Charkha, Delhi : Newsletter for December 2004

Friends,

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), American Civil Rights Leader.

In the past two months, we have experienced a myriad of interesting and varied activities the training workshop on writing skills in Dehradun, Uttaranchal, the unprecedented success and response to our community radio initiative in Ranchi, Jharkhand, the return to Bihar after a yearlong gap for a training workshop on writing skills, and the second year of our Charkha Sanjoy Ghose Fellowship.

Each activity is based on our explicit belief that it is communication, in all its varied forms that can open the channels for social development. Here, our options are many an interestingly appropriate blend of print media, the Internet, Community Radio, Comics and visual arts, Television and wallpapers; but the response to each remain as enthusiastic as ever.

Social development and communication share a symbiotic relationship, the potential of which has hardly been explored in India. Ironically, despite 57 years of Independence, the majority of the population in rural India is today chained by the vicious cycles of poverty, debt, exploitation, marginalization and social discrimination. The voices of these people either remain muted or are too feeble to reach the higher corridors of power and influence.

It is this belief that has driven Charkha, in all its initiatives, to bridge the gap between the local communities and the policy makers. One such benchmark has been the inauguration of our very first Community Radio initiative, in the Angada Block in Ranchi, Jharkhand, where the first episode of the Pechuwali Man Ker Swar (The Voices of the Marginalized) was aired by AIR Ranchi. The responses of the local community have overwhelmed us and have reconfirme our belief in the need of an effective medium of communication.

It is this torch of development communication as a tool of social change that has been lighted by our founder, and that we intend to ensure it continues to burn bright.

Indrani Dey
Email - charkha@bol.net.in