Community Radio Initiatives in India

Community Radio Initiatives in India
- a tour report

Context and Background
In the wake of a decision by the Bangladeshi government to introduce community radio (CR) and free up the airwaves for people’s voices, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) organized a guided tour, for three Bangladeshi CR practitioners, to three community radio stations in India.

The CR movement in India dates back to 2000 where many NGOs, CSOs reached out to local communities by narrowcasting the programme either by cable cast or closed listener group or hiring airtime on primary FM channels. The movement in India is vibrant by itself with dynamic success stories and regular updation.

In December 2002, the Government of India decided to open up the Community Radio broadcasting sector by announcing a new policy. Under this policy, Community Radio Licenses can be granted to educational institutions, organizations that are recognized by the Central Government or the State Government. These also include the Universities and Institutes of Technology, management and residential schools. This policy motivated many public and private educational institutions to start community radio stations.

The new community radio policy was approved by the Government of India in late 2006; this now provided NGOs / CSOs / Krishhi Vigyan Kendras a platform to use this media tool to widen the scope of their work at the grassroots level in the areas of human development, poverty reduction, social justice and social action.

Till May 2008, the Government of India has received around 227 applications under the new policy,
out of which 89 have been issued Letter of Intents – the list comprises 25 KVKS, 25 NGOs / CSOs
and 39 educational institutions. According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 35 stations
are operational.

OneWorld South Asia was invited to associate with this initiative; two members were deputed to accompany the team, and providing knowledge inputs that would go into making the visit more meaningful to our South Asian partners.

Objective
The idea was to demonstrate to our Bangladeshi counterparts, the range of possibilities and practical details, while facilitating first hand interaction and knowledge sharing on the technical, managerial and promotional aspects of CR stations in India. A significant aspect of community interaction was also organized, in order to highlight an understanding of the audience and to factor community outreach and participation in CR initiatives. All three stations have been operational for over three years, with each having its own style, strategy, and success stories. Some of the observations made at the stations and the community are mentioned below station wise.

Date of Visit: 3^rd to 4^th June 2008.

Station Name: Vasundara Vahini 90.4, Baramathi, Pune District
Main Language: Marathi, Hindi
Audience: Farmers, Farmer Families
Transmitter Power: 50 Watts
Reach: around 25 Kms

Station Infrastructure:
The station is based in Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology (VIIT). The station itself is located at the Campus entrance, on the second floor of a community centre that houses a cafeteria, book shop and other utility shops; a place commonly frequented by students and other people from the campus vicinity as well.

The station has two studios - one for transmission and other for recording / dubbing and a transmitter room. The cost of the whole studio set up was 25 lakhs. The station is on air for more than 3 years.

Audience and Broadcast:
The main audience that Vasundara Vahini caters to are the farmers from the near by villages and their families. Many of ther programmes are on farming techniques, new methods of farming, marketing the farm products. The station broadcasts mainly in Marathi from 6am to 10am in the morning session; the same programmes are repeated in the evening from 4pm to 8pm, reaching various villages spread over 25 KM, over a 5 watt BEL transmitter.

Programme Compostion:
Most of the programmes are for farmers, which gives information on the techniques, methods, and products for better agricultural productivity; these programmes are more in the interview format. Other programmes target women’s group and are focused around science and health issues. Yet another programme is book reading and literature. Devotional songs also occupy a share of the air time. Every transmission starts with a devotional song which is said to be a mantra recited to the air waves.

Organization Structure:
The station is managed by a Station In Charge and Project In Charge, with coordination from their Director. There is also an advisory board and an external coordination committee comprising of the Tehsildar, BDO, representative from the Police Department, Panchayat etc., that meets fortnightly and gives guidance and ideas for the station. The operations of the station are run by seven multi skilled producers selected from the community who are appointed by the station. These producers double up as field officers, marketing executives, announcers, script writers, editors etc., and ensure that the audience get their fare on a daily basis.

Community Visit:
Community visit to Matachirvadi, basically an agriculture village which is about 25KMs from the station, the signal is clear and the radio is received well and listened by the community. The village has farmer club which is really active in that area. Farmers listen to programme of Vasundra Vahini for their knowledge, information and entertainment. Their family members also listen to the programme. The Gram Panchayat received Nirmal Gram Scheme award from the Prime Minister of India. The village follows a smoke free and alcohol free code, where none of the villagers either smoke to drink in the village.

