Community Radio movement in Northeast

In an era of digital disruption, media space monopolised by markets and tech giants monopolising the internet, Community Radio is a unique mass media which can be owned and operated by smaller and marginalised communities. The community radio movement has not gained the momentum it should have got. A central government scheme -Supporting Community Radio Movement in India for the next five years from 2021 is 2026 is expected to strengthen Community Radio in the country. For, three north-eastern states- Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya which still do not any have Community Radio station, the scheme brings an opportunity,and they should not let it go. The Central Government has estimated the total expenditure for implementing the scheme, currently under process, at Rs 25 crores. For other states in the region too, the scheme brings an opportunity to set up more community radio stations to reach out to as many communities. The proposed scheme includes various activities such as grants for content creation, strengthening of Community Media Empowerment Centre at IIMC, innovation grants and creation of a national repository of contents. Enhanced grants for purchase of equipment from Rs.7.50 lakhs to Rs 12 lakhs in northeast region is a significant step to encourage more educational institutions and NGOs in the region to set up Community Radio stations. There are 317 Community Radio stations which air programme in 27 languages are operational in the country. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology expressed concern that while several states and Union Territories are yet to have any Community Radio station funds earmarked in Union budgets remained underutilised during 2018-2020. It has pointed out to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that utilisation in 2018-19 was 48.4% and 87% of the revised allocations in 2020-21. Besides, numerous popular languages and dialects of the country are yet to be covered by Community Radio Stations including some of the scheduled languages of the Constitution like Kashmiri, Bodo, Maithili, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi and Urdu, states a report of the parliamentary panel. While the All India Radio is a public broadcaster monopolised by the Central Government, FM Radio stations are commercial ventures, the Community Radio creates the space for small and marginalised communities which is often overlooked both by the public broadcaster as well as commercial broadcasters. Revenue model of the Community Radio is critical for long term sustainability. The central government bears 75% of the expenditure while the running expenditure is borne by the station. The government is keen to increase the airtime for advertisement in Community Radio to 12 minutes from 7 minutes to enable the stations to generate more revenue from advertisements. Community Radio Stations are allowed to broadcast advertisements but are required to the guidelines stated in the Community Radio Policy. The policy prohibits transmission of sponsored programmes except programmes sponsored by Central and state governments and other organisation to broadcast public intertest information. This provides the Community Radio the shield from market forces influencing the content as it does in case of other mass media like newspaper, television or FM radios. The Community Radio policy allows transmission of limited advertising and announcements relating to local events, local businesses and services and employment opportunities are also allowed. Most of the Community Radio stations ae unable to fully utilise the airtime for advertisement for dearth of advertisers. The Directorate of Advertising and Audio-Visual Publicity empanelling all Community Radio stations can ensure sustainability in initial years to help the oganisations focus on quality programme production to create vibrant communities reached out by the station. Robustness in programmes produced by active and energetic participation of the communities can attract advertisers targeting hyperlocal information consumers for marketing their products. The digital technology has brought huge opportunities for these stations to reach out to a wider audience beyond the coverage within 10-15 km radius which needs to be leveraged with multilingual multimedia content –in language of the community along with translated content. The procedure to obtain license for setting up Community Radio is cumbersome which needs to be simplified to encourage more universities, educational institutions, and not-for-profit organisations in northeast region to come forward to serve marginalised communities through this unique mass media. Northeast being a region of over 200 different language and dialect speakers, the role of community radio is huge. State Governments in the supporting financial supports to educational institutions and NGOs to strengthen the Community Radio movement can a go a long way in facilitating participation of smaller communities in development discourse. It will also reduce the sense of alienation of communities living in remote and borderland areas as they will get the space to showcase their talent and potential. The Central and the state governments playing pro-active roles is essential to spread the Community Radio movement to every nook and corner of the region.