FINE TUNED: These children were justifiably proud to sing songs for the radio

For as long as she can remember, Mangala Gowri, 22, has been wielding a sickle, helping her father, a mulberry farmer, in the fields of Budikote village in Kolar district of Karnataka. She knows it is no big deal. A chance visit to Budikote-the birthplace of Hyder Ali, the 17th century sultan of Mysore-by unesco officials some years ago, however, made her realise it is big deal. Today as Gowri holds a Marantz audio recorder and tells the local community about her work, she is a celebrity in her own right. "This is a new experience for us, exhibiting our talent on a radio network," she gushes, the pride in her voice unmistakable.

Like Gowri, there are many others in Budikote who are sharing their skills with the community at large through a radio centre recently set up by UNESCO under the International Programme for Development of Communication in association with Myrada, a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation. The Rs 9.5 lakh production station features a recording studio and an instrument room, complete with analog mixers and portable recorders. Selected villagers are trained to use these facilities. Although the broadcast is through All India Radio, the station manages everything from scripting to programme making.

"It does not have the sophistication of an fm station, but it is the most effective tool for rural communication," points out Ashish Sen, director of Voices, a development communication organisation that helped UNESCO and Myrada put up the studio. The concept, admits village chief Marakaya Gowda, has proved very helpful in reaching out to the villagers whenever an important announcement has to be made or when information on farming has to be disseminated.

Significantly, the nature of the programming at the centre, appropriately called Namma Dhwani or "Our Voices", is community driven. As All India Radio Director H.R. Krishnamurthy explains, the community radio helps address problems at a local level because the responsibility of creating programmes lies with the people themselves. Based on everyday experience, the features focus on developmental issues like literacy, health, environment and gender, besides agriculture.

Says Professor M. Tawkif, director and UNESCO representative in India: "Community radio has enormous potential of voicing the concerns within and between communities." Besides being an effective communication tool, radio ensures a high level of transparency and accountability in a decentralised administration.

UNESCO's experience in the disadvantaged areas of countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives has shown that community radio, which can be operated at relatively low costs, has the ability to function as an interface to reap the benefits of new technology as well. Plans are afoot to upgrade the Budikote audio production centre into a multi-media unit and eventually link it to the neighbouring villages of Marthahalli, Dhorlaki and Dinhalli. With Internet facilities, the centre would enable children and teachers to benefit from the vast repository of online information.

For the moment though, the villagers of Budikote, as R. Balakrishnan of Myrada points out, are yet to get over the initial excitement. Ten-year-old Archana and her friend Sunitha, 11, for instance, cannot stop talking about their first experience on air. "We had only heard others sing on the radio but now we are actually doing it," say the girls who were part of a 12-member children's group selected to render folk songs on the radio. It is this sense of pride, besides participation, that UNESCO believes will set the tone for a better Budikote.