Women and Community Radio

To bring about a socio-economic change in a community communication plays a major role, which is also the basic right of human beings. Addressing to a particular community or society can be made effective through community mediums.

Radio is the most widespread and accepted medium globally. Community Radio is one o the low cost and effective means of the fast growing ICT medium to reach the grassroots. Its also because of radio’s own property simple operation at both transmission and the receiving end.

Women play a significant and dynamic role in building up the community. Believing that women are the backbone of the society and having the potential of transforming the community, Community Radio would be an ideal medium for them to bring out a positive change that is needed for them

Women in Community Radio – International Experiences

Actually this happened in Uganda when 101.7-MAMA FM was set up, which is Africa’s first women Community Radio Station to address the plight of the under privileged and minority. It provided an interactive accessible medium for the under privileged particularly women in rural and semi-urban communities, to enable them develop and progress along side their counterparts in urban areas by broadcasting gender sensitive educational programmes and offering training/practical experience for female journalists.

From 6^th March 2003 Afghanistan commenced its first independent community FM radio station managed and operated by women from Kabul. And Nepal also recently got itself added to this list.

Women in Community Radio – Indian Experiences

India has many success stories of women participating in the community radio movement even when community radio was at its infant stage in India. One of them is from Budhikote, a small village in Karnataka where 36 women’s self help groups decided to have their own ICT facility. They contributed 50 rupees every month to establish a cable radio network connecting all the 750 households of the village in order to narrowcast the audio programmes they are producing at the Budhikote Community Multi Media Center.

The center was established with the support from UNESCO. Earlier the programmes were played back during weekly group listening sessions in the self help groups meetings. Discovery they made recently that computers could be used to edits and produce cable community radio programmes has given them new insights to the ICTs.

In 1998, Drishti in partnership with Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), a women’s organization based in Bhuj, initiated their Community Radio programmes in India. In the process women’s participation in learning radio programming has made them to come up with four community radio series which has been broadcast in All India Radio by leasing weeking Airtime from 2001. The partnership between rural and urban & neo-literate and professional writer, along with a proper feedback studies, can made a difference in the lives of the rural people.

On an experimental basis, India’s first community radio that went on air is Mana Radio at Orvakallu in Kurnool district of the Andhra Pradesh province in October 2002 which is part of the communications programme of the United Nations Development Programme. Woman members of the Mandal Ikya Sangham set up the station. It broadcast 45 minutes of programming every Monday from 6 to 6.45 pm. Radio signals were being broadcast at FM 900 MHz. But later the Government of India closed the station saying that running such a station is illegal. The signal radius is likely to be increased to 5 km or more, now that India has allowed the setting up of community radio stations. The station's locally-generated programmes, including a play and a news bulletin, had received good response from the villagers. Women of the village had gained confidence in doing anything as they are running a radio station by recording and also editing programmes. Even illiterate women came forward to prepare programmes.

Women Self Help Groups through Community Radio

With all these Community Radio stations trying their alternate means to broadcast their programmes, Anna FM in Anna University was the first Community Radio Channel in India to officially go on air which is mainly supported by the staff and students of the university. Anna FM throught its Live Phone-In weekend show “Samuthaya Nearkannal” was able to adopt a women community and with active participation of the women, they were able to form a Self Help Group and trained them in manufacturing palm-leaf based handicrafts right from the comfort of their homes and market them fruitfully. Now around three Women Self Help Groups have been formed.

With success of this SHG formation and training, in 2005 Anna FM with Department of Science and Technologies support initiated a project in participatory science communication for disadvantaged women in the Anna FM coverage zone. The objective of the project is to impart scientific awareness for everyday living through Anna FM and thereby enhance their livelihoods, in which the women audience actively participatd in the programme by providing content also in production after several training workshops. The programme was titled as Sakthi Arivayadi.

The project at Anna FM proved to increase the Science awareness and lifestyle of the women in the adopted community. Based on its success at Anna FM, Now the project is being implemented in around 13 Community Radio Stations in India in which the women folk are being trained for 30-minute programmes on women’s issues that will be broadcast in their stations throughout the year, finally resulting around 5000 women voices aired on Community Radio stations in one year.

