It is said that “Communication is a process, not a product”. But the mainstream communication process depends on products of modern technology. Telecommunication system is often stated to be the most thriving catalyst in the economic, social and political development of a country. Despite this, in Bangladesh, there is a worrying lack of evidence or analysis of the actual experience and effects of telecommunication system upon poor people’s livelihoods.
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) supported by UNESCO runs an ICT resource centre in the Sitakund municipality of Sitakund sub district under Chittagong District of Bangladesh. The area is situated 37 kilometres away from Chittagong City flanked by hills and sea. Total population of the area is 274,903. The literacy rate of the area is 41.1% and proportion of employed men and women is 86% and 21% respectively. 85% of total villages and 65% of total households of the Upazilla (municipality) are under electricity coverage (source: 1991 population census). It has the biggest ecological park of Asia and the biggest Hindu pilgrimage of Bangladesh.
The majestic natural beauty and historical Hindu religious sights and structures offer enormous prospects of tourism that have never been explored. Community people consist of mostly Muslims, followed by Hindus and the Buddhists. Fisher folk live on the sea shore while the indigenous people on the hills.
The municipality area has a strong presence of various communication tools. Almost every house has television and radio. Many have refrigerators, VCDs, CD systems and so on. Although not too many, but a reasonable number of TVs can also be found in the villages. Many village tea stalls have been using VCDs to show cinemas and attract more customers. Thus, all sorts of technological applications are found here. There are many calling centers offering landline and mobile calling facilities along with computer composing and printing.
Recently Sitakund’s telecom exchange was made digital. From November 2003 they have supplied around 500 digital phone connections in the municipality area and plan to increase this to 2000 connections. However, long before the introduction of digital phone, communication spread out even in the extreme remote village of Sitakund with the help of a modern telecommunication tool, the mobile phone. Mobile phone has now become so common and people have become so accustomed to it that even the Dadima (aged grandmother) of the most far end village of Sitakund sub-district knows what it is, what it does and is likely to have used it.
The present ICT initiative in Sitakund has been promoting some digital tools to the local disadvantaged youths and adolescents as also monitoring their effects. These are the tools that include computers, digital camera, scanner, pocket PCs among others. The ethnographic action research undertaken in the initiative has provided more
in-depth knowledge about people’s responses to ICTs. Methods include field notes,
in-depth interviews, group discussions,
social maps and issue based participatory
exercises. The findings revealed that the digital tool that is able to get the highest public enthusiasm in rural Sitakund was not any that our centre could offer. It is the mobile phone. In fact, mobile phones enabled the emergence of a new culture.
For the digitally less aware rural people the mobile technology has offered a brand new way for communicating and exchanging information. In various cases it has enabled and strengthened existing information networks and created new ones as well.
Mobiles phones: trends and impact
Availability of mobile phones all around the locality (mainly in urban and suburban areas) has provided people with an opportunity for communication that is beyond imagination. Many people of Sitakund work and live abroad. Localities named as ‘London’i Para’ and ‘Dubai Para’ are occupied by kin of these emigrants. Families dependent on them often need to communicate with them. People were earlier forced to travel a long distance and spend more money just to make a call because of non-availability of digital phone and poor analog connection. It was impossible for women to travel as mobility restrictions on them are quite severe. With available mobile phones, calling centers have now grown even inside
the remote villages.
A number of the rural calling centers consist of just one mobile phone, a table and a bench. Mobile phones used commercially have certainly created a new self-employment opportunity for people. People invest by buying a mobile with some small loans from NGOs or other sources.
It has also enabled people to keep the communication system personal. Because in earlier times while making a call through landline at home and especially from shops, the phone set could not be moved and people could not talk personal matters over the phone without others hearing it. But now they can take the mobile set in their hand and move to a private distance and ‘do mobile’. This is the term that people often use here, ‘doing mobile’.
Majority of the people having mobile phones use prepaid phone. It is because of the uncertain monthly phone bill and an expensive line charge. This costs them more than the postpaid facility. Often people call from shops even when they have their own mobile phone to save some money. With a pre-paid mobile one has to pay Taka 6.90 per minute. This high cost has gradually led towards a new trend that is often termed as ‘Miss Call culture’. People have found out the way of using missed calls so innovatively that it has almost turned to a culture. Through this means, communications carries on effectively and no cost at all.
Salim, a 34-year old teacher and owner of a private coaching centre beside YPSA office says, “…Me and Ahmed have an understanding between ourselves about communicating with mobile phones using miss calls. When either one of us gives a miss call that means ‘I am at home, where are you?’ If given two miss calls at one time it means ‘I’m at your house, where are you?’ If Ahmed gives three miss calls at a time that means “I am standing before the shop at the entrance of your street. Come out.’ and I won’t make mistake responding with a single miss call that means Right away!”
