CR Quarterly, Veolume # 4, Iwssue # 3, Dec ‘13s - Feb ‘14uccommedia.in/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vol-4-iss-3-Dec-20… · CR acki g c i adi i I dia n Quarterly, Ve olume

CRtracking community radio in India

newsQuarterly, Volume # 4, Issue # 3, Dec ‘13 - Feb ‘14

While the community radio move-ment in India is fairly young, theachievements and accolades it haswon both within the communities itworks with, and the larger nation isremarkable. But notwithstanding thesector’s efforts towards bridging thedigital divide, there are several struc-tural barriers that are hard to alter.

For instance, increasing women’s

participation in the sector remains akey challenge. Towards addressingthis lacuna, Maraa, a Bangalore basedmedia and arts collective, in partner-ship with Commonwealth Educa-tional Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA)organized a Women BroadcastersMaster Training at Zorba the Buddhain Delhi from November 17-20, 2013.

The workshop had representatives

from nine community radio stationsand it focused on mutual capacitysharing between women broadcast-ers to create participatory program-ming. It was also the first steptowards planning cascade workshopswhere these broadcasters wouldtrain women at the grassroots levelback in their own communities tomake participatory programmes.

This four-day capacity buildingworkshop also provided an opportu-nity to nine radio stations (from thenorth zone in India) to attain concep-tual clarity on the Community Learn-ing Program (CLP) model developedby the Commonwealth of Learning(COL) through collaboration withvarious global partners.

The participants were introducedto various tools that can be used fordeveloping a radio series that blends‘outcome-oriented learning design’with ‘process-oriented dialogue’ andstakeholder participation. This alsoforms the core of the CommunityLearning Program (CLP) model.

(Continued on Page 10)

Workshop builds women’scapacities to run CR

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CR news December 2013-February 2014, Page 2

FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTFIRST PERSON ACCOUNT

Radio Active CR 90.4, the first cam-

pus community radio in Bangalore, is

situated at the centre of the city in

Jain College. Several marginalised

people – women, LGBT and sex work-

ers, waste-pickers and scrap dealers,

domestic workers, people with HIV,

people with disabilities and single

mothers – are a part of Radio Active.

Priyanka, a transgender, launched

a show focusing on the concerns of

the LGBT community. Jayadev, who is

visually impaired, works with chil-

dren and encourages children to ex-

plore the medium of storytelling.

I met the team of Radio Active at

their studio in November 2012. La-

vanya is one among the motivated

people working at the station. De-

spite her low vision, she radiates

conviction and confidence. Ramya K.,

the station manager of Radio Active,

told me that she is assertive, re-

sourceful, hardworking, and a very

quick learner.

Lavanya, 24, visited the station in

June 2011 as an internee and was trained by Jayadev.

After internship, she continued to be a part of the station

as a member of the Listening Club. After completing her

graduation, she joined Radio Active in January 2012.

Now she is an active employee of

the station. Her mother’s as well as

her dreams were fulfilled when she

joined as a radio jockey. She is a peo-

ple’s person and thrives on it. She is

a trained classical dancer and singer

as well. Her partial sight has not de-

terred her work in the station.

Lavanya encourages the domestic

workers to produce their own radio

show named Masada Kai and also fa-

cilitates a programme Audio Teacher,

meant for visually impaired second-

ary board examinees.

Partnering with various organisa-

tions, she also assists in the produc-

tion of Aashitaru, a daily radio

programme conceptualised, pro-

duced and hosted by people with

disabilities. She enjoys working with

domestic workers and children in

the community. She has a passion to

create radio jockeys both from the

communities of children and people

with disabilities.

Lakshmi Prasana, the coordinator

of Association for Promoting Social Action, a right-based

community development organisation in Bangalore, says,

“I know Lavanya for the past two years through Radio Ac-

tive. When I first met her, it was a surprise to know that

she was visually impaired. Not because

of any other reason, but because she

never took it as an impairment. In the

past two years, I have realised how

strong headed, independent, and

friendly she is by nature.”

Lavanya says that she gets her motiva-

tion from her family members, col-

leagues in the studio, and also from the

community with whom she works. She

also emphasizes, “I do the work like any

other and do my own recording and ed-

iting. I use the entire studio and equip-

ment without any issues. The only issue

is that I am unable to work on the ON

AIR system as JAWS software gets

mixed with what goes on air.”

