AudiencScapes

Relying on a strategy of community input and participation, a community radio station in Uttar Pradesh, India is changing the lives of villagers. The experience of City Montessori School radio illustrates the challenges and rewards of involving listeners in community radio.

By Sushmita Malaviya

Like many other villagers in Malhaur, Anil Kumar and Ramesh Yadav normally listen to one of the many commercial FM channels that are broadcast from Lucknow, the largest city near them. Yet it was a community radio station that not only discussed their nagging problem on the air, but also raised it with the authorities and got it resolved. This is the kind of tangible change that the City Montessori School community radio station is bringing to villages in Uttar Pradesh.

During a phone-in program,‘Community Baat Cheet (Community Conversation),’ Malhaur residents complained that filthy roads were causing them a lot of problems and the authorities’ response had been apathetic. The community radio team presented the issue to officials from the District Rural Development Authority, inviting them to respond on air. A few days later their village roads were cleaned up.

Roots in education

The City Montessori School (CMS) Community Radio Station, 90.4 MHz, was launched by Jagdish and Bharti Gandhi in 2005. Based in Lucknow, the Montessori school became the first educational institution in Uttar Pradesh to have a community radio station (CRS). Since its inception, the station has primarily broadcast educational programs with a focus on serving the urban community of Lucknow.

Beginning two years ago, however, the CMS radio team began working in communities around Lucknow. This outreach helps the station produce and broadcast community-based programs alongside educational programs. Currently, the broadcast is two-and-a-half hours long with repeat broadcasts in the evening. Its reach is a mix of urban and rural areas.

Neelima Deepak, the station’s media coordinator, says when they got the license there was no clarity about the kind of programming they would produce. During a regional workshop of community radio station managers in New Delhi, Deepak says she realized that community participation in programs was an approach that CMS station should immediately adopt.

Relying on her earlier experience working with nongovernmental organizations, Deepak and her team brainstormed ideas for programs they could work on with the community. As most of the station’s staff has had associations with All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (the government radio and television channels respectively), they were able to convert ideas into programs quickly.

Some of those programs currently appreciated by listeners are: Ek Mulaqaat, an interview with renowned personalities from Lucknow; Anmol Ratan, stories about well-known women who have achieved something in life; and Shakti, a program about ordinary women doing extraordinary tasks.

Bringing radio to villages

In 2009, CMS radio started broadcasting to villages around Lucknow. In a related initiative, it started a community volunteer program, the goal of which is to encourage the community to take ownership of station programs.

“We have adopted a few villages -- Malhaur, Makhdoompur, Terakhas Lonapur, Nandpur and Ashraf Nagar -- which come under our transmission range,” explains Varghese Kurian, the head of the multimedia and audio visual department for the station.

The CMS station members visit these villages and discuss the major issues that affect them. Over the past few years, villagers have been speaking openly about problems related to agriculture, sanitation and hygiene, mother and child care and have sought advice on legal issues. The radio programs that CMS broadcasts attempts to address these issues by inviting experts to the studio and seeking solutions.

The CMS radio team’s success in reaching out to villagers has had mixed success. For example, in their first attempts to record local folk songs and those that Mahila mandals (women’s groups) compose for festivals and community gatherings, they were pleased to persuade women to overcome their fear of the mike. Then the team ran into an unexpected obstacle: the demand for remuneration.

“Communities were apprehensive that the songs and presentations that they were recording were being sold at higher prices in the market,” explains producer Soma Ghosh. “Therefore, they felt that the women were being cheated of big money that they could make!”

Ghosh explains that, in the city, people listen to the various commercial FM channels but do not expect anything from them. “However, since we come to the village/urban slums, people immediately approach us and bargain with us asking what will they get in return for contributing to the program,” she says.

Making radio accessible in rural areas

To make their place within community, CMS radio team also visits villages on Saturdays to play back a program that has been broadcast on Friday. As a precautionary step, the team also carries a radio so that the quality of the transmission is not affected. “Most of the people who would have contributed to the program may have missed listening to it. So when we play the program for them, and others around listen most people are very happy,” explains Soma.

Whenever possible, in an effort to engage with people in the village, the CMS CRS team sends a vehicle to facilitate bringing community members to the studio. Today, for instance, they say they can rely on at least 10 volunteers in Maqdoompur.

Where CMS CRS is really making a difference is in opening its doors to people like Shivani Agrawal and encouraging them to become community volunteers. The 20-year polio affected youngster is among four sisters who lost their father a few years ago. When the CMS team visited their village, Shivani’s mother, who is a domestic help, spoke about the problems her family faced and asked for help. Over the past few months, Shivani, who is studying for her graduation, has been coming regularly to the CMS Gomti Nagar Radio Station to learn how to use the computer. A few months ago, this extremely shy girl, who would never reply to any question, attempted to answer a radio anchor’s query during a phone-in program.

For CMS station-in-charge RK Singh this has been a major achievement. “When we ask community to contribute, they have been asking us, what they will receive in return? Many of the youngsters are keen to learn the computer, so we have invited them to come and see what the station is all about and like Shivani, I try to encourage everybody to learn the basics of computer, because everything in the station is done digitally.”

For some community members, involvement in the CMS station is educational. For others, it is empowering to be listened to.

Mullay, a man from Maqdoompur who sings folk songs, has been a regular visitor to the CMS station in Gomti Nagar to record his songs. Most of his songs revolve around morality tales and are presented in the nautanki and kirtan (popular folk theater performance) formats. Mullay, who earns his livelihood as a daily wager says, “I like it that more people are now able to hear my music.”

During a Saturday phone-in program in the village of Malhaur, a group of people gather to talk to people in the studio. While Pooja says she spoke to the studio people because she wants to learn and be independent, Suman Chauhan excitedly says that she phones in because she likes to hear her voice on the radio.

Anjali Jasiwal who teaches in a school in the village, follows the stories for children on the program“Nanho ke duniya” (the world of small children) as it helps her engage with her children and she says she has got a good response from them. She also signed up for a one year training program on environment that the community radio station is undertaking with a university department of science and technology.

“I live in a village and never thought that I could contribute to the betterment of my village. Now I see that I can contribute something.”

Related links:

Visit the Community Montessori School community radio station website http://www.cmseducation.org/films/crs.htm

Sushmita Malviya is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Bhopal.
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