Author Archives: Community Radio Facilitation Centre

Only two community radio stations in border areas so far: I&B admits

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Only two community radio stations are currently functioning in border areas – one in Jammu and the other in Kutch.

According to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B), the two Community Radio Stations (CRS) functioning in Border areas are the Radio Sharda by the non-government organisation Pir Panchal, Jammu, in Jammu and Kashmir; and Saiyere Jo Radio by NGO Saiyere Jo Sanghathan, in Village-Bhimsar of Kutch in Gujarat.

Emphasising the ministry had been encouraging enhancement of reach of CRS in all regions/districts of the country, sources said awareness workshops are being organised by the ministry to sensitise people about the CRS policy and create awareness amongst aspiring applicants about issues relating to setting up, operation and maintenance of Community Radios.

Eligible organisations from any region/part of the country, including border areas, can apply for permission to set up CRS.

Permission to set up Community Radio Stations (CRS) is granted under the policy guidelines for setting up of community radio stations in India. These guidelines are available at Ministry’s website.

Source: radioandmusic.com

Radio Brahmaputra set to serve India’s north-east

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Radio Brahmaputra is the first civil society run Community Radio for serving the local communities in the north eastern part of India.

Dibrugarh: Bringing a new opportunity for raising their voice regarding local issues, a new community radio floated by a civil society organization in the Dirbrugarh district of Assam has heralded a new era in this part of the North East.

The Centre for North-East Studies & Policy Research (C-NES) and the team of Brahmaputra Community Radio Station (BCRS) have together started the Brahmaputra Community Radio station.

Supported by UNICEF, Radio Brahmaputra, 90.4 FM, is the first grassroots and civil society led Community Radio Station in the North-Eastern region of India.

The Radio Brahmaputra got the WOL (Wireless Operating License) from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) on July, 10, 2015.

Talking about Radio Brahmaputra, Bhaskar Jyoti Bhuyan, said that Community Radio is an extraordinary and an invisible medium to give voice to the voiceless. “The station would provide an opportunity to the people of North East to speak about issues concerning their lives,” he said.

Bhuyan said that Community Radio could be an effective tool in bringing awareness to the door-steps of people about various flagship programmes of the government. “There is a need to provide a greater push to the CRS movement in the country ensuring its reach in every nook and corner. CRS has also helped communities during calamities and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes,” he said.

The Community Radio is an important tool of communication in a diverse country like India.

Brahmaputra Radio will endeavour to make programmes for different age groups. Some of the signature programmes include Chahtri Yuva Snehi for youth, Kon Mainar Mela for children and Chai Gasar Maja-Maja for women.

Radio Brahmaputra is covering nearly 180 mainland villages, 12 island villages and 31 tea garden and sub divisions including Dibrugarh municipality area.

Radio Brahmaputra is currently broadcasting 10 hours daily programme in many languages and dialects (Assamese, Chadri (tea garden community dialect), Bhojpuri, Mishing and Bodo) covering the most marginalized communities of the districts of Dibrugarh, Dhemaji and partly Lakhimpur.

To read more, click here: OneWorld South Asia

CRFC Internship – IV

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Background Paper –

CRFC Internship Workshop

The fourth CRFC Internship Workshop being organised by the Community Radio Facilitation Centre (CRFC) is a small endeavour towards media plurality – a meaningful effort in the direction of providing communities their due space in the array of mediums that dot India’s media landscape.

The Community Radio Facilitation Centre (CRFC) was set up in 2013 with support from Ford Foundation with the objective of guiding Community Radio licence applicants towards the larger objective of advancing media rights and access. Work at the CRFC is managed by the OneWorld Foundation India.

Besides regular guidance, CRFC also works to put together guidelines and toolkits and support in the capacity building efforts of Community Radio Stations so as to achieve the larger objective of adding to media plurality with providing access to communities living in the shadows of development. This has been fired by our belief at OneWorld that access to mediums and media is a strong catalyst in the process of human and intellectual development of people and communities.

Over the years of its functioning, CRFC has evolved into a robust set-up, not only helping applicants navigate a labyrinth of offices, but also mastering the paths of the maze individual applicants might find daunting. This has been achieved with active support from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which has reposed faith in the CRFC and given it much needed endorsement in pursuing its objectives.

