Expanding the aims of Community Broadcasts

One of the aims ought to be strengthening democracy, which means strengthening livelihood, food security, health care, habitat, basic education, and all other aspects which determine quality of life.

In India, the policies and programs of the government at various levels, Central, State, District, and Village levels, attempt to provide material and implementation inputs for these. But, at the ground level the mechanisms to inform and educate the potential beneficiaries about the intent and content of policies and programs are limited to the print and visual media, the penetration of which is shallow and thus limited. Community Broadcasts have the potential to inform and educate, thus of reducing the gap.

Of course, filling the information gap is only the first step. Even well informed people do not know how to wade through the procedures to extract the end results from the governments. If and when one case of success takes place, the algorithm followed for achieving the results can be shared speedily with the community through this Medium. The success rate can be increased many fold, if this medium is supplemented by phones, call centers, voluntary organizations and individuals. The governments can implement effectively their policies and programs by prescribing specific Forms for accessing the benefits and then publicizing the designated Processing Authorities. Under the umbrella of the Right to Information act the functioning of such Processing Authorities can be monitored and prompted to be transparent and fast. In this manner, Community Broadcasts can touch lives in a variety of desirable ways.