Abu Salah Md Parvej Sajjed
Development communication in Bangladesh, as defined is all about using communications strategically towards bringing about social change and human development. In a densely populated and culturally plural country Bangladesh, where the order of the day is socioeconomic inequality, illiteracy and infrastructural vulnerabilities. Good communication strategies become vital for participatory development.
The most appropriate development communication practices in Bangladesh must be based on local culture, encourage community involvement and harmless new technology to enable inclusion and sustainability. A participatory communication-folk media-digital platforms-edutainment hybrid model is the most workable development framework for the Bangladeshi society. Notably, such models for communications also need to be brought in sync with the country's Five-Year Plans (FYPs), which are the national development agenda and have over the years, increasingly emphasized inclusive, technology-driven and community-based growth.
Participatory communication makes the incorporation of local voices into decision-making and message construction its top priority. It moves away from the traditional donor-led, top-down approach to development and focuses on bottom-up, community-based models. In Bangladesh, where rural and marginalized groups are typically excluded from mainstream debates. Participatory models allow these groups to voice their experiences, problems and solutions.
Community radio stations and newspapers have been able to do this. Chowdhury & Kabir urged their research in (2017) these media outlets have space for local languages and local concerns, with health, agriculture, education and gender issue programming that is both comprehensible and accessible. The Eighth Five-Year Plan (2020–2025) officially recognizes the importance of such inclusive media outlets and positions citizen participation as an important step towards fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Folk media, or lokomadhyam are powerful mass communication vehicles in Bangladesh. It includes those very popular genre forms such as baul songs, jatra, pala gaan, gambhira and alcap which have for generations been the very part and parcel of country life. These are not merely interesting but become rooted deep inside the moral as well as the social fabric of society. By adding development messages to folk media, they assume strong and embraced roles. For example, NGOs have successfully utilized street theater and people's songs to create awareness on family planning, women's rights and health (Rahman, 2015).
Because folk media uses everyday language, symbols and tales, they are more engaging than foreign or top-down advertising campaigns. Folk media also has the ability to surmount literacy barriers as it is frequently an issue even in numerous rural societies. The Third and Fourth Five-Year Plans had both encouraged rural cultural development. The present Eighth FYP reaffirms the value of cultural identity in participatory development, identifying folk media as a potential educational and behavior change agent.
Having over 130 million mobile phone subscribers and over 66 million internet users as of 2024 (BTRC, 2024), Bangladesh is rapidly becoming a digitally connected society. This offers an unprecedented opportunity for development communicators to reach large numbers of people through social media, SMS-based services, mobile apps and web-based videos. Digital media are especially effective among youth, urban residents and migrant communities. Facebook and YouTube-based campaigns such as those of BRAC or the Access to Information (a2i) Program have raised awareness on education, enterprise and e-governance. Mobile health services like Aponjon, Ten Minute School, Alapon and Muktopath could extend to pregnant women and mothers valuable information regarding child and maternal health even in remote areas (Ullah & Barman, 2016).
Development communication must support the digital transition while managing the digital divide. Successful policies will need to include digital literacy education, affordable internet access and local language content to enable inclusiveness. Moreover, technology needs to be supplementary, and not a substitute for, personal and conventional communications especially where internet penetration is low. Previous plans, for example, the Sixth and Seventh FYPs, laid out the blueprint for digital development and this plan continues with an enhanced vision of rural digital inclusion and innovation.
"Edutainment" the crossroads of education and entertainment has been an effective vehicle in bringing about social change in Bangladesh. Television programs like Sisimpur (the Bangladeshi adaptation and UNICEF Meena cartoons have improved knowledge on hygiene, girls' education and children's rights. The programs use narrative, humor and visual attractiveness to engage children and families across classes. Concurrently, dramas on the radio and television talking of issues like domestic violence, early marriage and drug abuse have influenced the people's mindset in a positive way. In Singhal and Rogers' (2001) view, edutainment constructs role models by which people can see positive social behavior being performed by characters whom they can relate to. To have their greatest impact, such programs should be as representative of Bangladeshi society as possible, by class, religion, region and gender.
Language is key to inclusion. In Bangladesh, communication strategies remain overly reliant on Standard Bengali, pushing aside non-Bengali-speaking communities such as indigenous peoples living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Development communication must draw on local dialects and, where possible, indigenous languages. While Five-Year Plans always mention ‘inclusive development’ they never once address linguistic inclusion in practical terms. This void has to be filled in the next planning rounds so that development indeed reaches every section of society.
Finally, Bangladesh's development communication must evolve along with its national planning goals to be truly effective. The Five-Year Plans have placed increasing emphasis on participatory, digital and inclusive development values that are extremely congruent with participatory communication, folk media, digital outreach and edutainment. By integrating more deeply into the planning phase and the implementation phases these communication methods, development can move beyond information dissemination to facilitate actual empowerment, inclusion and social change among all strata of Bangladeshi society.
