Thanks Sajan for posting this so soon. For anyone interested in how the story
appeared with the photographs, do check the Hindustan Times epaper's Metro page
7. The link is: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/
Everyone in the CR network is invited to join us on February 25th at 11 am to
celebrate three months of broadcasting. We could not have done this without the
unstinting help and support of so many people, especially N. Ramakrishnan and
Venu Arora of Ideosync Media Combine, Hemant Babu of Nomad, Dr Sridhar of Cemca
(in the application stage), and of course Sajan you too, for constantly putting
us in touch with the all sorts of resource people.
Warm regards
Arti
Arti Jaiman
Project Manager: TRF Radio | a...@trfindia.org | www.trfindia.org |
www.jaiman.org | www.pitara.com
________________________________
From: sajan venniyoor <venniy...@gmail.com>
To: CR India <cr-india@sarai.net>
Sent: Thu, 11 February, 2010 8:13:52 AM
Subject: [cr-india] 'Hello, Gurgaon! City’s other half speaking' (press story
on 'Gurgaon ki Awaaz' CRS)
Hello, Gurgaon! City’s other half speaking
Sanjeev K Ahuja, Hindustan Times, 11 Feb 2010
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/haryana/Hello-Gurgaon-City-s-other-half-speaking/Article1-507525.aspx
Amrit Beriwal, 23, had little hope of getting an employment till recently.
A school dropout from Sarai Alalwardi village near New Palam Vihar in Gurgaon,
Haryana, he had been wandering no regular income till he joined Gurgaon’s local
FM radio station.
Now, he works as a reporter with the radio station and is all set to get
married on February 16.
“My parents are happy that I work with a radio station and do all sorts of jobs
that a professional reporters do,” said Beriwal.
Gurgaon ki Awaaz is that and much more for the people of Gurgaon who went
unheard till now.
At 107.8 MHz, the low-cost round the clock FM radio station broadcasts folk
songs, bhajans, group chats and other programmes recorded on field or at the
studio by the local folks.
For people like Beriwal — women, school dropouts, college students and folk
artists —it is an opportunity to earn fame and identity.
Sharmila Devi, an associate with St. Stephen’s Hospital, was unheard of till
last November.
The wife of a farmer and mother of three children, she now knows editing and
recording and has walked from one village to another village to reach the
underprivileged women and children.
She interviews village people, musicians and women and records cultural
programmes for the radio.
The station is being supported by The Restoring Force (TRF), an NGO that works
in government schools of Gurgaon district in the area of infrastructure
enhancement and career counseling.
“We are into round-the-clock broadcasting to a community that has remained
voiceless throughout the transformation of Gurgaon from a sleepy cluster of
villages 20 years ago to Millennium City,” said Arti Jaiman, the project
manager of TRF.
“It is the only civil society-led community radio station in the National
Capital Region and provides a platform to the marginalised, especially
communities living in villages for whom the gloss and glamour of malls and
glass-fronted office buildings is simply a testament of the uneven development
that has taken place in this town,” said Jaiman.
The radio station is run in a two room station-cum-studio. The walls of the
studio are covered with egg-trays to make them echo-proof. It covers villages
in 12 km of radius.
Brij Mohan Vaish, founder-president of TRF, said: “The community radio takes
our career counselling initiatives to thousands of children whom we cannot
reach otherwise.”
“The radio promises to be a powerful medium for the local community to voice
its own needs and desires, and raise questions about issues that most affect
their lives.”
“If TRF can achieve this, then I would consider our community radio project a
success,” he said.
The Community Radio Forum's Annual Meeting will be held in Bangalore on 19
February 2010.
