New Delhi, July 07: Taking the help of folklore, songs, mythological characters, poems and skits, an innovative radio programme is dissemenating information about the rights and duties of the panchayats to empower the village community across 10 states in the country.

Keeping in mind the regional variations and respective needs of the local community, the radio programme implemented by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and supported by the Ford foundation is strengthening the information needs of the gram sabha by fulfilling the information needs of the people.



Though the content of the programme across the 10 states like Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh is same, stressing on the role and responsibilities of the gram sabha, role of women, Dalits, etc, the delivery of the programme is left to the local partners keeping in mind regional specifications. Local NGOs working at the grassroot level in the 10 states devised the programme in their local languages like Gujarati, Maithali, Oriya and Marathi and the number of episodes to be made on different subjects were also decided by them.



"In order to rope in people to listen to the radio in the era of the TV, we needed to take the help of local artistes who could reach out to the people and woo them," says Manoj Rai of PRIA.



Thus in all states local artistes were roped in who were in touch with the villagers and to whom the villagers could give effective feedback. In the case of Haryana, the programme was held with the help of a local character 'Roshni', which is very popular among locals. Bureau Report