Community Radio for Change P Krishnamurthi Team Leader, DHAN Foundation AMARC, the World Associat ion of Community Broadcas ters, describes community radio as follows: “When radio fosters the parti cipati on of citiz ens and defen ds their interes ts; when it reflects the tastes of the majority and makes good humour and hope its main purpose; when it truly informs; when it helps resolve the thousand and one problems of daily life; when all ideas are debated in its programs and all opinions are respected; when cultural diversity is stimulated over commercial homogeneity; when women are main players in communication and not si mply a pr et ty voice or a publ icity gi mmick; when no type of dictatorship is tolerated, not even the musical dictator ship of the bi g rec ord ing stu dios; whe n everyo ne' s wor ds fly wit hou t dis cri min atio n or censorship, that is community radio”. DHAN Foundation believes that the Community radio can perform as an enabling tool for pov ert y reduction, when it is truly owned and managed by the communit y, partic ularly the Peop les’ Organisa tions promoted by the poor women, small and marginal farmers and fishermen. Promoting mutuality, self help and self reliance for achieving pov ert y reduction should for m foundation for the Communit y Radios. DHAN per cei ves tha t the mai n commit ment and mandat e for commun ity radio promot ed or sup por ted by it sho uld be commit ted to produc e pro grammi ng on themes that will contribute to the development of the communities that they serve. DHAN’s approach in ICT for Development Poverty is a complex phenomenon. The gap between the rich and poor is widening. Isolation, powerlessness, and inequalities aggravate poverty, perpetuate it from one generation to the next and make the poor more vulnerable and never allow them to come up. For poverty reduction to be achieved, the limitations that the socially and economically marginalised communities face must be eliminated. These limitations include low self-esteem, lack of mobility and access to and control over resources, lack of access to services, to skill and capacity building opportunities, to information and technology, as well as to decision-making in the community and within and households. DHAN’s ultimate goal is to reduce poverty by collective action and promote self- reliance among the poor and their organisations in a large scale through context specific development strategies. In all the themes and interventions DHAN follows the enabling approach of poverty reduction, where the themes such as microfinance, 1
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5/10/2018 Community Radio for Change - slidepdf.com
AMARC, the World Association of Community Broadcasters, describes community
radio as follows:
“When radio fosters the participation of citizens and defends their interests;
when it reflects the tastes of the majority and makes good humour and hope
its main purpose; when it truly informs; when it helps resolve the thousand
and one problems of daily life; when all ideas are debated in its programs and
all opinions are respected; when cultural diversity is stimulated over
commercial homogeneity; when women are main players in communication
and not simply a pretty voice or a publicity gimmick; when no type of
dictatorship is tolerated, not even the musical dictatorship of the bigrecording studios; when everyone's words fly without discrimination or
censorship, that is community radio”.
DHAN Foundation believes that the Community radio can perform as an enabling tool
for poverty reduction, when it is truly owned and managed by the community,
particularly the Peoples’ Organisations promoted by the poor women, small and
marginal farmers and fishermen. Promoting mutuality, self help and self reliance for
achieving poverty reduction should form foundation for the Community Radios.
DHAN perceives that the main commitment and mandate for community radio
promoted or supported by it should be committed to produce programming on
themes that will contribute to the development of the communities that they serve.
DHAN’s approach in ICT for Development
Poverty is a complex phenomenon. The gap between the rich and poor is widening.
Isolation, powerlessness, and inequalities aggravate poverty, perpetuate it from one
generation to the next and make the poor more vulnerable and never allow them to
come up. For poverty reduction to be achieved, the limitations that the socially and
economically marginalised communities face must be eliminated. These limitations
include low self-esteem, lack of mobility and access to and control over resources,
lack of access to services, to skill and capacity building opportunities, to informationand technology, as well as to decision-making in the community and within and
households.
DHAN’s ultimate goal is to reduce poverty by collective action and promote self-
reliance among the poor and their organisations in a large scale through context
specific development strategies. In all the themes and interventions DHAN follows
the enabling approach of poverty reduction, where the themes such as microfinance,
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a long term development focus. Empowering the community in all aspects,
particularly in building capacity of the community for disaster management was felt
as an important area of intervention. Applications of ICT were introduced through the
Village Information Centres connected with internet facility setup in all the villages.
To complement this ICT initiative, DHAN has launched Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli
(Kalanjiam Community Radio) with a vision of creating a Community Media Centre
with mixed media model, combining radio with video and web based technologies.
United Nations Development Programme supported this initiative. The Station hasstarted to function from October 2006.
The Station is equipped with audio production infrastructure. A team of trained
Volunteers from the local community are involved in programme production. The
station is connected with the VICs set up by DHAN in the villages through Local Area
Network. These VICs narrow cast the programmes produced and sent by the Station
through the Public Address Systems fixed over towers. Presently programmes of one
hour duration are presented daily. Also the Station broadcasts selected programmes
once in a week for fifteen minutes through the AIR - Karaikal FM Station to.
