Community Radio Awareness Consultation from March 16-18,2013 at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

Community Radio Awareness Consultation at Dharamshala

New Delhi 20/03/2013:  Last in the series  of  three Community Radio Awareness Consultations organized on behalf of  the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB),  the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) conducted the workshop  from March 16-18, 2013 in  the scenic foot hills of the Himalayas at the Asian Health Resort, Dharamshala.

Thirty one participants mostly from civil society organisations and a few from educational and agricultural institutions from the states for Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand attended the three-day event.  A team of four academics from  Central University of  Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) who propose to set-up a community radio station  participated enthusiastically in the event. Speaking at the inaugural session,  Dr. Arbind Jha, Dean, Department of Education ( CUHP) underscored the importance of reaching out to community through education and the need  for educational institutions to offer courses relevant to community needs.  Over three days participants discussed issues of licensing, and the process of setting up a community radio station.  Lively discussions with representatives of four  operational CR stations namely Tashi Delak (Dharamshala) ;  Hevalvani (Chamba, Uttarakhand) , Hamara CR (Solan, Himachal Pradesh) and Jyotirgamaya (Chandigarh) gave participants an opportunity  to understand practical challenges that arise while setting up and running CR and how these are addressed.   A demo of transmission was arranged by Broadcast Engineers Consultants India Limited (BECIL) where participants tried their skills at live-broadcasting and heard the broadcast through mobile telephones at a pre-set frequency.  Another highlight of the consultation was a visit to a local CRS, Tashi Delak that is set-up by the Tibetan Village School. This gave participants a chance to see a cost effective, environment friendly set-up optimising the locational advantage as well as interact with Tibetan community.

The workshop ended with high level of enthusiasm and interest amongst the participants, with twenty (two-third) participants giving an expression of interest for setting up a community radio station in their region.