Jaipur: To boost the Community Radio movement in the country, the central government has increased the subsidy by 50-100 percent for setting up these Community Radio Stations (CSR).
This was informed during the two-day Community Radio Sammelan for western states began in Jaipur on Thursday. The CRS operators of the Rajasthan, Maharashtra MP and Gujarat are attending the event.
The Additional Director for CRS under I&B ministry G S Kesarwani said, “the existing subsidy of Rs 10 lakh for setting up a CRS has been hiked to Rs 15.60 lakh and this amount can go up to Rs 21 lakh for women led CRS using Green energy in CRS.” He added that the ministry is also in the process of setting up 3-month internship for students to train at community radios.
The event organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in association with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi is based on the theme Celebrating 20 years of Community Radio in India.
Chief Guest of the Sammelan Dr. Nimish Rustagi, ADG, IIMC said that the two days are an occasion to celebrate the 20-year journey of the CRSs. This is an occasion to interact with the fraternity and share experiences and best practices.
Sammelan convenor, Prof. (Dr.) Sangeeta Pranvendra, HOD CRS at IIMC pointed out that many challenges would be faced by the CRS in the present era of digitalization and solutions would have to come through trainings and peer interactions.
Grass root workers running the CRS
Community Radios are small (low power) FM radio stations with a coverage area of around 10-15 KM radius, depending on the geography of the area.
There are about 519 CRS in the country and are being run by the educational institutions, agriculture universities and NGOs, where the grass root workers have become broadcasters.
Aarti Devi, a seventh standard pass worker associated with an NGO Barefoot College, Tilonia in Ajmer is running the CRS of Barefoot Tilonia single-handedly for last many years. Likewise, earlier a Beedi making worker Shantaben of Ahmadabad working for Indian Academy for Self Employed Women is running a CRS Rudi No Radio with six other women in Manipur village 20 kms from Ahmedabad.
Artii Devi said that community radios playing a significant role in awakening the people for their rights and dissemination of information related to agriculture, government schemes for farmers’ welfare, weather forecast etc.
Hari Vinayak Kulkarni, the station head of Vishwas Radio of Nashik said that he is running the CRS for the last fifteen years and offering a platform where alternative voices make themselves heard. Content is disseminated in localized dialects and regional languages.
Although, with the advent of television and smartphones, the community radio movement is facing challenges as well. Besides this, the government support is inadequate.
Shantaben of Ahmadabad said that it is difficult to sustain a CRS unless there is no parent organization. “Most of the CRS runs in rural areas, and it is difficult to make a sustainable reach as most of the people don’t have radios so we have to go for narrow cast and it needs funds,” said Shantaben.
