Hyderabad: Community radio hailed for connect with marginalised

Hyderabad: A 3-day community radio awareness workshop is being organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) in partnership with Seeking Modern Applications For Real Transformation (SMART). The workshop began on Monday.

Community radio is a flagship programme of the Government of India, as it is a very powerful medium to reach out to unreached and marginalised communities. Archana Kapoor, founder of SMART, said the purpose of the workshop was to sensitise organisations about the concept of community radio, its application process, need, purpose and programming.

The workshop is being attended by 45 representatives of the non-governmental organisations and educational institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras from across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Archana Kapoor said that the community radio is a less expensive medium to provide information and entertainment to the marginalized people. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting hosts 8 such workshops each year; the focus is now on aspirational districts.

Rukmini Vemraju, a community media expert and consultant with SMART, said that the community radio was a very powerful tool for empowerment of underserved communities. It is different from commercial stations as it ensures participation of the community, gives access to all and encourages two-way communication, where listeners become producers.

Esther Kar, former DG, PIB, talked about the various aspects of sustainability in the context of a community radio. She said that, "for a community radio to be effective, we need to look at sustainability from the perspective of community, content, human resources, culture and finance." Praveen Kumar Mondal from BECIL took the technical training and also accompanied the participants to the radio station visit and explained details of equipment on location.

Operating community radio stations from Bangalore and Telangana participated in the experience sharing session. They shared their stories of change, their success and the challenges faced by them in their starting years. Radio Active from Bangalore talked about discovering new communities of interest, Dr Devendarappa from Krishi CRS, Dharwad shared their experience of engaging with farmers both online and offline and their success in increasing productivity. Creating a community of listeners is as crusial as creating a bank of programmes.