CHANGING LIVES ON AIR- 10 YEARS & COUNTING

Community radio marked its 10-year anniversary on June 25 by doing what it does best — celebrate diversity. Pinky Chandran, who is the director of Radio Active CR 90.4, remembers the journey since the inception of the channel. “It has been more of an eye-opener than anything else for me,” she says. Community radio is all about inclusion of people from various social and financial backgrounds. Those who have been a part of it are sex workers, those with disabilities, rag-pickers, sexual minorities, etc.

Pinky highlights how the show unfolds. “The best part is that everyone gets to choose the show, what they want to talk about, and even the language. Everything here works on partnership and it would be very unfair if I had to pick one story which or instance which is above another because we have grown constantly. It is really nice to see everyone, including the ones who have not been schooled using the production set and being part of the program committee.”

For instance, Sujatha who comes from a family of waste pickers chose an alternative career path and studied radiology. A lady of few words, she joined the radio to mobilise the community. In the process, she realised that the lack of information about RTE is hindering children of waste pickers and started a campaign on that.