Communication Rights and Human Rights

Ashish Sen at the 2010 AMARC Conference in Argentina:

Challenges for community radio in the 21st century: 40 principles for Plurality and Diversity

In several parts of the world Community Radio is at the crossroads. Even as communication rights are ever increasingly articulated as pillars of human development, the implications of the 40 principles for Plurality and Diversity remind us that community media/radio has a long way to traverse and has substantial challenges to address in the near future. If the Plurality and Diversity principles hold forth challenges to the current global media scape– they have particular relevance for community radio. Underlying these principles is their resonance with the fundamental importance of communication –whether perceived from the Right to Communicate and/or Communication Rights perspective.

At the base of these principles lie three cross-cutting factors: access, which provides the crux of the challenges that confront community radio today: access, inclusiveness or inclusion and equity. How can we address these?

The good news is that community radio is increasingly being perceived - irrespective of ideological contrasts - as an important player in development. This is borne out by changing legislation recognizing community radio as a part of the media landscape in more and more countries. The flip side is that the details of the legislation often indicate restrictions that also at variance with international norms and standards like the above-mentioned principles and prevent community radio from living up to their potential.

In South Asia, community radio is a recent player, but it has already begun to demonstrate the promise of social transformation. Countries like India have put a three tier media/radio structure – public, private and community in place, but have imposed a ban on news broadcasting. The Bangladesh policy is similar. Nepal has a much older and vibrant community radio tradition, but the policy does not distinguish between local and community radio blurring a distinction that compromises the potential of purpose and performance. In parts of South Asia, there is a mushroomingof hundreds of “legal” community radio stations as in countries like Indonesia, but in the absence of clear cut regulation mechanism they remain unlicensed.

There are larger and related implications. How equitable is the sharing of the spectrum – of the air waves? Airwaves have been increasingly upheld as “public property”, but the spectrum ratio is often skewed against community broadcasting in terms of cost, allocation, and access. True, there are examples to contrary especially in South America. But these are the exceptions. How can we reverse this especially in a climate of increasing media corporatisation? In many parts of the world community radio has been articulated as being a voice of the voiceless. But articulation needs to be appropriately “actioned” through enabling policies.

In several countries in Asia, there are moves to put a Broadcast Act in place. There are concerns voiced about cross media ownership. However when push comes to shove, we find that community spaces are increasingly put on the back burner. In my country the Broadcast Bill has been debated several times since the mid 1990s. It has yet to be ratified. Further, in its latest avatar, community radio is not even mentioned.

There are other challenges that need to be addressed. Attacks on Community Media/Radio journalists have also increased across the region. There are also challenges within the sector related to infrastructure, community involvement, content development and regulatory framework. Increasingly, community radio stations find themselves vulnerable to the criticism of „ngoisation.‟ On the other side of the coin, the sector to face the challenge of digitalization. The promise of digitalization is manifold. However this should not be reduced to a debate of digital versus analog, but worked through a framework and a prism of access, inclusiveness and equity.

These are complex issues which need resolution. How do we tackle the m strengthen on air diversity and pluralism?

Nearly 300 community radio practitioners, advocates and production groups who participated at the Bangalore AMARC Asia Pacific Regional Consultations in February

2010 recommended a 10 point agenda for the development of community radio in the region which are summarized below:

1. To have a distinct and clear definition of community radio;

2. To recognize community radio as a distinct sector and acknowledge its contributions to societies and communities;

3. To legitimize Community Radio/ or give it legal status;

4. To open up of the airwaves/frequencies to Community Radios, on an equitable basis: from 20 to 30 percent of frequencies;

5. To urge governments to provide financial and technical support to Community Radios ;

6. To support sustainability of Community Radios through initiatives like a community radio fund;

7. To remove unreasonable restrictions in terms of technical (power) and editorial policies such as the ban on news ;

8. To simplify licensing procedures,

9. To provide guidelines, mechanisms and funding for development, reform, research and development, and capacity building; and

