Gaon Ki Awaaz

Description

Gaon Ki Awaaz was inspired by the spread of mobile phone in Indian villages. It presented the opportunity to create a news service that was about villagers and in their language, and which informed them of what was happening in their village and neighbouring villages. With this in mind Goan Ki Awaaz was set up in Rampur-Mathura village of Uttar Pradesh. Two audio bulletins are transmitted as voice calls every day – one at 12 noon and the other at 5 p.m. They inform villagers of happenings like thefts, animal strikes, fires, village fairs, weddings, births, deaths, prayer meetings, etc. that has happened in their village or surrounding villages. The bulletins also inform them of health camps, local school and board exams, training/coaching classes being conducted in the village, government directives on employment, health care, farm prices etc. The news bulletins are free for villagers. The cost is borne from Knight Fund grants and some local advertising obtained from village shopkeepers. It is heartening to note that the village merchants want to advertise on the channel as they find it a useful medium to carry their message forward. The technologies used to run the service are: mobile phones to record and transmit audio as MMS messages, Mobile Internet Platform to transmit edited bulletins as voice calls on entry-level phones used by villagers, and a website to store daily bulletins (http://gaonkiawaaz.wordpress.com).

What we deliver?

Local news and information in the local language.

Why is the project unique?

The project integrates 5 processes to give a new dimension to the way a mobile phone and the Internet can be integrated. a. Village reporter uses MMS-enabled phone to record news in local dialect. b. Audio is transmitted to the editor’s MMS-enabled phone. c. Editor transfers the audio to the laptop, converts it into WAV file, and edits it. d. Editor transmits file to IT company that uses Mobile Internet Platform (MIP) to broadcast the news as voice calls to all villagers whose numbers are stored in it. e. All bulletins are published on the net as audio files with transcripts for anyone to access.

Contact

Sunil Saxena
D 59, Sector 2 Noida
Uttar Pradesh India 201301

URL/Website – www.iimi.com