Capacity Building Workshop on Community Radio - Tool for Community Development in India

A one day capacity building workshop on using Community Radio as a tool of Community Development was organized by CEMCA in collaboration with Tamilnadu Open University, Chennai at TNOU, Chennai on 1 st November 2019.

The workshop was attended by 42 participants from the community radio stations in 5 states and one union territory. The states were Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Telangana and Pondicherry. The workshop was inaugurated by Professor K. Parthasarathy, Vice Chancellor of TNOU, Chennai.

The objective of the workshop was to sensitize the CR stations to exploit/utilise the possibilities of CR medium for education and to share the possibility of imparting various skills through CR.

The participants were trained to effectively use Community Radio to impart education and Vocational skills. The participants were given an insight on the following topics - Status of CR in India with specific reference to South Zone, Imparting Education through CR, CEMCA’s REL - Course & its Implementation , Documenting CR Innovative Practices and enhancing Local Skills.

The Resource persons constituted three experts -Dr. I Arul Aram, Professor in Media Science from Anna University along with Ms. Pinky Chandran, CR practitioner from Radio Active, Bangalore and Ms. Meera Rajagopalan, Managing Editor, iMPACT magazine, Chennai. The experts interacted with the participants encouraging them to embrace new technologies, introduce creative program ideas, redefine participatory engagement process, increase innovative partnership while imparting education and vocational skills.

Mrs. Shirley Deepak, Programme officer, CEMCA spoke on the need for documentation in CR and the various ways to document CR Innovative Practices. She insisted on importance of publishing Annual Reports and Newsletters and the need for Maintaining Experts list, Log Book ,Feedback Letters and the list of Registered Listeners.

The participants were divided into six groups. They were asked to come up with ideas on CR and Skill Development both at the individual level and the state level. Each group presented their ideas.

The outcome of this one-day capacity building workshop was that CEMCA can create a repository to enhance content/programme sharing between CR stations which in turn will help in archiving. CEMCA can continue to play its role in facilitating CLP which includes capacity building and mentoring.