By Rajani K Chhetri
We can take a big sigh of relief and thank almighty that we are safe, probably which many of us did and still do each time we watch the devastation in Nepal after the Saturday earthquake. It only takes another second for us to reflect upon and get further jolted up by the fears what if it happens in Meghalaya- Northeast? The Nepal Earthquake has flooded social media with updates pointing towards India’s northeast. Though scientifically it’s almost impossible to predict earthquakes unlike weather yet several geo-scientists as well as other specialists are on top of their predictions and speculations. Vintage photographs of the big quake of 1897 and 1950 chill our bones to the core and especially as parents we dread to speculate any such horrifying sights. The rising stacks of dead bodies, images of old and young children trapped deep into the debris, the untiring efforts of the rescue team, fear of aftershocks and the trauma of seeing death so close repeatedly question us where shall we run or rather hide? Will we be able to save ourselves and the lives of all those that matters to us?
Covering the Nepal earthquake, a panelist on a popular Indian national news channel termed Kathmandu as the “rumour capital” of the world and blamed the frightened locals for escalating panic and fear. Yes indeed, when there are no official confirmations and communication, then rumours and gossips work well, travel fast and can have devastating consequences! At a time when electricity, mobile, telecom networks and internet either fails or slows down what will be our alternative to share information, mitigate fear and rumours and seek right assistance? The disaster in Nepal is a glaring eye opener and a lesson to each one of us to take proactive steps towards disaster preparedness. The memories of Mumbai floods are still fresh when mobile networks and internet connectivity jammed- it was radio and particularly FM radio that reached out to thousands of stranded people and brought relief to their family members! The radio jockeys stayed on microphone for over 48 hours not just comforting the stranded people but also carefully advising them on what precautions and which routes to take.
There are some instances in Japan and abroad in which community radio became the prime vehicle for information sharing for communities during disaster emergency relief as well as post disaster recovery. Participatory media tools such as community radio, produced and managed by local communities can be a vital tool in a region like ours which are prone to chronic disasters. Community radio, with its basic philosophy of empowerment of marginalized people, is attuned to any approach to disaster management that focuses on sections of society that are most vulnerable to all kinds of disasters.
A community Radio station works on the basic principle on which democracy thrives. It is a radio station owned, run and managed by the local community. Community radio specializes in providing local information for the local people. Community Radio stations dwell on the concept of nukkad or street corner discussions and analysis but, to a slightly broader audience. Community radio also plays an important role in disaster risk reduction, especially in pre-disaster preparedness and mitigation through awareness raising that targets different community groups. It is mere unfortunate that none of the northeastern states except Assam has a single community radio station.
Since 1990s the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing, Regional Licensing office situated at Rynjah has not allotted a single frequency to any user and, this in no way is an indication of dearth of applications. The application procedure for obtaining radio frequency in itself is a tedious process complicated by further technical jargons and even if an individual overcomes this hurdle the applications submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting gets lost in the power corridors; pursuing it at a common man’s level becomes a never ending cycle while the concerned officials in the Ministry either retire or get transferred, thus further complicating the process. It is also rather much comfortable for officials in the Ministry to assume the region as being insurgency driven and any allotment of radio frequency as a serious threat to nation’s security.
In 2010, the Community Radio facilitation cell of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in partnership with Common Wealth Educational Media Centre Asia (CEMCA) organized a regional level consultation meet on community radio station in Shillong. This consultation was aimed to impart information on community radio stations and encourage various private shareholders such as NGO’s, educational institutions and agricultural universities to own and operate community radio stations across northeast. Participants including of various educational institutes and NGO’s from all across northeast participated in this event and as an outcome also applied for community radio stations in their respective areas, however till date, none of the NGOs or educational institutes have been allotted any frequency. Further there has been no official communication from the concerned Ministry on the status of applications and if rejected then on what basis? Since then several Information and Broadcasting Ministers have visited the region including the UPA MIB ministerial head Manish Tiwari, Arun Jaitley after taking over the charge and the recent one Secretary MIB Bimal Julka and all of these leaders and officials in each of their visits have never failed to mention about community radio stations and its role towards participatory growth and development in the region, however the ground realities remain unchanged.
The community radio application filed by one of the prestigious educational institute based in Shillong in March 2013 is yet to see the light of the day. According to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, website the application has been rejected like thousands of other applications in spite of meeting all the criteria mentioned in the application procedure. There has been no official communication on the rejection of application. According, to unofficial sources, the main reason for rejection has been international boundary and security issues. If this was a guiding criterion, why was it not mentioned in the application process? Community Radio technically works on the same model as Private FM Radio stations (however with lower capacity), so if the private FM stations operating in the city with 2- 3 KW line of sight transmitter towers are conveniently reaching to far-flung areas such as Tamenglong in Manipur, Cachar hills, Tezpur and border towns of Bangladesh and yet, are not a threat to the nation’s security, how can a community radio station operating with 10- 15 kilo metre geographical radius be a security threat? If national security is at all an important criterion than community radio consultation meet in the region was a futile exercise, just as the regular speeches by the MIB officials and political leaders each time they visit the region.
Amidst all these we cannot escape from the fact that we rest upon seismic zone 5. Our terrains are challenging and can get extremely difficult in case of crisis accompanied by “fragile” telecom networks. In that case Community Radio is not just an alternative but a solution to the problems that are uniquely ours. Community Radio combined with the village information centers could help a lot in creating location specific disaster mitigation strategies. It is time that the State Government takes up the matter with the concerned ministry and has clarity on it, so that along with disaster preparedness, other social issues and problems such as death due to superstitious practices, tragic incidents or an entire family dying after eating wild mushroom in Jaintia hills which often ends up being just another report in popular media can be dealt at its root and thus avoided.
( The writer is Asst. Professor, Department of Mass Media, St. Anthony’s College, Shillong)