A 30-year old accountant, Sharif says he gives miss call to people close to him that means “I am thinking about you”. Before the digital phone came to our ICT centre I rarely made a mobile call directly to my Programme officer. We have an arrangement between ourselves that if I give a miss call from the accountant’s mobile he will call back. Even after numerous miss calls from someone else’s mobile, he won’t call back!”
The accountant had two miss calls from an unknown number in my presence. After screening the number he called back out of curiosity and when he called, the person at the other end simply denied having called. A 24-year-old college male student’s response to my query in this respect was “The trend is now to give miss calls to unknown numbers in order to find a girl. Mostly young girls will call you back after repeated miss calls because young unmarried girls become embarrassed in the presence of their family on getting miscalls.
Many people say “Girls, who were not easily reached previously because of the distance and non-availability of landlines, can now be easily reached because the family has a mobile phone. Disturb the girl (or the person you hate) with as many missed calls as you want and it doesn’t cost a penny.”
“There has not been any incident in my life after acquiring a mobile phone. But there has been an incident in my friend’s life. My friend talks to a friend of hers everyday. But she does not know who that person is. They got introduced to each other through missed calls. They solve all their problems by discussing with each other. My friend had to go through many serious consequences in her family for talking to this friend yet their relationship continues…” says an 18 year old participant of the centre.
A young 28-year-old journalist of Dhaka, Aamir says “We, in our friends group start miss call games among ourselves after mid night. The game is that the person who can give highest miss calls without getting caught wins. If the person receiving miss calls can catch the miss call, then he wins!”
At an early stage in the project, we would often wonder what may happen if the rural youths of Sitakund get internet access. How it might result in new relations through chatting with unknown people and emails. But we never assumed that this is already in practice without any internet connection and with just the mobile phones.
Mobile phones often result in new types of relationships. The fact that the people communicating over the phone can remain unknown allows them to form new relationships with unknown people more easily. For instance, people feeling close and dependent on others whom they have never seen in their lives and do not know anything about except their names. On the other hand, the new behaviours emerging for new modes of communication may just strengthen existing values. For instance, girls may be criticized for talking to strange men or boys may not be given money for personal expenditure. It is interesting to note that more than its use the ‘face value’ of phone is very high almost making it a fetish.
“Mobile phone is a very important aspect in a person’s social status. The person who has a mobile has a much higher position in various gossip, occasions or games. Moreover, if the person’s phone set is more valuable his position is much higher.” Possession of this powerful digital tool can give people a sense of power as it is something not every person can afford in rural places. It can bring about changes in peoples’ personal and social behavior. The same way it can change behavior towards the people who own it.
Most people have a clear idea of what social and personal benefits can they avail from this tool.
“…a man was often seen with a mobile in his hand in our village. He used to put the mobile to his ear and say something whenever he saw anyone coming. This scene took place everyday. Suddenly one day, when he saw some of the villagers of our village passing by the road he held the mobile to his ear and was saying something. Seeing him some of the children began to say how can he afford to talk like this all the time. One of them said, let us go and find out. They approached him and after giving a salaam said, Bhai, please give a call to this number. That person then became uneasy and said my mobile card is empty. Then they said, if there is no money in your mobile then how did you make calls. Then they all forcefully took away the mobile from him and saw that it is not a mobile, it’s actually a mobile shaped calculator.” As the local researcher adds this is because many people so strongly believe that having a mobile can change their social status.
Having the easy communication tool in hand and ability to communicate whenever they want with a vast number of people increases people’s wish to be in constant exchange of information and emotion.
Women’s inability to move around much physically is the reason for mobile phone having an impact on their lives more than the men. All of a sudden it has connected the women with the flow of information and communication they thought was not possible before. The fact that they can now communicate very easily has given them a new source of confidence.
A 22-year-old unemployed youth says, “When I make calls I do it from the shop. But when my mother calls the phone is brought home. This surely was not possible previously when there was no mobile phone available in the locality. Even in those families where the women are not allowed to come out of the house communication is not a big deal nowadays. Due to the highly competitive market many calling centers have started home service by bringing the mobile to people’s houses…”
Though the youth may have a different perception as one young man says, “There is no benefit of talking from home. On the
contrary, there are lots of problems. At home friends can’t be talked to easily, we can’t call whenever we wish to…” Easy availability of commercial mobile phones allows more freedom for communication.
Localization of ICT tools allows people to use them more effectively and according to their needs. They would not be able to call from the calling centre at Sitakund and pay later and so would be unable to fulfill their communication need if they did not have money. But as the same tools have become very much locally available it has suited itself to the local needs.
“…….A lot of people of our village live abroad, some live in Dhaka or Chittagong or other places for business or jobs. Their families need to send message or information to them at any hour of day and night. Earlier they had to travel to Sitakund spending 10 taka as rickshaw fare. After making the call they had to pay the bill immediately. But as there is an ISD mobile in our own village we can get information about home and abroad and we are not compelled to pay off the bill instantly.”