Bidu Bhusan Dash

Academic Associate, IIM Kashipur,

Uttarakhand, India

Lavanya lives her dream as RJ in Radio Active

Lavanya interacting with a group of children

Lavanya


SNIPPETSSNIPPETS

Bangladesh approves 16 new CR Stations

Dhaka (BNNRC) Novem-ber 07, 2013: Ministry ofInformation (MOI) of Gov-ernment of the People’sRepublic of Bangladesh hasapproved 16 initiatorsfrom 102 applications toset up new communityradio stations (2nd stage)subject to receiving secu-

rity clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs.Earlier, in the first stage, on April 22, 2010, the Ministry

of Information had approved 14 community radio sta-tions. The number stood at 16 after two more stationswere added to that list. At present, 16 community radiostations have ushered in a new era by doing rural broad-casting of 106 hours programs daily within a listeners’community of 4.6 million of 67 upazila of 13 districts ofthe country. Source: http://www.bnnrc.net/home/communityradio

Committee to revise CRS airtime rates

Information and Broadcasting Ministry has formed acommittee to look into the matter of revise the airtimerates and guidelines for duration of sponsored pro-grammes on community radio stations.

Six bodies, namely Directorate of Advertising & VisualPublicity (DAVP), Commonwealth Educational Media Cen-tre for Asia (CEMCA), Community Radio Forum (CRF),Community Radio Association (CRA), Radio Namaskarand Radio Mattoli; will nominate a member from their re-spective organisation.

Director of CEMCA Sanjaya Mishra; president of CRAKandarpa Das; NA Shah Ansari from Radio Namaskar; andN Ramakrishnan and Arti Jaiman from CRF will representin the committee. The aim is to help radio become moresustainable in this date and age of rising prices and in-creasing standard of living.

I& B Ministry had issued the guidelines for empanel-ment of Community radio stations with DAVP and spon-sored programmes along with the rates of advertisementsway back in May 2012. The rates of advertisement on airwere fixed at Rs 4 per second.Source: http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editor-ial/news/committee-set-revise-community-radio-air-time-rates

Ravenshaw Radio to resume services

After lying defunct for more than a year, RavenshawRadio, Orissa's first campus community radio, restartedits services on November 15, which is also the foundationday of Ravenshaw University.

"We have got all licences required to run the radio serv-ice," said university's vice-chancellor Prof B C Tripathy.

The radio service, launched in April 2011, went off air inFebruary, 2012, after it was found that it had been in oper-

ation without an appropriate licence from the Union com-munications and information technology ministry.

After authorities came to know about it, they applied forthe licence and deposited the fine amount of Rs 2 lakh.The campus radio service was set up at a cost of Rs 30lakh.

"As the radio service was not operational for a long pe-riod, it will take some time to streamline things. Novem-ber 15, 2013 onwards, the radio service will function fortwo hours and gradually the programmes will be in-creased," said in-charge of the radio service, Netajee Abhi-nandan. Source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-15/bhubaneswar/44112477_1_radio-service-radio-jock-eys-ravenshaw-radio

Orientation for new CR licensees in Dhaka

An orientation washeld at COAST TrustAuditorium, Dhaka,on Saturday, Novem-ber 16, 2013 for 16new communityradio (CR) licenseeswho have receivedthe approval to setup CR radio broad-casting and opera-

tions (subject to having security clearance) in differentparts of the country.

The program was organized by the Bangladesh NGOsNetwork for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) withsupport from of Free Press Unlimited and EuropeanUnion.

AHM Bazlur Rahman, CEO of BNNRC, facilitated the ori-entation workshop. He described the present status, thepurpose, and the objectives of community radio, its chal-lenges and the differences with other types of radio. Healso mentioned the different types of cooperation thatBNNRC could offer in developing the community radiosector of the country.

Kamaruzzaman, Program Coordinator of BNNRC, de-scribed the next steps for the new initiators. He termedthe steps as a “preparatory process” for CR installation.The participants’ queries were addressed through a livelyand interactive question and answer session.

Senior Officials from 15 organizations [out of the ap-proved 16] joined the orientation. The representing or-ganizations were: Nazrul Smriti Sangsad(NSS), AparajeyoBangladesh, Bangla-German Sampritee (BGS), Institute forDevelopment Affairs (IDEAS), Karmajibi Nari,PatuakhaliDevelopment Organization(PDO), Coastal Association forSocial Transformation(COAST Trust), Program for Eco So-cial Foundation, Voluntary Association for Rural Develop-ment (VARD), Bandhan Society,Pragati (peoples) Researchon Grassroots ownership and traditional initiative, Baren-dra Unnayan Prochesta,SaJag (Samaj o Jati Gathan) & SKSFoundation.Source: http://www.bnnrc.net/home/new-initiators


EDITORIALEDITORIAL

There is no doubt that communityradio constitutes an opportunity forwomen to acquire a voice, which oth-erwise remains unheard. There areexamples of several CR stationsworldwide that provide a platform toinvolve women as partners in devel-opment, and enable inclusion of agender perspective in their approachand programming.

Community radio seeks to not onlyensure women’s access to informa-tion, but, more significantly, allowsthem to challenge the culturally dis-empowering gender norms and comeout of a condition of silence. How ad-equately this intention manifests it-self on the ground, depends greatlyon the approach and ideology of theorganisation running the CR stationand the local realities.

