Govt planning community radio stations in varsities to signal change for marginalised

The government is mulling over setting up community radio stations at higher education centres such as universities.

The initiative will help reach out to the unreachables, especially in rural and hinterland areas of the state, with awareness messages and advisories during emergencies.

The idea, mooted by the planning department, has also been endorsed by the Higher Education department which has written to the vice chancellors of the state-run universities to take necessary steps to set up community radio stations.

Sources in the department told DH that already there are 20 such radio stations functioning in Dharwad, Bengaluru Rural and Urban, Belagavi, Chikkaballapur, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Mysuru, Udupi and Yadgir.

“Directions have been issued to rest of the districts to initiate steps to begin community radio stations,” a senior official from the department said.

“Convergence of various governance nodes through community radio stations would benefit the local communities as this would be an effective medium of reaching out to the unreached. The first series evoked tremendous response for the stations. Listeners from other states too were appreciative of this initiative,” the official explained.

The government’s plan is to start at least one community radio station per district soon.

“Community radio stations have the trust of the local communities and often looked up to by the locals for genuine information on day-to-day issues,” another official said.

Shalini Rajneesh, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics, told DH, “Sustainable development can only be achieved through sustained community involvement and cooperation. We hope to partner successfully with community radios to attain this objective.”

The idea was also discussed recently with the chief minister and the chief secretary.

The initiative follows a communication from the ministry for information and broadcasting, asking states to send a list of operational community radio stations.

The stations, low power FM radio channels, can broadcast up to a radius of 15 km, and can be accessed even on an ordinary mobile phone without internet connection.