Monga in Media

A Critical Analysis

Conducted by

VOICE
H# 67 (4th floor), Block –KA
Pisciculture Housing Society
Shyamoly, Dhaka-1207
Phone-8158688, 01711881919
E-mail- info@voicebd.org, www.voicebd.org

In cooperation with

ActionAid Bangladesh,
International Food Security Network, (IFSN)
Gulshan, Dhaka
Contents

1. Introduction
2. Objective of the analysis
3. Monga in Media
4. Major issues focused in the newspapers
5. Case Studies
6. Newspapers’ highlights on monga
7. Recommendations
8. Conclusion
9. Annexes
1. Introduction:

Monga is a near famine situation which is devastates the life and livelihood of the poor people of in
North Bengal namely Gaibandha, Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilfamari, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and partly
Sirajgonj and Jamalpur districts. During the Monga season, usually between two-month period
Ashwin and Kartik (late autumn and early winter i.e. from September to November) people are
forced to starve due to the lack of food and access to food as well as there are no crops to be
harvested and very little work for farmers to feed their families. Many farmers rush to the cities to
become temporary rickshaw pullers or day laborers or to find any jobs to earn to pay off the loans
and bring home some much-needed cash to live by. Many come back just as poor or poorer while
others don't come back at all, choosing to run away from all the hunger that waits at home for the
rest of the family members in the village.

Though literally “Monga” means famine like situation which causes much hunger, moreover it is a
broader aspect than food scarcity and hunger only. Broadly monga aspects are related with life
and livelihood in a broader scale because due to monga severity many people are bound to sell
their land, crops and labor in a very poor rate which is clearly hit on human rights aspects.

Not only are human beings affected by monga, also the poultry, livestock which are their main
assets are also affected by monga. Where men can not manage his food, how can he manage food
for his cattle? And also health situation in over all context deteriorate and abuse of human rights,
women and child trafficking, discrimination, dowry etc, become common phenomena.

2. Objective of the analysis:

For last couple years media particularly the newspapers have been giving much importance on
Monga situation. Here, we would like to critically analyze the role of print media particularly the
newspapers, i.e. to see how the delineates the aspects of monga, what are concepts to cover the
issue, whether they have had any investigative reports, how the represent news and views of
others in monga etc,. It is also to look into the gaps i.e. to see whether there are reflections in the
newspapers over the consequences of monga and its relation with other human factors. And finally
to prepare a set of recommendations to further way forward to act on the monga situation that
helps to reduce the vulnerability of affected people.

3. Monga in Media:

Media has an important role to highlight issues around monga, such as the severity, level of
vulnerability, role of government, opposition political parties, NGOs, donor groups, causes of
monga, coping strategies, women’s position and the success and failure, different initiatives, views
and opinion etc. Monga becomes a regular news item of daily newspaper when it occurs. The press
makes a sound to describe the various aspect of Monga primarily to knock the readers in view of
more circulation and secondly to bring to the notice of the concerned authority. However, this
seasonal condition- the monga sustains as a regular event for every year. Media also sometimes
directly involves to help the affected communities. However, government always claims that media
provides false stories. Newspapers also claim that government do not pay much attention and
ignore the situation. With a few exceptions, hardly media focuses the real scenario. The situation
of the people is worse than the media have featured in there many reports. People have no job, no
food, and no penny to depend on. However, a number of newspapers (both English and Bangla)
have been considered to analyze in terms of its content on Monga for 2005.

Here, in this analysis, the main focus is to describe the content of newspaper and the key concept
of the headlines on monga published during the period.

4. Major issues focused in the newspaper:

The major issues related to monga focused in the newspapers may be categorized in two broader
aspects, one is the severity or vulnerability of the affected people, and the another one is denial of
monga situation. Here is also a biased role of newspapers- those favours government and those
are not, better to say those who depicts the factual reality.
 The other major issues highlighted by media is describing the situation through case studies- partly
interviews, straight news on vulnerable situation of people, political role- the politics with
considering the party interest, government’s role, relief and corruption-- misuse of resources, some
cases of disparity, migration etc. These are the broader aspects that the newspapers have drawn.
On the other hand, there are some aspects such as wage, labour market, health vulnerability,
trafficking, discrimination, gender violence, loss of domestic resources etc have also depicted by
the newspapers. The lapses or the gaps of reporting are such as investigative reports are hardly
seen, analysis in reporting is less, reports on health and violence like trafficking, the root causes of
monga etc are less covered in the newspapers.

Here we have included the key headlines and concepts of the news item at the end of the report
that clearly indicates the role of media. Not all the newspapers we scanned, nor all the news items.
But to have a clear idea on the role of media on monga situation, we have selected major Bangla
and English newspapers and a number of important news items.

5. A Few Examples

“As it is the order of Allah, we have been fasting during the Ramadan and as it is our lot, we will
have to do the same on the Eid day too," said Abdul Khaleque of village Ramprasad of Thethrai
union in Kurigram district. (The Daily Star, November 03, 2005). Here in the report, the emphsis
was given to draw the vulnerable situation, not on the issues of root causes why the people suffer
for this period affected by monga.

Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat in greater Rangpur as well as

Thakurgaon, Jamalpur, Shariatpur, Madaripur, Rajbari, Gopalganj and Sherpur have been found
badly affected by monga. Some 40 lakh people are believed to be suffering from appalling poverty
in these areas, according to the survey.

…Monga occurs due to seasonal unemployment and since the government had already sanctioned
a block allocation for monga in the budget, it should have started working on it much earlier. (The
Daily Star, November 13,2005). Here, this is also a state statement that doesn’t reflect why
unemployment takes place.

An alarming rise in unemployment accompanied by monga in Rangpur and Kurigram has triggered
a massive exodus of jobless northerners to Dhaka and other parts of the country.

People here are growing increasingly desperate for job to overcome the acute financial hardship
during the ongoing off-season. Many loaned Tk 500 to 1,000 on high interest rates. They hope to
repay after the Aman harvest, which is only two weeks away. "I borrowed Tk 1,000 from a relative
on condition that I'd return it with two mounds of paddy in addition to the original amount after
two months," said Tara Mian of Telipara village in Chilamari upazila (The Daily Star, November 01,
2004). This reflects how the affected people fall on debt and are forced to be poor in a situation
like monga.

A bleak scene unfolds in Kurigram and Rangpur every day: men, women and children living on the
outermost edge of society are turning to inedible food in their frantic bid to survive. The wages of
day laborers have slumped in the monga-hit northern districts forcing the destitute people to
migrate to other places including the capital for better w ages. In Bogra, where hundreds of people
from Kurigram, Gaibandha and Nilphamari gathered to find a job, the employers pay a laborer
hardly Tk 30 for eight hours' service.

This news forecast that the situation will continue till harvest of Aman crop begins in about 10 to
15 days. Monga this year has not remained limited to the greater Rangpur alone, but has spread
across Faridpur, Gopalganj and Jamalpur districts, according to a survey of the Relief and
Rehabilitation Director (The Daily Star, November 24,2005).

We can see how the news item deals with representing the situation, just giving the statistics only.
There we find no recommendations why such discrimination takes place, whether there is any
 policies to resist the land owners or business communit ies or the riches that negates them not to
make profit out of monga affected people.

The parliamentary standing committee on agriculture ministry again blasted the government for
not taking any permanent measures to eliminate Monga, a near-famine situation that occurs in
every September-October in the northwestern region (The Daily Star, September 22, 2005). The
mostly common tendency of Government party is to deny the existence of Monga. But the
opposition blames the government to take any initiatives to eliminate the seasonal hardship and
they even claim Monga as failure of Government. Under this debate, the main issues of Monga
become invisible and receive fewer priorities to make the attention of active groups. Government
also criticize the role of media to provide false information and create an anti government situation
caused by monga.

Government -controlled Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS) said, “Monga situation media-made,
govt. steps adequate to face it timely”. In its report whether BSS said that , “The prevailing Monga
situation as reported in mass media has no factual bases and the death reports from hunger is
quite false as not a single person was found to die from hunger in the area” other national
newspapers claimed for several deaths due to Monga.

Having the political crisis, government plays some roles to alleviate Monga, which is effective and
less effective simultaneously but no significant step has been taken to mitigate sufferings of the
people in the northwestern districts. "We have been recommending measures to tackle the issue
for the last three years, but our recommendations failed to draw government's attention," Mannan,
also a ruling BNP lawmaker, said (The Daily Star, September 29, 2005). Meanwhile, although Tk 50
crore was earmarked in the budget for facing monga, the fund still remains intact.

The government allotted 8,450 metric tons of rice for 8, 45,000 families in the Monga-hit 11
northern districts Ministry of Food and Disaster Management told The Daily Star that the rice would
be distributed among the ultra poor people under the government's Vulnerable Group Feeding
(VGF) programme. (The Daily Star, October 5:2005).
But the real picture of the distribution of this granted rice was totally different, which was showed
in national dailies. The Daily Amader Somoy reported that one of the state ministers prepared to
do his election campaign by expending relief money (Amader Somoy, 25/10/2005). The Daily
Shamokal said that Govt. initiatives are very poor tan real needs. (Shamokal, 22/10/05)

“A report from our Nilphamari correspondent said diarrhoea has broken out in an epidemic form.
Consuming inedible, nearly one thousand extremely poor people of this village have been attacked
with diarrhoea in the last seven days. Many fell victim to waterborne diseases by drinking polluted
water of canals and tube wells which went under flood water.” (New Age, 23/10/05, p-B3)