10. To ensure protection of community radio journalists. These recommendations have relevance for other regions as well.

AMARC provides a unique space to amply these concerns and strengthen the voices from the margins. At AMARC 10 we need to see how we can put steps in place to ensure the journey from the precepts of the Plurality and Diversity principles to their practice

Ashish Sen, India

Grassroots Comics - A development communication tool
By Leif Packalen and Sharad Sharma

Grassroots Comics is published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in May 2007. The material for the book is complied from the experiences of World Comics Finland and World Comics India with the co-operation of many different organizations, movements and activists. The book comprises of examples of grassroots comics, practical manuals and photographs from Asia, Africa and other countries. The book has a lot of practical advice on how to go about making grassroots comics, how to organise comics workshops, etc. It has 160 pages. The complete book is available online as a pdf-file. The file can be downloaded from this website http://worldcomicsindia.com or from the Ministry's website. The file is 15 MB so it can take several minutes to download, depending on the speed of your connection.

Segment from Waves of Change: DECCAN Development Society

Eleventh Annual Mobile Biodiversity Festival flagged off

The Eleventh Annual Biodiversity Festival of the Deccan Development Society is inaugurated on January 22, 2010 in Medak District of Andhra Pradesh. The month-long festival, known the world over for its cultural vibrancy and environmental significance will travel through nearly 55 villages and will conclude on February 13, 2010. The first Biodiversity Festival of the DDS was held in 1999. Greatly buoyed up by the response it received, the Festival was made mobile from 2001. The festival generated an unprecedented energy and an enlightened awareness on the issue of biodiversity in all the villages. The Deccan Development Society was a key constituent of the National Technical and Policy Core Group for the Ministry of Environment & Forests in the massive National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan carried out all over India during 2001-2003. As part of this work, in 2001, the Society initiated the concept of a Mobile Biodiversity Festival in which bullock carts decked with traditional seeds, and carrying the message of agricultural biodiversity and its importance to farmers, travelled from village to village covering over 70 villages. This festival generated a never-before cultural energy and an informed awareness on the issues of biodiversity in all the villages. And it found resonance when the final National Biodiversity Action Plan hailed the biodiversity festivals as a tool for the promotion of agro biodiversity all over the country and recommended that the Community Gene Banks model of the DDS be adopted as a national model. Elated by this development, the Deccan Development Society has continued to celebrate the Mobile Biodiversity Festival as an annual feature. The festival which emblazons environmental spirituality is once again celebrating the return of the Sun on the auspicious Makara Sankranti day with bullock carts, folk singers and dancers, spreading abundant joy along the village roads of Medak and will dialogue with over 50,000 farmers on the issue of biodiversity, local seeds and dryland farming. The caravan started from Village Metlakunta, Nyalkal Mandal. Dr Hampaiah, Chairman, AP State Biodiversity Board & Mr Ashok Kumar Retired IAS & Member, AP State Biodiversity Board, Mr Chandrasekhar, Joint Director – Agriculture Dept., Mr Jayadevulu, Chief Executive Officer, Medak Zilla Parishad, Smt Nagamma Manikgoud, Sarpanch, Metlakunta, Mr Vilas Reddy, Former President, Mandal Praja Parishad, Nyalkal Mr Srinivas, Scientist, DATT centre, Sangareddy, Mr Viswanath Patil, Karnataka Rajya Rythu Sangha, Bidar were took part in the Inaugural Ceremony. Addressing the gathering Dr Hampaiah said APSBB decided to work with the Deccan Development Society (DDS) to protect and promote millet and other crops across the State and to organise these programmes at mandal level. DDS director P.V. Satheesh said that the programme was aimed at protecting the traditional crops which represent the culture. An eight year old girl belongs to Pastapur village Mayuri shot a film on Ratnavva, who was able to cultivate her two-acre farm in Dhanvar village without using any pesticides or getting any seed from the government. Ratnavva has been doing so for the last ten years. “We are able to identify the hidden talent in her and tried to bring it out. It will be helpful for other children also to exhibit their talent and interests,” Mr. Satheesh said. Ratnavva & Mayuri were honoured by Dr Hampaiah. Satheesh requested Joint Director Agriculture to introduce awards to farmers who grow dryland crops instead of giving to only commercial crops growers. Mr Jayadevulu, CEO of Zilla Parishad says that I have seen all these crops in my childhood days and I am very happy to see all here in your region. Now especially Ragi Ambali, the fancy name is Ragi Malt using lot of urban people because of dietary and health reasons. Four Biodiversity Conservers Cheelamamidi Laxmamma, Khasimpur Lachamma, Matoor Chandramma, Metlakunta Rajamma were honoured for their contribution to biodiversity. On this occasion Dr Hampaiah released the Millet Calendar and Millet T-shirts. The festival will culminate on 13th February 2010 at Machnoor Village of Jharasangam Mandal.