Success Story:
One of the farmers claimed that his yield went upto 70 Kgs, after adapting to a particular way of farming that was broadcast on Vasundara Vahini, whereas his usual yield would be around 40 to 50 Kgs.

Another success story is that of a farmer who adopted the advice given on Vasundara Vahini, and demonstrated the result to other farmers, in due course the entire village people adopted the idea.

A success story of the Science for Women programme was recorded when a village woman by name Vandana Kate, trained by the Vasundara Vahini volunteers in recording and production, was invited to be a community producer for the station; her own village people nominated her for the gram panchayat elections. Now, many women are keen to taking associate themselves with Vasundara Vahini.

Sustainability:
Even though the initial capital cost for the stations infrastructure is funded by the college, operations and running costs of the station is a major concern. Science for Women programme funded by (Department of Science and Technology (DST) meets up the running cost to an extent and now recently they have started airing advertisements, if this is going to be continued, then the station can become self sustainable.

Suggestions:
Integration of the farmers club, Gram Panchayat and other local bodies with the station would turn the passive listeners in to active listeners, adding more value to Community Radio.

Village community people should be actively involved in the external coordination committee.

One suggestion that was discussed with the station In Charge and Volunteers is to conduct a medical camp and workshop for the community, at the end of the workshop and the medical camp, programme for the Science for women can be produced actively involving the community.

One more suggestion discussed with them was to have the current station volunteers as coordinators who would coordinate with specific villages and air programmes around issues emanating from that village.

Date of Visit: 6^th and 7^th June 2008.
Station Name: Nila CR 90.4 MHz, Puducherry.
Main Language: Tamil
Audience: Farmers, Students, Village people
Transmitter Power: 50 Watts
Reach: around 10-15

Station Infrastructure:
The station is based in Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College. The management also runs a medical college in a near by college which closely works with station.

The station has two studios one for transmission and other for recording / dubbing and a transmitter room. The studio set up is very similar to Vasundra Vahini, except for the transmitter which is an Italian transmitter. The cost of the whole studio set up was 25 Lakhs. The station has been on air for more than 3 years. This was the first educational institution to apply for Community Radio in India

Audience and Broadcast:

The main audience that Nila CR caters are the farmers, women, students in the near by villages and students of their college. The programmes address issues of agriculture, health awareness, education, environmental, and social awareness. Programmes in Tamil are broadcast from 4pm to 6pm and then repeated the next morning from 4pm to 8pm, reaching various villages spread over 15 KM, with their 50 watt RVR transmitter.

Programme Composition
There are programmes for farmers on various agriculture techniques,on health mainly for women, on education for students and on other social issues of general interest and value to the community. One of their main programmes, is a DST “Nila Penne” that targets women’s group are Science and health issues is DST funded Science for Women programme. The other main programme are social awareness, consumer awareness, narcotic awareness etc., devotional music also occupy a share of the air time.

Organization Structure:

The station contains seven multi skilled producers selected from the community who are appointed by the station. Apart from the producers the station also has field officers, PROs. Constant support from the management, students and faculties help the station to be successful.

Community Visit:

Visit to Kamulam which is an agriculture village, 8KMs from the station. A health camp was organized by the station, in which medical doctors from their college did a free health check up for the village people and were prescribed medicines and further treatment as needed. Around 250 village people had benefited from that camp. Regular camps of this sort are organized by Nila CR. Announcements regarding the camp are broadcast through the radio apart from distributing hand bills. After the camp, programme would be aired based on the symptoms and diseases reported from that village. This is one classic example where Community Radio is integrated with other service to serve the community effectively.

The health camp was followed by a competition on nutrition, where teams from the village prepared nutritious food from the resources available in their village; the best dish was identified, and applauded whereas all participants were given a small prize. These recipes would be broadcast on air in the following days for other community members to be benefited. The names of the winners and competitors would also be announced, giving them the pride of place in the village. This is an example of how useful local content from the community can be collected, apart from building awareness on the importance of nutritious food.

A herbal medicine camp for a different village was organized by the station in a herbal garden where the importance of herbal and alternate; how SHGs can produce products from the available herbals; demonstrations and explanations of various herbals, medicines by the experts were also given. Following the camp, regular programme on this would also be aired. This camp showed how to create interest among listeners by doing live interactions with the audience apart from regular broadcasts.

Success Story:

One of the village women came to know that she was suffering from breast cancer through one of the medical camp organized by the station and treatment was given to her by the Medical College. As a result, the whole village came for their check-ups and now they are fully aware of breast cancer, its symptoms and causes.

