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Radio as a communication medium plays an important role in the nation’s socio-cultural, political and economic development. It has the unique advantage of being receivable through low cost, battery operated, and mobile receiving sets, affordable for almost everyone, even in the rural areas. With appropriate strategies, radio can expand its reach to sparsely populated areas and remote corners of the country.
Concept
There are three options for expansion of radio network viz. (i) the commercial broadcast model (ii) public service broadcast route and the (iii) community radio. While each of these modes helps in enhancing coverage, there could be clashes of interest particularly in the share of target audience and content. A commercial radio station is market driven and therefore its objective is to gain as much market share as possible, expand business and take competitive initiatives in the public service domain. Public service broadcasting, on the other hand, concentrates on content for education, information and entertainment with the broad objective to address the concerns of a large and varied listener group and it generally accords lower priority to commercial considerations. Community radio, as distinct from public service broadcasting, serves to bring small communities together, focuses on the common man’s day-to-day concerns and helps in realizing local aspirations. In this sense, it aims to contribute to the lives of the local community by creation of content by the people and for the people of that community.
Policy On Community Radio Broadcasting
In December 2002, the Government announced a policy for the grant of Community Radio Licenses to educational institutions and organizations to be identified/selected, in accordance with the prescribed eligibility conditions and on the terms and conditions given in the Guidelines for the grant of licenses for Community Radio Stations.
Under the terms of this policy, Community Broadcasting Licenses can be granted to well established educational institutions/organizations, recognized by the Central Government or the State Government. These will include the Universities and institutes of technology/management and residential schools.
Community Radio is expected to focus on issues relating to education, health, environment, agriculture, rural & community development. The contents are to be confined to social, cultural and local issues and the format, subject, presentation and language must reflect and exude the local flavour and fragrance.
Benefits
Enhancing participation of the people in the development process. Capacity building in rural areas, through education. Providing opportunities to the people to upgrade their skills and enhance their creative talents. Preserving and promoting the traditional wisdom, knowledge and skills, thereby helping to promote and project the local language, arts, craft, culture and traditions. Bring within easy reach of the rural population, topical information in areas of agriculture, social welfare, education, health and environment. Help in creating rural networks for the rural cottage and village industry.
Country’s first Community Radio Station has become operational since February 1, 2004 at Anna Universtiy, Chennai, after grant of license by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
The Constraints
Though the idea was holistic and the approach positive, yet there were some apprehensions. One apprehension was regarding the ability and willingness of the educational institutions to come forward for the social cause of upliftment of the society and the communities at large. Another area of concern was in the context of the present security scenario of the country and the pluristic nature of our society. The issues of sustainability and the arithmetic of cost economics are equally important. The technical issues like efficient spectrum management; proper bandwidth usage and the receiver technologies hold the key to the growth of community radio in India. Last, but not the least is the need for the self-regulation and observance of the code of conduct for the content of the programmes to be broadcast.
Need for Policy Reforms
Incidentally, the present policy on community radio contained the element of mid-term course correction. To address the above issues, it was logical to attempt such a mid-term correction. A Workshop on Community Radio provided a platform to share the experiences of other countries & organizations and an opening to a policy framework that could take into account all the issues raised above.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, therefore, organized a workshop on Community Radio on May 5th & 6th, 2004 in collaboration with UNDP & UNESCO, who brought in the perspective of international experience in tackling such issues.
The Consultative Committee of MPs and TRAI has further paved the way in formulating a national policy framework on Community Radio in India and a new policy is in the offing. (PIB Features)
*PIB
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