Giving a big push to its 100-day development agenda, and as part of securing people’s participation at every level, the Modi government is setting up community radio stations across all the 115 ‘aspirational districts’ in the country.
Community radio stations, which have a reach of between fiveto 20 km radius and do not need major infrastructure to set up, would be acrucial medium for informing locals about important issues, like governmentprogrammes, the weather, agriculture-related information, education, and localevents, among others.
“Community radio has been identified as an importantfocus area in the aspirational districts. It would help in disseminatinginformation at the grassroots level on major issues, like last mileconnectivity,” a source told IANS.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has beenreceiving a large number of applications for setting up community radiostations. The applications are first vetted by the Ministry of Home Affairs andthe Ministry of Defence, before they are acted upon.
“Over 150 applications have come in, ranging from Jammuand Kashmir to the Andamans. We will interview those whose applications havegot the relevant clearance, before giving the go-ahead,” the source added.
Educational institutions, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and evenNGOs set up community radio stations, which are useful in reaching out to thecommunity. All that these low-frequency stations require is a 50 watttransmitter and a six-foot by six-foot room to set up a 30-metre antenna.
In coastal areas, it is the community radio station that isuseful in giving warnings about an impending cyclone, nearby sheltersavailable, how to reach there, and phone numbers etc.
While FM radio stations are there in cities, in far-flungareas it is the community radio that people listen to for information, musicand entertainment.
Community radio stations can generate revenue throughadvertisements, at the rate of seven minutes of ads per hour. However, theycannot do programmes promoting any commercial establishment or any politicalagenda. Government-run stations get ads from the Directorate of Advertising andVisual Publicity (DAVP).
There are currently over 250 community radio (CR) stationsin the country. However, despite their immense usefulness there are still ninestates and Union Territories that do not have CR stations.
The Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing (WPC), underthe Ministry of Communications and IT, gives the licence to those whoseapplications are cleared for setting up CR stations. They are allocatedfrequencies based on the geo-coordinates. The WPC also takes care to ensurethat the frequencies of the CR stations do not clash with FM and others.
Community radio stations are self-regulated. While theircontent is not monitored, there is state-level and district-level monitoring.The ministry also acts on complaints it receives from listeners. The CRstations are mandated to keep recordings of their programmes for up to three months,which the ministry can ask for at any time.
While government agencies and government-run educationalinstitutions can get more than one licence, private educational institutionsand organisations and NGOs are given only one licence.
The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL),which is under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, helps in settingup the community radio station, right from procuring the equipment to selectinga site. The cost of setting up such a station can range between Rs 15-20 lakh,and the government gives Rs 7.5 lakh as subsidy after the station has been setup.
Near the national capital, ‘Salaam Namaste’ Community RadioStation, a unit of IMS Noida, is the first CR station of Noida and Ghaziabadand is immensely popular. It broadcasts educational programmes, socialawareness programmes, local talent programmes and gives a vocal platform tolocal people to help solve grievances.
There is also ‘Hello Doon’, a CR station run by the NationalInstitute for the Visually Handicapped, in Dehradun. The ‘Alfaz-e-Mewat’station is successfully run in Mewat, Haryana. The Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity has also been given 40 licences to run CR stations to connect withstudents in different areas.
Seventeen of the coastal districts across eight states donot have CR stations, which would help inform fishermen and locals about thesea conditions, how to market their produce, and other information.
For schools, CR could be an important way to reach out tostudents after school hours, in the form of giving tutorials in maths and othersubjects. The medium could also be used to educate denotified tribes aboutlivelihood options, on health, nutrition, and hygiene.
A mobile phone is all that people need to catch thefrequency and listen in. With CR an important medium to help bring aboutbehaviour change communication, it could be used by women’s self-help groups indisseminating information about nutrition, child care, maternal care, when thenext iron and folic acid supplements would be given etc. In jails too, CR couldbe an important medium to bring about behaviour change.
“Community Radio Stations are like the Direct BenefitTransfer scheme, where relevant information regarding government programmes,schemes and other key information is disseminated directly to the locals,”T.C.A. Kalyani, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting, told IANS.