All women community radio for women’s equality

“After being taken action and denied by the radios that I used to work for to produce political and current affairs programmes, and for using technical studio in an emergency situation to mix and edit a programme, in absence of the regular technician, I decided to start my own radio completely managed by women,” says Kabita Sharma, the station manager of all women Radio Mukti in central region of Nepal in Butwal.

To fulfil her decision to start an all women radio, with the help of her family and friends Kabita first organised and registered a women’s group called Mahila Samanthako Lagi Sanchar Abhiyan or Media Campaign for Women’s Equality. The license for the all women Radio Mukti was obtained under the women’s group. When she got the license and now needed the money to start the radio she was not successful obtaining any funds from donors or INGOs. “I was asked by some potential donors that our radio is associated to which political parties?” says Kabita. Our Radio Mukti is an independent radio and do not have any political association with any political parties, Kabita asserts. It was Kabita’s father who eventually helped her to obtain the start up fund by mortgaging their family house and the radio was started.

Radio Mukti in Butwal

Almost one year down the road since it first started broadcasting regularly in December 2008, Radio Mukti with a transmitter capacity of 100 watts currently broadcast for 18 hours a day. Besides reaching out to audience in Butwal town, the radio reaches to audience in adjoining districts of Gulmi, Rupandehi and Arghakhachi also.

“We broadcast every day half an hour programme related to women issues called Hamro Abhiyan (Our Campaign),” says Asmina Panday, a programme producer at Radio Mukti. “The news we do from Radio Mukti also focus more on women issue related news,” says the radio’s Assistant Editor Indira Acharya. She adds, “Women who are victims of domestic violence and dowry problems come to Radio Mukti for support to get their voices out. In past three months five women came to Radio Mukti to seek support regarding domestic violence problems.” The radio besides the regular daily programmes and news focussed on women, broadcast weekly programmes on women’s health issues also. “The health programme is very popular as women with reproductive health problems can openly share and inquire about their problems in this radio programme which is conducted by women radio anchors and doctors,” says Indira.

Radio Mukti all women team

In Nepal according to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters Nepal, or ACORAB, there are 130 community radios which are fully operational. The license issued by the government to operate community radios have been more than 200 and 169 of them are affiliated with ACORAB. Out of 75 districts 68 districts in Nepal have operational community radios, and the rest of the districts have also already obtained licenses to run community radios except Manang and Dolpa. And given the unequal status of women in Nepal it is not unusual that among these radios there are only three radios which is being operated and managed by women. “Radio Mukti is the first all women community radio in Nepal as all the 35 people working for it in managements and operations are all women,” says Shova Sharma, the accountant at Radio Mukti. She further asserts Radio Mukti unlike other two women radios in Nepal, is the only all women radio as besides the management and the board, the technicians are also all women.

After starting Radio Mukti with the capital investment from a bank loan mortgaging the family property, it was necessary to explore other possibilities for financing the radio. Then Kabita the founder and the Station Manager of Radio Mukti came up with the idea of providing membership to the women’s group under which the radio is registered. With a minimum membership fee of NRs 25,000, or those who wishes can contribute more, there are currently 100 women who are members of Media Campaign for Women’s Equality women’s group. These 100 women have become a member of the women’s group and contributed to run Radio Mukti not with the intention to make a profit but with genuine motivation to put women on equal footing, for women’s empowerment, Shova, the book keeper of Radio Mukti adds. “In the beginning it was difficult to get local advertisements for the radio. Since Radio Mukti has been doing good work of raising women’s issues, these days we get called by various entrepreneurs and NGOs to carry their advertisements and public service announcements,” further adds Shova. The radio gets various local advertisements from jewellery shops, medical houses, beauty parlours, hotels and NGOs. Radio Mukti’s weekly reproductive health programme is fully sponsored by a medical house in Butwal.

Recording and transmission studio

The 35 women who work for Radio Mukti are all young, single and married as well, and are working full and part-time. “I trained most of the colleagues at Radio Mukti on technical and content aspects,” says Kabita. Only few senior workers at the radio like Kabita herself had prior experience working in a radio or doing journalism. “I was trained in-house by my senior sisters at the station,” says Mamata Acharya, the young technician at Radio Mukti. Since it is an all women radio with a mission to empower and give equal status to women and sensitive to practical problems women are subject to in work places, the late night shift women workers at the radio are provided facilities to stay back at the radio station itself, so that they can avoid the vulnerabilities of going home during odd hours after work. However, the radio’s producer Asmina is of opinion that with advance training on perspectives of women issues in Nepal and radio production Radio Mukti would be able to diversify their radio programmes and raise women’s issues and voices more effectively. She expects the various experts and institutions that all specialise on women’s issues to train and work with the radio.

