World Radio Day: Radio, a cheap, effective tool to give voice to the voiceless

Secretary, I&B Ministry Amit Khare at the World Radio Day Festival organised in New Delhi  by UNESCO on Wednesday

By Naz Asghar

Feb 13, 2019

New Delhi: Radio as cheapest means of wireless mass communication can be an effective tool to become voice of the marginalised as societies were today being forced to be more inclusive. And there was need to unshackle private FM radio news from government control to make it more reflective of the conditions and need of the particular region a station was serving.

That was the message that emerged from the day-long World Radio Day Festival organised here on Wednesday by UNESCO, which saw the participation of leading figures from the radio industry and government departments concerned.

Speaking after inaugurating the festival, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Amit Khare said radio was still the main source of information of the poor man living in remote rural areas. And it was going to play a very significant role in achieving India’s Sustainable Development Goals.

”In achieving SDGs, communication would be very important as it is through radio that people would be informed about various government schemes in the social sector, an information which was a must for them to benefit from these schemes.

In this respect, the community radio was going to play the most important role, but the country at present has only 240 community radio stations whereas it has 700 districts, which means that there were a large number of districts which did not have even one radio station, Mr Khare said.

He said the government had now decided to set up one community radio station in each of the 115 aspirational districts which were at the lowest rung of development.

Participants at a panel discussion at the World Radio Day Festival held at UNESCO office in New Delhi on Wednesday

In the panel discussions that followed, Nisha Narayanan of RED FM, Asheesh Chatterjee of Big FM, Rahul Neemjoshi of My FM sought to dispute the notion that private FM radio stations were too much obsessed with Bollywood and not taking up social issues and non-Hindi film musics. Narayanan in this context pointed out to the high cost of FM licence, which, she said was forcing them to have more bollywood content to get more listenership.

Sanjay Majumdar of the BBC said his media organisation commands wide reach among the masses across the country as it had taken up various issues affecting the people.

Narayanan also wanted to know the logic of not allowing FM radio to broadcast news except the All India Radio bulletin, a policy which is understood to be based on the assumption that allowing FM radio to generate their own content might not be safe. She said if hundreds of TV channels and newspapers which were mushrooming all over the country were free to carry any kind of news, then why not private FM radio. Panelist were of the view that if allowed to generate its own news content, the industry would generate its own self-regulation mechanism.

However, Joint Secretary, Broadcasting, I&B Ministry Anju Nigam said that the issue was not simple and there were many pros and cons of allowing news on FM radio.

Earlier, at another panel discussion on the theme of ‘Leaving No one Behind’, participants stressed on making radio a platform for youth to express their feelings and aspirations and showcase their talent instead of just making the radio a platform to preach to them.

Director of Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia(CEMCA) Dr Shahid Rasool said his department was working to facilitate communities to get licence for radio, which was important  as the corporate world was today taking over all means of communication.

George Abraham from NGO Score Foundation said in the content of a community radio there should be a balance on what the radio wants to say to the audience and what the latter want to listen to. This panel also saw the participation of Shirley Jacob of AIR, Pallavi Gupta of Red FM, Pinky Chandran of Radio Active CRS and Sumeet Samod, music artiste and rapper.

Esthar Karr, a former Central Information Service officer, who has served in the AIR and has long been associated with Community Radio, later, talking to India News Stream, said to her biggest utility of radio, especially community radio lies in empowering women.

”Not all women in our society can go to TV and write in a newspaper due to various social constraints but they can talk through radio without any unease as it gives them anonymity because only their voices can be heard.”

She said she herself had conducted a study on the impact of the community radio and found that it can be very effectively used by women to empower themselves, both socially and economically.

A number of other leading radio artistes and industry leaders featured in several other sessions held throughout the day.

–India News Stream