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A hugely popular Sarus Crane featured on a radio serial educates the women of Kutch on maternal mortality, political processes, female foeticide and more.
What does a Sarus Crane have to do with development in Kutch, Gujarat? Everything. The Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan's weekly radio programme Kunjal Panje Kutch Ji (Sarus Crane of Our Kutch), featuring Kunjal (the Sarus Crane) as the narrator, has become the mainstay in the lives of women in Kutch. It is a wonderful example of how simply and effectively technology can be used to promote development. For over a year, Kunjal held forth on the participation of women in political processes (specifically panchayats), women's leadership and governance, a girl's right to education, female foeticide, harassment of brides for dowry, unnatural deaths and suicides by women at their in-laws' homes, the pressure on women to deliver sons, maternal mortality and disregard of the mother's health. These issues were located in the context of a degraded environment, cyclical drought and lack of water resources in the Kutch region. Interviews with a wide range of people from the Kutch were also featured: they shared their views on socio-economic and environmental issues specific to the region. After three months of broadcast a survey showed that the programme had a committed audience of 6 per cent, but within 10 months the figure shot up to 50 per cent of surveyed Kutchis and 80 per cent of the radio-owning population in the district. In addition, of about 1,000 postcards initially received from listeners, 70 per cent were written by men and 16.5 per cent by women. This is significant because the female literacy rate in eastern Kutch is as low as 0.5 per cent. After 53 episodes of Kunjal, a fresh series is readying to go on air. Called Tu Jiyaro Ain (You Are Alive), this is a 15-minute bi-weekly radio show. It features a range of songs, interviews and profiles that focus only on the recent earthquake and the problems it has caused for the region. Set up in 1989, the KMVS was one of the first NGOs to start work in this region with rural women's collectives. Today they work intensively in 150 villages of five talukas of Kutch on development issues such as handicrafts, health, literacy, savings and credit, and eco-restoration. Despite laws and policies that do not encourage community radio services the KMVS has managed to get state-owned All India Radio to lease it 30 minutes of programming every week. The KMVS serials are a result of collaborations between several persons and organisations. The programme is scripted by Paresh Naik and directed by the Ahmedabad-based Drishti Media Collective (DMC). Contact: Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan
11, Nootan Colony, Bhuj
Gujarat 370001, India
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