Community Radio Gives India's Villagers a Voice

Namma Dhwani, or Our Voices, is a small independent community radio initiative in India. Villagers in Boodikote in the southern state of Karnataka formed this station in March 2003 to demand action on the part of public officials when their public water pipes dried up due to drought. They created a cable radio service because India forbids communities to use the airwaves; a media advocacy group called Voices (click here for a Programme Description), funded with United Nations monies, laid cables, sold subsidised radios with cable jacks to villagers, and trained young people to run the station.

Since a Supreme Court ruling in 1995 declaring airwaves to be public property, citizens groups and activists in India have been pushing for legislation that would free the airwaves from government control. However, airwaves in India are still restricted; meanwhile, other South Asian countries such as Nepal and Sri Lanka have developed rich community radio resources that serve as hubs of information in times of conflict and, more basically, bring communities together (give them "a voice").

Commenting on Our Voices, a 28-year old village woman said, "Our radio is more powerful than the corrupt and inefficient village council. They hold secret meetings and don't spend the money on our welfare. I want the proceedings of such meetings to be recorded. We all have a right to know what happens to the money that comes in."

Some Indian government officials have a different take on the matter. In the words of Pavan Chopra, secretary of India's ministry of information and broadcasting, "We have to tread very cautiously when it comes to community radio. As of today we don't think that villagers are equipped to run radio stations. People are unprepared, and it could become a platform to air provocative, political content that doesn't serve any purpose except to divide people. It is fraught with danger."

Click here for the full article online on the UNESCO website.