CRS’ Contributions in Spreading Education during Pandemic: Nashik Centre Gets Two Awards

NEW DELHI, July 3: Radio Vishwas 90.8, a Community Radio Station (CRS) administered by the Vishwas Dhyan Prabodhini & Research Institute in Nashik, Maharashtra, has won two awards at the 8th National Community Radio Awards founded by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It won first place in the “Sustainability Model Awards” category and second place in the “Thematic Awards” category for its radio show Shikshan Savansathi – “Education for All” during COVID-19.

A spokesman for the institute said for the past ten years the station had been broadcasting 14 hours per day with a listenership of around 3 lakhs. The station’s innovative sustainability approach has enabled it to sustain itself in four critical areas such as financial, human, technological, and content sustainability.

Community radio stations often focus on local issues for the benefit of the community within a 10-15 km radius. These stations are mostly owned by locals who host chat shows, play local music, and perform local tunes.

‘Shikshan Sarvansathi’ (Education for All) is a CSR effort launched in June, 2020, to provide free education to students from the third to tenth grades during the challenging COVID-19 period. During these testing times, audio lectures were broadcast and made available to all students enrolled in Zilla Parishad and Nashik Municipal schools in four languages: Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, and English.

In a statement the Press Information Bureau, Pune said Dr Hari Vinayak Kulkarni, Station Director spoke about the programme having a very positive response because underprivileged students cannot afford to purchase smart phones for digital education. The lectures were also shared with six other CRS in Maharashtra, allowing them to broadcast through their own radio channels and this initiative of theirs has helped students from all over Maharashtra.

The ‘Shikshan Sarvansathi’ project was carried out with the assistance of 150 professors who taped lectures in their studio. The lectures were then broadcast in the time slots allotted to each subject. The programme drew a great response from the targeted population, benefiting about 50,000 – 60,000 children from municipal and ZP schools.” A group of teachers in Igatpuri, Nashik, took the initiative to provide 451 FM devices (with USB, Bluetooth, and high-end speakers) to students in order for them to stay on track with their studies. They intend to upload videos to YouTube, which will also be useful when students return to schools.

In 2011-12, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting established the National Community Radio (CR) Awards to stimulate innovation and healthy competition among Community Radio Stations. During the Covid-19 outbreak, these Community Radio stations played an important role in communication. There are now 327 community radio stations in existence in India, spread across various states.

(Venkatesh Iyer)