Across India, research has shownthat community radio has graduallybut surely helped in amplifying thevoices of marginalised rural women,and many women caught up withinfeudal social structures are begin-ning, albeit slowly, to find a voice oftheir own. This is especially true inthe case of women community radioreporters, who disclose how engag-ing in media making has broughtabout a change in their lives: a) it has

enhanced their self-perception; b)they have become confident aboutventuring out of the house to work;c) they are more confident in publicspeaking, interacting with male offi-cials, and in discussing their prob-lems in public meetings.

However, there still exist social hi-erarchies along the lines of caste,class and other oppressions that in-hibit women to negotiate fair repre-sentations and equal participation inCR. This is especially true in gender-mixed stations. Women in such sta-tions rarely have the same status orcontrol as their male colleagues.

The three areas in which women’sinvolvement is still unsatisfactory inCR are: a) women do not listen asmuch or as attentively as men; b)their participation in programmeproduction as well as decision-mak-ing is minimal; and, c) women’s is-sues are not covered adequately inthe programmes.

If more women in the villages aretrained in radio production, theycould in turn be instrumental in in-volving other women of their villagesin radio production. Conveningwomen-only listening sessions, en-couraging listener’s groups throughnarrowcasting, and doing recordingsin the villages could also makewomen participate more in radio.

This issue of CR News has a specialfocus on gender with about half adozen articles examining the oppor-tunities for, and challenges facingwomen who participate in CR ortackling other themes related to gen-der.

The lead article puts the spotlighton women CR broadcasters’ mastertraining facilitated recently byCEMCA and Maraa and emphasizesthat through specialised, context-spe-cific training efforts, the technicalskills and confidence of women toproduce radio programmes could beenhanced.

Arti Jaiman’s Chahat Chowk write-up draws attention to the fact that

the empowerment potential of CRcan be strengthened and contentiousissues related to women’s daily livescould be fore-grounded only throughwomen’s progressive involvement inall elements and stages of a CR pro-gramme production.

While Bidu Bhushan Das bringsforth the inspiring story of Lavanyaof Radio Active, Arun John reportsabout India’s first LGBT radio goingon air. Bianca Miglioretto shares herexperiences of conducting women-only training workshops for CRbroadcasters that put emphasis onpeer learning and empowermentalong with journalistic and technicalskills development. Prativa Chhetripresents a status report highlightingthe mixed bag of women’s involve-ment and role in CR in the SouthAsian region. It reveals that women’saccess to decision-making positionsand their technical proficiency con-tinue to remain areas of concern.

The CR News team wishes all itsreaders, a Happy New year and alsoexpresses solidarity with the UN-ESCO’s World Radio Day 2014 theme– “Enhancing gender equality andwomen’s empowerment in radio.”

Kanchan K. Malik

Recovering women’s silenced voices

Community radioseeks to not only ensure women’s access to information,but, more signifcantly allows them to challenge the culturally disempowering gender norms andcome out of a condition of silence

This issue of CR Newshas a special focus ongender with abouthalf a dozen articlesexamining the opportunities for, andchallenges facingwomen who participate in CR ortackling other themesrelated to gender


INTERNATIONALINTERNATIONAL

CR trainings foster peer learningamong women broadcasters

“This training went deeper becausewe analysed our existing skills andthe problems we encounter in ourdaily radio work and searched formeans to improve ourselves, learningfrom each other.” Adivasulevu Chute,Femlink, Fiji.

“For me the highlight of this semi-nar was learning form the experi-ences of the community radios inAceh Indonesia after the tsunami.”Madella T. Santiago, ARCSEA, Philip-pines.

In collaboration with AMARC AsiaPacific, Isis international conducted in2009 and 2010 two regional cross-cultural, cross-language seminars inSouth-East Asia and in South Asiawith 30 participants each. The seminars were conductedin English, enabling the participation of non-Englishspeaking women through peer translation. Journalisticand technical skills are just one aspect of the trainingmodule that Isis International has developed. Equally im-portant are empowerment and the coverage of specifictopics from a gender perspective such as climate changeadaptation, peace building or disaster mitigation.

The radio programmes produced during the seminarsconsist of a variety of creative radio formats such as radioreports, storytelling, radio drama, studio discussion, in-terviews. The training participants acted as resource per-sons, trainers, facilitators, producers and translators atthe same time.

AMARC Asia Pacific adapted this module of trainings atnational level and conducted together with ACORAB in2011 two trainings in Nepal with 25 participants each.For many of the women it was the first radio training ever.

"Before the training I was about to leave the radio sta-

tion. At the training I realised as awomen broadcaster I have a mission. Icame back motivated and we con-vinced 20 station managers to conductand empowerment campaign forwomen community radio broadcast-ers." Narmaya Rasailee from RadioGandaki 90.2Mhz, Nepal.

With the support of Commonwealthof Learning (COL), Open Society Foun-dation (OSF), and UNICEF, AMARCconducted a women's radio training inDelhi for 32 participants from India,Nepal and Sri Lanka in January 2013.

