[cr-india] The 2nd CR Sammelan, New Delhi

[Arti Jaiman]

I&B Ministry to Consider New Strategies to Support Expansion for Community Radio in the 12th Plan 


First National Community Radio Awards Announced.

         









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Three 
Day National Community Radio Sammelan Commences.

New Media Platforms to Highlight the
Deliberations

 

            The Second National Community Radio
Sammelan commenced today with the objective of carving out a new roadmap for
mainstreaming Community Radio as an effective outreach tool for community
empowerment. Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting has organised the three day sammelan  from 18th February to 20th
February 2012 in association with Commonwealth Educational Media centre for
Asia (CEMCA). 

            Speaking at the
inaugural function, Minister of State, Dr S Jagathrakrakshakan said, community
radio stations provided a platform to people to create their individual and
collective identities. As a medium of communication, it empowered the masses
and gave them a sense of belonging. The need of the hour is to connect the
aspirations of the people to the information highway and thereby bridge the
digital divide. Community radio not only bridged the divide, it very
effectively facilitated the growth of peoples’ empowerment in the far and
remote corners of the country. 

            Also,  speaking earlier on the occasion, Secretary
I&B,Shri Uday Kumar Varma outlined the roadmap for the  growth of the community radio movement in the 12th
Five year plan. It was necessary to target the uncovered areas in the country
coupled with a cost effective and operational business model. Secretary called
upon the participants to avoid delays in 
operationalising the licences  in
view of the scarcity and squatting over spectrum . For the movement to reach a
sizeable target it was critical to be innovative,  encourage out of the box thinking and learn
from the best practices. A critical factor determining the growth of the
movement was the need to focus on cost effective technology and research. Secretary
mentioned that the ministry had submitted a proposal to the planning Commission
regarding state funding in the next five year plan. For being an effective
dissemination tool it was necessary to position the relevance of the medium in
disaster management. 

To encourage better programming and
competition among Community Radio Stations, Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting has also instituted National Community Radio Awards in following 5
categories. The awards were given away by the Minister of state, Dr S Jagathrakrakshakan.

i)                
Thematic  Award     

ii)              
Community Engagement Award  

iii)            
Promoting Local Culture Award  

iv)            
Most Creative/Innovative Programme Content
Award

v)              
Sustainability Model Award

 

The National
Community Radio Awards in the identified categories have been given to the
following for their remarkable efforts and performance : 

A)    Thematic Award Category

1.     
 Radio Namaskar, Konark

2.     
CMS CR, Gomati Nagar

3.     
Radio Active CR, Bangalore

 

B)     Community engagement award
category  

1.     
Radio Namaskar, Konark

2.     
CR Benzigar, Kollam

3.     
Kalpakam CR, Kalpakam

 

C)     Promoting Local Culture
Award category  

1.     
Radio 7, Jaipur

2.     
Radio Sarang, Mangalore 

3.     
Gurgoan Awaaz, Gurgaon

 

D)    Most Creative
/Innovative  Programme content award

1.     
PGP CR, Namakkal

2.     
Rudino CR, Ahmedabad

3.     
Radio JU, Kolkata

 

E)     Sustainability model award


1.     
Radio Mewat 

Community Radio is one of the thrust
areas for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.  Ministry has so far issued 363 permissions to
set up Community Radio Stations in the country. Out of this, 126 stations have
become operational while others are in the pipeline. 

This Sammelan has brought together more
than 150 stakeholders including Community Radio operators, UN partners,
activists, Government departments and experts from various countries like USA,
UK, Australia and South Africa. 

In the last two years, Ministry has taken
several initiatives to strengthen the Community Radio movement in India.
Permission process for the CR applications has been fast tracked through better
coordination with stakeholder Ministries. People can also now apply online and
track the status of their applications at www.cronlineindia.net. This has
brought about transparency and accountability in the system. A Facilitation
Centre has also been opened up in the Ministry with a toll-free phone number
(1800116422) where people can call up for any information relating to Community
Radio. Due to these initiatives the number of permissions issued by the
Ministry for setting up Community Radio Stations has increased from 186 to 363
and number of operational CRS has increased from 64 to 126 in the last two
years.

Ministry of I&B has been organizing
awareness and capacity building Workshops all over the country from 2007
onwards to create awareness about Community Radio Policy. Around 32 Workshops
have been organized so far. These Workshops have proved to be useful not only
to spread awareness but also build capacities of the NGOs and other
organizations to operate Community Radio Stations in an effective manner. 

 

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has partnered with Ek
Duniya Anek Aaawaz (EDAA) which is an audio content exchange platform for Community Radio Stations, to have a separate micro-site
on EDAA for the coverage of the 2nd National Community Radio
Sammelan on new media platforms. 



Proceedings of the sessions will be updated on EDAA's Facebook and Twitter
accounts, which will be instantly available on EDAA home page itself. After the session, reports would be
filed immediately on development news portal of OneWorld South Asia at http://southasia.oneworld.net.. Video bytes from the dignitaries, panellists and CR
Stations would be uploaded on YouTube.

 

EK duniya anEK awaaz (EdAA) i.e One World, Many Voices is a web based
open content exchange platform for community radio broadcasters. The platform
enables the CR stations and other content producers to share their audio
content and other resources, thus facilitating meaningful utilisation of
resources breaking geographical boundries. This site is operated by OneWorld
Asia, an NGO. EDAA is designed to handle content exchange and consists of over
350 registered users with a content base of more than 900 usable audio clips
from different regions across South Asia in around 9 different languages
including Hindi, Nepali, Sinhalese, English, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya which
are categorised under 27 themes pertaining to social development.

Arti Jaiman

Station Director : Gurgaon Ki Awaaz Samudayik Radio Station 107.8 MHz FM
email: arti at trfindia.org
website: www.trfindia.org 

Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is the first and only civil-society-led community radio station in the National Capital Region of Delhi. We broadcast 24X7, in Hindi and Haryanvi, with a team of community reporters, generating community content, and community participation. 
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