Radio Ujjas: Greening The Ears For The Kutch People

This article from id21 shares some of the insights learned in Kutch, the largest district of Gujarat, in India, about using community radio to address development issues. Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan was established in 1989 as an independent organisation of rural women that would work towards capacity and network building among women. According to the article, one of the outcomes of this group has been to encourage women to articulate problems or issues in a systematic and sustained manner. Through a network of women's groups at the village level (sangathans), women identified the need to equip themselves with more information and skills in order to intervene successfully in the larger social and political process. From its inception, the organisation has concentrated on building local leadership and creating women's groups (sangathans). Their activities included literacy camps, adolescent girls' education, establishment of an information centre, and publishing a newsletter to document and disseminate different types of information among village people, particularly women. It is in simplified Kutchi and Gujarati and easy to read for the newly literate.

It was found that low literacy, remote villages and economic poverty often reduced the reach and effectiveness of newspaper and television, and that radio offered the best medium to reach a wide population on issues related to development and social justice. This is particularly relevant to nomads in the region who remain outside of Kutch during summer, but try to keep informed by keeping a radio. The survey conducted during 1998-'99 indicated radio as the most used medium. Thus, a serial drama was developed, called Kujal Paanje Kutchji (Sarus crane of our Kutch) that focused on the participation of women in political processes, specifically panchayats at the village level. To complement the drama, 'Kutch Kuchhato' was a 5 to 6 minute documentary module that featured interviews, which aimed to ensure a committed space to the voices of people from Kutch. Interviews were recorded by a team of 9 village-based reporters who were trained in issues relating to development, social justice and gender issues, journalism, technical radio production, and interviewing methods.

According to the article, the choice of making the serial in Kutchi language was shown to be positive by the 1560 postcards received. 70% of the postcards were written by men, 16.55% by women and 13.5% by mixed groups. The first village level survey, conducted after the broadcast of 12 episodes showed a dedicated listenership of 6%, which rose to 66% after 10 months of broadcast. Listenership amongst radio-owners in Kutch went up to 80%. Part of the success of the drama has been attributed to the systematic campaign that was designed for promotion. The sangathan staff joined the reporter team and went to more than 500 villages covering whole of Kutch announcing the programme via megaphone, postering and wall writing etc. Street meetings were addressed and road shows took place with music from the programme. Promos and jingles were played on radio and it continued for a month. On the day broadcast began, the reporter team, visited villages to gather villagers to listen to the programme.

The organisers found that research, consultation and community participation were vital to the programme. They relied on many sources to identify issues i.e. the reporters, the sangathan members, newspaper, letters and phone calls. Once an issue came up, the reporter visited the village and met the people to know their view. The article concludes that "during these four years of the project we have learnt many things. We realised radio's affinity with oral, non-literate cultures; it can easily reflect and generate debate on local concerns, needs, priorities and issues. This highly localised programming brings pluralism into our broadcast culture; it gives a sense of selfhood and how a radio programme in local language affirms local cultural identities. This type of programmes are participatory in contrast to the alienated spectatorship on the part of the audience in mainstream media. "