With the experience gained from Nagapattinam, DHAN supports of the Peoples’ Organisations promoted by it with the farmers dependent on traditional water
harvesting structures called Kanmoi, in Kottampatty block of Madurai district to
launch Vayalagam Samuga Vanoli (Vayalagam Community Radio). Similarly, the
tribal women SHG Federation promoted by it in Indervelly Mandal of Adilabad district
in Andhra Pradesh is getting prepared to launch a community radio station dedicated
for tribal development and named it as Mava Gosti Community Radio with the
support of Integrated Tribal Development Agency. Details of the CRS are in table 1
Table 1: CRS in various contexts
CRS Location Anchored by ContextMajor
stakeholders
Focus
KalanjiamSamugaVanoli
Vizhunthamavadi,Nagapttinam
DHANFoundation
Coastal Fishermen,women andfarmers
Disasterpreparednessand livelihoods
VayalagamSamugaVanoli
Kottampatti,Madurai
Madurai DistrictTank Farmers’ Federation
Rural Farmers andwomen
Disasterpreparednessand livelihoods
Mava GostiCommunityRadio
Indervelly,Adilabad, AP
Sri Indrayi
Mahila KalanjiaSmakahya
Tribal Tribal women Livelihoods,health andeducation
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People need information as much as water, food,
medicine or shelter. Information can save lives,
livelihoods and resources.
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Generating Content: Experience of Vayalagam Community Radio
Locally produced content is a lifeline for the sustainability of community
broadcasting. It should focus on the development issues concerning the local
communities, aimed at improving and transforming the living standards of
communities served by the CRS. The content that depicts local issues should alsopromote dialogue among the local communities to work for change, and at the same
time should advocate for the change in the policies, perspectives and processes of
the other development stakeholders around them, the government, private and non-
government agencies.
In DHAN’s understanding of Community Radio, the content generated by the
community can become a key engine for development; as it is a tool that can build
on the local wisdom, community based methods and processes. Change focused
content produced by CRS should be grounded on the basics of development
discussed at the beginning. The CRSs in Nagapattinam and Kottampatty are
following a unique process of generating local content with the support of the social
infrastructure that has already been created in the form of federation of women
SHGs, Farmers and Fishermen (fig 2). It reinforces the need for an organised
platform to promote dialogue and generate needs for content.
The content prioritised by the community varies from context to context. While the
Communities in Nagapattinam required audio content related to cyclones and marine
based livelihoods, the farmers in Kottampatty required content relevant to droughts
4
M
Prioritization
ProgrammingPlan
Vol
S
Fig 2. Production and Dissemination of Content
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and floods, tanks and tank based livelihoods. The need assessment workshops
organised by the staff under the guidance of the Professionals of DHAN help generate
an exhaustive list of programme areas. The Management committee at the
federation level help in prioritizing the areas and the staff and volunteers prepare
production plan. However the formats for presentation are left to the creativity of the
volunteers (mostly students and young men and women) and the staff. In our
experience following variety of presentation formats were followed buy the CRS in
Kottampatty as well as Nagapattinam.
• Features
• Interviews
• Reporting events and cases
• Stories and experiences
• Readings
• Local announcements
• Discussions and debates
• Radio drama• Talks / narratives
• Local music and songs
• Jingles
Producing Content
Production is done in three methods depending on the availability of equipment,distance from the production centre and financial resources available for production.
Method 1:
A well equipped audio production theatre established in Kottampatty, a block town
where the people have easy access to travel. Most of the arranged programmes such
as talks, interviews, songs, music and readings are made in the theatre.
Method 2:
Each VIC has a provision of a mini mixer and a microphone connected with a
computer and an amplifier. The VICs which are primarily meant for offering internet
based services are also used as production facility, wherein the people/producers are
invited to the centre for recording. Live announcements are done there itself. Some
of the programmes are recorded and transferred to the main studio in Kottampatty
after a first level editing for further editing.
Method 3:Field recording is done using voice recorders in the areas where there is a difficulty in
bringing producers to the VIC or theatre at Kottampatty. Mostly event coverages,
spot commentaries and interviews are done in this method.
Disseminating Content
In Kottampatty, programmes are narrowcasted through the public address systems
fixed over Village Information Centres in 20 villages covering about 10,000
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populations. Flexible timings of narrowcasting is decided after consulting the villagersfor avoiding disturbances to their other works (e.g. school and exam times). A
typical scheme of narrowcasting is given in the table 2.
Table 2: Programme schedule in Vayalagam Samuga Vanoli
Time Content / format Duration10 AM Thirukural with explanation by VIC operators 15 Min
11 AM Live announcements
• Village events and meetings
• Birth day wishes, Wedding wishes
• PDS announcement
• Panchayat announcements
• Announcements for SHG, Farmers’ groups
• Weather information
15 Min
5 PM Pre recorded programme
• Speeches and debates,
• Agriculture and animal husbandry
• Stories,• Health information,
• Tips for students, youth etc.