Conclusion

From the above examples and success stories, given the potential of the community radio being explored at the grassroots level in the right way with a strong and active participation of women in it can bring about a positive impact in the development of the society.

Nila Community Radio: Turning Passive Listeners into Active Content Providers

Nila Community Radio: Turning Passive Listeners into Active Content Providers.

Community Radio in India has just started its rolling, with around 35 stations on air and around 200 stations in queue to be on air. The general definition of Community Radio is radio for the community, by the community and of the community, where the community radio itself was seen as a wholesome and complete medium to address the community, but now the activities and the work that the community radio stations in India are doing add a new dimension to community radio.

It doesn’t stop with just broadcasting awareness programme or an experts interview, or just the communities being trained and becoming part of the volunteer / production team, or just doing a baseline or feedback study, the stations have moved up to another level where passive programme turned into active programme., by turning passive listeners into active listeners and content sources.

The stations now started integrating action based community programme, by visiting the communities not just for an interview or feedback study, but to actually demonstrate what is broadcast. It’s not only stopping with a doctor telling about the symptom of breast cancer, it’s now the doctors going to the community and checking the community’s health.

Nila (Moon) CR which is situated in a rural area between Puducherry and Tamilnadu border, caters to rural village people whose main occupation is agriculture. The support of the Medical College and the communities support, the Nila CR is now reaching the communities through its extension programme.

Health Camp:

An announcement goes on air for a week saying that a health camp would be conducted on so and so date, apart from the handbills that was circulated to the villagers. On the announced day a team of volunteers, field workers, Medical experts with the management team get in to the village, where the people are ready waiting under the temporary tent made by the station team and the active village volunteers. After the customary inauguration, traditional welcome speeches and respects; the Health Camp starts.

People wait in queue for their health check ups, some people who visited the previous camps had their Out Patient Record book and some filled it for the first time, after the diagnosis the doctors’ advice on medicines and further treatments. The innocent village people went back. The Medical College of the management provides free medical care for the needed people when they approach with their OP records.

But the stations work doesn’t stop with this, the station team discuss with the medical team on the various health issues, awareness that the village needs and they draw upon a schedule where more programme on the issue that needs to be discussed for that village are aired, this is a continuous process of the station.

One of the villager was shocked to know that she was suffering from breast cancer when she came in for check up in one of the camps, then the treatment was given to her and she is fine now, the station continuously broadcasted awareness programme on breast cancer and it was surprised that the next day there were many people from that village at the medical college to check themselves for breast cancer.

Nutritious Food Camp:

It’s not only health camp, there is something tasty that the station cooked up, that’s the delicious nutritious food camp, where the preliminary preparations were exactly same with the health camp. Now the village people were asked to prepare tasty nutritious food with locally available resources in their village. The cooked food was displayed at the camp counter for the judges and others to taste. After tasting the yummy and nutritious rich food the judges announced the winners and the management which didn’t wanted to disappoint the participants, so it gave all the participants a gift to take to with them.

The recipes are now cooked into programme and filled the air time for the coming days, thus making the delicious nutritious food not only filling the appetite of the judges but also the community’s.

Herbal Medicine Camp:

After the medical check ups, tasting nutritious food, the next is herbal medicine camp where the village people are assembled in Herbal Garden which is about 2 acres, maintained and run by a NGO funded by the state Government. Again after the traditional welcome speeches and welcoming, the experts start demonstrating the importance of herbal medicines, plants and most of these are very much available in their own village, but its importance is ignored or unknown. Not only giving its medicinal importance, but also the experts demonstrate how the Self Help Groups can make products out of those plants and how it can become their livelihood. Similar to other camps, even this goes on air.

Conclusion:

So apart from the main broadcasts the station follows a different strategy of “action” plan where the programme are turned in to active plans, where the listeners are turned into active listeners, not only by participating in the radio programme but also becoming the source, content for the same. Thus the local indigenous knowledge, culture and content are also documented and preserved. The community also feels that something materialistic is happening to them through Nila CR, which makes them to tune in to the station. It is an interesting cycle of action where each of the activity is interleaved with radio programme and the listener making the Community Radio really a Community Radio