The team at CRFC has also learnt a lot. With the experience it has gained and with documentation of information it has gleaned from its experience, it is only to expected that CRFC engage with other actors committed to access to information. This also confirms to OneWorld’s viewpoint that forming, evolving and engaging with communities of practices furthers the objectives of bridging the information divide. The communities of practice that OneWorld aims to foster are also active believers in the power of information and the belief that knowledge transcends community barriers.

Fulcrumed on this belief, CRFC Internship Workshops provide an opportunity to engage in collective learning and experience sharing over four rigorously defined days. The idea here is that the communities of practice being fostered will work in tandem with the CRFC in furthering the facilitation CRFC provides to new applicants in distinct geographies and linguistic regions.

At the end of four days, representatives from the NGO or educational institution run Community Radio Station will be familiar with the Community Radio licensing procedure, issues around DAVP Empanelment and responsibilities related to Community Radio. This will enable grassroots leaders facilitate applicants to apply for Community Radio Stations and also create awareness in their regions on Community Radio.

Participants will act as CRFC’s regional facilitators, support the centre in translation of queries recorded on the facilitation centre’s IVRS in languages (other than English and Hindi), besides supporting organisations interested in setting up of Community Radio Stations in their areas of work.

 

Submit Expression of Interest for setting up Community Radio Stations in Bihar

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To bridge the socio economic gap between the marginalized and mainstream strata of society, Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission (BMVM) invites Expression of Interest to hire qualified agencies to set up of Community Radio Stations in Bihar. Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission is an autonomous body under Department of Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe Welfare, Government of Bihar.
The organisations expressing their interest for setting up station must be a not for profit and serving the community for more than three years. To be eligible to respond to expression of interest, organisation should have a minimum annual turnover of Rs. 25 lacs in the last three consecutive years and have an understanding of educational, developmental, social and cultural scenario of Mahadalit communities.
The Community Radio Stations will be set up at 8 linguistic centers across the state targeting Mahadalit community with special focus on youth, elders and women.. Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission has mandate of setting up 15 Community Radio Stations and is already supporting seven NGO/CBOs to set up these community based radio stations.
The selection of the organizations will be based on the ‘technical’ and ‘price’ bid. Therefore, the interested organisations may submit their Expression of Interest to ‘Managing Director, BMVM, CM Secretariat, 4, Deshratna Marg, Patna, Bihar’. The last date for submitting Expression of Interest is July 02, 2015.

For further details, kindly visit www.mahadalitmission.org and download the EOI document from here.

 

Now, 186 operational Community Radio in India

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NEW DELHI: Only 186 community radio stations are operational out of the 229 which have signed the Grant of Permission Agreement.

While the number of operational stations was 180 on 1 May, Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B Ministry) sources told Radioandmusic.com that four more stations have become operational over the past six weeks.

Furthermore, as against 211 stations that had signed GOPA agreements by mid-February, the number has gone up to 229 according to a list placed on the website of the Ministry. These 229 are out of more than 400, which have been issued letters of intent (LOI), sources said. Around 70 of these have been referred to other Ministries, the sources added.

As many as 285 applications have been returned or rejected, while 263 have been referred back to the applicants.

This low figure is despite the fact that the scheme for community radios was introduced about a decade earlier, and the Government has already announced a major scheme to help CRS

A Parliamentary Committee noted recently that 209 applications for setting up of community radio stations were pending with various Ministries. Even though the number of applications pending in the Ministries concerned has come down substantially, there are at least 50 applications that are pending which have crossed the stipulated timeline beyond three months.

Note- As per the record of CRFC there are 186 operational Community Radio in India..

For more, please visit: RadioandMusic.com

Filling up SACFA Application – Do’s and Don’ts

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SACFA is an important step in the Community Radio Application procedure, hence, it becomes necessary to have the correct information to fill all the details of the application correctly. We have put together a list of do’s and don’ts that each organisation should follow before submitting the online SACFA Application to the WPC wing of Ministry of Telecommunication and IT.

Do’s

  • It is important to have a working internet connection.
  • Open the WPC website i.e. http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in for making an online application.
  • Please make sure that you are using internet explorer as your web browser, as this application can be filled in that browser only.

The applicant should have the required details handy with him/ her before making the application online.

