IGNOU's approach to effective learning

Community radio no longer remains an unknown term in the national Capital. Thanks to various college and universities in the City who have spread the concept of this third form of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting.

Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia University and Indian Institute of Mass Communication are already playing significant roles in bringing disadvantaged section to the mainstream through community radio. Following their footstep is Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) that aims for the same by introducing its own radio channel at 91.2 MHz in a few months.

“The main purpose of the community radio is to uplift the marginalised community through information, education and communication. The programmes that will be aired from the university radio station will focus on the issues related to rational thinking, gender sensitivity and various other things that can lead to community welfare,” says
Daljeet Sachdeva, Nodal Officer, community radio, IGNOU. 

As IGNOU’s community radio has already got its frequency, the channel will be aired  after about three to four months. It will cater to the marginalised section of Madangiri, Chhattarpur and Sangam Vihar and facilitate the participation of common populace in programmes of immediate relevance to the community. This will work on similar lines of Jamia’s community radio at 90.4 Mhz. Since 2006, Jamia has been witnessing equal participation of university students and community people living in the nearby Okhla region.

“Programmes on the community radio are basically handled by the Journalism students. However, to make it more interactive we call people from different communities that are covered within a range of 8-10 km.  Either the students go and visit the area and do the recordings or else we call the representative to talk about the issues,” says GP Siddiqui, Incharge, Jamia community radio.

Reiterating Siddiqui’s view, Daljeet says, “The channel will see equal participation of students and community people. While students will derive ideas for different programmes and handle the technical part, the community people will help them in execution.”

Interestingly, to serve the purpose of community radio, the programmes are being aired in local language on community radio. “To grab the maximum attention, programmes are recorded in local dialect. People easily relate to it and the purpose is also served,” says GP Siddiqui.

Besides educative and informative programmes, the community radios are also a source of entertainment. Not to make it boring, they air entertainment programmes related to folk music, ghazals, and Bollywood. In the same connection, Jamia also organises events like kite flying and gilli-danda tournaments in different localities and air them too,” says Siddiqui.