Village reporters in Palamau  

For the first time, villagers from this area are participating in a community initiative and are getting to hear their own voices on the radio.

VILLAGE REPORTERS IN PALAMAU

By Nandita Roy

Her face covered top down till her chin with the free end of her sari, 35-year-old Leelawati, a mother of two, struggles to adjust the microphone as she grapples with the voice-recording device. Then, firmly holding on to the patch of cloth with one hand to prevent it from slipping off her face, she sets the tape to wind. In back of beyond Palamau, in northern India¿s remote tribal state of Jharkhand, Leelawati is among a handful of unlettered adults preparing for a new life ahead. Taking time off her daily grind of household chores, Leelawati is one of three rural women in a group of 14 adult village reporters working for Palamau¿s community radio project. And she¿s doing rather well. In the past one week, diarrhoea has taken 50 lives in the district. So, today, Leelawati¿s quizzing the doctor on what preventive steps the villagers should take before the epidemic spreads beyond control.

These are early days for community radio in the 45 villages of Palamau. But, it is a good beginning. Last August, two local non-profit organizations --Alternatives for India Development (AID) and Manthan Yuva Sangathan--joined hands to launch Chala Ho Gaon Mein, a half-hour community broadcast on state-run radio. The initiative is strategically and financially backed by the National Foundation for India (NFI), a 10-year-old grant-making body set up to give a new push and focus to philanthropy in the country where 26 per cent of its billion plus population still live below the officially-defined poverty line.

Chalao Ho Gaon Mein, which in local parlance means Come, let¿s go to the village, is a weekly evening broadcast over the local FM station that delves into local issues. The programme is aired in the local tribal language, which is a mixture of Maghi and Nagpuri. AID is the grassroots NGO working in the area. Manthan, run by city-slick journalists, lends technical support.

Palamau, where the villagers are experimenting with this new communication vehicle is among India¿s most neglected economic backwaters. Several tribal groups and non-tribal rural communities have coexisted here for years, making a livelihood out of minor forest produces and basic farm crops like paddy, wheat and lentils. Most live on the edge of poverty. Less than a third of the womenfolk do not know how to read and write. Most of the men folk migrate to the cities in search of manual labour. Developmental infrastructure hardly exists in the area, and wherever it does, it is in a shambles: the roads are damaged; power supply erratic, state-sponsored food distribution schemes ill-managed; and hand-pumps are the only source of water, for both irrigation and drinking.

Socially too, Palamau is India¿s badland. Marxist guerillas rule by the gun. State security remains only on paper. But now, there is the radio. And hope…that things will change one day.

How did this happen?

Long before the programme went on air, NFI, with its partners, scouted the villages for volunteers. It also conducted a series of workshops to educate villagers on the benefit of community broadcasting. The search ended with 14 volunteers offering their services as rural reporters. The community threw up issues that concerned them the most: children being forced into marriage; dowry in exchange for the bridegroom; superstition about the unknown; gender discrimination against women; development needs of the villages; corruption; and issues relating to farming. To tackle such a vast subject, the volunteers were divided into three groups comprising a minimum of four reporters. Each group was assigned the job of covering five villages. Today, the reporters go from village to village mobilising communities to participate, report on local developments and interview experts to guide villagers on how to tackle specific problems.