 |
PFI Communit Radio Programme_Ahead Magazine |
|
|
1 Page 1 |
▲back to top |
AHEAD, JULY 2003
by Prabhudatta
2001, marked the launch of the 52- of the Government's family planning
he radio has emerged
Tas a powerful, new cat-
alyst of community life
in the Malwa belt in
. Madhya Pradesh. For
example, in the
Kashipur area mindsets are changing
towards live issues such as health
and social development, adolescent
part Ujala series in Hindi also over a
l-year span with an aim to promote
awareness, particularly among the
underprivileged community of
Sonbhadra . district. The series
involved a tie-up with AIR, Obra,
and Banwasi Seva Ashram, a local
NGO.
In Madhya Pradesh, the 52-part
programme and evolving ways of
bolstering it. More importantly, its
thinking aimed at helping boost the
role of the NGOs and the corporate
sector in the massive national
endeavour, while PFI itself was
engaged in spearheading its cam-
paign of advocacy for population
stabilisation.
sexuality, immunisation and female Ujala drama series in Hindi was
The founders believed that a
foeticide.
launched on 3 Feb, 2002, with a spe- movement of social development,
The likes of Balwant Prasad,
Asha Kiran, Sunita Devi and Manak
Prasad are among the thousands in
Malwa who personify the impact of
the radio programme Ujala, broad-
cast over All India Radio (AIR),
Indore. Every Sunday, between 6:30
cial focus on the rural communities
in Indore district, in association with
the AIR station there and Bharatiya
Grameen Mahila Sangh, a local
NGO.
The Population Foundation of
India was established on 26 Sept,
such as family planning (termed so
till 1977 and thereafter as family
welfare), should not and cannot
remain the concern of the
Government alone, and that it ought
to be backed up by private voluntary
organisations.
and 7 pm, the AIR station has a busy 1970, by a dedicated group of
The radio being an effective
time fielding questions from lis-
teners to this communtiy radio
which has penetrated into interi-
The inauguration of a meeting with NGOs at Patna, with
PFI chief A R Nanda applauding.
communication
medium with a sub-
stantial rural reach,
or Madhya Pradesh.
PFI responded by
A series of radio dramas
like Seep Ka Moti on female
foeticide, Ek Naya Vishwas on
adolescent sexuality, Drishtikon
on HIV /Aids and Antaraal on
spacing out child births have
shaken up the old, traditional
ways of thinking and feeling
among countless heartland lis-
teners, men and women, youth
and adults.
The conceiver, promoter and
provider of the effective commu-
nity radio programmes is no
other than the Population
Foundation of India (PFl), based
in New Delhi. Under its advoca-
cy campaign, it launched its radio
series in Karnataka and Uttar
Pradesh in 2000 and in Madhya
Pradesh in 2002.
getting its commu-
nity radio pro-
gramme off the
ground to deliver its
welfare message to
large numbers of
common men and
women based away
from the urban cen-
tres. Central to the
foundation's policy
is its promotion of
general awareness about the
changing scenario of popula-
tion and development, with an
emphasis on life-cycle and
quality of life. PFI's percep-
tion is that, in today's context
of multifarious rights connect-
ed with subjects like health
and reproduction, young and
old, there is a great need to
In Karnataka, its radio pro-
update traditional wisdom by
gramme Kusumale, a 52-part
helping people acquire new
drama series in Kannada, was
knowledge and skills so that
launched on 1 Nov, 2000, for 1 year, activists led by the late Bharat they can spread the new message
especially targetting the tribal Ratna, JRD Tata, who was its among larger audiences.
Soligas community there, by
arrangement with AIR, Mysore and
Bangalore, and Vivekananda Girijan
Kalyan Kendra, a local NGO.
In Uttar Pradesh, 19 March,
founder-chairman until his death in
1993. Its present chief, Dr Bharat
Ram, a founder-member, was the
foundation's vice-chairman till then.
