Saturday 04 February 2012 Government 2.0: The Road Ahead
Community radio for tribal people in Kerala soon

Soon tribal people of the southern Indian state would be able to listen to community programmes on farming, education and micro-finance

Mananthavady (Kerala): A community radio, which will cater to a large number of tribal people and small farmers in Mananthavady in the Wayanad district of Kerala, will start its service from December this year.

The radio is an initiative of Wayanad Social Service Society (WSSS), a non-government organisation (NGO) formed by the Catholic Diocese of Mananthavady. Wayanad is a hilly district in north Kerala with sizeable tribal population.

According to WSSS Secretary John Choorappuzhayil, the community radio is the first of its kind in Kerala. "The radio will be of help to the society to take its activities to the people," he added.

The WSSS works in the field of farming, education and micro-finance.

"In the farming area, we are focused on spreading organic farming practices. We provide support in the field of education and agriculture for tribal people here," Choorappuzhayil said.

The community radio will be an FM service designed to cover an area within 10 km radius from Mananthavady, reports IANS.

The WSSS functions in about 50 tribal colonies spread across seven village panchayats. It has 2,600 farmers as members in organic farm clubs and many thrift societies, known as self-reliance groups, which function as people's bank.

"Our members are marginal farmers. They find it difficult to attend the society's training programmes as they have to skip farming activities. With the commissioning of the radio, they can listen to the programme from their home," John added.

The radio station is being set up at cost of around Rs 30 lakh.

I interested in CSR in our working area (Khambha block in Amreli District of Gujarat) but now our financial position it not enough of CSR.

Please give details of agencies supporting CSR

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