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Although a full-fledged community radio movement has still to become a reality in India, villagers in various rural pockets all over the country are using the airwaves to voice their concerns about various issues
Uttaranchal Community Radio is serving as an important development tool for creating awareness, spreading information and facilitating communication, despite the absence of policy support and government aid. It's a radio service for geographically bound communities in areas with poor infrastructure where people do not have access to the mainstream national and regional media.
The service, which is run and managed by local people addressing issues relating to the community in the local language, was introduced in Uttaranchal by the Himalaya Trust, a Dehra Dun-based civil society organisation, with support from Unesco, in September 2001. A basic training workshop was held where volunteers were divided into five groups and taught the basics of radio programming and ways to narrowcast or broadcast, depending on the means available, framework of rules and outreach demands.
Since May 2004, five community radio groups -- four in Garhwal in the western part of the state, and one in Kumaon in the east -- have been engaged in a research initiative looking at grassroots media and poverty. Pradeep Community Radio, Raibar Community Radio and Hewalvani Community Radio are some of the groups working actively in the region.
"First we did not know what it meant, but we learnt...It is very important for every community to get news on issues that are directly related to it, like that of employment, education, etc. In order for information to travel from one village to another in the hills it is very important to help create a community radio model," says Rajendra Negi, a volunteer at Hewalvani.
India has not yet built up a full-fledged community radio movement or process, as government policy governed by the Telegraph Act of 1885 does not permit such broadcasts. Community radio broadcasting became a possibility only when the Supreme Court declared in 1995 that the airwaves were public property and must be used to advance the public good.
In 1996, representatives from civil society organisations, media persons and government officials met and formulated a draft on community radio. However, the draft has still not been addressed by the concerned authorities.
While commercial FM (frequency modulated) licensing began in 2000 with a huge licence fee and stringent restrictions, community radio made a modest start in December 2002 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government started issuing broadcasting licences to reputed academic institutions.
Communities interested in using the airwaves have two options. They can either cablecast -- narrowcast programmes through cable channels, thereby making it necessary for people to own television sets and have a satellite connection -- or they can buy time on All India Radio's local stations at concessional rates to broadcast in the local language for around an hour every week.
Uttaranchal's community radio groups make programmes and narrowcast them by playing them back to assembled audiences from a tape recorder, occasionally with the help of a loudspeaker.
The initiative has allowed people to take on the authorities, as in the case of Godawaridevi who was being harassed by the local patwari (police official). "For many days nobody knew what had happened. Then we got to know about this incident. Godawaridevi had earlier opposed a man who then got her beaten up. We went and interviewed the woman. We also spoke to people around that village. Later we took the programme to other villages and played it there. Enough support was generated for the woman. Next time around this patwariwill think twice before he takes the law into his own hands," says Archana Raturi from Hewalvani.
For Jagdai Rawat, social activist and member of Raibar Community Radio, the whole process has been an interesting journey into the world of radio -- to see how it speaks, what it does, how people can use it to put forward their views to raise new debates. "I have learnt some fascinating lessons in community participation thanks to my involvement with community radio," says Rawat.
For more information on community radio see:
Community radio run by women launched in Orvakallu
Radio Ujjas, Kutch's community show, still popular after three years
This is Radio Budikote...
Source: Frontline, May 6, 2005
www.unesco.org, September 29, 2004
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