S. M Shamim Akter

With a deadly virus like COVID-19 spreading around the globe, the whole world had to shut it down to get rid of this virus and resulted in a complete lockdown all over the world. Bangladesh is no exception from that. But along with safety came miseries for people who belong to professions that are self-employed and are having to face severe to moderate crisis in their daily life. Among all these professions that are going through this tough time, cultural activists are at the highest risk as all sort of entertainment is completely off the table right at this moment.

There are artists who can make a sober living out of their wages and incomes but there are lot out there who finds it very difficult to make it without a regular earning source. So to save them from this situation and serve them in a proper way as they are considered the asset of the country, a few long and short term of schemes are mentioning below-

Types of Artists

1. Affected musicians whose daily income comes from the daily stage shows.
2. Musicians who work at the studios as session players in different compositions and projects.
3. Studio technicians
4. Session Singers
5. Original Music creators/ Composers
6. Singer-Songwriters
7. Dancers
8. Theatre actors and activists
9. Writers
10. Painters

Emergency Short Time Schemes

1. During the COVID-19 and countrywide lockdown, the affected artists who work daily basis in the cities, small towns, and in district level cultural organizations, they can be given a non-recurring or one time grant to carry out the basic needs of their daily life and their family’s too.

2. Musicians, Singers, Theatre artists, Painters & Dance artists who have their original works already made by themselves, that Govt. can procured as an asset for collection from them which will enrich the archive and at the same time help them financially.

3. Make awareness programs, with our artists following the social distancing rulesdeclared by WHO as well as our Government, which will create awareness in the general public, among their followers and also help them financially like recording songs, dances, dramas in a studio and then make video by everyone’s own house and publish as well. Bangladesh has been declaredas a risky country of Covid-19 pandemic according toit’s Communicable Diseases Prevention, Control and Eradication act 2018.

4. At a time like this, when the whole world is going through a panic and stress on cultural activists can be a great resource to cheer the population if arranged in a proper way. As like many other countries’s there can be MOC (musicians on call) who will go to different places under lockdown with proper protections, safety and security to perform and entertain people’s staying at home. That way, they can be a part of relieving them from the stress and help people to improve their mental health, which is one of the most important concern worldwide right now. This way these jobless musicians can be a part of community healing and get a job at the same time.

5. Painters can make cheerful and colorful painting in front of all the hospitals and health facilities or isolation centers to cheer the isolated and quarantined people.

6. Likewise, the dancers and actors can be use to make awareness content on behalf of the govt. to aware people around the country.

7. Writers can write interesting copy writing which will be used by the health ministry to create awareness among people and at the same time entertain them because right now, humor is one more thing that is needed to be added to the happiness list of the stressed population.

8. Writers can write entertaining but serious contents that will help the actors, singers and dancers to perform via social media as a wing project of Bangladesh Government to create awareness.

Mid-term to Long-term Schemes

1. Pension schemes can be started for the retired senior Artists. At the same time a Cultural Insurance scheme can also be introduced for all the cultural activists .

2. With the running projects of Bangladesh Govt., the amount of funding that is already being given to the artist of various field, should be maximized to at least two fold to help the artists for making a better living for them.

3. Government welfare fund and healthcare facilities for the cultural activists and proper execution of that plan. Establish strong copyright laws and proper royalty system for the original artists so that an original creator can make money out of their original contents.

4. Easy access to the recording studios for the musicians and singers to make it easier for them to sing and make songs. Especially for the ones who belongs to remote areas, villages or small towns.

5. Acknowledge the local performers more to make a sustainable loving for them such as carry out the expenses for their cultural product and arranging shows for them to bigger places where they can show their talents and people can connect to the original one rather than the remade one.

6. Establish one platform where all the artists can be connected to talk about their pros and cons, problems and demands and can call out to solutions together to make this profession a sustainable one as a whole.

7. Any concerts or public cultural events should be charged and not be free of cost as the artists also need to pay their bills. Ideas should be imposed to the organizers for this to happen.

8. How the money should flow in cultural business in this digital era that will be sorted out. With all these digital platforms being exposed from different corporate brands and others, how an original artist can be paid that must be fixed.

9. Scholarships to the young artists with potentials to study in the country or abroad and patronizes them so that they become a valuable asset in the field of performing arts of the country and utilize their talent to flourish their own culture later on.

10. The number of employees in the fields of cultural and different art forms will be increase in a considerable amount to keep up the flow of young artists in these fields. So that these artists can make a better living by making it a regular job.

11. The infrastructure of any art facilities, be it music, dancing or acting would be more updated and converted into a state-of-art facilities. Without handful of resources, the infrastructure can be of no proper use and hence will not serve the purpose.

12. A proposal of public private partnership (ppp) is desired and would be considered to bring in action in future. The private companies and corporates are requested to step forward as a part of their social responsibilities to uphold the country’s cultural development by working alongside with the government.

So, we therefore, can obviously say that, Countries and Global organizations that have always been friendly and supported any cause bringing good for Bangladesh are called upon to come forward and increase their co-operation for the development of arts and artists of Bangladesh. It’s a time to choice of global harmony to establish which all parts of world needs to work together and leave no one behind. Better days are to come in future. That’s where our heart belong.

The writer is Asst. Director, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka.