Grameen Gyan Abhiyan

We are living in an age where human knowledge, particularly scientific and technological knowledge, is increasing at anunprecedented pace. Access to this knowledge has become a principal determinant of the power and wealth of nations.India has to harness the full potential of modern science and technology to realize our development ambitions.Dr. Manmohan Singh Hon’ble Prime Minister of India addressing the 95th Indian Science Congressrun the community radio station at Pastapur in Madak district in thebackward Telegana region in AP. This FM radio station shall be managedby Dalits, mostlywomen. It recentlygot the communityradio license fromthe Ministry ofInformation andBroadcasting forthe station to goon air. Community radio has a radius of 10 kilometres.Radio is a natural medium for these women who have extraordinarynarrative skills. Most of them are illiterate but resourceful and theyalready have ready content for more than 600 hours.They have recorded programs on topics like empowerment of women,local problems relating to health, indigenous knowledge and traditions.They invite the impoverished individuals and community people to singfolk songs many of which relate to the unbelievable cropping diversityand agrarian questions in the region.The poor Dalit women, have their own expectations from a radio of theirown. Their arguments are extraordinarily original and unmatched for theirlogic. They have suggested that a radio of their own would provide amore effective medium for articulating locally relevant issues, in their ownlanguage, and in their own time.The community video and radio also focus on an alternative to literacythroughharnessing people’s knowledge in the fields of forestry, fisheries, naturalfarming, wasteland development, on-farm biodiversity natural resourcemanagement, etc.With the linkage of more villages, experts point out that the availablespectrum can accommodate 100 to 200 community FM stations in thenext five years. Community radiosare eligible to seek funding frommultilateral aid agencies.The Deccan DevelopmentSociety, started the communityradio to take forward its vision ofconsolidating village groups intovibrant organs of primary localgovernance and federate them into a strong pressure lobby for women,poor and Dalits. The Society also facilitates a host of continuing dialoguesand debates with the public, educational and training programmes to tryto translate this vision into reality.Mr. P V Satheesh Director, Deccan Development Society, Sangham Radio,Pastapur Village, Zaheerabad Mandal, Medak District - 502 220 AndhraPradesh, ddsrural@sancharnet.inMEET YOUR MPSrimathi RANJEET RANJANSrimathi Ranjeet Ranjan, a sports woman, is one of the youngest Memberof Parliament from one of the least enviable Indian constituency ofSaharsa, Bihar, close to the Nepal border.This land, on the banks of the Kosi river,is fertile but prone to annual flooding thathas led to soil erosion and is the majorreason for poor connectivity of the area asbridges get washed away. Her people areamong the poorest in the country facingproblems of infrastructure, power, healthand education besides major corruption.Taking up their cause, Srimathi Ranjeet Ranjan has raised the maximumnumber of questions in Parliament. She believes politics translates tosocial work. She is eager to introduce much needed changes through ICTin her constituency.What is your mission as MP?For me, politics translates to social work. That is my mission as long as Iam an MP.What are your primary concerns for yourconstituency?Our people are poor. For instance, we have a lot of projects and schemesfor rural development from the government. But people are not aware ofthese projects. The poor people are not aware of more than 50 per centof the schemes. The schemes do not reach the people for whom they aremeant.For instance, the government has a scheme whereby a pregnant womanis to be paid Rs. 1400 if she gets the delivery done in a governmenthealth centre. For them, this is a big amount. More than 50 per cent ofthe women do not know this.The philosophy underlying the development of a knowledge based society is that science and technology should providebasic human needs. In other words, there is a “social contract of science and technology”When science moves close to society, it not only contributes to explosion of knowledge but also to the shaping of the socialvision.Dr. R. Ramamurthi Rallapalli, General President Indian Science Congress addressing the 95th Indian Science Congress