— PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

TUNING IN: `General' Narsamma at the Deccan Development Society Community FM Radio Centre at Machnoor.

MACHNOOR (Medak district): A quartet of Dalit women, sing "jagadam pata", a song on a fight between a local landlord and a Dalit tenant, which unfolded in their village of Machnoor. In the adjoining room of the domed studio, `General' Narsamma moves the knob on a mixer, occasionally helped by Algolu Narsamma.

These Dalit women are all set to broadcast their hour-long programme from the country's first full- fledged Community Radio Station set up here by a non-governmental organisation, Deccan Development Society (DDS). The Union Cabinet cleared the proposal to licence them on November 16. There are at least three such community radios set up but all of them depend on AIR for broadcasting.

But for the licence, everything was in place with UNESCO providing part of the funds.

The studio building was made with locally available low cost material, two 16 and 4 channel mixers and stereo recorders, two 100-watt FM transmitters with a coverage area of 30 km radius reaching out to 100 villages, were already set up.

"Licence for the community radio was denied all these years citing security reasons. Now that the policy got the Cabinet nod we are immensely happy.

It will herald democratisation of India's airwaves. People's radio has become a reality", said P. V. Satheesh, Director of DDS. "It bridges the gap as mainstream media has no space for them", observed Vinod Pavarala, Dean of Communication, University of Hyderabad.

Making radio programmes has been a child's play for these tape-recorder wielding Dalit women, as they have canned 500 hours of them so far. "It's our radio and we will broadcast programmes made by us for our benefit. We will talk about seeds, crop diversity, organic farming, health, hygiene, women's problems and sending children to school, virtually everything that touches the community," said `General' Narsamma brimming with confidence.

There is expectation that the radio tailored to community needs would not only lend voice to the voiceless marginalised community but revive interest in the dying oral folk traditions like "Bichapola patalu."

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