Orientation Workshop on Science for Women’s Health and Nutrition
Orientation Workshop on Science for Women’s Health and Nutrition
New Delhi, May 2, 2015: An orientation workshop on Science for Women’s Health and Nutrition (SFWHN) was organized by the National Council of Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India in collaboration with Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi on April 30 and May 01, 2015. CEMCA Director, Dr. Ramesh Sharma in his welcome speech explained the activities of CEMCA. Dr. Ankuran Dutta, Programme Officer (CEMCA), highlighted the agenda of the programme and congratulated the NCSTC and community radio stake holders on the completion of 10 years of the project. Dr. R. Sreedher, former Director, CEMCA delivered his remarks on the project and gave a road map on SFWHN. He reiterated the pivotal role rendered by community radios in empowering indigenous women folks at the grassroots level. Ms. Ujjawala Tirkey, Scientist ‘F’ of NCSTC gave details of the project and enumerated the activities of the NCSTC and DST with the community radio stations of India. She praised CEMCA for initiating such programme as it brings the two organisations under one pedestal working together for the development of community radio. As many as 13 community radio representatives across India were present at the orientation workshop having their action plan to implement the project.
The orientation laid greater focus on topics like, history and the present scenario of CR, baseline studies and content development, and capacity building. Ms. D. Rukmini Vemraju, Ms. Shirley Deepak, and Ms. Jayalakshmi Chittoor made presentations on the baseline study and content development. In the workshop representatives from Community Radio Association and Media for Community Foundation discussed about the capacity building of the community radio stations for the SFWHN. Ms. Lalita and Ms. Shanta Koshti, representatives from two community radio stations, Hamara MSPICM, Solan and Rudi No Radio, Ahmedabad shared their experiences with community radio stations and how it does run smoothly. In the last session of the first day of the orientation programme, Ms. Tirkey, Dr. Sreedher and Ms. Vemraju explained about the financial accounting of the project, where queries from the stations regarding the management of accounts were replied to.
On the second day of the workshop, all the 13 community radio stations gave presentations on their action plan for the implementation of the project followed by the discussion on the implementation issues by Ms. Tirkey, Dr. Sreedher and Ms. Vemraju. At the end of the workshop a short film by CEMCA on the SFWHN was screened. Director CEMCA Dr Sharma thanked all the participants, experts and the NCSTC for the initiative and Dr. Dutta summarised the activities of the workshop with a formal vote of thanks.
