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Community Radio
as media for social change

To Sabita Pandey, listening to a community FM radio has been of big importance. The radio has strengthened her positive attitude to life and made her take a stronger stand on how people are supposed to live together.

The 37 years old woman lives in Jhumsha, a village in Dobhan VDC, ward no.5 in Palpa. The family consists of her and her husband, her mother in law and two out of three sons. The eldest son works in Malaysia. Sabita Pandey has a small shop and - though illiterate - she feels she leads a happy life. But it hasn’t always been like that. Radio Lumbini made the big difference.

“I did not learn to read myself. When I was 13 I got married and went to live with my husband and his mother. His father had died when he was only seven years old. We had a very tough time. Because my mother in-law was a widow and poor at the same time, the land lord cheated us and took half of our land from us. He used to beat us as well. In my family we have had many ups and downs,” Sabita Pandey says.

Only after she got the possibility to tell others about her own story on air, did she then get the idea to motivate other listeners to treat each other with respect no matter what their background is. “I have been in the radio three times. The first time I went for an interview, both me and the radio presenter started to cry. I have written many songs about my life. They are all sad songs. When villagers from Dobhan hear the songs on the radio, they come to me and talk. It has increased my confidence.” Sabita Pandey is of the opinion that privileged people have an obligation to help the less privileged people in society. The importance of education became even clearer to her when she joined the listeners group and was asked to be secretary in the group. “I felt big difficulties taking up this job because I did not know how to take minutes. But my nephew, Shiva, helped me. And I realized how important it is that children learn to read and write. I would like other villagers to send their children to school. But some people do not like this. When we say that we would like to learn to read, the educated people make fun of us. This is not right. Those who have knowledge have to share with others!”

All of Sabita’s three sons are educated. And this would be the same case if they were girls.
“Radio programmes on development issues have taught us many things that we can apply directly in our own lives. Like women’s rights and gender equality for example,”she observes.

Asked about the impact of being a member of the listeners group and being related to a community radio, she summarizes it all in the very fact that she is now able to sit and talk with two guests. Her son looks after the shop and her husband supports her involvement in the community.

As she puts it herself, “When I used to live up in the hill I sometimes walked with a heavy basket of rice plants or grass on my head. If somebody - like people from political parties – would approach me, my knees would get weak and I would feel like fainting. Now I can talk. I am illiterate but I feel I am being treated as an educated person who is able to express his opinion.”

Shiva Pandey, the nephew of Sabita and the chairperson of Jhumsha Listener group agrees with Sabita’s view of the importance of the community radio in Dobhan VDC.

As a teacher he emphasizes that especially the young people benefit from the radio. “Radio Lumbini gives extra knowledge to our students. They write poems, tell stories and exchange ideas on how to do development work in the area. All these things are collected in our letter box which our listener group has established. We bring the letters to Radio Lumbini and later they are broadcasted. This encourages the youth very much.”

Also the women in Dobhan VDC have benefited from Radio Lumbini and the activities of the listener group. Shortly after its initiation the radio and the listener group invited 12 women’s groups to a gathering. Around 300 women participated and the function was a big success, according to Shiva Pandey. The aim was to encourage the women to continue to do good work and to make them register their groups with the government. An agreement was made: within 3 months all of the groups were to be registered in government office, by the help of the VDC.

However, after nine months only three of the groups were registered. Still Shiva Pandey is optimistic. The reason why only three groups are registered is because it costs money. Spending a 1000 rupees on registration is, may be, not the first priority.

“The women groups left that meeting very encouraged. They need help for institutional matters and they need help to get ideas on how to carry out development activities. We plan to help them with that. In the listener group we arranged a song and dance competition during the Teej festival (women’s festival). A total of 1400 rupees was collected, which we plan to spend on income generating activities for women. This can be sewing training or making of ‘achaar’ (pickles).” Shiva Pandey wants to highlight that one day’s programme is not enough for these illiterate women. The listener group needs to meet with them regularly in order to follow up on the process.

Not only women but all the villagers of Dobhan VDC benefited from the listener group’s activities as well. For one day a dentist came to Dobhan and put up his clinic in Jhumsha. For a fee much cheaper than in near by Butwal, he treated the locals:. “He charged only 5 rupees for registration and 20 rupees to pull out one tooth. And besides people would spare the 10 rupees fare to go to Butwal. We felt this was a need in the society so we arranged this one-day dental clinic. We convinced the dentist to do social work in this way and he got publicity as the one day clinic was mentioned on both Radio Lumbini and two other radio stations,” says Shiva Pandey.

Radio Lumbini has indeed put focus on their area which is a fact appreciated by both Sabita Pandey and Shiva Pandey. However Shiva Pandey has some critical comments about the radio: “In one programme an elderly man, an intellectual from our area, was interviewed. He said that in 30 years no changes have happened in Jhumsha. Why does Radio Lumbini make this programme? The people of Dobhan VDC are very sincere and the radio should respect this. They did not like to hear this on the radio. Changes happen slowly and our listener group’s achievements are a part of a process of making social change.”