Community radios such as Kadal Osai, Sangham Radio and Radio Brahmaputra are focusing on pressing issues such as climate change, marginalization and gender
Radio Brahmaputra
For 26-year-old Jeenath Rabiya—a single mother of two—the day starts early. She sends her children to school, finishes the daily chores and then heads to a modest white building on Pamban island, Rameswaram. A simple board on the facade displays the words Namathu Munnetrathukkana Vaanoli (A Radio for Our Development). This space is home to Kadal Osai, a community radio for and by fisherfolk. In a small room with a computer, an audio console and a microphone, Rabiya transforms into an RJ, hosting a 2-hour programme titled Samuthiram Pazhagu (Getting Used To The Sea).
She focuses on the many aspects of marine conservation and climate change. "I was working as a teacher prior to this, and was an avid listener of Kodaikanal FM. I would often tell my father that I wanted to be an RJ," she says. Rabiya's father, who ran a country boat and would regularly head out to sea, had listened to Kadal Osai and encouraged her to find work there.
What excites her most is interviewing fishermen and sharing their life stories. In the process, Rabiya has also been documenting how climate change is impacting them. With rising temperatures in Pamban and the increasing mood swings of the sea, life has become unpredictable for the fisherfolk. The usual wind and weather calculations don't hold true any more. In such a scenario, it becomes even more critical to talk about practices that affect the health of the sea. "We talk about how microplastics, eaten by the fish, make their way into our bodies. Sea pollution affects us all, particularly the fishermen community who depend on the fish for food and livelihood," she adds.
All over the country, you will come across many community radio services which focus on niche content targeted at a particular community. These are firmly by, and for, the locals. Thousands of miles away from Pamban, in Maijan Borsaikia village of Dibrugarh district, on the banks of the Brahmaputra in upper Assam, yet another young woman—24-year-old Rumi Naik—prepares for a broadcast. She is a community producer for Radio Brahmaputra, which focuses on health, nutrition and disaster-related information for the tea plantation and riverine communities in Dibrugarh and Dhemaji.................
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Forwarded by :- Shri. Alokesh Gupta
alokeshgupta@gmail.com