SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT

POLICY SECTION | 7
Aims of Community Radio (CR)
The objective behind establishing a CRS is
to create a platform to disseminate, exchange
information and initiate discussions on topics
relevant to citizens. It is, at the same time, a
means for enhanced communication with regard
to organisational coordination of existing
programmes within a ward. The main purpose
of setting up a CRS, however, is to enable and
empower the local community to own and
utilise information and communication media
to support social, economic and cultural
community developments. This participatory
grassroots communication tool empowers local
communities to voice their problems and
needs, thereby enabling them to influence relevant
decision-making processes, at least to
a certain extent. Moreover, the audience becomes
an active part of the radio programmes
through their participation in all aspects, such
as management, fund raising and programme
production. Of course, such stations are intended
to provide entertainment to the local
community as well.
CR builds on existing community structures,
strengthens and complements them. The
fact that community members are themselves
responsible for raising funds, obtaining equipment
and creating programmes for broadcast
is expected to enhance their commitment. As
for the Tarnaka CR, specific issues related to a
wide range of groups will be focussed upon in
its programmes. The groups identified so far
are senior citizens interested in topics such as
counselling on health, pensions, shelter and
financial issues; working women and housewives
wanting to focus on health and hygienic
related issues, recipes and home decoration;
children and youth willing to offer competitions,
discussions, lessons, tutorials; job seekers
and employers interested in job market information
and job announcements; and, lastly,
RWAs themselves, keen on offering a platform
for solving problems through social dialogue
and announcing invitations to meetings, festivities
and other events. Apart from these
groups, Tarnaka CR shall serve all residents
as a communication platform for announcing,
sharing and discussing issues of public interest,
while focussing on environmental awareness
and sustainable solutions to the challenge of
climate change in a broader sense.
Though a CRS is a public broadcasting
system, its approach differs immensely from
conventional radio. The grassroots approach
feature of CR is its special focus on the audience,
which simultaneously is a part of the station
through participation in all aspects of its
management and programme production. Radio
programmes are prepared according to the
needs of each group in the form of education,
information and sharing of individual experiences
and ideas. With regard to general issues
related to the entire community, they initiate
social dialogue and discussions to find optimal
solutions. This is a good way of learning
from each, as people can share their ideas and
thoughts to a broad audience.
The Tarnaka CRS will be helpful in raising
the awareness of citizens about issues of sustainability
and climate change, which can be
initiated through programmes put on by school
children and youth who are learning about the
topic in their educational schools. When an initial
level of climate change awareness at grassroots
level is created among citizens, action
can be initiated, for instance through community
based adoption of climate change mitigation
and adaptation strategies.
Project status and plans
Currently, the license application for the
Tarnaka CRS is still pending with the Ministry
of Information & Broadcasting (I&B), New Delhi,
having been filed on November 10, 2010.
Subsequently, 12 sets of TRWA and project
objectives were sent to different ministries,
including ministries of I&B, Civil Aviation, Defence,
Home and Communication, on December
6, 2010. The ministry of I&B accepted the
application and invited the TRWA for screening
on January 24, 2011, and the TRWA made
a presentation before the screening committee
on February 11, 2011. The clearance reports
from different ministries were submitted to I&B
in May 2012.
In a meeting conducted in April 2012, attended
by the CR team, a representative of
the Sustainable Hyderabad Project (Dr. Poldas)
and Prof. Vasuki from University of Hyderabad
discussed the various steps for future planning
at length. Prof. Vasuki, who was instrumental
in establishing a CRS (Bol Hyderabad, 90.4
FM) on the campus of the University of Hyderabad
in Gachibowli, provided in-depth insight
into the whole CR project. Based on his significant
suggestions in matters of training technical
staff to maintain the CRS and community
reporters to prepare articles for broadcasting,
plans are being formulated. With regard to
the trainings, cooperation with another training
team on journalism and communications is
News
A special report on the LPG Project
was published in the online
magazine of the Financial Times
(FT) on July 26, 2012, authored
by James Crabtree, head of the
FT Mumbai bureau, under the
title “Spark of inspiration”.
The full article is available here:
www.ft.com/intl/
cms/s/2/3136b400-d01c-11e1-
a3d2-00144feabdc0.
html#axzz24MSO4kbN
The LPG Pilot Project, conducted
under WP 3.2, was further profiled
for the Financial Times Citi
Ingenuity Award: Urban Ideas in
Action: a programme recognising
ingenious individuals or organisations
that have developed
solutions to urban challenges in
the fields of education, healthcare,
energy and infrastructure.
More information on the awards
is available here:
www.eiseverywhere.com/ereg/
inactive.php?eventid=31507