[cr-india] "Who will cast the first vote for equality?"

Fri Feb 14 02:16:00 CST 2014

Who will cast the first vote for
equality?<http://indiatogether.org/articles/women-radio-media>
Ammu Joseph | 13 Feb 2014 | indiatogether.org

*On World Radio Day, Ammu Joseph looks at the representation of women in
Indian radio and wonders if the medium can play a more significant role in
ensuring empowerment and equal participation.*

News in all forms of media in India is dominated by male subjects. This is
particularly true of radio, with women constituting only 13 percent of the
subjects of news bulletins, according to the Global Media Monitoring
Project 2010 (GMMP 2010). Indian print and television news boasted more
female news subjects:  24 and 20 per cent respectively (albeit still less
than a quarter of all news subjects).

While the pattern was similar across Asia with regard to press and TV news
(20 per cent in both), women were better represented in radio news across
the region (21 per cent).

The exceptionally poor representation of women as news subjects on Indian
radio is all the more significant considering that radio news is provided
solely by the public broadcaster. At present neither private nor community
radio stations have permission to air news and current affairs.

The latest GMMP survey also found that only about one third (34 per cent)
of the news stories in the Indian broadcast media - radio and TV - were
presented by women. The corresponding figure for Asia was considerably
higher at nearly half (48 percent).  Again, there were marginally more
female announcers on television (public and private) than on radio in India.

All India Radio (AIR), India's public broadcaster, was headed by a woman,
Noreen Naqvi, between 2009 and 2011. However, according to employment
figures received in 2012 from the public broadcasting corporation, Prasar
Bharati, women constitute only 10 percent of AIR's employees (in news and
non-news positions).  So it is not surprising that women are not well
represented at leadership levels: 28 per cent in senior programme
management, 38 percent in senior administrative posts and none in
engineering.

As the only radio news broadcaster, AIR has a unique opportunity to enhance
gender equality and women's empowerment in radio, the theme of World Radio
Day 2014. AIR could play a strong leadership role by developing, adopting
and implementing gender-related policies and strategies for radio.

Privately owned FM radio stations have proliferated in urban centres across
India over the past couple of decades. Women's voices are regularly audible
on most of them, thanks to female radio disc-jockeys and listeners
responding to call-in programmes. While current programming focuses mostly
on  popular  music  interspersed with chatter, there is tremendous
potential to address more substantial societal issues through the medium.

FM radio appears to be increasingly employing women in leadership
positions, even in socially conservative small cities and big towns. A
proper, industry-wide survey is certainly overdue - perhaps the Association
of Radio Broadcasters of India (ARBI), currently headed by a woman, will
commission one soon - but the fact that at least four of the approximately
ten large and medium size FM radio networks in the country are led by women
and the reported trend towards more women occupying key leadership
positions in such networks are encouraging.

So is their involvement in awareness campaigns around issues such as
women's safety and breast cancer.  According to Nisha Narayanan, COO of Red
FM, a leading local radio network, there is interest in diversifying
programming in terms of both format and subject matter, but the present
financial and regulatory regime acts as a constraint. If the expected
expansion of the FM sector is accompanied by some relaxation of current
restrictions, she believes local radio content can become more dynamic and
relevant.

Although there is no evidence of any existing policies on gender equality
and women's empowerment in the FM sector, at least one company has adopted
a detailed policy on sexual harassment at the workplace and established the
legally required compliance committee. This is more than many other Indian
media houses have done. Perhaps ARBI can be persuaded to take the necessary
first steps towards developing and promoting gender-related policies and
strategies for the Indian commercial radio sector.

Both public and private sector radio may have much to learn from the
community radio sector in this respect. Even though it is relatively new in
India - officially sanctioned only in 2006 - community radio (CR) has
traditionally been inclusive, enabling a range of women (especially poor,
illiterate, rural women) to exercise their communications rights.

In fact, some of the oldest and best known CR stations are effectively run
by women from socially and economically disadvantaged communities, many of
them with long experience in radio work, using various means of
communication, even before their stations were granted broadcast licenses.
An impressive number of women now work in CR across the country, mainly as
producers and on-air talent but also, in some cases, as station managers.
Several organisations are involved in training and mentoring grassroots
women broadcasters, helping to improve their knowledge base, skills and
self-confidence.

The Gender Policy for Community Radio (GP4CR) approved by the World
Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) in 2010 was adopted by
the Community Radio Forum of India in 2011. The purpose of the policy,
spearheaded by AMARC's Women's International Network (AMARC-WIN), is to
increase women's access to and participation in CR, including at
decision-making levels.

Of course, as Kanchan K. Malik of the University of Hyderabad points out, a
number of challenges need to be addressed to ensure women's progressive
involvement in all elements and stages of a CR station - as listeners,
producers and decision-makers - and thereby strengthen the empowerment
potential of the medium.

Both she and Vinod Pavarala, UNESCO Chair on Community Media at the
University of Hyderabad, also flag external challenges, such as customary
social hierarchies of caste, class, religion and other identities, which
often combine with gender to inhibit women's participation in community
radio.

But perhaps the best antidote to such chronic ailments is gender equality
and women's empowerment - through radio and other means.

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*Ammu Joseph is an independent journalist and author based in Bangalore,
and writing primarily on issues relating to gender, human development and
the media. This article was commissioned for World Radio Day and first
published by The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and
Culture (UNESCO)*

*Source: http://indiatogether.org/articles/women-radio-media
<http://indiatogether.org/articles/women-radio-media>*
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