SUPPORTING COMMUNITY RADIO IN INDIA

COL’s regional agency, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), has been working with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to support the rapid expansion of community radio in India. More than 2,000 organisations have participated in 20 consultation workshops organised by CEMCA over the past two years. At these workshops, community groups and educational institutions learn about the potential of community radio, how successful stations function and how to submit license applications. As a result of these workshops, more than 1,000 applications have been made and 80 community radio stations have begun operation.

The Government of India has shown strong support of community radio, but it has been slow to spread. These consultation workshops are helping interested people and organisations to establish and maintain community radio stations. The process has been led by CEMCA’s Director, Dr. Sreedher Ramamurthy, who pioneered campus community radio in India.

“Community radio gives a voice to the voiceless,” Dr. Sreedher explains. “It empowers people to find solutions to their problems and serves the information needs of targeted communities. Mainstream media is not able to fulfil these needs.”

Mr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Director with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (currently Additional Director General to the 2010 Commonwealth Games) took part in the consultation workshops and provides this report:

“The objective of the community radio workshops is to inform and educate non-profit civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and educational institutions to develop capacity for establishing and running community stations. The workshops also create awareness about relevant programming content for community radio stations by locating such workshops in global rural initiatives such as the Barefoot College, Tilonia. The workshops were attended by civil society organisations and educational institutions from the state as well as representatives of functional community radio stations. Approximately 80-90 such civil society organisations and educational institutions attended these consultation workshops.

“The two-day workshop schedule typically includes an interactive introduction of participating organisations, followed by sessions on policy highlights, application form reading, functional stations’ perspective, content programming, funding/technical aspects and a field visit demonstration. To make the workshops more transparent and accessible, a committee of experts and officials screened radio station license applications.

“India’s national community radio policy announced in 2000 focused on campus radio stations in educational institutions. Since its reformulation in 2006, the policy now allows greater participation by non-profit rural civil society organisations that have a proven record of at least three years of service in the local community on issues relating to development and social change. At least 50 per cent of the content has to be generated with the participation of the local community preferably in the local language and dialect. A grant of license to set up a community radio station is processed in approximately 10 months.

“While funding from multilateral aid agencies can be accessed by the community radio station, limited advertising or announcements relating to local events, local businesses, services and employment opportunities are allowed. The maximum duration of such advertising has been restricted to five minutes per hour of broadcast.

“The consultation workshops have achieved more than merely generating expressions of interest from participating organisations to apply for a community radio license. The forums have brought to the fore four critical issues:

• First, a baseline survey in the community service area should be a rigorous exercise to identify the “media gap” that a community radio station’s programming has to address.
• Second, while the licensing process extends over a period of 10- 11 months, no time should be lost to build capacities and train volunteers. 
• Third, state governments have to act as focal points for injecting synergy via the Information Education and Communication (IEC) components of both the rural and urban flagship development schemes. 
• Last but not least, the sine qua non of a truly empowered and community owned radio station is its management structure. It ought to include the marginalised in its ambit to both administer the station as well as monitor the programme content...”

CEMCA is planning 10 more consultation workshops and will then focus on capacity building for community radio. More than 120 people have already completed a certificate course in community radio through Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). The distance learning course includes an internship for students at an existing community radio station. CEMCA is asking each community radio station to enrol one person per session in the IGNOU community radio course and offers scholarships to support this important learning.

It is also important to increase campus/community partnerships, according to CEMCA’s Dr. Sreedher.

“Our higher education institutions have a wealth of knowledge to share,” he explained. “We need to encourage these educational institutions to support community radio and provide relevant, up-to-date information about community issues such as health promotion. Above all, the community voice must be heard.”

www.cemca.org

Read a special report about community radio in India in AudienceScapes, an online information source about developing countries: www.audiencescapes.org/india-special-report-india-special-report-community-radio-sustainability

SIXTH PAN-COMMONWEALTH FORUM ON OPEN LEARNING

24-28 November 2010, India

COL’s Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6), being co-hosted by India’s Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), has attracted over 450 abstract submissions covering all four sub-theme areas: Social Justice, Community Development, Skills Development and Formal Education. More than 300 abstracts have been accepted, and the resulting papers will be shaped into a programme by Programme Chair, Professor P.R. Ramanujam (Director of IGNOU’s Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education/STRIDE) and his PCF6 Secretariat team, the PCF6 Programme Committee and COL Education Specialists.

A list of accepted abstracts is available on the Forum website.

PCF6 will be held from 24 to 28 November at Le Méridien Cochin Resort & Convention Centre, located on the celebrated backwaters of Kochi, in Kerala, India’s unique southwest coastal state. Details on registration procedures and accommodation will be available on the Forum website. Five-star accommodation, including full buffet breakfast, at Le Méridien Cochin is available to conference delegates from Rs7250 (+12.5% tax), or roughly US $165 per night. Budget accommodation is also available nearby.

Participation in and benefits from PCF6 will be enhanced by the allocation of subsidies for fees and/or travel for deserving delegates from developing countries in the Commonwealth. Sponsorship funds help ensure that there is representation from as many Commonweatlh countries as possible.

www.col.org/pcf6
www.lemeridien.com/cochin