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.