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Monday, February 02, 2009 (11:45:07) |
| Tags : FM radio, Bollywood hits, chartbusters, programme, started, FM rainbow, Right to Information, RTI |
RTI query? Tune into FM radio |
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| New Delhi: You usually tune into FM radio for Bollywood hits and chartbusters. Now you have one reason more. Tune into the weekly programme that recently started on FM-rainbow (102.6 mhz) and have your queries on the Right to Information (RTI) Act answered.
The hour-long weekly show has been started by a non-governmental organisation, Kabir. The NGO has been working on the issue of RTI for several years.
The programme is aired at 5 p.m. every on Sunday. The first episode went on air Jan 4.
Asked what prompted it to start such a programme, Neeraj Kumar of Kabir said the idea struck them when a radio producer approached them for making one-minute advertisements on RTI.
"A few months ago, a radio producer approached us. He wanted us to make one-minute advertisements on RTI for radio channels. It was then that this idea struck us," Kumar said.
"Our RTI campaign is already going on through television channels, newspapers and through mouth to mouth publicity. We have also made several small films on RTI. So we thought we could also have a radio programme to make people aware of the issue," Kumar said.
"All of us then brainstormed and finally decided to start the programme. The response since our first episode has been fabulous and is increasing," he added.
The NGO had first bought the slots for three months and is now planning to buy slots for the rest of 2009.
Besides Delhi, the programme is being relayed by several AIR stations in Kochi, Jammu, Aligarh, Kanpur, Kasauli, Mussorie, Kurseong and Shillong.
"We have received a great response till now and received hundreds of calls. After every programme, we at Kabir receive at least 30-40 calls. The maximum number of calls we got was from people in the age group of 20-30 years," Kumar said.
"Some of the callers have general queries about the act and its usefulness. There are some who need to be slightly encouraged for filling an RTI application and want basic information about fees."
Some have very specific queries and want help regarding hurdles they are facing in getting information from government departments.
"We are getting calls from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The encouraging part is that the calls are also from remote areas of these states. We have queries from villages, where we were not able to reach earlier," he added.
Two RTI activists, Manish Sisodia and Priyanka Tyagi, who work with Kabir, host the show, though they are not trained radio anchors. In between, they play music too.
"I have taken a break from my journalistic career. For the last one and a half years I have been working with Kabir and handling film production for them," said Tyagi, 32. He was earlier working with a news channel.
"At Kabir, I covered a lot of RTI success stories and made videos on them. I also conduct workshops on RTI. We chose radio to reach a larger audience."
However, all those who have missed earlier episodes can listen in on Kabir's website www.kabir.org.in.
"While still in Boston (USA), I have just finished hearing the first two episodes. I congratulate Manish and Priyanka for making this programme, it is not only educative but interesting too for a common person. Good job done," said Lokesh K. Batra, a social activist. (IANS)
Cyberspace provides new ground to young social activists
New Delhi: A young woman "rings the bell" to stop domestic violence, a group of college students makes a documentary redefining feminism while yet another group of management students post a video blog on gender issues. An NGO's campaign on social issues has the youth buzzing with new ideas.
Taking care to keep a safe distance from preachy messages - a sure way to turn off youth - and creating interesting advertisements instead for campaigns on social issues which immediately strike a chord, Breakthrough, a human rights network, has been making waves amongst the youngsters.
Christina Lobo Jha, for instance, decided to emulate their ad on stopping domestic violence after she couldn't bear to hear the helpless cries of a woman in her building, even as the rest of the neighbourhood kept mum.
"Last week I heard the fight start at 8 a.m. and she (the victim) screamed and cried as the fight went on. By 2 p.m. she was moaning and groaning on her own in the toilet as her hubby and her two 19-year-old kids went to college.
"At 8 p.m. her husband was back home and after a while it started all over again," Jha recounted the horror which the "Jain lady" - as she decides to call the victim - goes through every other day.
"Enough was enough. I got up and marched up to her door with my dog Kelly and rang the bell. She opened the door and pulling up her cardigan's sleeves, said 'see what they are doing to me'. I wiped her tears and told her to stop crying since the whole building was listening to her.
"Her husband shooed my dog out and told me not to interfere. The cries have stopped since then and I just hope that it remains that way," she said.
"Bell Bajao", Breakthrough's initiative to stop domestic violence has caught on greatly with youth who are drawn towards the simplicity of the campaign.
"'Bell Bajao' is a very do-able campaign. All that we are asking is that if you are a witness to domestic violence and can hear the person's cries, go and ring their door bell. That momentary halt will make the perpetrator realise that others maybe aware of his act and think about it," Kritika Dey, programme coordinator of Breakthrough, said.
Since the advertisement of this campaign shows only men, it sends out the message that even in women's issues like domestic violence, men are important stakeholders and therefore should be involved in such campaigns.
"We at Breakthrough try and explore youth spaces which have not yet been fully explored. Our website is one example of that. Here you will see a number of blog posts, video clips and the likes by college students and others on what they think about such issues and even give suggestions to improvise campaigns," Dey said.
In a bid to get closer to youth, Breakthrough is also present in popular social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.com.
In yet another example of youth participation, a group of women from Miranda House college of Delhi University made a documentary, "Female Gaze", and posted it on Breakthrough's website.
The film, which records women of different cultural backgrounds talking of their perception of the gendered nature of public and private spaces, got a huge response.
Read a comment from a reader called Prasoon: "Well said (about men having) 'Self assumed roles'. Why should men want to protect women? And protect from what? Everyone should take care of themselves unless physically or mentally disabled".
Working through television, music, films, social networking and public forums, Breakthrough works on various issues like HIV/AIDS, immigration policy, community leadership and human rights education.
"Some of our other campaigns were 'Mann ke Manjeree', a music album that we produced in 2000 whose songs were sung by Shubha Mudgal. We also made award-winning music videos on domestic violence and HIV/AIDS which were translated into six international languages.
"Then there was 'What kind of a man are you?' which was a multimedia campaign on HIV/AIDS and then 'Is this Justice?' which was about women facing discrimination because of HIV/AIDS," Dey said. (IANS) |
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