Who's Afraid of Radio in India?-Frederick Noronha calls for more public-interest broadcasting- January 2001:

Who's Afraid of Radio in India?

Frederick Noronha calls for more public-interest broadcasting

January 2001: India, the "world's largest democracy", still fears opening up its airwaves to the common man. This country's democratic traditions are far stronger, yet countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka and perhaps even Bangladesh are edging past their far-larger neighbour in making radio relevant to their citizens. India's reluctant march towards democratizing radio makes the intentions of its rulers suspect.

Broadcasting in India is speedily shifting its profile. Indian radio is currently changing from a government monopoly to highly commercialized broadcasting. But this media needs to be democratized too. Privatization and total deregulation will not mean much to the average citizen if radio fails to get a chance to play a vital role in their lives. India has so far clearly given step-motherly treatment to public service, community, educational and development broadcast networks.

Airwaves are the people's property:

Over five years back, the Indian Supreme Court delivered an interesting ruling. Strongly criticizing the long-held government monopoly over broadcasting, India's apex court declared the airwaves as public property, to be utilized for promoting public good and ventilating a plurality of views, opinions and ideas. This judgment rightly noted that Indian broadcasting was being governed by archaic laws. The Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 was meant for a different purpose altogether. When it was enacted, there was neither radio nor television, but both these concepts were later sought to be fitted into the definition of "telegraph".

In view of this, the judges instructed the Indian federal government to "take immediate steps to establish an independent autonomous public authority representative of all sections and interests in the society to control and regulate the use of the airwaves".

What has the official response been?

Reluctantly, the state-controlled All India Radio was given some level of 'autonomy'. For the most part, this meant that the organisation would have to concentrate on earning revenues, and foot a growing part of its own bill. Further, the government is currently opening up commercial slots to business houses that pay millions in license fees. But how open is open? Can the diversity of a country of one billion be reflected by a little over two-dozen companies, broadcasting mainly entertainment programmes from 40 cities across urban India?

For decades, India's radio stations have been centralized, government controlled, over-dependent on relays and lacking in editorial independence. In recent years, a small number of citizens' groups across India have been pushing for something very different, through the community radio model. India could well benefit from the creation of a three-tier system of broadcasting in the country: a state-owned public service network (existing framework); commercial private broadcasting; and non-profit, people-owned and managed community radio stations.

Permission for low-cost community radio has long been on the cards. But while dozens of FM (frequency modulation) radio stations are currently being set up by the private sector, the rules for setting up non-profit stations are yet to be framed. Even educational institutions and universities -- ranging from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to the prominent educational institution Shantiniketan (founded by Indian Nobel laureate late Rabindranath Tagore), the National Law School University of India and Jamia Milia -- have been waiting to reach out via the airwaves. Non-profit and development organisations have been lobbying for more than five years to get permission to broadcast information that could make a difference to the lives of the 'information poor'.

Elsewhere, the record is better. Despite an unhelpful attitude by the government, Nepal's Radio Sagarmatha, is run by a body of environmental journalists. This is unusual in a subcontinent where radio has so far been tightly government-controlled. "In Sri Lanka, we are using a community radio station in Kotmale to find information on the Internet, which readers ask for via phone or post. This helps simple villagers to get access to the information superhighway too," University of Colombo journalism lecturer Michael J.R. David said during a recent visit to India. He is the project leader of the Kotmale community radio station, which took off in May 1999 but is already being studied worldwide as an innovative experiment in development communication. Bazlur Rahman of the Bangladesh Coastal NGOs Network for Radio and Communication says that Dhaka is expected to license non-profit radio for community groups in 2001.

India's state-owned All India Radio (AIR) had set up a string of local radio stations some years ago. But these have done little in playing their intended role. Prominent Indian technocrat H.T. Chowdary said recently, "On FM, the bandwidth permits a very large number of low-powered radio transmitters. There can be up to 5,000 FM stations, roughly the same number as tehsils (district sub-divisions) in India." Today, it is technically and economically feasible to set up hundreds, if not thousands, of low-powered FM radio stations across the country. These would not interfere with one another. What is lacking are the government laws to permit this, and the political will to allow radio to play its role in a country like India.

But some interesting developments are already underway.

For instance, Vikas Markanday and Dayal Singh of Rohtak in Haryana in North India, both aged 21, have assembled a low-cost FM radio transmitter that they hope will spread useful information that could make a vital difference to the lives of villagers, including on agricultural practices. "Such a type of radio can play a vital role in low-cost communication. Rural developmental issues can be taken up. Illiteracy (bottlenecks) can be overcome. Farmers in the field could easily be given the information inputs they need," says Markanday. Their 12-kg transmitter fits into a briefcase, and has a range of 10 to 15 km radius.

Media advocacy groups have been pressing for licenses to be given to universities (particularly agricultural universities, medical institutions, adult and legal literacy organisations), registered cooperatives, women's cooperatives and suitable public bodies. India's middle classes seem to have re-discovered radio -- with the FM boom -- in the nineties. But for the bulk of the citizens of this country, radio is virtually the only electronic gadget they can afford. There's no medium other than radio that can offer relevant, local information, provided it is aptly utilised. Keeping that underutilized, if not gagged, makes no sense.

Frederick Noronha

January 2001