“Vanakkam Nanbargaleee!!!”, cried a happy voice on the mic as Nagapattinam woke up to a bright Monday morning with sleep in the eyes.

“Inniki endha naal unga terima?” , asked the happy R.J. jovially on the mic of the radio station as followers jostled to switch on their radio sets in different parts of the district to catch R.J. Durga LIVE on Kalanjiam Vanoli - the community radio station in Keeliyur block.

Behind R.J. Durga, today, however, stood a young lad trying to absorb the local language and smiling as Ms. Durga happily engaged with her audience. It has been six months since his arrival and Ajay, the SBI Youth for India fellow hailing from Kolkata had already started to follow the local dialects and traditions as he interacted with the community.

“I am trying to use participatory media approach to sensitise the community youth about the issues prevalent in the area and documenting the sustainable fishing practices.The project aims to sensitise the youth and try to start communication in the right direction for solving them. ”

Mr. Ajay Jhawar

“Community radio in rural areas seems to be a very useful platform”, he says as he happily listens to the delightful voice of Ms. Durga as she captivated her audience with her talks and laughs. “No wonder that it can be used as a medium to talk about rural issues, challenges faced by the community, and to capture the essence of traditional practices”, he adds.

Ajay’s interventions in Nagapattinam involve sensitizing the community using audio, video, and written media. Ajay believes that in the post-4-G world one can also involve social media platforms and audio/video content creation to complement existing radio stations.

Ajay is trying to use this participatory media approach to sensitize the community youth about the issues prevalent in the area and documenting sustainable fishing practices. The project aims to sensitize the youth and try to start communication in the right direction for solving them.

As of now he and his group of volunteers have done a commendable job in gathering the voice of the fishermen and local farmers. During the recent state elections his team raised voters’ awareness by interviewing several villagers including the seniors and retired headmasters and creating video documentaries on the same.

In near future, he is planning to take up awareness camps, drawing and storytelling competitions on selected topics to involve children in the process.

Ajay Interacting with villagers