  • Please collect all the details before applying online (you may take help with this link- http://crfc.in/details-required-for-online-filing-of-sacfa-clearance-application/).
  • Name of contact Person.
  • His/her mobile number.
  • Organisation’s landline Number.
  • Type of organisation, whether Educational, NGO or Agricultural.
  • Name of the organisation.
  • Complete address of the organisation with the pin code and post office.
  • Email-id which should not exceed more than 30 characters.
  • Frequency which has been stated in the D/L (Decision to Grant W/T License).
  • Complete address of the CRS location with pin code and post office.
  • Latitude & Longitude of the CRS location in accordance to which the LOI has been issued to the organisation, can be confirmed from CR cell at MIB.
  • Height of the CRS above sea level in meters (AMSL).
  • Height of the CRS building in meters, if any.
  • Service area, for e.g.: Goregaon, Guindy etc.
  • D/L number & date stated in the D/L.
  • Nature & activity of the organisation, for e.g.: education, health etc.
  • Demand draft details like DD number, date, name of bank, name of branch.

Don’ts

  • Do not take more than 15 minutes (approx) to fill up the application.
  • Your email ID should not exceed more than 30 characters.
  • Please save and secure your username and password.
  • Please do not give geo co-ordinates obtained from google maps, as they are not correct.
  • The height above mean sea level should not be given, which has been taken from the nearest railway station, as it varies.
  • Please do not copy the application and attachments from a different applicant.
  • Don’t use Google Chrome, Opera or Mozilla Firefox for filling up the Frequency Application, use only Internet Explorer.

Author: Poonam Shrivastava, CRFC/ OneWorld

Filling up Frequency Application – Do’s and Don’ts

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The Frequency Application procedure is a long and complex process. It becomes necessary to have the right information to fill in all the details of the application correctly. We have put together a list of do’s and don’ts that each organisation should follow before submitting the online Frequency Application to the WPC wing of Ministry of Telecommunication and IT.

Do’s

  • It is important to have a working internet connection.
  • Open the WPC website http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in for making an online application.
  • Please make sure that you are using internet explorer as your web browser, as this application can be filled in that browser only.

Applicant should have the following details of their organization and Community Radio station, before applying for Frequency Online.

Required details of your Organisation

  • Please collect all the details before applying online (you may take help with this link- http://crfc.in/details-required-for-online-filing-of-frequency-license-application/).
  • Name of the Contact Person.
  • The Contact Person’s Mobile Number & Landline Number.
  • Type of Organisation.
  • Name of the Organisation & Complete Address with Post Office and Pin Code.

Required details of Community Radio Station

  • Name of your Community Radio Station.
  • Complete Address of the CRS with Post office & Pin Code.
  • Location of Community Radio Station or the location of the transmitter & antenna.
  • Geo co-ordinates – Latitude of CRS Location should be in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds format only, Longitude of CRS Location should be in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds format only.

(The geo co-ordinates must be crosschecked with the Community Radio Application submitted to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting)

  • Height of CRS location above sea level i.e. AMSL in meters.
  • Height of the CRS building should be in meters. The height of building should not be more than 30 meters viagra generique france.
  • Make a list of few areas that will be covered under CRS broadcast service.
  • Make a list of the activities of the organization like activities on education, women and child development, health etc.
  • Applicant should have the idea about the distance of CRS from the nearest airport as well as the name of the airport.
  • LOI number allotted by MIB (Sample: F.No. 104//103/2011-CRS).

Don’ts

  • Do not take more than 15 minutes (approx) to fill up the application.
  • Your email ID should not exceed 30 characters.
  • Please save and secure your username and password.
  • Please do not give geo co-ordinates obtained from Google maps as they are not correct.
  • The height above mean sea level should not be given which has been taken from the nearest railway station, as it varies.
  • Please do not copy the application and attachments from a different applicant.
  • Don’t use Google Chrome, Opera or Mozilla Firefox for filling up Frequency Application.

Author: Poonam Shrivastava, CRFC/ OneWorld

Radio Benziger tunes into development

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Radio BenzigerComing from a densely populated coastal area, Radio Benziger, with a tagline – ‘To Love is To Serve’, has come up with various initiatives to empower the community and keep it engaged with the radio.

Being the first Community Radio in India to broadcast marine weather forecast and marine safety tips on a daily basis, Radio Benziger has now established 25 radio clubs in Kollam in Kerala.

These clubs function mostly in schools and residents’ associations, and engage the community in creative activities.

