With the government opening the floodgates of community radio licensing, here is a look at how effective the medium is at empowering people and promoting economic activities
Nagapattinam, a coastal district in Tamil Nadu, was one of the worst affected by the tsunami in 2004.
The region stood speechless as the killer waves invaded the town and retreated, taking with them nearly 6,000 lives. As the city limped back to normalcy, there was a need for a common platform that could allow the community members to interact better with each other. Sensing this need, the Development of Humane Action (DHAN) Foundation, which aims at bringing educated youth into the development sector, launched a community radio called Kalanjiam Samuja Vanoli in 2007. This was launched with financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and technical assistance from VOICES, another NGO, as part of its ICT initiatives.
Today, Radio Kalanjiam airs programs on various topics, ranging from disaster preparedness to marine education, which is produced with the help of the local people. The programs are very popular and effective because their content reflects the educational, developmental, and socio-cultural needs of the community and are delivered in the local dialect. This has put the development process on a fast track. According to P Krishnamurthy, Team Leader, Kalanjiam Samuja Vanoli, this kind of development would not have been possible with other media because they are either commercial or state-run, and provide limited space for the voice of the community.
Kalanjiam Samuja Vanoli, India’s first radio station on disaster management, was set up with a capital of Rs 6 lakh. This included the cost of the audio production facility (studio, equipment for recording, editing and furnishing) and transmission equipment (tower, transmitter). The operational cost of the station is about Rs 18-20,000 per month, which constitutes allowances to the volunteers, money for production material, travel and training, etc.
The success of Radio Kalanjiam reflects the power that this grassroots level medium still holds despite the country’s swift migration towards satellite television and the Internet.
If this is the power of this medium even before the government’s new community radio policy has materialised, it is not hard to imagine what impact it will have when its full potential is realised.
Effectiveness of Community Radio
A community radio is a radio service for the community, of the community, and by the community. Just like groups in the mainstream, marginalized groups have their own communication needs. Their need for information and the language in which the information is required differs not only from the mainstream but also from region to region and community to community. Spreading knowledge and conveying information to such groups through the print media is not very effective due to poor literacy levels, and TV is an expensive medium. Moreover, these forms of media are biased towards the urban audience, ignoring the needs of those living in the hinterland. Given these issues, radio is considered to be the perfect medium of reaching out to such groups. Another important reason as to why a community radio (CR) promotes development is the fact that it develops participatory communication, which is a powerful tool for bringing about change and empowering people at the grassroots.
A case that could explain this better is of a community radio that was set up in 1998 by the Deccan Development Society (DDS) in Medak, a backward district in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. DDS set up the radio station because it believed that rural, non-literate people have as much to teach the rest of the world as they need to learn. In Medak, farmers have established complex and biodiverse ecological systems, have a good knowledge of herbs and plant medicines, and raise a variety of livestock with a full understanding of animal care systems. However, they could not spread the knowledge among themselves for the benefit of other community members because they were illiterate and did not have a platform to do so. To overcome this, it was essential for people to have their own means of expression. Radio came to their help. The society opted for radio as a means of communication, “because of our rich aural culture, the fascinating stories that people can tell, the amount of knowledge and information they have and the way they can horizontally share with each other. And the radio makes it possible for them to transcend the physical space limitations in sharing their stories and information,” explains Satheesh Periyapatna, Director of DDS.
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