Community radio is a program conceived, devised, developed and managed by the poor.
It addresses their real issues, their sufferings, their wisdom, their expressions, their joy, their sorrow, their anguish, their longings and their feelings.
This is a means of communicating the voice of the poor in accordance with their choices, independent of external influence or interference. There is no room for artificiality, abstract matters and unknown issues. The poor themselves decide the content based on their ground reality, develop it into scripts, enact it into dramas, sing songs, discuss issues and give the local population popular news in the region which remains unreported by mainstream media coverage.
The problem with mainstream radio is that it has a centralised program production which is unable to cater to the specific requirements of the rural population in terms of language, program content and concerns of the masses. Community radio has very well filled this vacuum.

 Why Use A Community Radio Program?

• Palamau is an information and knowledge starved region, driving the poor to a state of powerlessness.

• Rampant illiteracy due to negligible presence of print media  

• Scarcity of electricity making impossible to introduce TV and video.

For most of the villages, the only contact with the outside world is radio.

The centralized control of the airwaves by the Government of India has muted the expressions of the poor and there is very little space for the poor to fit into the existing radio media. Though many policies and programs are made for the poor, they often remain unknown to the deprived. So far, the potential of radio media for solving poor people’s problems has been limited to using it as a means to demand their rights. The ability to influence government policies and programmes is yet to be exploited to its fullest.
The community radio initiative by AID is an effort in this direction. It aims to create new learning opportunities to enrich the life of poor and engage various government stakeholders in accelerating the pace of development.

 Priority Issues of Concern for Community Radio

Highlight issues of the poor: Particularly victims of bad governance, abuse of power and authority, discrimination, exploitation and denial of rights.

Access to government services: Corruption, non-availability and denial of government services, non-observance of policies and poor quality of services.

Civil society problems: Casteism, religious fanaticism, superstition, child labour, bonded labour, discriminatory practices against women and other issues of local concerns and topical issues.