Journalist Shafiqul Islam Khokon reported about the infelicities and deprivation of coastal people in Bangladesh
Journalist Shafiqul Islam Khokon reported about the infelicities and deprivation of coastal people in Bangladesh
Ful Banu, eighty-year-old destitute women in Barguna, is living on a dam with a dumb son losing everything into the river. Once she was wealthy enough to have cows, paddy fields and an orchard. She could sell excess crops after meeting her family needs. She said that her house has eroded three times to the river since she came to the in-laws. She said, while journalist Shafiqul Islam Khokon was asking for permission taking photograph, "We have born with terrible fortune. You can not change our lot by taking pictures. The river has taken away everything. No one looks after us.” The Bishkhali River has made many people destitute taking away their land and homesteads.
Banglanews.com published news about the suffering of Ful Banu and many others who were living on a river dam[1]. The reporter Shafiqul Islam Khokon has been reporting about the suffering of the destitute families losing everything to the river[2]. He has observed their terrible lives closely since he was born in the coastal area.
Patharghata upazila (sub-district) is situated adjacent to the mangrove forest Sundarbans on the east of it flows the Bishkhali and on the west the Boleshwar river. Livelihood of most of the people here is day labour and fishing. The people of the coastal region of Patharghata live with natural disasters. Cyclones, tidal storms, flood and river erosion are always with them.
Shofiqul Islam entered into journalism in 2001. He used to write about the news updates of current incidents for the dailies up to 2007. He decided to write feature articles about the sufferings of the coastal people after the severe cyclone Sidr in 2007. The people of Patharghata suffered the most in the cyclone. The Red Crescent reported 15,000 deaths in the cyclone. Now he works as the local representative of one of the most circulated Bengali daily the Bangladesh Protidin and an online news portal, BanglaNews.com. He has been continuously reporting about the livelihood issues and struggles for survival of the coastal people of Barguna and Bagerhat districts. Unfavorable environment, unfriendly weather and difficult communication conditions couldn’t stand on his way to play his due role as an empathetic journalist.
Shafiqul Islam participated ALRD’s two orientation training courses for journalists in 2017 and 2019 titled “Role of mass media to protect land rights, agricultural land, water bodies and environment.” After receiving the said training, he started reporting about the sufferings of the victims of river erosion. He also investigated the government’s support to the victims and their rehabilitation. In one of his news reports titled “Expatriation is their rehabilitation!”[3][3] he described the real picture of the climate victims’ rehabilitation to a government project called “Ashrayon”, where he found it as an inhabitable residential project. He also reported about fisher folks’ crises of livelihood and their health risks from Covid-19 pandemic, uncertain future of the Rakhine indigenous community and the roles of the responsible government agencies.
Since 1994, ALRD has been working on enhancing the efficiency of journalists on the rights of the marginal poor organizing concept building training programmes. Till date, 375 journalists, including 151 women journalists, have been trained in 16 batches by ALRD. Since 2017, 175 journalists, including 95 females, have participated in the course. Concept development training builds the trainees basic concepts to understand and identify the issues related to the poor and marginalized people’s right to land and other natural resources.
ALRD selected 12 journalists from the previously trained pool of journalists for a special activity for journalist engagement to report about the rights situation of the poor and marginalized people, mobilize people’s opinion, and through this to sensitize responsible government and non-government actors. Since May 2020, the selected 12 journalists engaged in the special activity have been reporting about 60 features per month about the real pictures of the poor and marginalized peoples’ land and human rights, healthcare services, food and agriculture assistance, livelihood and struggle for survival etc. Shafiqul Islam Khokon is one of the 12 journalists engaged in the special activity.
After the news report, Ful Banu was provided with the government aid of 2 bundled corrugated tin sheets and Taka 6,000 for repairing her house. On 17 August 2020, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), government chief administrative officer at sub district level, along with Government Project Implementation Officer distributed aid items and Bank cheque to Ful Banu at Pathargata Upazila Parishad premise. Shafiqul Islaom Khokon was also present there on the occasion.
Ful Banu said “Now I believe, a photograph can change fate! Thanks to the journalist whose report brought about all these, I wish him good luck.”
Shafiqul Islam Khokon said, “the people of disaster-prone coastal areas usually have strong confidence on the journalists. They generally cannot get access to the responsible people to present their demands and necessities. They think that the journalists may help them by publishing their issues and demands in the media. On the other hand, journalists need to have subject specific knowledge and expertise to understand the issues and write the reports appropriately. There is no alternative to training to enhance the capacity of any kind of professionals, no exception to journalists. ALRD’s training on land, agriculture and water helped enhance my capacity to perform my professional duty better. There are a lot of landless people in the coastal areas. The knowledge about land, water and agriculture helped understand the issues and rights of the poor and marginalized better. Additionally, I have reported about the life and livelihood of the Rakhaine community for the first time thanks to ALRD’s special journalist engagement activity during corona pandemic.”
