Photo-collected.
Online Reporter/

President Md. Abdul Hamid said, culture is a safeguard to prevent social degradation. The development of culture is very important to remove militancy, fundamentalism, violence and hatred from the society. To turn the youth of the country into modern, skilled and cultural minded manpower, they should be involved in cultural activities.

On Thursday afternoon, the president said these words while participating virtually in the awarding ceremony of Shilpakala medals to 18 geniuses and two organizations in 2019 and 2020 in recognition of their special contribution in various fields of culture at the National Theater Auditorium of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

Abdul Hamid said, the more culture is practiced at every level from village to city, from lower class to upper class, the more enlightened the society will be. An enlightened society can build a humane society, ensure the desired prosperity and welfare of a country and nation.

Urging to take initiatives at the grass root level in the development of non-sectarian and liberation war spirited culture, he said that culture is the mirror of life. Just as we stand in front of the mirror and create ourselves by looking at our external good and bad, beauty and ugliness, the development and tradition of our culture also tells us how advanced and modern we are as a nation.

The President said that earlier every family used to practice various cultural activities including music in the morning. But with the development of urban civilization, the wide spread of information technology and the busyness of urban life, the practice of culture at the family level is gradually decreasing. Young children and youth are tired of chasing various apps including Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, games.

He said, for them, mobile and laptop are the main equipment of entertainment and sports. If they continue like this, they will forget their history and heritage one day. In order to develop them as healthy and humane citizens, healthy culture should be developed at individual, family, social and national levels. The practice of culture must start at the grass root level, especially from the family.

The President also said that there have been many changes in the society with the evolution of time. It has also affected the culture. Foreign culture is constantly infiltrating our cultural arena due to sky culture. So the mentality of grabbing everything if it is foreign or attractive must be avoided. We have to accept whatever is compatible with our culture and tradition. Everything unnecessary, foreign and uncultured should be discarded.

In 2019, the recipients of the Arts Medal are Masood Ali Khan in Drama, Hasina Mumtaz in Vocal Music, Abdul Mannan in Fine Arts, Anupam Hayat in Film, Lubna Maryam in Dance, Shambhu Acharya in Folk Culture, Md. in Instrumental Music. Moniruzzaman, MA Taher in photography, Hasan Arif in recital, Chayanot as a creative cultural organization.

The 2020 medal recipients are – Mahmudur Rahman Benu in vocal music, Shahid Kabir in fine arts, Md. in instrumental music. Samsur Rahman, ANM Shafiqul Islam Swapan in photography, Shamim Akhtar in film, Malay Bhowmik in drama, Dalia Ahmed in recitation, Shah Alam Sarkar in folk culture, Shibli Mohammad in dance, Dinajpur Natya Samity as a creative cultural organization. The medalists were given a gold medal, certificate and a check of Tk 1 lakh each.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, State Minister for Culture KM Khalid, Culture Secretary Abul Mansoor, Director General of Shilpakala Academy Liaquat Ali Lucky and others also spoke on the occasion.