio is a medium of expressing and sharing views, thoughts, ideas, problems and prospects of rural, disadvantaged, vulnerable and hard to reach population with the mainstream population. As the media of root level people of the disadvantaged areas, Community radio has become popular in recent years and it has opened a new arena for both the policy makers as well as grassroots people to be involved in the development process of their community. There are about 17 Community Radios broadcasting 135 hours programmes in a day across the country. The Community Radio can help us in addressing social, economic, cultural, educational, health, water and sanitation and disaster related issues more effectively and strategically. In order to highlight the importance and effectiveness of community radio for the community development of Bangladesh, this study has been conducted based on the secondary data. This is a group effort that has become successful by the co-operation of many individuals and institutions. Access to Information (a2i) Programme would like to express sincere gratitude to Monisha Mohonto, Project Focal and Bakul Mohonto, Program Assistant, BTV for introducing such an innovative project. As this is a new concept, there is no significant study has been conducted. Therefore the study has been directed to explore the importance of community FM radio in Bangladesh particularly in remote and rural areas. Keywords: Community radio, Community Development, disadvantaged and vulnerable group, Remote and rural areas. 1 Results Management Expert, Access to Information (a2i) Programme, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka 2 Research and Documentation Expert, Access to Information (a2i) Programme, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka 3 Research Assistant, Access to Information (a2i) Programme, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka 4 Research Assistant, Access to Information (a2i) Programme, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka 5 Research Assistant, Access to Information (a2i) Programme, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka Published by Atlantis Press Copyright: the authors 94 A. A. Khan / Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh 1. Introduction and Background Earlier, in the 1st phase on 22 April, 2010, Ministry of Information has given approval to 14 community radio Community radio plays a vital role in the stations. Presently, 14 community radio stations have communications of a country. Community radio directed to a new era by rural broadcasting within a mainly serves a definite community and is a form of listeners’ community of 4.6 million of 13 Upazila of public-service broadcasting. It reflects the culture, the country. These programs focus the views and ideology and thoughts, norms and values of a thoughts, rights and scopes of the disadvantaged particular community. Community radio as the media community people (BNNRC, 2015). of citizens of a particular community has become popular and new opportunity for both the media Community radio can facilitates the disadvantaged and practitioner and grassroots people. Community radio vulnerable groups of the country by raising their voice, helps to avail utilities and amenities for various focusing their problems, expressing their modern development aspects of our society like education, updated ideas and thinking for the development of the health, water and sanitation, protection from natural whole nation. It can play a significant role for the rural disasters, address social issues at the community level development of third world countries like Bangladesh and connect rural population with the government. It through emphasizing agriculture, education, health and can be useful for the development of a particular target sanitation, recreation and social problems of a target group like elderly, women and children. community. Community radio helps to ensure people’s right to Radio is not a recent origin. People are acquainted information and community participation by with commercial radio and public-radio. Community expressing the voice and thoughts of grassroots people radio can emerge a new era of communication for the in the development process. Moreover, the United rural people in Bangladesh. There is a lack of effective Nations, the Organization of American States, the mass media for the rural disadvantaged population of African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, Bangladesh. Commercial radio does not focus on the and prestigious economists such as Amartya Sen, views and demands of local rural population. Besides, Joseph Stieglitz and Jeffrey Sachs, among others, have programmes and contents of commercial radio are not recognized the relationship between sustainable community people oriented rather encourage the development and freedom of expression, reflected in a western culture. Community radio falls under the pluralistic and independent media sector (Buckley, community broadcasting category. Community radio is 2008). that kind of radio which is owned and controlled by a community and always broadcast those programmes On March 8th, 2008, the Government of Bangladesh which are related to that community interest. Numbers (GoB) has given approval of the “Community Radio of community radio are not sufficient in Bangladesh to Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy”. The represent the interest of local rural population. principle purpose of the policy is to open up the radio Considering this drawbacks, this analysis titled “Role spectrum to community broadcasting for exploring the of Community Radio for Community Development potentialities of community radio. As GoB is in Bangladesh” has been conducted. emphasizing decentralization of media which has been reflected in the issuing of licenses for community 2. Objectives broadcasting and Policy, as a way to facilitate and encourage people’s privileges, in order to build a The main objective of this analysis is to explore the platform for community-level communication and importance and effectiveness of community FM radio sustainable development, through the accumulation of in Bangladesh especially in remote rural areas. On the communities’ energies, views and thoughts, initiatives, basis of the general objective, this analysis has and resources. The initiatives of the Government to following specific objectives; achieve the Right to Information Act 2009, Vision 2021, and the Millennium Development Goals To analyze the effectiveness of community FM (MDGs) have been considered in articulating the radio programs national strategy (Ministry of Information & Ministry To know about the forms and features of of Cultural Affairs. Government of Bangladesh. community FM radio Dhaka. 2012). To explore the development and need of community FM radio in Bangladesh Published by Atlantis Press Copyright: the authors 95 A. A. Khan / Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh To explore the opportunities of establishing 4.2 The Evolution of Community Radio community FM radio station To assess the need of setting up community FM radio station. “Community radio is a social process and event in which members of the community 3. Methodology associate together to design programmes and produce and air them, thus taking on the This context analysis was elaborated using secondary primary role of actors in their own destiny, data collected from national and international whether this be for something as common as literature, journals, books, articles etc. These mending fences in the neighborhood, or a secondary data have been reviewed for understanding community-wide campaign on how to use clean water and keep it clean, or agitation for the comprehensive picture of community radio in the election of new leader…Community Bangladesh especially for the marginalized population. radio is most relevant to a group of people who live and act as a community, and this 4. An Overview of Community Radio could be several families, several neighborhood, or even several villages or 4.1 Community and Community Radio communities, but the important thing is that Community refers to a group of people with common they interact.” characteristics or interests living together within a Carlos A. Arnaldo larger society. In other word, the term ‘community’ can be defined as a condition in which people find themselves engaged in interwoven and meaningful The flourishing process of today country community relationships with their fallows (Mtimde et al. 1998). radios has begun some 50 years ago in Latin America A ‘community’ is considered to be a group of people where the stimulus for these first experiences was sharing some familiar characteristics and or traits such poverty & social injustice. Among these two, one had as sharing a common geographical area i.e. a specific begun in Bolivia in 1947 which is known as the city
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