Airwaves are for every one

Sometimes, the simplest of ideas take the longest time to roost simply because we underestimate the magic of working together. You would think in a country like ours, community radio would make huge sense.

Consider divides like rural-urban, literate-non-literate, rich-poor not to speak of a daunting diversity of languages, dialects, and the role of community radio should strike an obvious chord.

Truth, however, is stranger than fiction. It took more than eleven and a half years after the Supreme Court of India passed its landmark judgment in 1995, stating that air waves were public property to be used for public good, that community-based NGOs became eligible to apply for a licence to operate a community radio station of their own.

In the early 2000s, when some of us in the community media sector decided to muddy our hands, we were often dismissed as a lunatic fringe that had lost their heads as well as their voices! Even when one of the movement's flagship initiatives based in Kolar, Karnataka) Namma Dhwani made it to the Limca Book of World Records (2006) as India's first cable community radio station, I was asked what the big deal was all about.

Even after the Government of India guidelines was finally announced in November 2006, the shouting from the rooftops and “audio- stations” were sufficiently few to stand up and be counted.

It was then that we realised that the time had come not just to act, but to get our act together.

It wasn't sufficient to argue that community radio was just a good idea whose time had come. If it was to work, we needed to network, to build a federation by joining hands across the country.

In early 2007, the Community Radio Forum of India (CRF) was put together by a motley crew of a few dozen enthusiasts across India to help facilitate an enabling environment for community radio in the country.

While some might argue that we still have a long way to go, there's no quibbling over the fact that the CRF has made a difference.

The community radio scene looks considerably more robust today than it did three and a half years ago. There are more than 100 community radio stations on air in different parts of the country.

Several more are in the pipeline waiting to get their voices heard. What's more, those that are on air seem to have got their voices finally heard where it matters.

In December 2010, the Government ratified the CRF's recommendation to start a community radio support fund. Last month, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting put together a working group to set up a framework to operationalise the fund. Community radio finally seems to be making waves.

(Ashish Sen is governing board member, Community Radio Forum and president of World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) Asia –Pacific)