Ab To Hum Janenge - Now We Will Know

While RTI activists have been busy with their campaigns to spread awareness on India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, a large segment of the population especially those living in rural and far-flung areas are still not aware of the law. CHRI understood the problem and therefore to motivate citizens in these areas to file applications as well as to spread awareness on the subject, the Media Unit along with the RTI team came up with the idea of commissioning a radio series on RTI.

The Means

Radio was identified as the perfect broadcasting medium to reach out to the rural as well as urban sectors at the same time. Radio was given preference over television because radio is a far more accessible form of mass media for the poorer sections of society. For the urban, radio may be a gadget to keep ‘entertained’ while they drive back from work or a medium to help them sing along to in the shower. But for the rural population, a transistor radio is a means to acquire knowledge, and a vital channel to the outside world. Additionally, to make it interesting and interactive, more rural communities have formed radio clubs. A group of 10-15 people get together to form a radio club, which serves as a platform for carrying out discussions and exchanging ideas. CHRI chose the Vividha Bharati Network with its 29 stations that cover the Hindi belt states as an apt medium to get the RTI message out to rural areas. Hindi being the national language and widely spoken in many states and used by public offices was chosen as the best language that could effectively communicate the message.

The government-run All India Radio (AIR) was selected owing to its wide audience segment. AIR has a network of 215 broadcasting centres with 144 medium frequency (MW), 54 high frequency (SW) and 139 FM transmitters. It covers a total of 91.42 per cent of the area and serves 99.13 per cent of the people in India. It covers 24 languages and 146 dialects in home services.

The Programme

Having selected the means, the challenge was now to develop a series of radio programmes that were short, crisp and yet very informative, and not just another bland mass-market cookie cutter series. CHRI’s RTI team had already collated a set of case studies and experiences of filing applications from across India. We pondered over the issues and identified the format to be that of a radio play. We then collaborated with a private production company and narrated each of the case studies and tasked them to develop a script for the same. After a series of meetings, the characters were decided - a happy family who would run into problems and use RTI as a powerful tool to solve their issues.

Our protagonist was Saakshi, a middle-class college student who is aware of her rights and does not hesitate in implementing them, even if it means regular follow up with government officials, travelling distances or spending time educating people. The underlying idea behind this is that a college-going girl could easily identify with Saakshi and muster confidence taking examples from her acts and consequently take actions whenever required. Other characters of the series are Akhilesh (Saakshi’s paternal uncle), Nirmala (Akhilesh’s wife), their son Raghav, Haria (an optimistic villager who nurtures the will to reform) and others who would need a measure of RTI now and then.

The script was sent to All India Radio for final approval and within two months we had a complete series with us (with 13 episodes and each having a duration of 15-minutes each). The programme was aptly named Ab To Hum Janenge (now, we will get to know). The title itself was unusual for a radio programme and stirred up listeners’ curiosity instantly.

Pre-Publicity and Broadcast

This was very necessary in order to inform the listeners before hand about the programme and build up the connection with them even before the actual broadcast happened. Jingles were played four times a day throughout the week. This ensured a good listenership right from the first episode. The broadcast started from 6 April 2006 and successfully ended on 29 June 2006. Issues discussed through the programme were - corruption in the construction of a road, widow pensions, various Below Poverty Line issues, fair distribution of rations in the Public Distribution Shops, school admissions, Indira Awaas Yojana (Government scheme that provides housing to the rural poor), public health services etc. The last two episodes were an encapsulated version of the entire series and were particularly appreciated by many of our regular listeners. The highlight of the series was an episode where the audience was educated on the procedures and the processes to file information requests.

Feedback Mechanism

One good thing that happened during the entire exercise was the procurement of a permanent P.O. Box number by CHRI. The P.O. Box helped in getting feedback from different places across the country. Simultaneously, for the computer savvy, we also aired our e-mail address, which too resulted in a good response. The e-mail became a quick way of responding to our listeners’ queries and also for guiding them through an RTI request. However, it was surface mail that helped us in estimating the reach and popularity of the programme. Most of the letters we received wanted details of the RTI Act and congratulated us for the programme for example, there were some who wanted to be steered through a filing process and sought technical details on select topics.1 To cite examples, a senior citizens’ group volunteered to spread RTI in their area and support CHRI in all its endeavours and a Border Security Force jawaan (soldier) congratulated us and enquired for more information on the subject. We replied to all of them answering their queries as well as sending a complimentary copy of our pamphlets and relevant RTI publications.

Carrying it Forward

For a subject like RTI, one-time airing is not enough to have a maximum reach or to stir up the motivation levels of the masses. We needed to have a mechanism that is a constant reminder – something that is accessible to those who had not heard the programme. So, we decided to Podcast – a means to upload audio or video mp3 files on the Internet. Voice of Ambition (VOA), India’s First People’s Radio is an informative website where postings from all over the world are discussed and debated. We uploaded the complete series. Although this does not have a wide reach as compared to the radio as a very small percentage of the population in India have access to internet, VOA was a good preference bearing in mind their reach to the Non Resident Indian community all over the world. Thus, the programme started getting heard by people residing outside India as well. Uploaded on 13 May, 2006, we have had 800 downloads to date (as on 31 August, 2006).

Owing to popular demand from specific sectors and realising the importance of airing at focused pockets where CHRI has its strategic presence, we decided to rebroadcast the series in Madhya Pradesh (from 27 August 2006, every Sunday, 8.15 pm – 8.30 pm) and Chhattisgarh (from 29 August 2006, every Tuesday, 1:45 pm-2 pm). The second phase of airing has a different approach towards pre-publicity and getting feedback. The pre-publicity happened through stickers pasted at public offices, schools and on public vehicles. The feedback this time would involve trained volunteers collecting feedback through a questionnaire which included demographic details. In order to tap the community radios through a controlled station, we sent the radio series to Mudra Institute of Mass Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) to be aired at their local community radio station MICAVAANI. This covers five small villages near Ahmedabad and it is hoped that it would strengthen further the RTI movement in that area.

Despite its success, our biggest challenge now is to take RTI to remote villages. However, India is a land of many languages. Our next step will be to replicate the programme in different languages to further spread the RTI message accross the country.