'Local content essential ingredient for community radio'

Courtesy: www.business-standard.com

IANS  |  New Delhi  June 3, 2014 Last Updated at 17:42 IST

The strength of community radio lies in its ability to address local issues and embrace local culture, said an official of the Information and Broadcasting ministry here Tuesday.

"Community radios have greater potential to grow further in India. We (ministry of information and broadcasting) are trying to take it to state level, so that everyone can access community radios," Supriya Sahu, joint secretary (broadcasting), ministry of information and broadcasting, said at a conference here.

"The strength of community radio lies in its reach within a community and addressing its issues in local language and sharing its culture. We need to work with community radios to see greater localisation of content and produce relatable information," she added.

Sahu was speaking at a conference on the Radiophone Project, an initiative where visual content of a popular children's programme has been converted into audio and with the help of 10 community radios, they have been able to reach out to 1.4 million children.

"We aim to have one community radio in every district that are around 600 in numbers and then take it to each block that are around 6,000 in number," said Sahu.

"We have already given permits to community radios in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and some districts in the north east," she added.

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