Launched in Andhra Pradesh, India, on World Rural Women's Day (October 15) 2008, DDS Sangham Radio is a community radio station owned, managed, and operated exclusively by women from rural marginalised communities (the "Dalit" caste). The station, broadcast on 90.4 FM, is an initiative of the Deccan Development Society (DDS), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works with 100 groups of the economically poorest Dalit women.

Communication Strategies

This all-woman, all-Dalit sangham (community) radio station, which boasts the signature tune, "akka chillelu kudi podame (come sisters, let us go to the sangham radio)", is seen as the first "audible" voice of the state's Dalit women. Female reporters journey daily into various villages within the Medak district in search of stories that are neither breaking news nor juicy snippets that sell. The goal, rather, is to glean information for reports that strike a chord with listeners: Every night at 8:00, the channel airs a one-and-a-half-hour package of local news and views, tidbits on herbal medicines for animals, reports on farming tools, and folk songs and stories. To illustrate the strategy: while domestic abuse may no longer be newsworthy, if the station airs a case of the wife resisting her husband's violence - women might be inspired to talk, think, act in empowering ways.

"The women want to use this new media space to save their dying language and cultures, spread their message of sisterhood, ecological agriculture, women's control over seeds and a host of their issues." Acting as reporters, jockeys, editors, and so on, the women earn Rs 10-15 for 6-8 hours of work (low incomes which DDS describes as a reflection of Zaheerabad's poor land, which offers limited livelihood opportunities in agriculture, and lack of industrialisation). Women affiliated with the radio station note that their association with the project is only possible because Dalit women in the area are used to working outside the home. Development Issues

Women, Agriculture.
Key Points

DDS has adopted a participatory communication approach to strengthen its initiatives in the region, using a range of horizontal communication techniques including: Sangam (village-level) meetings, Jathras (festivals), social audits, participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), and interface sessions with government agencies and other NGOs. These strategies have been essentially interpersonal in nature. However, in the new environment of decentralisation and optimal use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), DDS began exploring ways and means by which its communication potential could be enhanced. Video and/or audio technology seemed to be a particularly promising option, given the organisation's core commitment: create ways for disadvantaged, often illiterate rural women to share their valuable knowledge and to express themselves. To crystallise this idea, DDS contemplated a community radio station. "For the women who are equipped with extraordinary oral narrative skills, radio is a natural medium."

According to DDS, "The poor dalit women who are members of the DDS sangams have their own expectations from a radio of their own....For instance, many have felt that mainstream media have marginalized information specific to certain crops such as millets and other minor grain that are central to their food security and dietary requirements." To that end, the programming content of the station seeks to serve the information, education, and cultural needs of the region by focusing on:

• Information specific to agricultural needs of semi-arid regions
• Education and literacy - both formal and non-formal
• Public health and hygiene
• Environmental and ecological issues
• Biodiversity and food security
• Gender justice
• Local/indigenous knowledge systems
• Local cultures, with emphasis on the narrative traditions of song and drama.