The AMARC trainings put a specialfocus on empowerment. At the begin-ning of the training participants iden-tified problems and challenges women

face in their radio station and discussed how the AMARC-Gender Policy for Community Radio can be a tool towardsequal participation of women in community radio. For thefirst time we also included community storytelling andtestimonies in the workshop.

However I felt there was more potential among the par-ticipants for sharing and learning from each other, whichwe were not able to tap. We also neglect the discussionson a specific issue from a gender perspective. On onehand we did not do a skill needs assessment before thetraining. On the other hand the training was only fourdays – instead of five days.

"I always felt I had to portray women as poor victims.But after the training I realized it is important to portraywomen as strong and show their real contribution in soci-ety, report success stories, to empower women throughcommunity radio." Rekha Sharma, Radio Dhadkhan, India.

The women's-only training grants women a safe spacewhere they can freely express themselves. All facilitatorsare women and serve as role models, especially in thetechnical field. What Rekha Sharma from the Delhi train-ing expressed is also true in training women for commu-nity radio.

The participants should not just be seen as trainees. Aresource oriented approach to unleash the potential ofthe participants is an efficient empowerment tool, com-bined with concrete sharing of technical, journalistic andcommunity involvement skills and actual hands on tocome up with high quality radio features at the end of thetraining have proven empowering and efficient at thesame time.

This seminar was an excellent exposure to communityradio. I got energized to do more live broadcasts.” PreetiChandrasekar, India.

Bianca MigliorettoCommunity Radio Trainer and Consultant

Vice President, AMARC Asia Pacific WIN Associate, Isis International

Interactive training

Hands on production


VOICES FROM THE FIELDVOICES FROM THE FIELD VOICES FROM THE FIELDVOICES FROM THE FIELD

Sushma is a migrant woman fromBihar living in Mullaheda village in Gur-gaon for the past 12 years. Her husbandis a security guard. Living in a one roomtenement barely a kilometre from theMaruti Suzuki factory, she shares thecramped space with her alcoholic hus-band and five daughters. When thepressure to bear a boy child grew un-bearable, as did the trauma of undergo-ing three abortions because the unbornfoetus was, once again, a girl, she liter-ally ran away to her “maika” (maternalhome) to get an “operation” done. Thetaboo and deafening silence around is-sues of sexual and reproductive healthbarred her from discussing her prob-lems with women in her locality - be it

her mother-in-law or neighbours livingaround her, or even her husband.

The Community Learning Program(CLP) “Chahat Chowk” was designed atGurgaon Ki Awaaz Samudayik Radio tobreak this silence. Multiple focus groupsdiscussions later, it was evident thatwhile issues like ‘white discharge’, prob-lems in conception, unease with contra-ception, the burden of multiplepregnancies, and the trauma of multipleabortions were rampant among bothmigrant and local women in Mullaheda,the dominant issue was really the si-lence around these health problems.

The Community Learning Program(CLP) model developed by Common-wealth of Learning (COL) and its part-ners is an approach that tacklescommunity health/development issues

guided bycommunica-tion for de-velopment,and socialand behav-iour changeprinciplesand prac-tices.

The keyelements ofa commu-nity learningprogrammeare: a) col-laborationamong local

stakeholder groups, b) participation oftarget audiences in decision makingabout programme content, c) a combi-nation of media distributed contentwith face-to-face networking, d) a story-based approach to learning and behav-iour change.

Accordingly, the “Chahat Chowk” se-ries was developed in partnership withwomen staying in Mullaheda, who par-ticipated in focus group discussions,generously shared their stories for radioprogrammes, and opened up their smalllittle one-room homes to listenergroups.

Integral to the programme designprocess was the participation and sup-port of the Civil Hospital, Gurgaon (whodeputed ASHA workers and ANMs to theprogramme), the NRHM-supported RCH

dispensary in Mullaheda, St. Stephens’Hospital, Gurgaon (which deputed theirANMs as on-air experts), the Mullaheda

Anganwadi which became a meetingspace for women, and local shopkeeperswho shared their customer base so that

the pro-grammecould reachout to awider com-munity inMullaheda.

Launchedin July 2013,the first 16episodes ofChahatChowk com-pleted theircycle ofbroadcast byend of Octo-ber. The re-

sponse was unlike anything the stationhas witnessed earlier. Calls would startcoming in even before the programmewent on air, with listeners calling in toask if the ANM had reached the studioand if they could talk to her. What wasplanned initially as a 30-minute teleph-ony segment added to a 30-minute mag-azine-format program, stretched to 60minutes. Yet, many callers could notmake it to the show!

Questions that the ANMs had neverbeen asked in their long careers in thefield were suddenly being thrown atthem within the anonymity that radiooffers its listeners. “My condom keeps tearing, what shall Ido?”“My wife has been complaining of whitedischarge for the past year, how can I

help her?”“We’ve just been married, how can Idelay having children for another twoyears?”“If I get a vasectomy done, is it re-versible?”“Dealing with these questions hasn’tbeen easy either.”

