An Interpress news story on what holds back community radio
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107150
Red Tape Mutes Community Radio in India
by
K. S. Harikrishnan*
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Mar 21 (IPS) - Security concerns
appear to have stymied the growth of community radio (CR) in India, a
vast and diverse country of 1.2 billion people, the bulk of them living
in remote, rural areas.
"There are too many ministries and departments involved in
the CR licensing process, and remote border states in the northeast
adjacent to Burma have been left out, for example," says Sajan
Venniyoor, member of a government committee constituted to fund new
stations.
Also left out are the Kashmir valley, racked by a separatist movement,
and the largely tribal states of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh in central
India that have been hit by Maoist insurgency.
Radio Ujjas, licensed to the non-profit Kutch Women's Development
Organisation, became India’s first CR station close to its international
border when it started broadcasting on Mar. 10, 2012. Located in
Gujarat’s Bhimsar village, close to the Pakistan border, it applied for a
license five years ago.
Prof. Kanchan Malik, at the department of communication, University of
Hyderabad, told IPS that the processes to set up CR stations should be
simplified if they are to play their mandated role of empowering
marginalised communities and helping conflict resolution.
"Cumbersome licensing processes, a ban on news programmes, lack of
cost-effective technology, funding restrictions, inadequate capacity
building and spectrum allocation delays or denials" are some of the
hurdles in the way of CR stations coming up, she said.
The campaign to give space to CR in India - in addition to commercial
and public broadcasting - began in earnest after the Supreme Court ruled
in February 1995 that airwaves are public property and could not be
government monopoly.
But, it was not until 2004 that India’s first CR could be launched, run
by the Education and Multimedia Research Centre of Anna University in
southern Chennai city.
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry has so far approved
363 proposals to set up CR stations in the country and, of these, 126
stations are operational.
Of those running, 76 are owned by colleges, institutes and other
educational organisations, while only 36 are run by non-governmental
organisations, showing limited civil society involvement.
Existing CR policy limits the award of licenses to not-for-profit
organisations with a proven track record of community service and
registered for not fewer than three years. Stringent restrictions have
also been placed on fundraising.
CRs may operate a 100-watt radio station, with coverage limited to a
12-km radius and antenna height to 30 metres. Fifty percent of the
programmes are expected to be produced locally and in the local language
or dialect.
News programmes are banned, except items concerned with sports,
traffic, weather conditions, cultural events and festivals, academic
events, electricity and water supply, disaster warnings and health
alerts.
Five minutes of advertising per hour are allowed, but CR programmes cannot be
sponsored except by the government.
According to the ‘Compendium of Community Radio Stations in India’,
published in 2011 by the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Education Media
Centre for Asia in association with I&B ministry, restrictions on
using high power equipment present a major difficulty.
Lack of training in handling equipment and creating programmes,
inability to make strong content development, competition with
mainstream commercial radio stations, limitation in airing
advertisements and electricity failure are other hurdles, the compendium
showed.
Activists say that women, tribal people, children, students, health
workers and fishers could vastly benefit from CR, going by the
experience of existing stations.
"With the arrival of CR, neglected groups have an opportunity for active
participation in mainstream life," says Chennai-based rights activist
Mani Verma. "There has been, visibly, a revival of local culture and an
increase in literacy rates."
"For a thickly populated, predominantly rural country like India,
reaching the masses and educating them is essential, and this can be
achieved fastest by utilising CR effectively," says P. Sajikumar, head
of 'Radio DC' in Thiruvananthapuram.
A survey conducted by the DCSMAT School of Media and Business in this
city found that there was a need to create awareness about CR and its
capabilities. Often, the survey found, listeners failed to differentiate
between CR and commercial radio.
"People tend to compare CR with commercial channels in every aspect,"
the survey said. "Participation of listeners at every stage of
production can be encouraged and importance given to young talent," it
suggested.
According to Venniyoor, the advent of mobile phones has given a fillip
to CR because even the cheapest handsets come embedded with FM
capability. "With digitisation, it may get even better. It will
certainly get more interesting because of the explosive growth of mobile
telephony."
"Right now, however, we need to concentrate on getting licenses and
setting up more stations," Venniyoor said. "The government has promised
support and we will just have to wait and see about actual
implementation."
*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.
Arti Jaiman
Station Director : Gurgaon Ki Awaaz Samudayik Radio Station 107.8 MHz FM
email: [email protected]
website: www.trfindia.org
Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is the first and only civil-society-led community radio
station in the National Capital Region of Delhi. We broadcast 24X7, in Hindi
and Haryanvi, with a team of community reporters, generating community content,
and community participation.
Join the Community Radio Forum. For membership details, please go to
www.crforum.in
