Narrowcasting in Muzaffarpur

BY Manisha Prakash| IN Community Media | 04/02/2008

                                Women¿s Feature Service

 "Aapko le chalte hain aisi jagah jahan grameen mahilayen bata rahi hain ki purdah pratha kya hai (We now take you toa village where the women will shed light on the practice of the ¿purdah¿ system)." As soon as the anchor, Khusboo, reads out these lines, a close-up of Anita Kumari, a reporter of ¿Appan Samachar¿ (Our News) is flashed on the screen. Anita is interviewing the women of Musahar Tola in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, on the custom of ¿purdah¿.

As the projector comes alive with images of village life, residents of Muzaffarpur¿s Ramlila Gachhi village gather for their monthly fare of local news,brought to their doorstep by the young girls of their community. These firebrand reporters, most of whom are in their early teens, go around the villages in the district looking for stories that highlight local economic and social issues.

¿Appan Samachar¿, which is an all-female news network, is a vehicle for women¿s empowerment - in addition to providing news that is of use to villagers. Santosh Anand, of an NGO called Mission Eye International Service, came up with the idea primarily as a means to project the problems of women in villages where national media seldom reaches.

According to Veena Devi, a Ramlila Gachhi resident, thanks to the news capsules, the general awareness of women in the village has increased. "Women are beginning to realise that they too have a voice and that it needs to be heard. Now that I am watching this news bulletin (on ¿purdah¿), I feel that women should come out of their homes and try to do something on their own," she says.

The channel operates from a one-room office in Ramlila Gachhi village with a bare minimum of resources. Armed with a handy cam, tripod and gun mike, the news team, comprising a reporter, cameraperson and anchor, walks across considerable distances in the interiors to cover stories. When they have to traverse greater distances, the gutsy newswomen borrow cycles from their neighbours.

Ever since its launch in December last year, ¿Appan Samachar¿ has become popular in over a dozen villages in the district. The news capsules are aired once a month - broadcast on projectors or on hired video players and a large TV set. The first edition tackled issues such as witchcraft, empowerment of women, poverty and farm problems. "The news bulletin is shown on the sixth of every month but soon we will make it bi-monthly. Right now, we are concentrating on issues like poverty, health, electricity crisis and social evils like dowry," says Anand.

Says Harendra Pathak, the village priest, "We come to know about a lot of things through this news channel. Our awareness level was low before this channel came into being."

"Lots of people watch this news programme and the poor are benefiting from it. Through this medium, their voice is reaching the people¿s representatives," adds Diwakar Prasad Kushwaha, a local resident.

This feedback suggests that the efforts of the young reporters are not in vain. Khusboo, ¿Appan Samachar¿s anchor, is just out of high school but quite aware of the significance of her task. "Whenever I had the opportunity to watch news on television, even though our village still does not have access to cable TV, I noticed that the problems of villages were never discussed. We are keen that rural areas receive coverage," she says.

Star reporter Anita also does her job well. She not only conducts interviews but also increases people¿s awareness in the process. Though she rues the lack of resources, she is happy with the role she plays in rebuilding her village society. "Most of the time, the women and the elderly don¿t want to discuss their problems with us. We try to convince them to speak their mind. We tell them that if they keep quiet, no one will realise they have a problem. Now, we get a lot of praise and the people are happy with us. Even the village ¿mukhiya¿ (village council head), who is part of our regular audience, says that we are doing well," she says.

To enable the village girls to operate as a professional media outfit, a short training course in camera handling, script writing, anchoring, and pre and post-production was organised. "I picked up the process quickly. I really love my work. I want to make a name for myself in this field," says Ruby, the cameraperson.

While the girls do manage to scrape in some funds for the channel, write their scripts and conduct interviews, they face technical difficulties while putting together the end product.

Says Anand, "At present we get the bulletin edited from elsewhere. We also don¿t have any financial support in the form of advertisements to sustain this initiative. If we get help from the government or from any other agency, this initiative, which is the first of its kind in Bihar in the field of rural journalism,

will be strengthened."