Training partners Maraa and IdeosyncMedia Combine put the entire GKA teamthrough training to help them let go oftheir own inhibitions in discussing sex-ual issues.

Fallouts of the program have beenmen and women visiting the Mullahedadispensary to meet the ANM (who alsofeatures in the program) after listeningto the radio program, posters in the

Mullaheda lanes, promotional events,and the use of an IVR-based call-out sys-tem that shares the key messages ofeach episode with a caller base of nearly1000 people.

In its second phase, the Gurgaon KiAwaaz team is working on developingthe next 26 episodes of Chahat Chowk.Besides existing stakeholders, new part-ners are being identified. Many new is-sues have also emerged from the phonecalls received during the first cycle.These will be addressed in the secondcycle.

There’s a new excitement definitely inthe air! After all, that wall of silence ap-pears to be finally getting breached!

Arti JaimanGurgaon Ki Awaaz

Chahat ChowkBreaking the silence on

sexual health

It was evident that while issues like ‘whitedischarge’, problems in conception, uneasewith contraception, the burden of multiple

pregnancies, and the trauma of multiple abor-tions were rampant among both migrant and

local women in Mullaheda, the dominantissue was really the silence around these

health problems


FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTFIRST PERSON ACCOUNT

Nepal is widely credited for beingthe first country in South Asia toopen up its airwaves to communityand private broadcasting. The coun-try’s tryst with community radiobroadcasting started after the FirstJan Andolan (people’s movement) of1990, which established constitu-tional democracy in Nepal. This pro-vided impetus to some individualsand organisations that came together,fascinated by the possibilities of thethen new FM technology and bol-stered by the idea of opening up themedia to people.

Some key actors who came to-gether were the Nepal Press Insti-tute, the Himal Group, WorldviewNepal and the Nepal Forum of Envi-ronmental Journalists (NEFEJ), andan application for a license for com-munity radio (CR) broadcasting wasmade in 1992, with NEFEJ as the li-cense-holder.

Community radio in Nepal drawsits legitimacy from the NationalMedia Policy of 1992, the NationalBroadcasting Act of 1993 and the Na-tional Broadcasting Regulation of1995. After years of lobbying and ad-vocacy, South Asia got its first com-munity radio station in RadioSagarmatha, with NEFEJ as the li-cense-holder, in 1996.

Ever since, Nepal’s pioneering trystwith community radio broadcastinghas often found mention in the advo-cacy and lobbying efforts for the

opening up of air-waves to commu-nities, in India andBangladesh.

From being thepioneer in suc-cessfully lobbyingfor the opening upof airwaves tocommunities,Nepal’s CR land-scape today leavesmuch to be de-sired. The policygoverning CR it-self allows for dis-crepancies, with asingular policy inplace that placescommunity radios

on par with private radios. When operationalised, the policy

calls for taxation of CR stations onpar with private FMs, among similarsuch blanket clauses. As a result,Nepal’s non-government radio sectorhas, over the lastfew years, wit-nessed a spurt inradio stations thatstake claims tocall themselves‘community ra-dios’ or ‘commer-cial FMs’, the onusof which is onthem as per thepolicy.

There seems tobe a growing un-derstanding anddesire for anamendment or re-vamp of the FMpolicy in the CRsector, with CR bodies like the Associ-ation of Community Radio Broadcast-ers Nepal (ACORAB) andBroadcasters Association of Nepal(BAN) often calling for a demarcationin the singular policy that is in opera-tion. However, the problem is onlycompounded by the lack of institu-tional mechanisms like a fully func-tional Constitution or legislativemachinery that can legitimately en-force the policy shift, since 2008,

when the Constituent Assemblyfailed to draft a Constitution.

The presence of internationaldonor agencies in the post-civil wartransition period since 2006, onlyadds dimensions to the functioningof CRs in Nepal. These funding bodiesoften liaise with radio associations toreach out to individual CRs withpackaged content, impacting the finalprogramming aired by these stations.

Clearly, the post-civil war transi-tion period has impacted the Com-munity Radio landscape of Nepalrather deeply, with dysfunctionaldemocratic institutions and inflow ofinternational funding for democraticand development assistance playingkey roles.

At the time of writing this piece,the country is on the verge of somecrucial changes. Even as the electionsheld on November 19 saw recordvoter turn-out, news about theUnited Communist Party of NepalMaoists’ demand for boycott of the

post-poll process citing irregularitiesis now trickling in. Either way, thenext few weeks promise tectonicshifts in the country’s political scene.The subsequent changes that theseshifts would engender in the Commu-nity Radio sector in Nepal certainlymakes for an interesting study!

Preeti Raghunath, PhD Scholar

University of Hyderabad

A policy conundrum:the case of CR in Nepal


UPDATESUPDATES

Radio Bundelkhand (RB), initiatedby Development Alternatives inTARAgram, Orchha, Tikamgarh Dis-trct of Madhya Pradesh was the firstcommunity radio of Madhya Pradeshand the second in the country. It com-pleted five years on October 23, 2013– a landmark which called for cele-bration and jubilation.

