Tribal community finds a voice through ICTs in Bangladesh (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Tribal community finds a voice through ICTs in Bangladesh

Rahul Kumar
December 4 2006, Bangladesh:
http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/143336/1/1138

“We migrated to Sitakund, hundreds of years ago and have since adjusted
to the local Bengali culture. Only a handful of the elderly people in
my village now remember songs in our language” says Lakshmi Tripura.

These were the reactions that staff of the Youth Community Multimedia
Centre (YCMC) Sitakund encountered when they visited the village of the
indigenous community’s called Choto Kumira Tripura Para, situated 14 kms
from the Chittagong city in Sitakund upazilla, Bangladesh. The YCMC uses
the local cable network for content dissemination reaching about 1200
households.

The Tripura adivasis (indigenous community) have been living in this
area for over a few centuries. Most of them have no knowledge of their
ancestral history and the wealth of their oral indigenous knowledge and
culture is now lost in time. Out of the seventy families in this
village, only a hand few are literate and almost all work as labourers
because they do not own land. Since they live scatteredly in remote
isolated hills, the community has no access to any kind of media like
cable television or computing technologies.

In January, 2006 the members of this community approached local NGO and
CMC partner, (Youth Power in Social Action) to support them with a
television. They also approached the Chairman of the Sitakund
Municipality with the request for a Video Compact Disc (VCD) player.
They fundraised within their community and came up with the money to
buy a diesel generator.

On a weekly basis now, they borrow local programmes produced by
volunteers of CMC Sitakund and watch it in their community school.
Recording and broadcasting programmes is the first step towards
preserving a culture that is soon disappearing. ‘Though we are citizens
of this country we have no civic rights. No government service ever
reaches our doorstep. We have no source of pure drinking water;
education or heath services. Our men are paid lesser than the Bengali
labourers and our women have no social security. It’s like we have no
voice in anything whatsoever’ commented Rabindra Tripura, the village
leader.

As part of its mission the Youth CMC has taken the initiative to partner
with the indigenous communities. Lakshmi Tripura, the school teacher
from Choto Kumira Tripura Para joined the CMC management committee as
secretary to ensure that his community use the CMC facility to voice
their concerns. In a recently held sustainability workshop by UNESCO,
they formed an action plan to develop a series of audio-visual
documentaries on their problems, needs and concerns which they plan on
using as an advocacy tool. Cable broadcasts and narrowcasting of these
programmes will sensitise the local civil society and thus build public
opinion in favour of their issues.

‘We have no wealth, nor power or respect, what was the use of taking
birth in this world’- this was the literal translation of the
indigenous song performed by an elderly singer – one of the last
remaining indigenous artist of Sitakund. “Now we need to see if new
media technologies can play a role in transforming this situation and
how”.

The Youth CMC in Sitakund developed out of a UNESCO supported
cross-cutting theme project on ICT innovations for poverty reduction.
The establishment of the community multimedia centre is currently being
supported by UNESCOs International Program for the Development of
Communication (IPDC).

SOURCE: Story contributed by Debobroto Chakraborty (Debu) and Seema Nair
of UNESCO. Debu works as a Programme Officer in local partner NGO, Young
Power in Social Action (YPSA) and can be contacted at
debobroto.c at gmail.com

IPDC (International Programme for the Development of Communication) is a
major forum in the UN system designed to develop free and pluralistic
media with a global approach to democratic development.

By integrating traditional and new media, community multimedia centers
link local and global networks and bring digital tools and new
opportunities within the reach of millions, opening new gateways to
information, communication and knowledge.

A community multimedia centre (CMC) combines traditional local media,
like radio, TV and newspapers, with new technologies, such as
computers, internet, photocopiers and digital devices like cameras and
audio players.

CMCs are a unique way for poor communities, often in remote rural areas,
to overcome common obstacles to their full and profitable use of ICTs,
including the vast potential knowledge resources of the internet and
other digital media. UNESCO’s global pilot project with CMCs is
supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation


For more information, contact:
UNESCO New Delhi

UNESCO Communication and Information Sector

Community Multimedia Centre Initiative www.unesco.org/webworld/cmc

Jocelyne Josiah
ACI/NDL
j.josiah at unesco.org

Seema Nair
CMC Asia Coordinator
s.nair at unesco.org