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