Media Matters: Participatory Communication in India

Facilitating Dialogue: http://www.mmindia.org
media matters seeks to move away from monologue, away from the use of communication resources for delivery of “key messages”. To us, groups and communities are not mere audiences. They are not passive receivers who need to be “spoon-fed” or “hammered” with information.

We believe groups and communities have the capacity to bring about and manage change.

Communication resources therefore should support such a process through reflection, exchange of knowledge, beliefs and experiences, initiating a dialogue that could lead to action. We strive to design and develop media and communication resources that create space for voices that are unheard, in local language, sharing of concerns and aspirations, critical thinking and negotiation. We seek to explore and experiment so that groups and communities can not only review and adapt the existing resources to their own context but also gain the skills to create their own area-specific and need-based communication resources.

We have had the opportunity to design and develop a wide range of communication and facilitation resources to support group and community processes, events and campaigns on children and rights, gender and participation, reproductive health as a right, HIV/AIDS and youth, adolescents and life skills, solid waste management in urban areas, male participation in reproductive health.

(The above graphic is from an exhibition by media matters-- to facilitate discussions around life skills for/with
adolescent girls.)

Part One: Interview with Lina Fruzzetti

Painting and singing stories told in scrolls (patas in Bengali) goes back to ancient times in India. For generations hereditary painter-singers (Patuas or Chitrakars) have been practicing their craft in the Midnapur district of West Bengal. In the village of Naya, 3 hours from Calcutta, many Chitrakar women have recently taken up the Patua craft.

Patuas are Muslims, and they tell the stories of Muslim saints (pirs and fakirs) as well as Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines. In the past they used to wander from village to village, receiving rice, vegetables and coins for their recital. They would unroll a scroll, a frame at a time, and sing their own compositions. But competition from other media eroded this way of life and nowadays the Patuas are trying to adapt to changing conditions.
A website about Naya and the Patuas is at http://learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/naya/intro.html
The website contains translated texts of the songs that are performed with the scrolls. This is the song about HIV/AIDS
Artist: Swarna Chitrakar
Listen, everyone, pay attention. I would like to talk about HIV AIDS
HIV came from the west & has infected hundreds in India.It is not an infectious disease. It spreads from 4 things:
Using the same syringe for addiction, using the same syringe for injection; from pregnant HIV carrier women. Or having unprotected sex with ‘infected’ women

In case these 4 things are taken care of, HIV will not occur. That is why I request the Doctors; the syringes for injection should be changed.
In case of blood transfusion, the blood has to be checked first.
If a pregnant mother carries a baby, it can be born infected.
I appeal to all Indians to use Nirodh condoms.
If anybody has AIDS, don’t keep it secret. Get admitted to the district hospital. You can test your blood in confidence paying Rs 10 in VCTC centers.

Lina Fruzzetti, a professor of anthropology at Brown University, has worked with the women of Naya. This is an interview made in her office in Providence, RI, in November 2009.
Interview Part Two Lina Fruzzetti Interview Part Three Lina Fruzzetti's page at Brown University:Within social anthropology, my specialty is in the relationship between kinship, marriage, and rituals and the meaning of the construction of gender in India. I have done extensive work on caste and the life cycle rites of Hindus; now I am addressing the recent structural changes to the institution of marriage and what constitutes the person. My research on nationalism and post colonial studies has taken me to a more comparative approach addressing the feminist movement, and the problems and politics of identity and citizenship within Islam and Hinduism. In addition to the primary research work in India, I also focus on East and North Africa communities.