Community reporters of RB af-firmed that it had been an excitingjourney for them on a path not trod-den before. The innovative approachof RB has demonstrated an effectivemeans of reaching out to cater to theneeds of the community, they felt.

From being a two hour broadcast,the station now broadcasts ninehours every day. An interaction withthe community was the highlight ofthe celebrations. A special manage-ment committee meeting was organ-ized with the various stakeholders toshare their experience with RadioBundelkhand.

“The management committee hasbeen a guiding force for us at RadioBundelkhand. The use of local Bun-deli dialect has brought Radio Bun-delkhand closer to the hearts of thecommunity, breaking language barri-ers and facilitating community to ex-press and interact” said Mr. RamnathAhirwar, Rural Extension Officer, Ni-wari Block.

The community also appreciatedpioneering programmes like Bundeli

Idol which pro-vided a platformfor local talent.The first RuralReality Show –Kaun BanegaShubhkal Leaderand Shubhkal -Badalti Jalvayuke Liye TaiyyarHum which fol-lowed, helpeddemystify cli-mate change tolocal communi-ties and helpedto address issuesrelated to theirprime livelihood– “agriculture”.

The live streaming (courtesyNOMAD) on October 23, the fifth an-niversary of Radio Bundelkhand, alsoreached out to those who werewithin the proximity of the region.The community members called upcontinuously during the day to ex-press their views and congratulatedRadio Bundelkhand for becoming anintegral part of their lives in the fiveyears. “I am a regular listener andcontributor, I like all the programmesespecially Shubhkal of Radio Bun-delkhand and I wish Radio Bundelk-hand all success” said Balaram fromvillage Naigua.

Those associated with Radio Bun-delkhand from itsinception till datealso called up andshared their expe-riences with us.“The best thingabout Radio Bun-delkhand is itscoverage of vari-ety of issues cater-ing to all segmentsof the society –women, children,youth, farmersetc.,” said Dr.Ashok Khosla,Chairman, Devel-opment Alterna-tives.

“When Radio Bundelkhand wasstarted, we could not figure out thename of the radio station and it wasthe community who gave us thisname” said Ms. Indira Mansingh, Ad-visor, Development Alternatives. Itwas a very exciting and a very emo-tional moment for all to know howthe seed they planted, the water andnutrition they provided has grown tobecome a healthy and vibrantsapling.

A special programme was devel-oped by the team at Radio Bundelk-hand which traversed through withsnippets from various programmesdeveloped in its five years of exis-tence. There were snapshots fromBundeli Idol, Zaika Bundelkhand,Rural Reality Show – Kaun BanegaShubhkal Leader, Shubhkal - BadaltiJalvayu ke Liye Taiyyar Hum etc.

Radio Bundelkhand has alsoformed an informal consortium offive community radios in the regionto share and collaboratively developprogrammes. The consortium facili-tates learning by sharing and enhanc-ing its reach with the largercommunity.

Clearly, the five years of Radio Bun-delkhand have been exciting and wehope for many more such years ofreaching out and changing the narra-tive.

Gazala Shaikh & Sutul SrivastavaDevelopment Alternatives

Celebrating Radio Bundelkhand Apna Radio Apni Batein

Rampal and Anuradha - Anchoring the special live streaming

5th Anniversary celebrations


TRACKING CRTRACKING CR

India gets its first LGBT radio

In 2009, when Anil Srivatsa did thelate night talk show “Between thesheets” on Meow 104.8 FM – India’sfirst just for women radio networkstarted by him (Now Oye! FM) – oneof his topics had to do with homosex-ual experiences. This started creatingdeliberations within Delhi and whenthe idea of creating an Internet radioplatform www.radiowalla.in cameabout in 2010, where this would be aplatform for special Interest radiocontent, it was a natural fit to includeSrivatsa’s ambition to start a radiochannel for the LGBT community intothe mix. Q Radio started its opera-tions from Bangalore, India in Sep-tember 2013.

There aren’t any media channelsdedicated to the LGBT community ona full time basis in India yet. Whilethere are several examples of onlineradio programming for the LGBT in

European and Western nations, inIndia, we hardly even acknowledgetheir presence. We are like a commu-nity in denial of their existence.

Q Radio tries to voice the commu-nity using the medium ofradio/audio. It airs many live call-inshows which encourage participationfrom the community and also providea platform for the community musi-cians to serve up their brand of musicto the community and outside.

Q radio is a platform where evenhomophobes and perhaps fundamen-talist groups against the communitycan get their own show and use thatplatform to reach out to the LGBTcommunity to begin a healthy dia-logue socially. This dialogue is thefirst step towards creating a betterunderstanding between the variousgroups and also for the LGBT commu-nity to get a better understanding ofwhere that fear of them emanatesfrom.