30 Min
6 PM Vayalagam Vanoli Programme made
by/with communities
• Best practices by farmers, entrepreneurs
• New initiatives
• Traditional practices
• Folk music, songs and stories
• Festivals, celebrations
• Women and children
• Health and education etc.
60 Min
Exchanging Content
While the Community Radios offer ample opportunity for making localised contents
that suits the social, cultural and linguistic characteristics of the defined geography,
there exists opportunities for the two or more CRSs to exchange their contents. In
the context of globalizing media, among the communities who live similar lives and
have similar issues can very well connect with each other to share their content,
expertise and experiences. There are initiatives by national and international
networks that are promoting such exchanges. In our case the Kalanjiam Community
Radio in Nagapattinam and the Vayalagam Community Radio in Kottampatty,
Madurai, both are sharing the same context of disaster vulnerability. The formercould share many of their audio content except a few areas that are related to
marine ecosystem to the latter.
However while exchanging contents care needs to be taken to ensure that they share
similar contexts, culture, and language, and moreover relevant to the purpose for
which it was made. By sharing content, CRSs can increase the impact of their work
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Fig 4: Roles, Rights and Responsibilities of the CRS & Communities
The transformation can happen only when the communities start thinking critically
about news, entertainment, and advertisements, asking questions such as "on whomthey are targeting?", "what interests does it stands for?", and "what techniques are
they applying to persuade the intended audience?" The content that the CRS produce
should be able to create awareness among the communities to look for what is
needed for them, what is not there and what kind of impacts certain messages,
viewpoints and perspectives can create. The content that the communities make
through their CRS should enable them to place it into a larger context of
development. This means facilitating them to understand the structures and realities
that affect their development, freedom of choice, inter relatedness and quality of life,
ultimately leading into collective empowerment.
Challenges in ensuring Content
No doubt, the Community Radios have the potential to create conditions that provide
people with access to useful information, and ways for people to express their
sentiments, opinions, views, aspirations, strengths and their ideas for development.
It can support the communities to build consensus on their development priorities.
However there are few challenges to facilitate the communities to move from
producers to owners of the Community Radio.
• Ensuring a strong focus on "local" news, music, events, people and issues–
especially coupled with "global" relevance.
• Exploring, identifying and cultivating new talents and building capacity of the
local communities and volunteers to enhance their ability to adapt, getting
acquainted with the tools and technology that are available at free or affordable
costs.
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The boy stretches his neck to reach the microphone that dangles in front
of him. But that does not break the enthusiasm. He eagerly narrates thestory of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. This young storyteller comes from a
rural village near Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. He is one of the many
talents, staff and volunteers, who help in creating a very unusual radio
programme for an unusual radio station Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli. He
was brought to the station by Porkodi, a Radio Volunteer. She and her colleagues know how to spot
interesting topics, to do interviews, to edit and also how to narrate a programme. Every day they go
out on field assignments to collect new audio material. The topics range from agriculture, health,
education, issues around Self Help Groups, events around festivals up to disaster preparedness
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Building Capacity of the communities to make relevant contents
The Kalanjiam Community Radio Station jointly with district disaster preparedness training unit
organised a training programme with 40 Community members from five villages of the Keelaiyur
block. They were trained on disaster and its types and how to respond in a disaster situation, doing
basic search and rescue. They were also taught on steps to be taken in a distress situation. The
participants were shown how tackle fire accident and different rescue methods. It was followed bytraining on First Aid and follow up. A practical manual on disaster management was distributed to
the village information centers and community leaders attended the training programme. After the
programme, a series of audio programmes were prepared by the participants who were trained in
the workshop.
Community Radio content to facilitate exchange of local expertise
Karunanidhi a small farmer from Vizhundhamavadi village of Nagapattinam district, in Tamil Nadu
has been growing a new variety of Chedi Murungai (Annual Drumstick) and earning a good profit
from it. Growing annual drumstick was some thing new to the villagers nearby. Community Radio
Volunteer – Vetri came to know this in one of the need assessment workshops and approached him
for an interview. He prepared a radio programme on it and narrowcasted through the Kalanjiam
Samuga Vanoli with his contact information. After the programme, many people approached
Karunanidhi to know how to cultivate and market it. Karunanidhi in addition to sharing his
experience, he helped them to get about 300 seeds and 150 seedlings to neighboring farmers.
Now, many farmers in nearby villages are growing Chedi Murangai and enjoying the benefits.
Community Radio to provide platform for the youths
Sowmya, 20 years, is a drop out from school after higher secondary education due to poverty in
her family. She was working in a textile showroom in Nagapattinam as a sales girl. When contacted
by her friend Padma who is working in the Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli, she reluctantly agreed to
become a community radio volunteer. Her association in the Community Radio transformed her
outlook not only about herself, but also on the village she lives. She is the one who has made the
highest number of programmes among other volunteers and she feels proud about it. She says “I
am respected in my village now and happy about listening their feedbacks. Now I could feel
importance of my work and I am getting excitement every day by doing new work and meeting
new people.
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