Tribal Community Radio Station to go on air at Bhabhra on July 23

A Tribal community Radio Station will go on air at Bhabhara (Alirajpur district) in Madhya Pradesh. The radio station set up with the assistance of Vanya and Tribal Welfare Department will broadcast programmes in 'Bhili' dialect by tribals. The Bhabhra Radio Station will broadcast programmes for two hours daily, which can be heard at 90.4 megahertz frequency within 20 km radius. The radio station will be run by the local tribal community.

More at : http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=64225

Related Links :

First Tribal Radio Centre Of World To Be Launched At Bhabra On July 23
http://www.mpinfo.org/mpinfonew/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=110719N24&flag1=1

First Tribal Community Radio Station to go on air at Bhabhra on July 23
http://www.mpinfo.org/mpinfonew/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=110721N9&flag1=1

Madhya Pradesh tribals can now hear radio in their dialects
http://www.mpinfo.org/mpinfonew/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=110722N16&flag1=1

Vanya Radio Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=707Jn8o3-gQ

Sajan Venniyoor comments :

First things first: this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the "first tribal community radio station" in the world. It is probably not even the first in India. There are literally hundreds of tribal community radio stations in Latin America and North America, in New Zealand, Australia, PNG and the Asia Pacific in general, and no doubt dozens more in East Asia.

Secondly, this is not a community radio station. It is owned and run by Vanya (a govt-run 'society') and the Tribal Welfare Dept. of Madhya Pradesh. As one can see from the YouTube video, it seems to be run entirely by non-tribals. The announcer speaks chaste Hindi. The station starts the day's broadcast with 'Vande Mataram', that well known tribal song.

It is commendable that at least some of the programmes broadcast by Vanya Radio are in Bhili, a tribal dialect, but that does not make it a tribal radio station. AIR broadcasts in dozens of tribal dialects in central India and in the North East, where it also runs five 'community radio stations'.
That does not make AIR a tribal or community broadcaster.

According to the news story, "the radio station will play an important role in disseminating information about various welfare schemes". That is what state-run radio stations do. AIR has done that for nearly 65 years now, at immense expense, without any marked success.

(Sajan Venniyoor via cr-india list)
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