Success story of Nityananda Janavani 91. 2 FM, Purulia
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Kolkata, – Community-based media has proven potential for influence behaviors and practices, C4D (Correction. For development) supports media innovations for social and behavioral development. If this is the case, C4D UNICEF India Country Office (ICO) has been strategically assisting local communities and their platform for rT1 $ to plar) and implementing Community Radio (CRs) in different parts of India, especially foCU5jrog on marginalised and hard – to – reach communities. Support for setting up sustainable CRs has beer) fr) air) interest of UNICEF. Nityananda Janavani 91. 2 FM: Based on the community need assessment in the year 2010, UNICEF Office for West Bengal initiated support for establishing a CR at Laulara Village of Puncha Block in Purulia District. Purchase block has 24. 74% of tribal population and scheduled castes are 14. 54%. Language is one of the most critical considerations for communication; Santhali is the main tribal language in this block, Bengali is spoken by majority; Kurmali and other dialects are also spoken in this area. MANT (Manbhurr Ananda Ashraf Nitayananda Trust), a local NGO, was selected to facilitate coordination and training of members of the local corrnurity setting up their CR. Local Community Radio Station Management Corrittee (CRSMC) and dedicated community volunteers are the backbone of any CR. CRSMC and community volunteers together in Laulara decided to name this CR as “Nityanando JanqvQni 91. 2 FM”. Drishti and Ideo5ync Media Combire, the Ahmedabad and Faridabad based technical agencies, respectively, played important roles in providing technical support for planning, radio licensing application processing installation of hardware, and most importantly training of CRSMC and community volunteers for effective and efficient management of Nityananda. JarlaVal. Nityananda Janavani volunteers have created a robust bank of radio episodes. The CRSMC and volunteers are maintaining the operation of this CR for the last three years without any financial support fror) UNICEF. The | The required resources for its operations are being locally mobilised and managed. Nityananda Janavani is an ideal type of media innovation that has sustained a decade and gaining popularity among its target audiences in and around Puncha Block. Besides, its programs in local languages like Santhali and Kurmali through web-based broadcast and mobile applications are reaching out to a larger audience not only in other parts of India but also in other countries. At present there are about 1, 50, 000 audiences receiving Nityananda Janavani 91. 2 FM. Process Documentation: UNICEF has supported a document of key factors, inputs and processes that are responsible for sustaining Nityananda Janavani and its growing popularity. The documentation is now ready which has brought out some very important insights on the challenges and opportunities used by the Nityananda Janavani team to ensure local communities ‘participate in every aspect of it and take over the responsibility of radio programs’ production, broadcast, feedback collection and Continuous improvement in the programs’ quality and quantity. The insights are so important that they must be shared with the media and partners who have already planned and or planned similar CRs, so they are benefited from the experiences of Nityananda Janavani’s successful sustenance. The event will also be attended by local tribal community volunteers who are behind the main actors and success stories and media is expected to take a lot of interest in direct interaction with those volunteers and write media stories on the same wider spread of such media, Dhagra – Dhaara is an initiative taken by UNICEF ICO for the knowledge management of various innovations supported by its C4D program for social and behavioral change.