Monday, March 20, 2006

Rural Indian been running a radio station and seeking help

According to this news:

Everyone is hooked to Raghav Station in a dusty village in the eastern Bihar, one of India's most backward and impoverished states. The radio station, hugely popular with the residents of Mansoorpur - a non-descript village in Muzaffarpur district, is the brainchild of a local youth Raghav Kumar.

Twenty-two-year-old Kumar, a self-taught radio mechanic, can hardly read and write, but all the programmes on his radio station have struck a chord with the local residents for the past three years. Kumar's passion for doing something creative and unique has remained undeterred by his illiteracy and poverty.

Kumar has ingeniously fitted his transmission kit - a box strung to antenna to a bamboo pole connecting at least three tape-recorders in his thatched-roof repair shop stacked with over 200 audio tapes and electronic appliances. The station plays folk songs and popular Bollywood music. It also broadcasts public interest messages on polio and HIV on requests from social organisations - all without charging a single penny.

The station's popularity has clearly given other FM channels a run for their money within the 15 km radius of Kumar's shop. Everyone listens to the Raghav Station. We take the radio along when we go to work in our fields and listen to the songs while working. Our families also listen to the songs, says Ram Prasad Bhagat, a villager.

The indigenous radio station, however, has yet to find favour from the government, as it has no statutory licence to run such a station. Kumar says with his meagrely monthly income of 2000 rupees (US dollars 45), he cannot pay the registration fees. Kumar seeks government aid to help him register his station and to acquire some advanced equipment to transmit the radio waves to a greater distance.

3 comments:

Goli said...

Hi,
Everytime I come to your blog I find interesting story. I really liked this story. Do you know of any other radio initiative in India?

Malapati Raja Sekhar said...

@Goli,

I don't have your e-mail id.


A related website to this blogpost: http://www.broadcastyourpodcast.com/

princessshagun said...

You are doing good work by communication the development happening in rural India. Great initiative.