[cr-india] Community TV on Women Empowerment

[Arun Mehta]

 Congratulations on what promises to be a fine initiative, Bhaskar.

On 1/16/09, T. L. S. Bhaskar <tlsbhaskar at gmail.com> wrote:

> dear friends
>
> i appreciate if someone can help me in the following with special focus on
> community tv indended for women empowerment in rural india-
>
> 1. what are the necessary precautions to be taken while running a CTV for
> WEMP?


A friend went to a community station in Canada, seeking experience as a
fresher in the field. She was told she could say or do what she liked on
air, as long as she took two precautions:
1. Do not break the law
2. Do not start a fire.

I have never come across better advice on how to run a community station.



> 2. Based on what parameters can we call a CTV program really working for
> WEMP? What are the pre-requisites? How is the CTV for WEMP be run in the
> village? What should be its goals?


Learn by doing. Have these discussions as you go along, when these issues
become concrete.



> 3. How do we make rural women, esp, from backward communities to
> participate in the effort. I understand the videos made in the process
> should also be made (identifying themes, actual participation in video
> making etc) in consultation with women.


Our experience with radio in a village environment suggests that this will
not be a problem. Just do a hands-on workshop. Plenty of experience in this
field on the list.



> 4. Imagine a village with no cable connectivity? Can we still run a CTV
> centre? What about even though there is a cable network, but no efficient
> electric supply? Can we use our laptop and TV to show the movies made to
> rural women? and conduct focus groups.


It is not expensive to become a cable TV operator. If you use poor quality
cable, or cable in which the shielding is appropriately damaged, people
living alongside it will be able to access the signal even without a
connection  -- this is known as leaky or lossy cable.



> 5. Do you call a CTV really on ground only when telecasted through cable
> network?


See 4 above.

Let me know if you need any further help in this direction :-)

Warmly,

Arun Mehta
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/cr-india/attachments/20090116/93a09964/attachment.html