Radio broadcasters raise voices for a better world By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service
Kathmandu, Feb 20 (IANS) When her husband died in an accident Amala Pradhan's in-laws made sure that her life ended as well by dictating what she could wear or eat and where she could go. There are reportedly hundreds of women like Amala (name changed) across South Asia who are deprived of the right to lead normal lives once their spouses die. To raise a voice against widows' oppression and other inequalities, community radio broadcasters will convene in Kathmandu from February 21 to March 2. Radio Sagarmatha Nepal, partnered by the Montreal-based AMARC International (the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters), will host the conference. Five participants from Kerala will attend the eighth world conference of community broadcasters that will also focus on media portrayals of conflict. Broadcasters from the Arab countries, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America are also expected for the event. In Nepal, community radio has played an important role in helping widows like Amala come out of their shells and fight for their rights to lead normal lives. Amala lost her husband at 24, after which she said: "I had no freedom. I was forced to undergo all kinds of deprivations in the name of rituals by my in-laws. They stopped me from attending family ceremonies under the logic that I had brought bad luck to them by killing my husband and would bring bad luck to others too." "The harsh treatment of widows is a social phenomenon in both India and Nepal," said Raghu Mainali, coordinator of the Community Radio Support Centre set up in Nepal in 2000 to promote community radio in rural areas across the country. "To dispel the prevailing superstitions about widowhood, Radio Sagarmatha started a battery of programmes, including talks and debates. "We invited community leaders to our studio who emphasised that the taboos inflicted on the women were not dictated by the epics or scriptures, which govern so much of traditional ways in Nepal, but erroneous interpretations. We feel the broadcasts helped improve the condition of widows in Nepal." Radio Sagarmatha, brainchild of veteran journalist Bharat Dutta Koirala that started broadcasting in 1999, last year fetched him the Magsaysay award for his involvement in development journalism. It was Nepal's first private radio channel. Nepal today has five other community broadcasting channels. "The inaccessible terrain of Nepal, the rampant illiteracy and the lack of electricity in rural areas makes it difficult for the print media and television to generate awareness," said Koirala. "Community radio is the only answer." Mainali adds that even during the height of insurgency, when Maoist guerrillas attacked infrastructure, the community radio stations were never harmed. "The Maoists recognise that we are a non-political body and they themselves are a part of community. In fact, at times when our programmes are disrupted due to technical reasons, we've had them calling up to ask what happened." AMARC, a network of over 2,000 community radios, feels citizens, women and migrants should have access to communications technologies. So the conference in Kathmandu will highlight the need to place human rights and social justice at the "heart of the global communications policy agenda for the World Summit on the Information Society", to build a grassroot South-centred platform for participation in global strategies for the information society and to reinforce community radio development in Nepal as a model for South Asia. --Indo-Asian News Service ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
