A community radio station broadcasting from the hinterlands of H.D. Kote-Saragur belt since the last few years has come as a ray of hope for the rural populace desperate for hospital beds during the pandemic.
This is apart from creating public awareness on the vaccination and removing vaccine hesitancy among people.
Jana Dhwani can be tuned at 90.8 MHz and covers a radius of 10 km reaching nearly 40 villages in and around H.D. Kote and Saragur towns.
Functioning since 2012, Jana Dhwani was established to disseminate information on rural issues relevant to the local community with focus on water, health, sanitation, hygiene, education, agriculture, governance, and tribal development.
“We have opened a helpline and are disseminating information on availability of hospital beds in the district to the local community in H.D. Kote and Saragur,” said G.S. Kumar, CEO, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM).
Apart from updates pertaining to beds, the station also broadcasts information on case load and any other news relevant to the public. People are regularly calling Jana Dhwani, which broadcasts for 14 hours daily.
The initiative has helped bridge a major information gap as people tend to be deprived of reliable news given the remoteness of the region and where fake and unverified information tends to get circulated as news.
SVYM has been involved in healthcare of tribal and rural populace in and around H.D. Kote since its inception in 1984 and has hands-on experience in dealing with issues germane to the tribal and rural population. It has a 100-bed multi-specialty hospital in Saragur, where 20 beds are now reserved for COVID-19 patients. Mr. Kumar said if need be, additional beds will be reserved.
Though the case load in the rural hinterland is currently manageable, the hysteria being generated is such that anybody who tests positive wants to be hospitalised in Mysuru. Hence, SVYM is trying to develop home care management. “Most cases can be managed at home and do not require hospital admission. At home. patients will require some psychological support and monitoring and this is where SYVM intends to work, so that hospital beds can be made available to those who really need it,” said Mr. Kumar.
The outreach activities and awareness programme through Jana Dhwani has also helped vaccinate about 7,000 people. On the anvil, is an oxygen-generating plant to meet the requirements of local healthcare facilities, but this is still in the conceptual stage.
