India's Rural Women Tuning In and Finding Their Voice
One of the most basic forms of technology — the radio — is helping women in rural parts of India's Andhra Pradesh educate other women in their communities.
Deccan Development Society (DDS), a grassroots non-profit based in Andhra Pardesh, works with some of the poorest communities with programs focused on health, education, food security and other methods of empowerment for women. Last October, DDS developed a community radio station that broadcasts daily interviews with local village women throughout the state.
Most of the women interviewed are poor, uneducated and illiterate. Many of them work in the fields or are involved in some form of manual labor in their villages. Despite their limitations, these women are able to use the radio to discuss their work and community issues that may help their peers. For example, discussions on which herbal medicines to use for livestock and efficient farming tools are helpful for other women in the village and surrounding areas. The women are paid for their contribution which allows them to feel a sense of empowerment by earning their own money.
BBC News documents the initiative by DDS and spoke to one of its founders, P.V. Satheesh who explained the benefits of the initiative.
The local radio station has helped women in the region become more confident…the idea was to get local voices to talk to the local people on issues that were close to their hearts. It is a means of asserting themselves in this rural setting, of finding a voice and putting themselves in greater control of their own destiny.
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Education
Believe in Your Self while doing any Work.
Just Give Your Best Performance at Examination Timing.
Don't make any Disturbance by others words just show them what we can Do.
Development
Its really amazing how something that is taken for granted in developed countries can have make such a big difference in developing nations. In an ideal world we'd be able to determine the exact economic benefits of the new radio station and use that as an argument in favor of governments supporting these initiatives. Hopefully there is someone able to make an approximation as to the benefit so it can be used as a case study for elsewhere in the world.
I sincerely hope that the developmental benefits of the radio station are beyond people's wildest dreams.
Community Radio
Community radio empowers and restores confidence as well as serves as a mechanism of sustainability for cultures and citizens all around the world. The DDS grassroots initiative in India allowed and facilitated the communication of social and agricultural knowledge as well as assisted local village women to realize their situations are not ‘unique’ so to speak, but rather that there are many other women who share similar hardships — no one is alone. The community radio increases their confidence which results in many more smiles and an air of assurance that follows them wherever they go. I say ‘more smiles’ because community radio many times turns thoughts of desperation into thoughts of possibilities.
The positive effects of community radio can also be seen in San Lorenzo, Mexico, where the town suffers from over 80 percent migration to the United States, leaving mostly women. Families are broken apart, and a feeling of hopelessness saturates the town. The local radio station was initially created to form a link between the migrants in the United States and their indigenous village deep in the heart of Mexico. But, radio workers soon discovered that they could use the radio to aid their own community.
Firstly, they allow young students to ‘intern’ or work and create their own shows. Secondly, they encourage the use of the indigenous language, purépecha, which seemed to be withering away as young children’s native language became Spanish, splitting generations apart. While visiting with the ‘boss’ of the radio station in March of 2009, he stated to me that “Cada día pierde palabras” y para “perder una lengua es perder la cultura…perderse” (“Each day we lose words, and to lose a language is to lose the culture, to lose oneself”). For that reason, the community radio took a stand.
Additionally, the radio station wanted to confront the problem of ‘solitaria’ or solitude of the purépecha culture. To do this, they increased understanding of indigenous cultures around the world so their own people would not feel ‘alone’, just as the Indian women. The radio station began to play music from indigenous Peruvian cultures, promoting awareness of similar cultural hardships.
Yet, community radio should also be especially recognized for its ability to organize. In a small Colombian village a few years ago, rebels came and kidnapped a member of the community prompting the local station to send a message to all local citizens to gather in the town square. The town decided to walk to the rebel camp high up in the mountains and peacefully protest the kidnapping of one of their citizens. After a week, the rebel commanders returned the kidnapped man realized the strong resistance of the community, a feat that would have never happened had the citizens not organized in the first place.
Community radio is an essential mean towards cultural, economic, social, and political sustainability, and therefore stability. The Indian women who share their knowledge and stories through radio represent possibilities that should and must be ubiquitous around the world. Examples in San Lorenzo, Mexico, and Columbia are just two key examples of the positive effects of community radio, and I sincerely hope that this means of communication receives the respect and attention it deserves for all of its sustainability and empowerment efforts.
Technology can make us all equal
It's amazing how something that I only turn on to listen to music help save a life in another part of the world.
The power of Radio
It's amazing how much power the media can have on educating and mobilizing marginalized communities throughout the world.
There is another non-profit organization, PCI-Media Impact, that uses the media (tv, radio) to create social change. They've produced a number of very successful media programs here in India. Info on the work they've done in India: http://mediaimpact.org/programs_india.shtml. They seem to focus on a lot of interconnected issues, such as sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, women's rights...
They also have an India Campaign right now to promote women's rights in India: www.globalgiving.com/3922.
It's great to see organizations tapping into the power of the media. I can see clearly the positive effect Media Impact has had on its audience members; this is the type of organization that I would donate my money to.
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