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New Delhi/Gurgaon: Gurgaon Ki Awaaz, Lalit Lokvani, Chanderi ki Awaaz ...India's
community radio stations are reaching out to touch lives and
livelihoods in little hamlets and towns across the country with
useful nuggets of information spiced up with local folk music and
radio plays.
India today has 135 community radio stations and another 300 are
in the process of being set up. The government is giving a major
push to this medium by holding workshops across the country,
offering content sharing platforms, making it economically viable
for those running such stations and also linking up with them via
Facebook.
"Community radio station (CRS) is a medium that has potential to
bring a silent revolution as it is connected to the daily lives of
people," Supriya Sahu, joint secretary in the ministry of
information and broadcasting, told IANS. "It is not a one way
communication like television and radio where others tell and
people have to listen. In this people participate, which is
important in a democracy like ours," she said.
"In a country like India there should be thousands of CRS," said
Sahu.
Gurgaon Ki Awaaz, on 107.8 MHz and run by a civil society-led
community, caters to around 1.5 million listeners in villages in
and around Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi. The station, which
broadcasts in Hindi and Haryanvi, is very popular, says its
director, Arti Jaiman.
Among community radio stations, southern India has the largest
spread, led by Tamil Nadu with 22 stations. In comparison there
are fewer stations in the northeast and states like Odisha, where
the government wants more stations to be set up, said Sahu.
The government has set up content sharing platform for community
radio stations. "Like a station in Awadhi or Haryanvi may have
very good programmes which could inspire other stations which
could adapt through a content sharing platform," said Sahu. The
platform, Ek Duniya Anek Awaaz (One World Many Voices) has been
set up by the ministry in partnership with NGO One World South
Asia.
According to Sahu, any non-profit organisation can apply to set up
a CRS. "It can be a society or trust, an NGO, an educational
institution or Krishi Vigyan Kendra," said the official.
It costs Rs.15 lakh-20 lakh (about 30,000 USD) to set up a
station. Under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), financial
support will be given to eligible organizations that have been
granted licenses to run CRS, said Sahu. The ministry has also sent
a Rs.170 crore (Rs 1700 million) proposal to the Planning
Commission for supporting the community radio movement in the
country.
In order to help the CRS' become financially sustainable, the
ministry has begun empanelling them with the Directorate of
Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), which would fetch them
advertisements. Thirteen CRS have been empanelled so far and the
others are keen to be empanelled, Sahu added.
Jaiman of Gurgaon ki Awaaz said her station was not empanelled
though it had sent its papers last year and again this year. "We
have taken help of a facilitation centre set up by the ministry,"
Jaiman told IANS.
The community radio stations air informative programmes laced with
dollops of folk songs and humour.
"They are basically entertaining; most stations have entertainment
as the base of operations, but not filmy songs. Gurgaon ki Awaaz
has an excellent range of Haryanvi raginis. Not just locals and
labourers, but also people working in offices call up with
requests," according to Sahu.
Community radio stations are monitored for their content. The CRS'
have to follow the programme and advertisement code under the
Cable TV (Networks) Regulation Act. They have to maintain a log of
90-days-programmes at any given point of time in the form of a CD,
which the ministry can call for whenever it wants, said Sahu.
Whenever the ministry gets a complaint, it can ask the Broadcast
Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) a PSU under the
ministry, to monitor the station for misuse.
Jaiman said the ministry has been supportive, especially with its
move to rollback licensing fees, but "no order has been issued on
the rollback so far".
She said the mobile revolution had bolstered the number of
listeners. "Now villagers and migrants workers are listening to
our programme on their mobiles, and all are connected to the voice
of the community."
However, Jaiman maintains that "the telecom minstry needs to be
more proactive, show commitment" in CRS and invest in the social
initiative.
(Ranjana Narayan can be contacted at ranjana.n@ians.in)
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