By IPS Correspondents
DHAKA, Apr 28 1998 (IPS)

When hundreds of students rampaged through Dhaka recently demanding examinations scheduled next month be postponedso they could watch the World Cup soccer fimnals in Franceit was a pointed reminder of the power TV has over youth in this country.

Police baton-charged the demonstrators who had pelted passing cars with stones to break up the unruly students. Newspaper editorials were quick to denounce the incident and called on authorities not to interfere with higher secondary school examinations due to start in the last week of May and continue into June.

But the youth of Bangladesh , show all the symptons of developing into “coach potatoes” – doing nothing but watch television – in their leisure hours. And it’s not just sporting events that are the attraction: political and community leaders complain about an invasion over the air waves of ‘apa-sanskriti’ or unhealthy culture.

Community leaders even blame X-rated films, received via several satellite channels, for the unprecedented, surge in sexual violence against women and young girls in the country. “The youth are our future – we cannot allow anything that degrades them,” said Rashida Amin, a women’s rights activists who wants an immediate ban on dish antennae.

Others disagree, however. “If we shut our windows for fear of occasional bad smells then we will suffocate to death,” said Ruhul Amin, a school teacher.

According to Amin, Bangladesh society would benefit greatly from the many programmes on science and technology and arts and culture that also come in on satellite TV.

Sitara Begum, a college teacher, is convinced that youth could be taught to distinguish between good and bad programmes and also counselled on what they should see and what they should not. But educationists were more concerned with the amount of time youth seemed to be spending in front of television sets at the cost of their studies.

At a recent parents-teachers meeting, Anwara Mansur, principal of the Agrani Girls High School said her students were losing seriousness about their studies as a result of watching foreign television programmes.

The meeting took note of the fact that the average young person from a middle-class family was ‘unduly’ knowledgeable about film actors and actresses from India thanks to such channels as ‘Zee- TV’ which regularly show films from Bombay’s prolific film industry.

Parents said they were worried that their wards were imitating the hairstyles and mannerisms of Indian movie stars and also picking up morals and values from western soap on such channels as ‘Star-TV’ beamed in from Hong Kong.

There are those who argue that Bangladesh with its abysmally low rate of literacy is not quite prepared to join the ‘global village,’ with all its political upheavals and natural calamities flashed in seconds over the TV-screen.

“There is a danger of social and cultural indigestion resulting from over-exposure or premature-exposure to ideals and issues,” says M. N. Mustafa, former director general of Radio Bangladesh.

Many blame the high demand for video cassettes showing blue- films from the west or Hindi films from India on the new interest created by satellite television. Although the free import of films, particularly from India, is banned they are flooding into video shops which have sprung up everywhere to cater to even lower middle-class families who can now afford an video player.

It is not unusual for groups of poor people to pool together money and hire out a blue-film from a video shop which they can then collectively watch.

“The uncontrolled video market is destoying the moral fibre of the people in general – and youth in particular – and destroying social and moral values nursed and nourished overthe ages,” one irate parent complained.

Where pornogrphic films were watched secretly by a few people just a few years ago, a new permissiveness seems to have seeped into society along with satellite dishes. These antennaes were allowed as part of Bangladesh’s liberlalisation programme and the government even permitted the BBC and CNN networks to telecast their programmes through Bangladesh Television.

But nearly all youths – male and female – prefer watching the fare on MTV, Star-Movies, Star-Plus and other channels where most could be described as ‘risque’ by Bangladesh standards.

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