My interest in visual anthropology took me beyond using films to teach. I co-directed four documentary films on varied themes and topics about the communities with which I work.

Saving the Land with Video

"The Deccan Development Society is projecting a working model for the people oriented participative development in the areas of food security, ecological agriculture, and alternate education. It is also trying to reverse the historical process of degradation of the environment and people's livelihood system in this region through a string of land related activities such as Perma-culture, Community Grain Bank, Community Gene Fund, Community Green Fund and Collective Cultivation through land Lease etc. These activities, along side taking on the role of Earth care is also resulting in human care, by giving the Women a new found dignity and profile in their village communities. The Society is trying to relocate the people's knowledge in the area of Health and Agriculture."

The Deccan women's video workshops have active for over ten years. Deep Dish commissioned the women to update the documentary that they had made about their work in 1998. These are some excerpts from that initial documentary and statements by recent participants. Now, more than ever, the work they are doing is important. Their tapes of saving local seeds and their documents of biodiversity are crucially important in an era when "Free Trade" regulations are imposing corporate farming practices in rural India.

"The Deccan Development Society (DDS), is a two-decade old grassroots organization working in about 75 villages with women’s Sanghams (voluntary village level associations of the poor) in Medak District of Andhra Pradesh. The 5000 women members of the Society represent the poorest of the poor in their village communities. Most of them are dalits, the lowest group in the Indian social hierarchy. In 2001, the video and radio women formed themselves into a rural women’s media collective known as the DDS Community Media Trust which includes their own radio station. The DDS FM Radio is five year old and has canned nearly five hundred hours of programmes.

They predominantly work with issues like agricultural needs of semi-arid regions, education and literacy, public health and hygiene, environmental and ecological issues, biodiversity and food security, gender justice, local/indigenous knowledge systems and emphasis on traditional folk culture. The Community Media Trust (CMT) has an active community video and radio unit. They have been producing audios and videos for the past six years now. The radio station is very keen on a participative approach to media. Independent registration of the CMT validates that the station is moving towards self sustainability, community management and ownership. The content produced by the media trust reflects community needs by creating awareness and by promoting community participation."

For a photo essay about the Deccan work, go to the article by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron at: http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/photogallery.php?id=390

The Singing Painters of Naya

CLICK ON THE PAINTINGS TO SEE DETAIL

Painting and singing stories told in scrolls (patas in Bengali) goes back to ancient times in India. For generations hereditary painter-singers (Patuas or Chitrakars) have been practicing their craft in the Midnapur district of West Bengal. This website introduces the viewer to the village of Naya, 3 hours from Calcutta, where many Chitrakar women have recently taken up the Patua craft.

Patuas are Muslims, and they tell the stories of Muslim saints (pirs and fakirs) as well as Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines. In the past they used to wander from village to village, receiving rice, vegetables and coins for their recital. They would unroll a scroll, a frame at a time, and sing their own compositions. But competition from other media eroded this way of life and nowadays the Patuas are trying to adapt to changing conditions.

Recently the Chitrakar women of Naya village formed a scroll painters’ cooperative. Anthropologists/filmmakers Lina Fruzzetti, Akos Ostor and Aditi Nath Sarkar have directed a film Singing Pictures about the women artists lives and work.
The exhibition web site:
http://learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/naya/intro.html



COMMENTARIES
HIV / AIDS
Dimensions (cm): 284 x 56
Artist/Singer: Swarna Chitrakar

Listen, everyone, pay attention. I would like to talk about HIV AIDS
HIV came from the west & has infected hundreds in India.

It is not an infectious disease. It spreads from 4 things:
Using the same syringe for addiction, using the same syringe for injection; from pregnant HIV carrier women. Or having unprotected sex with ‘infected’ women

In case these 4 things are taken care of, HIV will not occur. That is why I request the Doctors; the syringes for injection should be changed.