Q Radio’s content will focus on lifein India from an LGBT perspectivewhere non-LGBT participants canalso interact wearing the sameshades of the rainbow. The content isavailable worldwide via internet. Anyage group, ethnicity or communitycan tune in to the website and listento them. One of the challenges of QRadio is to slowly diversify into thelocal languages too, as Anil Srivatsanotes, “For Q Radio, expansion is interms of outreach, inclusion of con-

tent in regional languages and toevolve into the 360 eco systems ofother mediums, online and off line”.

Q Radio is partially funded byUNDP (United Nations DevelopmentProgram) and an NGO, Guild ofWomen Achievers (who are sponsorsof this channel). They have receivedappreciation from different quartersin two months since inception andthe idea of an LGBT community radiostation is growing popular. Anil Sri-vatsa adds, “The word of mouth

spread about this channel is thefastest I have seen so far and coupledwith the interest of the media frater-nity in this product, this certainlyhelps to build a listener base.”

Arun JohnPhD Scholar

University of Hyderabad

Anil Srivatsa

Mari and Vaishali

(continued from Page 1)The CLP model ties in perfectly with the objective of in-

creasing women’s participation in community radio at alllevels of decision-making in a community radio pro-gramme. While the concept is fairly new in India, it hasbeen tried and tested in various parts of the world. Manysee this as a paradigm shift where the focus is on involv-ing local stakeholders in decision making processes (topicselection, message design, program design etc.) right fromthe inception of the program plan.

Gurgaon Ki Aawaz was the firststation to pilot this model in Indiawith Maraa’s support. So far, theyhave produced a 16-episode serieson the issue of ‘white discharge’, acommon problem among women inthe community they are workingwith. Summarizing her experienceson producing these episodes, Van-

dana shared, “It (CLP) is a really an interesting process.We have formed new relationship with the communitynow. The women were initially very apprehensive aboutthese conversations on sexual health. However, graduallythey have reached a level where they don’t only discussthese issues amongst themselves but also with their part-ners”.

Post this training, all nine stations will be producing anissue based CLP series through in-depth formative re-

search, outcome oriented learningdesign, and initiate a process of dia-logue between various stakeholdersin their respective communities.

Devi Leena BoseIndependent Media Researcher

(Photo credit: Javed Iqbal and Monica James, Maraa)

Plan for cascade workshops to train women at the grassroots


RESEARCHRESEARCH

What is the role of CommunityRadio in terms of women’s participa-tion and empowerment?

To review the scenario, a survey onthe status of women communityradio broadcasters of the SAARC re-gion was conducted by AMARC APbetween June and July, 2013. Datawas collected from a total of 48 com-munity radio stations of South Asia:Afghanistan (6), Bangladesh (14),Bhutan (1), India (4), Nepal (16),Pakistan (4) and Sri Lanka (3).

The stations which were a part ofthe survey varied in terms of size andcomposition. Two radio stations(Rudi no Radio in India and NariAwaaz in Nepal) are completelywomen run radios stations. RadioSahar in Afghanistan represents awomen run radio station although itemploys men for technical supportwhile Radio Alina Nooristan inAfghanistan is radio run by men only.

The survey results proved to be amixed bag. The good news was thatcommunity radios employ 38%women, which is better than main-stream media. According to the Inter-national Women's Media Foundation(December, 2010) women comprise33.3% of the journalists world-wide.However, they only make up 27% oftop man-agement.In Asia,womenmake uponly 20%of themediawork-force.

A closerlook atleader-ship andtechnicalpositions in these radio stations, re-vealed the gender status in radio sta-tion. Women constituted 33% ofleadership positions - an improve-ment from a similar survey con-ducted in 2006 when it was 28%.

The issues about women’s access

to decision-making positions, techni-cal proficiency (26%) however con-tinued to remain areas of concern.

Most of the radios stations hadprogrammes by and for women withtotal broadcast time from a total of 2to 70 hours in a week. These pro-grams covered a range of issues fromgender inequity and violence tohealth and culture.

Some of the positive changes thatemerged in the survey included:•More women participation in com-munity radio• More women run radios emergingin the region (9 in Afghanistan, 2 inIndia, 9 in Nepal)• Increase in women participation inmanagement level and in technicalaspects of radio • Innovative radio programmes likelegal literacy, financial security,women’s rights that are impactingthe communities• Greater willingness to learn andparticipate in women networks• Becoming role models for girls andwomen in their community• Breaking traditional barriers thatdiscriminate women • Women broadcasters have becomeempowered through the communityradios

Based on the findings of the survey,coupled with face to face discussionswith community radio stakeholdersin the region, AMARC AP recom-mended the following for womenbroadcasters in South Asia to ensuregender equality in community radios:

• As the representation of women inleadership and technical field of com-munity radio is still low there needsto be more training especially inmanagement skills. Positive discrimi-nation towards women to ensuregreater women participation shouldbe given due priority. • More field based training is neces-sary. Training women communityradio broadcasters on the technicalaspects gives them control over thecontent especially those related towomen empowerment and its impacton the community.• Gender sensitization training formanagement and editors wouldgreatly help in bringing about genderequality.• A study tour or exchange visitwithin the country or the region forcommunity radio women broadcast-ers will help them learn from othersin the same field and also see thebest practices in action• Community radios should adhere totheir stations bylaws and regulationsand strictly ensure that there is nodiscrimination amongst staff basedon gender or sexual orientation• Most community radio stationshave a similar kind of programmesrelated to women and at times the

dominantviews re-gardingwomen arereinforcedby suchpro-grammes. Itis time nowfor commu-nity radiosto broad-cast womenpro-grammes

that empower them and createawareness about existing women’slaws and rights.

Prativa ChhetriProgramme Officer, AMARC Asia Pacific

Empowering women through CR:Where do we go from here?

Position Total Women In % Men In %

Overall staff 1112 426 38% 686 2%

Leadership Positions 279 93 33% 186 67%

Technical Staff 167 43 26% 124 74%

Administrative Staff 134 45 34% 89 66%

Programme Producers 381 175 46% 206 54%

Volunteers 1343 511 38% 832 62%


CR News Team

SUPPORTED BY: UNESCO, New Delhi

PRODUCED BY: UNESCO Chair on Community MediaDepartment of Communication, Sarojini NaiduSchool of Arts and Communication, Universityof Hyderabad, Hyderabad

EDITORIAL TEAM:Editor: Ashish Sen (President, AMARC Asia-Pacific)Associate Editor: Kanchan K. Malik (University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad)Design and Production: Vasuki Belavadi, (University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad)Nalme Nachiyar (University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad)

ADVISORY BOARD:Iskra Panevska (UNESCO, Delhi) Vinod Pavarala (UNESCO Chair on Community Media, University of Hyderabad)Frederick Noronha (Independent Journalist,Goa)Anita Gurumurthy (ITforChange, Bangalore)Anujaa Shukla (Community Media Consultant)Nikhil Dey (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,Rajasthan)

The editorial team seeks contributions byway of news reports, features, announce-ments and opinions on recent commu-nity radio activities in yourorganization/region/nation.

Voices/Stories from the field, includinginterviews with community members(listeners and producers) are especiallywelcome.Contributions should be in Eng-lish, restricted to 300 words fornews/event and 450-500 words for opin-ion pieces and features, and typed doublespaced. Contributions may preferably beaccompanied by photographs/illustra-tions. Contact address and details of au-thors/ organization should accompanythe contributions.

The last date for submissions is January20, 2014. Electronic submission of con-tributions is recommended. Please emailyour articles/reports/features to:[email protected].

You can also post them to:Dr. Kanchan K. Malik, Department ofCommunication, University of Hyder-abad, Gachibowli, Hyderabad-46 Phone: +91 40 2313 5506

Call for contributions

A 3-day participa-tory validation work-shop for adapting theCommunity RadioContinuous Improve-ment Toolkit (CR-CIT) to theBangladesh contextwas held at IDB Bha-ban, Dhaka from No-vember 25-27.

The CR-CIT hasbeen developed bythe UNESCO Chair onCommunity Mediateam, University of Hyderabad with support from the Commonwealth Educa-tional Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) and is likely to be adopted by the Min-istry of Information (MoI), Bangladesh as indicated by BNNRC and theSecretary, MoI at the workshop.

The co-learningworkshop, attendedby 32 representa-tives from 16 CRstations inBangladesh wasjointly organized byBangladesh NGOsNetwork for Radioand Communica-tion (BNNRC) &UNESCO Chair onCommunity Mediawith financial andtechnical assistanceof European Union,

Free Press Unlimited and CEMCA/ Commonwealth of Learning. Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman, CEO of BNNRC coordinated the workshop which

was facilitated by Prof. Vinod Pavarala and his team from the University of Hy-derabad. Mr. Rafiqul Alam, Chairman, BNNRC; Mr. Mohamad Farooq, Chief In-formationCommissioner; Mr.Ankuran Dutta, Pro-gram Officer,CEMCA; Ms. RebaRani Saha, Joint Sec-retary- Radio, Min-istry of Information;Mr. Kazi Akhtarud-din Ahmed, Addi-tional Secretary andDG, BangladeshBetar graced theopening and closingof the workshop .

The validation workshop was followed by field-testing of the CR-CIT withseven CR stations through a self-evaluation and peer-review process. With allthe inputs from the validation workshop and the field-testing, the CR-CIT isnow in the process of being finalised for Bangladesh and would soon be madeavailable as a bi-lingual tool-kit for its application in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshikaranof CR-CIT

Documents

CR Quarterly, Veolume # 4, Iwssue # 3, Dec ‘13s - Feb ‘14uccommedia.in/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vol-4-iss-3-Dec-20… · CR acki g c i adi i I dia n Quarterly, Ve olume