Another woman said that her husband was prone to alcohol and she took him to the hospital for counselling after listening to a programme on effects and cure of drinking habit. Now he is fine.

Sustainability:
The initial capital cost for the station’s infrastructure is funded by the college. The support of their medical college and the management makes its running successful. The station is not in a mood to air advertisements, as this may add to their workload, the funds from the management and the funds from DST for Science for Women meets up the running cost to an extent. They feel that instead of advertisements, funds from projects like this may be helpful in bringing out good programme for the community.

Suggestions / Comments:
Even though integration of students, staff and community is clearly seen, if more community members become the producers, anchors for Nila CR, it would be excellent.

The integration of medical college with CR and support from the faculty members makes the station a classic example how community radio stations in campus can serve the community.

Date of Visit: 9^th June 2008.

Station Name: Namma Dhwani, Budhikote
Main Language: Kannada
Audience: SHGs, Farmers, Village people
Transmitter Power: Applied for SACFA, Narrowcasting
Reach: around 10Kms

Station Infrastructure:
The station is based in Jagruthi Resource Center supported by MYRADA. Initially Namma Dhwani was started as project with collaboration between MYRADA and Voices. MYRADA used the concept community radio by producing and narrowcasting need based programme for the community through Jagruthi Resource Center. The studio is a low cost acoustic studio costing about Rs.75,000 for acoustics. Standard equipment has been used and there has not been a compromise on cost. UNESCO has funded the studio and equipment.

This CR is different from others in a sense that it’s outreached is based entirely on narrowcasting and it is located in a Community Resource Center.

Audience and Broadcast:
The main audiences that Namma Dhwani caters to are women’s self help groups, farmers, students and children. Narrowcasting is done through cable TV sets and loudspeaker. For technical reasons cable casting has been stopped last year and narrowcasting through loudspeaker has also been stopped few months back. Now narrowcasting in SHG meetings are done once in a month.

Programme Composition
The CR is used as a communication medium to reach the community apart from their capacity building, trainings etc., Programme on legal awareness and social issues are most popular among the community. Live coverage of Gram Panchayat meetings and elections also make the narrowcast RELEVANT AND EXCITING for the community.

Organization Structure:
The Resource Center is managed by a management committee and run by the Resource Centre Manager along with an Assistant and Community Resource Persons. A Namma Dhwani production team produces programme for Namma Dhwani.

Community Visit:
Visit to a SHG was an enriching experience where the SHG members were happy to share their experience of being together and how Jagruthi Resource Center has built their capacities through various programmes.

Success Story:
One of the management committee members narrated how narrowcasting the meeting of a Gram Panchayat where the members were seen fighting and abusing each other exposed the state and scenario of the local elected representatives.

Sustainability:
The capital cost for the Audio Production Center was funded by UNESCO through Voices and MYRADA. They sell the audio cassettes of the programmes at a cost of Rs.40 to other CSO and NGOs, but this is not a regular source of income. A subscription fee of Rs.1000 per year is collected from each Self Help Group and in return the CRC provides services like auditing, monitoring and following up with their events.

Suggestions / Comments:

The usage of VSAT terminal by the community members for live interaction with various persons is quite impressive.
New models for sustainability for a Community Resource Center are seen in action.

Once the station is on air with regular broadcast, the community would use the potential of community radio to the maximum.

General Observations / Suggestions:

1. The studio resources of all the stations are not utilized fully. If the unused studio infrastructure (studio timing) can be rented / leased for other production centers this may form a part of revenue to the stations.

2. More integration between the local stakeholders should be brought in all three stations.

3. The content is going to be the king in future, all three stations have to see to that the content is preserved and archived in such a manner it is utilized to the fullest extent.

4. The volunteers are trained only for a basic level production so that the potential is not realized, both in terms of content quality and range of programme formats and variety.

5. We found that each station does an enormous amount of work, but lack of documentation renders this invisible and people are not able to convert the learnings for future application; the achievements of the stations are also lost in the process. Therefore documentation of the work and experiences is another aspect upon which the stations need to concentrate.

Team:

Ashraf Abeer, Deputy Director, DNet, Bangladesh

Saifuddi Sabuj, Director, Audio Visual Production, Rupantar, Bangladesh

Sohel Awrangzeb, Director Technical, BNNRC, Bangladesh

Nirnay J Chettri, OneWorld South Asia

Satish N, OneWorld South Asia