In case of blood transfusion, the blood has to be checked first.

If a pregnant mother carries a baby, it can be born infected.

I appeal to all Indians to use Nirodh condoms.

If anybody has AIDS, don’t keep it secret. Get admitted to the district hospital. You can test your blood in confidence paying Rs 10 in VCTC centers.


Scroll Painting: Bin Laden – 11 September, Santal life
(The beginning image is of the two planes and the WTC)
Artist: Lutfa Chitrakar

My name is Lufta, and I was born in Banpura—although my parental home is in Paskura. My grandmother took me and my sister away from my parents at a very young age. My parents had divorced each other and were in no position to care for us. And although my grandmother was poor, she managed to struggle to provide milk, barley, sago and rice to nurture us. Later, my mother remarried and took my sister away from me and my grandmother. I suppose that in that way I had a fractured childhood without a traditional family.

After I grew a little older, I told her I wanted to live with my father. By then, he had married a woman and settled in a community called Tata. After I left my grandmother, I met a distant cousin of mine who also lived in Tata, and he took me to my father. I stayed in my father’s home for about six months and learned about him and the life that he had built for himself. He had a large plot of farming land, and he cultivated it year-round by farming rice, potatoes and wheat during their respective seasons. Sadly, while I lived with him, my step-mother used to abuse me to the point of torture. She would make me work all day without time to rest or eat—as if I were an animal. She would command me to sow seeds when it was time for rice crops; she’d make me haul bales of hay everywhere. During the potato season, she’d send me to gather potatoes from the field. Then she would ask me to work in the fields to harvest nuts, and I would have to turn over all of my harvest to her. Beyond working on my father’s land, I would sow potato seeds and till the fields that belonged to other members of the community. So much work! And yet I could never satisfy her despite my hard work. The abuse and enslavement was so horrible that I considered returning to my grandmother’s home. I told my cousin who had brought me there one day that I was sick of staying there, and he helped me to escape and return to my grandmother. Before I left Tata, my grandmother heard of my troubles and came to my father to take me home. She was so old at that point but loved me so much and it seemed as if she would do anything to ensure my welfare.

She told me one day that she wasn’t able to feed me anymore, and I would have to work as well. She put me to work as a maid in a neighbor’s home. I had to wash dishes, clothes, sweep, and clean the cowshed there. I was able to get a couple of meals everyday, torn clothes to wear, and a little bit of money. One day, my grandmother suddenly showed up at the home where I was working. I asked her if something had happened, and she told me that she had arranged my marriage. I explained to her that I couldn’t marry just yet—I was so young! And when I refused, she explained to me that she was so old, and that she didn’t want to die without making sure I was married. She told me no one else would care enough about me to make sure that I got married. So, with that, I couldn’t refuse. After all, she was the wom an that had dedicated herself to raising me. So I married when I was about fifteen years old. Soon after, I had two sons and a daughter.

As far as scroll painting and singing went, my husband taught me a great deal. In the beginning he didn’t want to, though. He had a tremendous objection to my going out to paint or sing. One time, the opportunity arose for me to participate in a program in Calcutta. The fair there dealt with various diseases like malaria, HIV, typhoid, and others, and their prevention. I was asked to sing, but my husband didn’t allow me to go. At the time, he rationalized his restriction by saying that we hardly knew anything about scroll painting and singing. He told me that I shouldn’t exert myself and make such an effort by traveling such a distance. So I stayed at home, and looking back on it, I regret passing up the opportunity.But I joined the training center and learned to paint and sing in the women’s committee. The members of the women’s committee would go everywhere to participate in fairs, paint scrolls, show them, sing songs, and their husbands always cooperated with them—they would never stop their wives. But I’ve never had the opportunity to learn the songs that the committee women sing or to paint the scrolls that they make because my husband won’t allow me to go anywhere. He and I started off very poor, but now we are managing. Both of us sing and paint scrolls—he has softened a lot and allowed me to participate from time to time. He goes to other villages to make money by showing our scrolls and singing. I don’t go out too much, but we share what he makes. I do wish that I had the freedoms that other women in the committee have, but I suppose I understand my husband’s reasoning for limiting my participation.