In its report BSS said “While traveling vast areas of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat
and Kurigram during the past few days, BSS Correspondent saw that jobless people were passing
their days without difficulty as they were getting VGF, VGD and RS allocations timely (5/11/2005,
www.bssnews.net)” while other national dailies said totally different words, as New Age reported
“Severe food crisis impending in northern districts (New Age 27/10/05, p-1)”. Corruption in
distributing relief materials was one of the important news of the newspapers. In another news
item of the New Age the reporter said that, “They complained that relief materials in the rural
areas were being misappropriated by the local musclemen, activist of political parties, UP members
and Chairmen.” (New Age 23/10/05, p-B3)

"Monga is a perennial problem which could be solved by creating scope for employment,
diversifying non-farm jobs, utilizing government safety net programs more effectively and creating
awareness among the people," said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of Power and
Participation Research Center (PPRC) (The Daily Star, November 15,2005). …Monga can be
eliminated within seven to ten years through an effective plan. At the same time, the government
should also take necessary steps considering it a national problem. (ibid).

6. Case Studies
 Every national newspaper followed a common idea to elaborate the situation of the vulnerable
monga affected peoples. They collected several individual cases such as the Daily Shamokal
elaborated 4 case in a single issue dated on 27/10/05; the news headline was “For God sake,
manage a card (Allah’r Dohai akta card ar babostha kori dao)”. In this news the reporter described
cases from more than 4 districts, showed how much vulnerable they were and how did they
survived? This case studies are very helpful for realizing the real problem which was occurred by
monga in those districts.

Some national dailies predicted that poverty may create terrorism, as the Daily Amader Somoy
noted that “Hunger, poverty and unemployment increase terrorism” (Amader Somoy, 25/10/05, p-
1).

7. Newspapers’ highlights on monga

? Monga is a season for food scarcity, people starve, hardly takes a meal a day
? Case study arousing sympathy to some extent in media
? Political differences among the parties and take advantages
? Profit by monga as an advantage by business entity
? Views reflected in the editorial and post editorial
? Monga is seen as a disgrace in religious context
? Monga and unemployment

The issues mentioned above certainly are important but these issues need more concentration and
more analysis,

8. Recommendations

Issues need to be focused in the newspapers as viewed after analysis of news items in the
newspaper are mentioned below as a part of recommendations :

i. Investigative reports are hardly seen in the newspaper, but it should be reflected
in the newspapers,
ii. More critical analysis on the issue needs to be focused,
iii. Root causes of monga must be reflected that are left in media,
iv. Criminal offence and gender violence’s happened during monga should be
reflected, we hardly find news on it,
v. NGOs offer credit to the affected people need continuous watch, since there are
corruption and misinformation even in NGO activities,
vi. Issues related with monga like health, malnutrition, education, disaster, human
rights should need more concentration,
vii. Loss of other resources like livestock, poultry etc and its consequences need to
be focused in the news,
viii. Political parties, business entity, mahajans and groups who take advantages out
of monga situation must be focused in the newspapers,
ix. Issues on corruption both govt and non-govt. actions must come forward as a
part of media interventions that affects affected people,
x. River erosion, loss of soil fertility, lack of crop diversification, etc, need to be
reflected,
xi. In depth case studies t hat can bring international notice should be reflected, we
hardly find indepth reports and case studies,
xii. Issues on unsafe food must be covered by the newspapers, analysis needs on
how people are forced to have that is intervened by the profit maximizer,
xiii. The root causes behind unemployment should be focused more,
xiv. Human rights/family law violation like dowry, early marriage, trafficking should
need much more concentration,
xv. Increase of school abandon women and children, decline in school attendance
etc must be more focused in the newspaper,
xvi. Price hike, lack of access to the market for the poor etc needs reflection with
importance,
 xvii. Space given on monga news is not satisfactory, more space and concentration
require,
xviii. Delineation of monga situation doesn’t always reflect the true picture.
xix. Comprehensive media strategy needs to taken to give a real picture as well as to
combat this human disaster with a long term concrete plan and its
implementation where media will act as one of the major stakeholders.

Certainly, there are more issues that are left perhaps but due to lack of time and resources, the
analysis only concentrates on some of the news published in 5/6 major dailies. This is a part of
limitations for this analysis.

Impact of monga on children, women, poor people on their live and livelihood must be more
focused in the newspaper. Since newspaper plays an important role covering monga issues, it
needs much space in the media and more critical analysis that can give a true picture on monga
and of the affected people.

In fact, there is a strong need to orient the journalist communities on the issues around food in
relation with monga. Both national and local journalist communities should be under the orientation
programme in view of giving more importance to the issue so that the true picture can be depicted
and concerned authority can take steps to combat monga situation and its consequences.

9. Conclusion:

There is no specific recommendation to reduce vulnerability of monga in news papers. Despite of

focusing various issues over monga, newspapers failed to find out key issues. They only suggest us
to help vulnerable and requests policy makers and government officials to take further necessary
steps to eradicate monga. But considering the overall situation, we can say that newspaper
coverage over monga issue is unsatisfactory. The newspaper should take a comprehensive strategy
and planning on how to deal with monga as a part of combating the situation rather that only
providing information.