funds for community radio
Concerns regarding the question of community radio funds in this point of time, scratches only the tip of the iceberg of sustainable processes of grassroot community radio development in India.
and now some news:
UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (UNESCO-IPDC) has approved funds in the amount USD 60,000 in contribution to the establishment of the first ten Community Radio Stations in India. The funds are expected to support community radio stations especially in tribal belts, in collaboration with organizations such as Alternative India Development (AID).
Support will be extended in specific areas of technology choices, advice, maintenance and technical training at the community level with a view to the development of the community radio movement and industry in India
source: Unesco New Delhi
The case study conducted for Unesco by Seema Nair, Megan Jennaway and Andrew Skuse called “Local information networks” comprehends an extensive research on the following community radio station:
Namma Dhwani Community Multimedia Centre, Karnataka,
Nabanna Information Network for Women,
West Bengal and Akshaya ICT Project, Kerala.
The emphasis is on sustainable content production, whcih needs to challenge social issues and needs to create beneficial improvements in the information divide betwen the urban and the rural. Technology alone is not going to provide the solution, but the efficinecy of the communication process could become an effective channel for it.
Now who is going to engage in this process? What type of community and issues are going to be addressed and who is going to benefit. These are all relevant questions to be answered while exploring the possibilities of participative boradcasting. The actual implementation of community radio should be formed in a bottom up process in order to be significantly improving community participation in the communication process. This case study will be really interesting to follow in a much longer time framework.