The PFI objective went beyond iden-
tifying the strengths and weaknesses
Talking of PFI's seminal com-
munity radio programme, the script
writers are selected from the target
community itself. Topics and their
ways of representation are discussed
|
|
2 Page 2 |
▲back to top |
AHEAD. JULY 2003
in detail with the writers, keeping in
mind the cultural milieu involved, so
that hotly relevant themes emerge.
This ensures that both information
and knowledge accrues to listeners
from the audio programmes for them
to use it in their best interests.
The invited scripts are edited for
dissemination of correct messages
before being submitted to AIR
for evaluating its broadcast suit-
ability.
radio programmes through their reg-
ular project activity. Every week,
ahead of a broadcast, the topic is
announced and its discussion initiat-
ed so that the community is motivat-
ed to tune in. The NGOs also join
community members during and
after the broadcast, enabling them to
discuss the radio drama messages in
Numerous are the script
topics for PFT's 52-part radio
drama series. They range from
pre-and post-natal care and safe
delivery, clean weaning, safe
abortion and medical termina-
tion of pregnancy to contracep-
tive knowledge, family planning
and welfare, male responsibility,
and personal and environmental
hygiene. Also in the list are
many more, such as food
and nutrition; communica-
ble diseases and their pre-
vention; acute respiratory
infections; safe and clean
drinking water; gender
equality; neglected girl
child, 0-6 years old; litera-
cy and education; empow-
ennent of women; devel-
opment through panchay-
ats; and population pres-
sure and development.
In Karnataka and in A script writers' workshop at Indore in connection
Uttar Pradesh, programme PFI's community radio programme.
production was assigned
to the AIR stations. But in Indore, it detail with listeners.
was done by PFI itself, with total
control on the material from its
theme and cultural context to record-
ing quality. The foundation wishes to
follow this production pattern in the
future also.
The NGOs, finding about the
accurate number of radios available
in the community, help PFI distrib-
ute them among the deprived, if
there are any, for maximum audience
reach/programme promotion.
The NGOs co-opted by PFl play
a vital role in implementing its com-
munity radio programme. Ahead of
such things as script-writing work-
shops, the NGOs help the foundation
gain knowledge about the target
community. The basic facts about its
general health and the social index
apart, information is also collected
about the community's media incli-
nations, the kind and number of
radios used by it, the suitable time
for programme broadcasts and its
specific health and social problems.
The NGOs help promote the
In addition to having a hand in
selecting script writers and organis-
ing script-writing workshops, the
NGOs promote the radio series
through word of mouth and the print
medium in other communities out-
side their own project areas, for
which the foundation meets the
costs.
A good response from listeners
sees re-broadcasts over the AIR sta-
tion with a view to expanding the
audience. If so requested, audio cas-
settes are made available by PFI to
the NGOs for use in their projects.
As well as AIR's mid-term eval-
uation, PFr has its own mid-term and
final evaluations of the community
radio series.The final evaluation of
Ujala in Uttar Pradesh was done by
the foundation itself, while Audio-
Visual Research Centre, Mysore
University, did the same for
Kusumale in Karnataka.
Encouraged by the success
of its three radio series in
Kamataka, Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh, PFl is launch-
ing three more in Bihar,
Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
The principal aims of PFI,
enunciated by its founders, are
still valid for the socio-demo-
graphic profile of the country.
Their agenda was designed to:
(l)Help raise the level of
family planning beyond
its traditional confines, by
focusing on critical vari-
ables restricting its opera-
tion;
(2)support innovative
research, experimentation
and social action from the
point of view of bringing
the grey areas of the pro-
gramme into bold relief,
and throwing up viable,
replicable models for fur-
with
thering the objectives of
the family planning pro-
gramme;
(3)serve as a forum for pooling
of experience and sharing of profes-
sional expertise to strengthen and
enlarge the operational base of the
programme; and
(4 )assist official and public
agencies in the advancement of the
cause of promoting human welfare
through family planning and other
development programmes
Among the PFl-sponsored and -
funded projects are those in the fol-
lowing broad areas:
Empowerment of panchayati
raj institutions; policy formulation at
the State level; development of data
base at the foundation; networking
with Government/non-Government
organisations; and NGO capacity-
building ...•.
(. INPUTS BY GEETA MALHOTRA)