Mamata demonstrating digital editing

Though Radio Mukti sounds perfect and promising and has been fulfilling its mission of raising women’s voice for equality, it is not without any challenges or threats. The Assistant News Editor Indira says, “We receive threat calls from families of women who come to our radio programmes for interviews on dowry related violence.” But so far the threats fortunately have not gone beyond the phone calls. Radio Mukti has been covering the travel costs for women to come to the radio station to participate in their programmes to share and raise their voice. “However just doing a radio programme and raising the voice do not solve the problem,” says Indira. She says they need cooperation from other NGOs who are working on women’s rights, legal, health issues and so on to solve the problems. In other words she is of opinion though Radio Mukti is a collective effort for media campaign for women equality in Butwal, for wider women equality wider collective action is required.

More to the challenges, Kabita says, “We have a running cost of about NRs 300,000 a month, but can make an income of only NRs 100,000 from the local advertisements.” The radio station can pay a nominal salary or allowance to only the part-time workers at the radio. We are planning to start an income generation activity of the women’s group like sewing and tailoring and the surplus from it will be contributed to the radio, she adds.

Though for Radio Mukti it is a struggle and a challenge every month to manage the operational costs, Kabita does not give up. She says, “Since we have started this radio for raising women’s voice for equality, we can not stop operating no matter how difficult it is sometimes.” She is optimistic the radio will survive and sustain to raise women’s voice for equality.

Of community forests and community radios in Nepal

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I remember Radio Nepal used to broadcast a public service announcement (PSA) ‘hariyo banh, Nepalko dhan’. Or in English green forest is Nepal’s wealth. Though that PSA is no longer broadcast by Radio Nepal, according to data available currently about 25 percent of land area in Nepal is covered by community forests. This is relatively the highest for a country of Nepal’s geographical expanse. The community forestry practice in natural resource management in Nepal which started in the late 1970s is one of the most successful stories of community owned and managed sustainable development efforts in Nepal. If there is anything Nepal can boasts of then it is the success of community forestry.

The other such story which could possibly be another success story in Nepal and which is also community driven is of the community radios. The first community radio the Radio Sagarmatha was established in 1997 and to date in the last few years there have been more than 150 licenses issued for operating more community radios in Nepal. However, drawing a parallel between the community forestry and community radios in Nepal the unavoidable question is: are the community radios in Nepal following the same path of success of community forestry?

The success of community forestry in Nepal lies in the facts that it was supported by the succeeding governments, policies and foreign aids and above all the communities themselves took it to their heart and owned the management of the community forest. The government only facilitated the establishments of community forestry by formulating enabling environment in the form of policies, governance and providing practical assistance and investments like lands, saplings and so on. In roughly past three decades community forestry in Nepal has come to establish itself as an institution which can sustain on its own and is a successful example of sustainable development both in terms of environment and economy.

Parallel to the success of community forestry, after more than a decade of the establishment of the first community radio in Kathmandu in Nepal the community radios have grown rapidly and promisingly and reached out in every terrain, the terais, hills and mountains outside Kathmandu. According to umbrella organisation Association of Community Radio Broadcasters Nepal or ACORAB, of more than 150 licenses issued to operate community radios in Nepal, 162 of them are affiliated with ACORAB. Of the 162 affiliate community radios 129 are operational. And of the 75 districts in Nepal currently 68 districts have operational community radios and the communities in the rest of the districts, except Manang and Dolpa, have obtained community radio licenses.

However, the story of community radios in Nepal though promising, is yet to find its crowning glory, as still after more than a decade of establishment of the first community radio, not only in Nepal but in whole of South Asia, the need to recognize the community radios as a sector which is the wealth of the nation, communities has been lackadaisical. The community radio licenses are issued, levy charged and governed by a common broadcasting regulation which is common to both community and commercial radio broadcasters in Nepal. Ironically, though the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and India started late, in the past 2-3 years the governments in these countries have been able to come up with a distinct community radio policy and governance.

Community forestry has been successful in Nepal because the community has owned it and governments have enabled it. The community radios also are treading the same path as the community also owns them. With a little gesture of enabling environment in the form of separate policy innovations, facilitations and investments by the government it can also succeed. Nepalis then can boast of another sustainable development success story. And then the children who are growing up can also, like I did, listen to ‘hariyo banh, Nepalko dhan’.