BROADCASTING
Radio revolution
NITYA JACOB
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A policy change announced by the government allows NGOs and voluntary organisations to set up FM community radio stations. But, there are a few practical obstacles.
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Photo: G.R.N. Somashekar
Extraordinary reach: FM radio can be a powerful community tool.
THE radio waves are set for a revolution, fully 15 years after satellite TV turned our viewing habits topsy-turvy. Heading the change are, well, the ordinary people that comprise civil society, unlike large media houses that were at the vanguard of the TV tsunami.
What has sparked this off is the government's announcement, very low key, in November 2006, that NGOs and other reputed voluntary organisations can set up and run FM broadcasting stations. This amended an earlier decision that allowed "reputed" educational institutions to set up and run radio stations. Non-profit organisations are allowed to set up a station to "serve the community" with a range of 10-15 KM but individuals, political parties and organisations banned by the government are not.
Warm response
Civil society responded warmly and emotionally. "It's the second phase in the struggle to democratise India's airwaves," Nimmi Chauhan of Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, that runs a community radio programme in Gujarat, said on a mailing list after the policy was announced. "Huge congratulations to all. We enter a new phase," said Ashish Sen, director of VOICES.
But this is only one step forward. A quick look around shows that most NGOs, and India has an estimated two million of them, are ill-equipped and uninformed about community radio. Most express surprise when told they can set up and run radio stations. "It's expensive and time consuming, isn't it?" is the common refrain.
If community radio stations are to catch on at all in India, a lot has to be done in terms of raising awareness — costs, licensing procedures, frequency allocations, training on programme production and equipment. The information is out there, on the Internet and in the offices of donors, but has to be made available more readily.
There is a great deal of expertise as well out there. But it remains localised and has not spread beyond a particular group of NGOs. Many NGOs and youth groups have been producing content for radio for many years. In the absence of a policy, they improvised transmission — by buying time on All India Radio and World Space — or narrowcast programme. Narrowcasting is local broadcasting of content using loudspeakers in villages, or a local cable network.
Large international organisations such as Plan and UNESCO have trained and assisted several groups all over India to produce programmes. These have been aired on AIR or narrowcast. Now, these groups can set up their own transmission facilities.
Content is there
For example, the Umang group, comprising youth from Gairsain in Uttrakhand, who have been trained to produce radio programmes by Plan, have produced a series of them. The Henwal Vani group from Chamba, in the same State, trained and supported by UNESCO, produces and airs its weekly programmes on World Space. Children at Samskar, an NGO in Andhra Pradesh, have also been trained by Plan to produce programmes. These are broadcast on the local AIR stations at Nizamabad.
All of them take up local issues, sometimes so local as to be village-specific. All the programmes are made in the local dialect so even the illiterates can understand them. The producers involve local communities in making the programmes and the issues reflect what is important to a village or a group of villages. This has helped to make local governance more responsive and transparent.
Energising elections
This happened in the case of Namma Dhwani, the first community radio project in India in a village called Boodikote in Karnataka that covered the 2005 Panchayat elections live. It brought the candidates to life. "Probably for the first time, people voted for candidates and not symbols," says Sen (VOICES is the NGO that started the programme). The local officials have learnt to be wary after they were caught cheating disabled people of their right to free transport.
Another major impact is community empowerment. By giving a voice to people, community radio has helped to make village communities more confident — of raising their concerns and getting redress and of combating social ills such as alcoholism and dowry.
"The villagers get a thrill out of hearing their own voices on radio and this has helped them overcome their reticence. One programme on sand mining in the riverbed motivated the villagers to challenge the miners. The biggest reward is when people ask for an encore," says Vipin Joshi, who is the coordinator for Pradeep Samudayik Radio in Uttrakhand.
Machnoor Raju, who helps produce radio programmes in Pastapur in Andhra Pradesh says, "The programmes are about festivals, dalits, poor people, divorced women, and women who have separated from their husbands, and for farmers when there are no rains and no crops, or when the crop is damaged because of heavy rains."
Towards viability
All the community radio projects around India have been grant-driven and locally broadcast. The greatest challenge will be for NGOs running these programmes to make them viable, rather than leaning on endless grants. The radio policy allows five minutes of advertisements for every hour of programming, barely enough to cover costs. It forbids news and has a long list of "don'ts". Licensing procedures are long and tedious; all clearances can take a year unless bribes are paid.
Equipment is another challenge and along with studio costs, comprises most of the cost of setting up a radio station. There are a few Indian manufacturers and UNESCO has helped develop a low-cost radio-in-a-box that can be quickly and easily deployed. Some of these will be on display in New Delhi at an exhibition on community radio innovation and low-cost solutions from February 1-3, 2007.
Attaining critical mass
Community radio has flourished outside India. Promoted by NGOs, individuals and colleges, FM radio stations are dime a dozen in Africa, Latin America, the U.S. and Europe. For it to become as well established in India, organisations running them here have to "think out of the box" to pay their way. They have to be trained so that there is a critical mass of trained people who can make programmes. They have to be helped through the red tape of licensing and clearances. Now that the government has acceded to civil society's demand for a policy, civil society must rise to the occasion and keep its part of the deal.
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