CREDITS FOR EXHIBITION AND WEB SITE: http://learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/naya/intro.html
This site was developed in conjunction with the exhibit Singing Pictures: Art and Performance of Naya's Women, which opens July 5th 2007. Special thanks to the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon, Portugal for their involvement with the exhibit, which opened from 5 July 2007 through 6 January 2008.
Ákos Östör, Professor of Anthropology & Film Studies, Wesleyan University
Lina Fruzzetti, Professor of Anthropology, Brown University
Special thanks to Aditi Nath Sarkar* for his contributions from long-term fieldwork in Naya Village.
Graphics / Coding – Jason Lalor

A Book about Story Scrolls in Bengal: Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal (Paperback)
by Frank J. Korom (Author), Paul J. Smutko (Photographer)

Short Rough Preview of Waves of Change

Students in India Take to the Airwaves

From India Times: Campus radio has students hooked 8 Nov, 2007, 1637 hrs IST,Shreya Biswas, TNN
NEW DELHI: It's time to tune in folks! Ever since the government announced revised guidelines on community radio service (CRS), hordes of educational institutes and universities are hitting the air waves with their own versions of FM radio. While FM radio service by some premier universities such as Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi, University of Agricultural Sciences and Holy Cross College in the south have already gone on air, scores of others are planning to jump on to the bandwagon including IIT-Kanpur. There are others such as IIM-Kozikhode and Lucknow that have chosen to launch Internet radio, a students only initiative to provide a live and interactive platform their community. While IIM-K's K-dio is already
operational, IIM-L is plans go live shortly.

In the last one year alone around 10 campus radio stations across the country have become operational. "The CRS initiative didn't get as much response initially and institutes were reluctant to sign on due to some infrastructural issues," says M V Vijayan, under-secretary, FM, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. "However, in the last one year, after the announcement of revised guidelines, they are responding well and institutions who stayed back due to lack of awareness are now coming forward."

Delhi University's campus radio, launched last month, has already got the students hooked. There have been three auditions for the various programmes and students create the content. While the number of students for the initial auditions was a mere 20-25, the fourth audition has attracted close to 100 applicants. "Almost 50% of the content will be for the students and the issues they are attached to and the rest will be for the community around the campus," says Vijaylakshmi Sinha, head of the project for DU and former director-general, AIR. She adds that the response has been "great".

The programmes are of general interest like girls' safety or academic like career counselling besides softer genre programmes on junk jewellery, eating jaunts, music and discussions. That's exactly what the community radio initiative is aimed at, providing the students or the community an interactive platform to reach out to each other, discuss issues of common interest and provide a platform to develop talent.

IIT-Kanpur, which plans to come up with its own community radio by next March, wants to reach out to the community around the college besides the students. There are plans to air programmes on agricultural research, newer technologies and topics of general interest. "By March next year, the studio would be operational. It will operate within a radius of 15km, reaching out to the students and the people around the campus and addressing topics of their interest." says Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT-K.

Till now, competition from FM channel and limited reach has restricted the success of such community radio to a few. Pune University's Vigyaan Vaani launched in 2005 is a case in point. The channel is received within a radius of 7km of the assigned 10km while majority of its target audience is in the centre of the city. Obviously, they can't be reached. Besides, the huge
competition from FM channels has also been a cause of concern. "Unless we can reach out to more students and people, no one will know the utility of such an effort," says Anand Deshmukh, director, Vidya Vaani. "Though there have been efforts to make it interesting, the efforts are noticed only if you reach out to them. What we have now done is to put up the programmes on the website of the channel so that it is accessible." The channel airs various programmes on issues related to student community, general interest and music where students perform. This, the institutes feel is a good way to nurture talent and give them an opportunity to connect with their immediate neighbours and come up with ideas for problem solution.