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Entertainment Education Programs
Shabuj Shathi - Bangladesh
Shabuj Shathi. written by Humayun Ahmed, one of Bangladesh's most popular writers, was a key part of the Providers Campaign, a follow-up to the Green Umbrella Campaign. That campaign was launched in Bangladesh in September 1996 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh, with technical assistance from the Johns Hopkins University Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) and managed by the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs. Its focus was to promote integrated family planning and family health services.
Overall health knowledge was found to be significantly related to the number of episodes watched and number of messages recalled, after controlling for socio-economic characteristics and other sources of health knowledge. Visiting a family planning or health facility was also significantly related to watching the drama. Almost 35% of married women who watched the drama said that they had visited a family planning or health facility within the last 6 months compared to 23% of those who did not watch the drama. Married women who saw the drama were found to be 1.8 times more likely to have visited a health facility and 1.6 times more likely to use a modern contraceptive than women who did not watch Shabuj Shathi. A second Entertainment-Education TV drama is now being produced in Bangladesh for broadcast in 2000. Based on the success of Shabuj Shathi, it is also expected to have a strong, positive impact on individual and social change with regard to family health and family planning. Shabuj Shathi was produced by Asiatic Marketing Communications, the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP), and the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) in 1997. |
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Bokul,
a dedicated and charming Bangladeshi health worker, is the
latest heroine of an Entertainment-Education TV drama. She
is also a persuasive role model for thousands of community
members and health workers throughout Bangladesh. As the central
character in Shabuj Shathi, a 13-part TV drama, Bokul
inspires the people of Bangladesh to a greater understanding
of and respect for health workers. She also helps them to
appreciate the importance of using the health systems available
to them for family health and family planning purposes. 
Shabuj
Shathi was an important next step in the Green Umbrella
Campaign. The drama was highly successful in its main goals
of enhancing the self-image of the field workers themselves
and improving the attitude of communities toward health workers.
The field workers (as health workers are known) bring health
and family planning services to people in their homes and
encourage people to go to the health centers as needed. The
most powerful way to improve the communities’ attitude
was through the visual portrayal of the daily life of a respected
and admired field worker. Hence, the idea of including a TV
drama in the campaign was introduced.
Nationally,
the drama was watched by 35% of Bangladeshis 15 years and
older. However, 79% of the Bangladesh population in urban
areas and 65% in rural areas with access to television watched
Shabuj Shathi, according to the National Media Survey
conducted by Org-Marg Quest Ltd. (OMQ) in 1998. More than
50% of these viewers watched at least half the episodes and
almost all indicated that they would like to watch a rebroadcast
of the drama. The quality of the writing and production was
such that Lever Brothers sponsored the drama by paying for
airtime and contributing to production costs.
© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.