Since the radio station serve for the fishermen based community and the hospital situated in the area, so most of the programmes are dedicated for safe drinking water, water-borne diseases and other communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Ferdinand Peter, Station Director of Radio Benziger said, “We try to avail students working in the hospital and from some other resources, free-of-cost.”

The radio station has come with some special effects for the differently abled by extending a hand of friendship and provided them a platform to speak.

Sobha Jayan – a victim of bone cancer – found a friend in Radio Benziger. She shared her special moments with the Community Radio Station and extended gratitude for giving a platform to interact with the people.

She has been listening to it since she started the treatment in 2011. After taking voluntary retirement at the age of 47, she spends most of her time tuning in to Radio Benziger.

Radio is also a consolation for the bed-ridden. It caters to the most ordinary and marginalized people. It also encourages the right to communicate for the impaired people.

Differently abled Akshay said, “I tune in to radio every evening at 8:30 pm. The programmes produced by the radio station helps me in the preparation of SSLC exam.”

Seventy-six per cent people accepted that they have listened to the programmes of Radio Benziger, says a survey. Forty per cent people also felt the ownership of the radio.

For the Hindi listeners, it broadcasts a programme once in a week. The Community Radio Station has also started enrolling members of the community and they call them Community Participants. The total number of enrolled members has exceeded 300.

Started with the broadcast of four hours a day, it has now extended to 15 hours a day covering more than 25,000 listeners.

The Radio Benziger cooperates with many healthcare projects of the government like pulse polio vaccination, prevention of Tuberculosis and Filaria.

Situated in Tsunami-hit and earthquake prone coastal area, the potential of a two-way communication is also used to empower people through exchange of information and experience enabling the participatory process of development.

Author: Ruby Rani/OneWorld

CRFC trains Community Radio representatives

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STORYWith an objective to inform the participants about the Community Radio licensing procedure, DAVP empanelment and to empower the grassroots leaders to act as facilitators in their respective regions, Community Radio Facilitation Centre (CRFC) conducted a four day workshop at India Habitat Centre.

Addressing the participants, Inderjeet Grewal, Deputy Director, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, noted that the CR application procedure is very slow as about 400 applications are in loop due to various reasons. They are on the way to start a single window clearance.

He further appreciated the government’s financial support of Rs 100 cr for the applicants as well as the operational CR stations. He said that the funds can be used under three sections i.e. innovation grants, emergency ground and capacity building.

The highlight of the workshop was the filling up of Community Radio Applications as a group activity. The participants responded this activity as the most useful and informative part.

After the completion of the four-day event, participants supported the initiative and agreed to act as CRFC’s regional facilitators, support the centre in translation of queries recorded on the facilitation centre’s IVRS in the regional languages.

N Ramakrishnan, Executive Director, Ideosync Media Combine, took the queries of the participants on technical front. He also described the importance of correct geo-coordinates and different apps to find out the exact geo-coordinates.

While addressing the session ‘Interministerial Coordination & its Role, K S Rejimon, Director, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, informed the participants about the role of the different ministries in getting the licence cleared.

Jitender Sharma from Kisan Vani CR, Madhya Pradesh, shared his experiences with the interns about the kind of facilitation he has been providing to the other potential CR applicants. He also discussed various issues which include the queries and problems raised by the CR applicants, about the managements of the funds required to set up the Community Radio Station.

Author: Ruby Rani/ OneWorld

‘Ban on broadcasting news should be lifted’, says Prof. Vinod Pavarala

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Edited _vinod-pavarala-300x199 (1)It is important to revisit the policy to make Community Radio more progressive and enabling, as the new policy will be based on the learnings from the past, says Vinod Pavarala, UNESCO chair on Community Media.

OneWorld: In the past eight years since the last revision of the Community Radio policy, do you think the Community Radio policy is in a desperate need for revision under the present circumstances and what should be the focus of this revision?

Prof. Vinod Pavarala: ​The major achievement of the last revision of the policy in 2006 was only to widen the ambit of Community Radio to its true character by including NGOs among those who are eligible to apply for a licence.

Policy making is always an incremental process, based on learning’s of the past. In that sense, it is time to revisit the policy to make it more progressive and enabling, especially addressing four key issues.

