Nityananda Janavani @ 91.2 FM

Contact Person: Dr. Nirmalya Mukherjee, Mr. Sk. Manjur Ali

Broadcasting Language: Santali and Bengali

Genesis: MANT has been facilitating the Nityananda Janvani community radio station since 2010. MANT was selected by UNICEF, on the basis of the recommendation of the District Administration (SBCC Cell, Purulia), to be assigned the task of establishing a Community Radio Station, the first ever of its kind in West Bengal with a target population of 1 lakh in the block of Puncha, Purulia, known for its abject poverty and backwardness. The radio station was established with support from UNICEF. 

UNICEF phased out in 2015, and since then, MANT has been running the show with due sincerity and concern. The radio has been broadcasting programmes in the Tribal language (Santali), and the first tribal women radio jockey in India is from the CRS. The radio station started broadcasting on 10th July 2017.  

 Thematic Focus: The station covers topics particularly relevant to the community. The focus area of the CRS has majorly been the conservation of traditional art, music, song and culture of the indigenous community, quality education, gender equality, women empowerment, climate-smart agriculture, aquaculture and animal husbandry, personal hygiene, sanitation, mother and child health, adolescent health, mental health, Child marriage prevention, anti-trafficking, government schemes and programmes, entrepreneurship development etc. 

Sustainable Development Goals: Radio Nityananda Janavani actively works towards realising these goals:

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being

SDG 4: Quality Education

SDG 5: Gender Equality

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG 13: Climate Action

SDG 15: Life on Land

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institution

Primetime Programmes: The primetime programmes that are broadcast on Nityananda Janavani are Jiya Dhanga, Pilchu Akhara, Purulia Express, Jiyanjharna, Khet Kharaireya Katha. Jiya Dhanga is a programme that shares information about various government schemes, scholarships, career opportunities and other entitlements. Pilchu Akhara is a programme that focuses on dispelling misconceptions, narrating Santali folk tales, and promotes naturopathy. Jiyanjharna focuses on nutrition, water and sanitation, and health and hygiene.  Khet Kharaireya Katha is a programme based on agriculture and its allied sectors. 

Innovations in format or any other way: Along with broadcasting, the CRS effectively conducts narrowcast programmes at the community level. It also has a WhatsApp group and social media pages for sharing programme updates.

By actively involving the tribal women and girls, a campaign was launched in the Purulia district of West Bengal in 2021–2022 to encourage changes in social norms and practises around immunisation during pregnancy and the neonatal period. It concentrated on increasing their capacity to prepare content in tribal language and do podcasts, narrowcasts, and broadcasts on community radio to bring about the desired changes. For this purpose, several training programmes were held to capacitate the community members, especially tribal girls, to work on the preparation of content independently.  

In order to share their opinions and experiences regarding mother and child health, including vaccination, tribal women in the Purulia District developed audio magazines in tribal languages for community radio, web radio, podcasts, and social media (Facebook and WhatsApp). The importance of antenatal care (ANC), prenatal vaccination, institutional delivery, postnatal care (PNC), infant immunisation, services accessibility at the local level (the location of ANC/PNC and vaccination service, health care facilities), benefits provided by the government (transport services, supplementary nutrition, allowances), and success stories were highlighted in radio magazines produced by tribal women. 

Videos created by tribal women include personal anecdotes that show how their awareness of services has grown, how important vaccinations and healthy pregnancy are, and how positively they view healthcare services. This led to discussions within the tribal communities of the problems and solutions thereto in the village assemblies. This further resulted in an articulation of the demand for services by informing local health authorities and by persuading them to ensure the same and supply necessary space/room for health workers to provide care and propagate the health services availability.

Core Team: The CRS has ten CRMC members on its board. Fifteen members form the core team of Nityananda Janavani. It includes the Station Manager, Assistant Manager, six radio producers, a junior radio producer, translator-cum-editor, senior content moderator, and five radio jockeys. 

It has a strong presence at the community level, and the mother organisation has started to delegate powers to the tribal community to run the radio station on their own. The power to make decisions related to the type of programmes, contents (it should be in line with the Government of India’s guidelines), participants, programme timing etc. are now in the hands of the radio staff and the community members.  

Major Projects Undertaken: The major projects undertaken by the CRS is listed below:

• Community Media and Ethnographic Research Programme targeting the tribal youths of Purulia district, with support from Gothenburg University, Sweden 
• Action Research project on Maternal and Neonatal Health among Tribal People supported by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, under IMPRINT 
• Adolescent Intervention Programme at Purulia District of West Bengal with support from UNICEF 
• Sidhu-Kanho-Birsha University and NCERT conducted online classes through the community radio for university and school students, respectively. 
• Project on Early Child Marriage Prevention; Strengthening Adolescent and Maternal Nutrition; Child rights and child development with support from District SBCC cell, Purulia. 

Furthermore, the CRS has undertaken many projects in the last three years in joint collaboration with the following organisations: CRY, RBI, CRA, SMART, MyGov, UNESCO, Election Commission of India, AMARC, and My Choices Foundation.
 

Sustainable Strategies: To sustain the radio station, regular fund flow is essential. The station is approaching several government departments and other agencies for advertisements and programme support. The CRS develops project proposals and approaches donors through its mother organisation for long-term collaboration.  

Number of listeners and Potential Outreach: The CRS’ programmes have reached more than 1.6 lakh people/month continuously for a span of one year. Nearly one lakh people have been reached through social media platforms. The CRS has also launched a web radio for wider coverage.  

 Major concerns in the Community: Major community concerns include poverty, lack of quality education, seasonal migration, and lack of awareness on health, particularly maternal and child health and adolescent health.