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Gaurav Raghuvanshi

Community Radio is slowly making itself felt as a powerful tool of social and economic change. Tune in to a status report on what's crackling, and what more needs to be done.

Community Radio, in current Government parlance, means Campus Radio.

The existing licensing policy, announced in December 2002, stipulates that only government-recognised educational institutions can be issued a licence to run a community radio. That leaves out community-based organisations whose aim is empowerment of society.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recently submitted its recommendations on liberalising the norms further. Meanwhile, community radio initiatives are mushrooming through the proxy route

eWorld does a status check.

NALIYA, the western-most tip of India, would normally be the last place for a sting journalism operation. But this is where a bunch of school dropout reporters with missionary zeal have just unearthed a mini-scam.

No, it is not about the casting-couch syndrome of Bollywood or the murky dealings behind defence purchases. It is something that is more relevant to the local populace — a Government doctor indulging in private practice at the cost of the State.

The government hospital, where the doctor is supposed to be, is empty, while patients throng his illegal clinic and he makes a fast buck.

In true sting journalism style, the doctor is cornered and his comments are duly recorded. But you will not get to see it on your favourite television news channel. This is a form of communication more relevant for rural India — radio.

The programme, Pardafash (Expose), is produced by `Radio Ujjas' and broadcast on All India Radio, Rajkot.

Radio Ujjas is an effort of the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan and is run by local youth, many of whom are school dropouts. Almost two-thirds of Kutch's 1.5 million people are hooked on to Radio Ujjas. Kunjal Panchchi Kutchji (Saras crane of our Kutch), the central character of the radio who has a nose for news, has been generating debates on a variety of social issues, according to Stalin K, founder of Drishti, an Ahmedabad-based media collective.

Ujjas, which means light, is an imaginary village in Kutch created by the Radio Ujjas team that has been trained in basic journalism and radio programming by Drishti.

Radio Ujjas has become a household name in Kutch and gets its funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Central Government.

While community radio initiatives such as Radio Ujjas that buy programming space on AIR have come up in several States in the country, there is only one community radio station in the strict definition of the term.

According to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) official, as on date, only Anna FM qualifies to be a community radio station. The first campus-based community radio in the country, Anna FM is broadcast from the campus of Anna University, Chennai, on 90.4 MHz FM.

However, there are other initiatives like Radio Ujjas in the field, wherein some organisations are helping certain communities prepare and share audio programmes through various means. One such is Chala Ho Gaon Mein, started by an NGO as a community participatory programme. It reaches a population of over seven million covering Palamau, Garwah and Latehar districts in Jharkhand.

The frequency of the programme is two 30-minute episodes a week and it focuses on development issues such as the functioning of the public distribution system, roads, power and irrigation.

Another example is the Namma Dhwani (Our Voice) initiative, where a cable audio station has been set up at Budikote in Kolar district of Karnataka and the local community produces and cable-casts its own radio programmes.

Similarly, a community-based radio programme titled Panchayat Vani (People's Voice) was recently broadcast on AIR Darbhanga. The programme aims to spread awareness about the functioning of panchayati raj institutions in Muzaffarpur, Madhubani and Khagaria districts of Bihar.

The programme, produced by CENCORED in collaboration with the Delhi-based NGO Participatory Research In Asia (PRIA), was initiated in early 2003 to inform local communities about the need to, and ways to strengthen panchayati raj institutions.

The initiative is being supported by the Ford Foundation and now covers 12 States. "Villagers across 12 States are getting hooked on to radio programmes featuring women `sarpanches' and journalists fighting social and economic inequities through Panchayati Raj institutions. In the process, listeners are spurred to participate in local institutions of self-governance themselves," says PRIA spokesperson, Sandip Das.

And, the programmes are having impact. A middle-aged housewife at Benipati in Bihar's Madhubani got prompted by Panchayat Vani to mobilise village women to attend panchayati raj meetings.

A woman in Kasargod (Kerala) got interested in the State's development plan. Das says PRIA has documented several examples where people have responded to community radio initiatives.

"A programme titled Ganda no Dhabkar (Heartbeat of the Village) broadcast on AIR Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot has got listeners wanting to know more about the gram sabha and development programmes targeted at people living below the poverty line (BPL). The pilot radio programme, developed by Unnati, in collaboration with PRIA, depicts ground realities at village level and the heroic efforts of a woman sarpanch to fight social and economic inequalities through the gram sabha," Das says.

Prompted by such initiatives, TRAI recently submitted its list of recommendations on the community radio sector to the Government.

"What is allowed by the law of our country is campus radio and not community radio. The Government needs to address this issue with policy initiatives if it is serious enough to use the platform as a development tool," says Das.

Agrees Stalin. "Why would an Indian Institute of Technology radio be bothered about women's issues or healthcare? There is a clear need to allow real community radio stations to function," he says.

Stalin says that perhaps the present approach of using the AIR platform itself is faulty. "We were wrong in going through the proper channels and the AIR route. Instead, community radio should have started as pirate stations without bothering about a licence. Look at what happened to the cable operators. They did not take any licence to start operations and managed to stay outside any regulation," he says.

Citing the example of countries such as the US, the Philippines and South Africa, where such `pirate' radio stations sprung up without a licence, Stalin says radio stations owned by the natives were outlawed in the Apartheid era and later had to be regularised. After all, a `suitcase' radio station covering a half-km radius can be started with an investment of just Rs 15,000.

While going the `pirate' way may be an extreme situation, Stalin says the Government and TRAI's concerns are all misplaced.

"Why should the Government be bothered about the sustainability of community radio stations when it is not putting in any money? Similarly, security issues are hardly a concern as we are talking about very low power transmitters that are incapable of beaming signals that can have implications for national security," he says.

As regards allowing commercial advertising, Stalin says that too is not a real concern as private companies can bid for an FM radio station if they wanted to own a radio station.

"Programming and advertising norms can be worked out. We are willing to keep a log of our transmission that can be inspected by any authority. The advertising-programming balance too can be worked out. But allowing true community radio stations to function without Government shackles is a must," he says.

Meanwhile, TRAI has recommended to the Government that community radio stations should be allowed and commercial advertising be permitted, subject to certain norms. It has also said that there is no need for a separate programming code for community radio stations.

The Community Radio ball is now in the Government's court.

What TRAI wants

Key recommendations of TRAI on Community Radio:

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