First, the most important change, in my mind, would be to lift the ban on broadcasting of news.  This is in complete contradiction of India’s professed principles of and constitutional provisions for freedom of expression. No where else in the world is news prohibited on Community Radio. News and information are the lifeblood of any community-based media. We should trust the existing laws and safeguards and permit communities to broadcast news on Community Radio, thus making it a truly democratic medium.

Second, the policy should make a special mention of reaching out to areas under-served by mainstream media, and facilitate the issuing of licenses to organizations working in the more marginalized regions of the country.

Third, while the current Policy Guidelines provide for the possibility of transmitter power higher than the permissible 100 W ERP, it has never been actively considered. The policy must be changed to provide for this option for Community Radio Stations that are sought to be established in hilly/mountainous terrain or in desert regions with scattered human settlements.

Fourth, it may be worthwhile to consider campus (educational) Community Radio Stations as a sub-category of the Community Radio license, with a more flexible content mandate.  The developmental content that is mandated for Community Radio in general may be made optional in case of stations run primarily by young people in educational institutions to allow for more dynamism and creativity in programming.  Of course, stations run by campuses may still choose to devote their broadcast time to community development issues.

OneWorld: What is your view on the recommendations made by TRAI on the licence renewal procedures of Community Radio Stations where in GOPA renewals would be extended for a period of five years after an initial period of five years?

Prof. Pavarala: I think the TRAI recommendations on license renewal procedures are very acceptable. The first renewal for a period of 5 years is to be done almost automatically unless there is any evidence of violation of the terms and conditions of the initial license. This is quite fair.

TRAI’s suggestion is that the second renewal (after 10 years of the station’s existence) be based on some kind of performance evaluation. This is also reasonable, but the operative term in TRAI’s recommendation is ‘self-evaluation’. I hope the use of already existing toolkits and methodologies developed in the sector for self-assessment and peer review could be deemed satisfactory instead of re-inventing the wheel or diluting the spirit of Community Radio by imposing any kind of external evaluation.

OneWorld: Do you think that the recommendations made by TRAI regarding the re-broadcast of news from All India Radio (AIR) displays a lack of trust on Community Radio Stations?

Prof. Pavarala: It seems like that. The recommendation to allow re-broadcasting of AIR news completely misses the point of Community Radio. It is not merely about well-meaning people broadcasting for the people, but it is about members of a given community communicating with each other in a horizontal process.

Community Radio globally is seen as occupying an independent third space, away from the state and the market channels. That very definition of Community Radio is undermined if it only parrots official news.​

Communities broadcasting (mostly local) news cannot possibly do more damage to public opinion than the multiplicity of private news media outlets (including foreign ones) that are currently allowed to broadcast.​

In fact, permitting independent production and broadcast of news by Community Radio will only enhance India’s democratic credentials and will help deepen media pluralism in the country.

OneWorld: In your views, how would the recommendation made by TRAI, regarding the relaxation of lowest rates provided by DAVP, add support to the sustainability factor of a Community Radio Stations?

Prof. Pavarala:​The Rs. 4 per second minimum rate prescribed by DAVP at present has become a millstone around the necks of Community Radio Stations, especially those that function in areas where there is not much of a market for advertising. ​TRAI has correctly recognized this issue and suggested that DAVP’s minimum rate be relaxed for Community Radio Stations.

I am not sure how much this will contribute to the sustainability of the Community Radio Stations, but it will enable many small traders and individuals in the listening area to buy time economically and thus participate in the Community Radio Station’s functioning.

OneWorld: The Authority has also recommended that MIB should establish an online ‘single window’ system that will re-engineer and integrate the entire Community Radio licensing process. Do you think this change would benefit the applicants and the stations and will the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing (WPC) agree?

Prof. Pavarala: A single window for clearance of license applications is something that everyone in the sector has been suggesting for a very long time. Until now, in spite of MIB’s quick clearances, it requires applicants, to continue with the window analogy, to linger long at the WPC window, which is either shut on their faces or opens rarely.  ​Often it’s also difficult to tell which faces are lurking behind those closed windows. MIB and MICT need to sit down and figure out a way of integrating the various processes involved in the licensing to reduce the unreasonable times it presently takes to start a Community Radio Station in India.

Prof. Vinod Pavarala leads the UNESCO Chair on Community Media, a Professor of Communication at University of Hyderabad and he is also the founder member of the Community Radio Forum.