BNAD member Akhi Muni Saha from Netrokona said that she is now more courageous than before in protesting against any kind of human rights violations in her area.

Biddaloy Natto Dal (BNAD) are a group of school students who are engaged in drama and theatre. They perform drama on human rights issues to increase awareness using an alternative medium.

The two days long Fourth National BNAD Conference was held on the 19th and 20th September 2014. Despite the fear of political instability, the participants attended the conference spontaneously. More than 150 people including BNAD students, teachers and parents attended the conference from 13 districts.

In the first day of the conference, the program began with the inaugural session. The Vice Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Dr. Farzana Islam inaugurated the conference as the Chief Guest and Executive Director of ASK advocate Sultana Kamal was the chair.  In addition, director & actor Azad Abul Kalam also attended the session as guest speaker. Dr. Farzana Islam mentioned in her speech about the importance of drama in making people aware of their rights and social problems. Advocate Sultana Kamal said, “We have a dream of having the life of full human being and to fulfill the dream we need to know ourselves, our language and our culture which is not much difficult task. We should begin the task from early period of our life.”

Just after the opening session, Nishat Majumdar, the first Bangladeshi woman to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, shared her experience regarding conquering the Everest with the participants. It was a very interactive session in which participants enjoyed a lot. In the afternoon, BNAD students participated in cultural events and all BNAD from each district presented their yearly progress reports. In the report, they revealed the success and barriers of BNAD. And majority of them mentioned that the awareness on human rights is increasing gradually but the negative attitudes of some teacher and school governing members are the main obstacle in promoting their activities.

BNAD from each district highlighting their success amd barriers in yearly progress reports

On the second day of the conference, the 5^th national performance evaluation session was held, where 12 BNAD champions from 12 districts competed on human rights based instant speech, solo performance & quiz competition. In the session, Associate Professor from Dhaka University, Dr. Samina Lutfa Nitra, Director and Actor Aminur Rahman Mukul and Kazi Toufuqul Islam Emon were the judges. BNAD students performed in the competition on several human rights issues such as violence against women, border killings, present context of education system, liberation war, ongoing judicial process of war criminals etc.

In the afternoon, freedom fighters Shirin Banu Mitil and Z. I. Khan Panna were present as the speakers of the ending session. After their speeches, winners’ names were declared. This year, Arifa Khatun from Sirajganj became champion. Polash Hossain from Naoga and Priya Saha from Kishorganj became second & first runner-ups. Through this award giving ceremony, the fourth National BINAD Conference & fifth National Performance Evaluation Award was concluded.

Champions of fifth National Performance Evaluation Award & all BNADS with guest speakers