The Community Radio Video Challenge (CRVC) is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), New Delhi, to engage the Indian youth in CR and promote understanding and importance of CR as an alternative media for community’s self-expression, learning and development.
CEMCA has been working to promote the use of CR in learning for development since 2006. CEMCA has organized more than 50 workshops in the past to create awareness about CR. UNESCO also recognizes that the presence of CR is a sign of media pluralism, diversity of content, and the representation of a society’s different groups and interests. CR encourages open dialogue, local transparency and a voice to the voiceless. UNESCO’s CR initiatives have focused on: (a) policy development to promote a free and open environment for CR; (b) empowering community members to publicly express opinion, debate issues, act as citizen journalists, and become producers of media content; and (c) encouraging technological innovation in the CR space. The UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) has been promoting the use and establishment of low-cost media, including CR stations for the past several years.
CEMCA and UNESCO has been conducting Community Radio Video Challenge (CRVC) for learners (of any discipline) below the age of 25 years for the past 7 years. The following is the list of themes covered so far
YEAR |
THEME |
CRVC 2014 |
Why Community Radio Matters? |
CRVC 2015 |
Citizen’s Voices, Empowering Societies |
CRVC 2016 |
Addressing Disasters, Saving Lives |
CRVC 2017 |
Community Radio for Sustainable Development |
CRVC 2018 |
Community Radio for Women Empowerment |
CRVC 2019 |
Community Radio for Climate Action |
CRVC 2020 |
Community Radio: Changing Lives |
CRVC 2021 |
Community Radio for Healthy Communities |
The competition gives students an opportunity to showcase the potential of Community Radios through the art of filmmaking.
CEMCA, in collaboration with UNESCO New Delhi, is planning to conduct its eighth edition of Community Radio Video Challenge.
The theme for CRVC 2021 will be “Community Radio for Healthy Communities”, which is further divided into sub-themes. These are the sub-themes –
i) Health in New Normal;
ii) Delivering useful information and/ or misinformation;
iii) Awareness on women’s health and childcare;
iv) Emotional and Psychological wellbeing during COVID19;
v) Utilising and enhancing Community Media towards health;
vi) Learning during Pandemic
Community Radio is responsible for effective changes in people’s lives, especially in the remote, rural areas of the country. It can touch and transform the lives of the community. Community Radio can usher in change at the deepest level. It transcends the aspect of entertainment to become a part of people’s daily.
Community Radio can be very effective in the fields of health and well being. Community Radio has a unique and relatively unexplored role within the way that we transform how health and social care is developed and delivered. A conversation around sharing the stories of local people, reaching people in different ways and strengthening the voices within neighbourhoods continue.
Community Radio enables local communities to use the medium to share information and stories but in equal partnerships in health and social care who are often grappling with the challenges that working in an asset-based, community-led way present.
Community radio stations are often embedded within local communities, and being part of an active and connected community is a key enabler of health and wellbeing and has an influence on the wider social determinants of health.
Many Community Radios in the country are already making a great effort in the rural areas by affecting great changes in many fields. People are being trained in variety of skills; Community Radios, because of their very nature of being a medium of the people, by the people and for the people, are empowering the communities in skills , education, agriculture and also health sector.
By choosing this theme for the 8th CRVC, we wish to bring out true stories of successes and / or fictional stories of how Community Radios can play a role in bringing changes in the lives of people in terms of health.
Short films on the mentioned topic will be invited from students of any discipline. The acceptable entries will be evaluated by a distinguished jury. The winning films will receive awards and the filmmakers will be felicitated at a ceremony organized by CEMCA in collaboration with UNESCO New Delhi. In addition to this all the award winners and 10 participating student filmmakers, on first come first serve basis will get an opportunity to participate in a One day workshop on “Documentary Filmmaking” free of cost, organized by CEMCA in collaboration with UNESCO New Delhi.
The length of the film submitted for the competition will be between 3 minutes to 5 minutes in duration. The film can be in any language. Films in any language other than English should have proper English subtitles.
There are eight awards for the competition as follows:
Please read the following document to understand the terms and conditions of the contest. Participants in the competition will have to download the document, and submit it along with the script of the video to CEMCA. No submission will be considered for the award without this documentation.
Community Radio (CR) is said to be a medium by the people, for the people and of the people. It has emerged as a low-cost alternate to the mainstream media in the age of Internet to create opportunity for the marginalized and disadvantaged groups of people in remote parts of the country to participate in the development process. In various parts of the world, CR has played significant role in enabling participation of communities in local governance and decision-making, preserving local languages and cultures, and increasing access to better learning opportunities for the oppressed. The right to express one's thoughts and to communicate freely with others affirms the dignity and worth of each and every member of society, and allows each individual to realize his or her full human potential. As of April 2013, there are 148 operational CR stations, operating under the “Policy Guidelines for setting up Community Radio Stations in India” issued in 2006 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Since the release of the policy, it is anticipated that India would have 4000-5000 CR stations. Currently there are over 800 applications at various stages of the licensing process. Free speech and freedom of expression are the raison d’être of CR anywhere in the world and they are going well beyond their mandates to do so in India.
The CR Video Challenge (CRVC) is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), New Delhi, to engage the Indian youth in CR and promote understanding and importance of CR as an alternative media for community’s self-expression, learning and development. CEMCA has been working to promote the use of CR in learning for development since 2006. CEMCA has organized over 30 workshops in the past to create awareness about CR, and runs a help-desk entitled “CEMCA Community Radio Facilitation Centre” to support new applicants and serve as a clearing house for information on CR. UNESCO recognizes that the presence of CR is a sign of media pluralism, diversity of content, and the representation of a society’s different groups and interests. CR encourages open dialogue, local transparency and a voice to the voiceless. The UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) has been promoting the use and establishment of low-cost media, including CR stations for the past several years. In 2011, UNESCO established the Community Media Chair at the University of Hyderabad, India, which is the only UNESCO chair covering the CR sector.
UNESCO proclaimed February 13 as the World Radio Day in 2011. The best videos will receive awards in a function organised by the Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC) on the World Radio Day 2014. AIMC is one of the leading media training institutes in the country, which offers Post Graduate Diplomas in Advertising, PR, Event Management, Broadcast Journalism & Production, and Web Journalism. The Institute has been ranked No 1 in the entire Delhi-NCR region in the category of private institutes by the reputed research agency Cfore and Hindustan Times.