Lack of adequate technical knowledge to operate digital tools can also expose people to be deceived in many cases. Most of the people using mobile phones from calling centers have little knowledge of using the phone and/or of how calls are costed. It has become a very common way of profiteering by the calling centers.
As it is was revealed in a mapping exercise in Shekhpara village about the owner of one of the calling centres “Although he has a mobile, he has no pride. He stands beside people in times of their need. He comes to people’s house in the morning, daytime and even at late nights with the phone. We get many benefits from him at any time. He is of much help to the villagers. But he would always take call charge for two minutes instead of one minute lying about the call time and so takes 10 taka instead of 5 taka”.
The communication divide
As often other literature points out there exists a divide between people who have access to means of communication and information and those who do not. From this perspective, the nations that do not have appropriate facility to get connected with the information superhighway through modern telecommunication system are information poor. The digital divide is not limited to computers only as it also includes other communication technologies. In the world 8% of the people have never made a phone call (Digital Dividends, 2001). In Bangladesh there are only 4 phone connections for every 1000 people. However, New York has more telephone connections than all of rural Asia.
To have communication facility is a citizen’s right in most of the countries. The spread of telecommunication facility widens the scope of information access and dissemination in society that in turn plays a vital role in social development. The powerful role of mobile phones in the Sitakund area exemplifies this. The right to have information is recognized by our constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But telecommunication is yet to be recognized as a condition of human right by the Government and non-government sectors of Bangladesh. Billions of dollars have been spent through both Government and non-government channels but poverty reduction has been less than 1% per annum. Also, till now neither the Government nor non-government sectors have introduced any programme considering telecommunication a citizen’s right. The present government has established telecommunication network in some sub-districts and a few unions level. Companies such as Grameen, Aktel, Citicell, Sheba and BRTA have begun cellular and fixed phone service.
Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. was first to introduce mobile phone service named ‘Citicell’ in 1991. They introduced in the market a total of 7500 cellular phones during 1991 to 1997. Then mobiles phones were sold for about hundred thousand taka as the company enjoyed a monopoly in the market. Mobile phones used to be solely in the hands of rich people as a symbol of status and power. The second phone company ‘Grameen’ broke this monopoly market of ‘Citicell’ in 1996. There came a momentum in the use of mobile phones after ‘Grameen’ was given the license to vend mobiles. The cellular phone costs became 5-6 thousand taka. The fashion and status consciousness of well-off people went astray and mobile phones found its place in the hands of middle class, lower middle class and even lower income class. At present 1.5 million mobile phones are there in Bangladesh. The other two mobile companies are Sheba and Aktel. On the other hand fixed telephones of BTTB, BRTA and Sheba range around 9 hundred thousand.
Yet a severe neglect of rural Bangladesh by both Government and non-government telecommunication services is due to the mobile telecommunication system being totally captured and controlled by the corporations where the priorities mainly relate to business and profit making. Although according to the International Telecommunication Union’s guidelines, 10% of the phones should be at village level but it is no way a reality here. But there are many plans to increase teledensity in cities.
There needs to be a move from looking at technology and asking, “What can we do with this?” to looking at peoples’ needs and asking, “Which technology might help here?”
In this context it may be interesting to learn from other experiences. Mamun Goldar of Bhola district started his computer related business along with a printing press business in the year 2000. At the same time he also started his alternative telecommunication service among the telecom deprived people of Bhola. This alternative telecommunication system has now expanded to 500 growth centers of Bhola. As it expanded through antennas made of Bamboo they call it Bamboo telecommunication. At the beginning other entrepreneurs established this kind of telecentre with the help of Mamum Goldar. Afterwards, the entrepreneurs of village centers started providing teleservice at their own initiative. At the early stage one antenna would be at Bhola district and the other one at a distance of 30-35 kms. Two common machines would be set up at both ends. At present the connection has expanded from Bhola district Shodor to Borhanuddin and many other areas. The telemodel of Bhola is now spreading in other parts of the country.
Communication and means for communication are quite strongly intertwined with social life and social relationships in any society. This also includes issues of social status. So when we talk about introducing new means of communication there is always a potential for many significant changes in practices and values – this is to some extent proved by the experience of mobile phones. When we talk about bridging the digital divide through projects then some kinds of telecommunication may be overlooked. The attention tends to be more on computers, radios and other hi-tech gadgets. But the approach should be integrated considering the socio-cultural implications the communication system with any of its aspects is able to create. There is always a temptation to address the digital divide through introducing new technologies and hoping that it would produce some positive result but the focus should be more concentrated to looking at people’s needs and finding out which technology may help in that particular geographic and social-cultural situation. This is particularly important when we view communication in the context of development and poverty alleviation.
Acknowledgements:
Earnest thanks to Ms. Savithri Subramanian, Research Coordinator of UNESCO CCT project and Mr. A. H. M. Bazlur Rahman, Chief Executive of Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio Communication (BNNRC). Without their invaluable contribution this paper would not have happened.
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