NEPAL: Women Call for Equality, Recognition On-Air

By Kishor Pradhan

A woman's quest for equality and a venue to present women's issues has led to the creation of an all-women radio station in Nepal.

Frustrated with being "denied by the radios" she used to work for to allow her to produce political and current affairs programmes, among other  limitations, Kabita Sharma did the next best thing — form her own radio station wholly managed by women. Thus, Radio Mukti was born.

Based in the central region of Butwal, Radio Mukti was born after Sharma organised and registered a woman's group called Mahila Samanthako Lagi Sanchar Abhiyan (Media Campaign for Women's Equality). It went on air in December 2008 and currently broadcasts for 18 hours a day.

"We have a daily half-hour programme that focuses on women's issues  called Hamro Abhiyan (Our Campaign)," says Asmina Panday, Radio Mukti programme producer.

According to Radio Mukti assistant editor Indira Acharya, women subjected to domestic violence and dowry problems come to the station for support and to be heard.

"In the past three months, five women came to Radio Mukti to seek support regarding domestic violence," she  says.

Health issues, particularly reproductive health, are also a popular topic among its women listeners.

"Health programmes are quite popular... [as] women can openly share and inquire about their problems on the programme, which is conducted by women radio anchors and doctors," says Acharya.

According to the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (ACORAB) Nepal, there are 130 fully operational  community radios in the country. Of the more than 200 community radios given licenses, 169 are affiliated with ACORAB.

Given the unequal status of women in Nepal, it is not unusual that there are only three radio stations being operated and managed by women.

"Radio Mukti is the first all-women community radio in Nepal as all the 35 people working for it in managements and operations are all women," says Shova Sharma, an accountant at Radio Mukti.

She further asserts that Radio Mukti, unlike other two women radios in Nepal, is the only all-women radio who has an all-woman technicians on board.

There are currently 100 women-members of the Media Campaign for Women's Equality and they have contributed to run Radio Mukti with the motivation of having women put on equal footing and to empower women.

While it was difficult to get local advertisements at first, they eventually started getting calls from various entrepreneurs and NGOs asking them to carry their advertisements and public service announcements.

"This happened after they saw that Radio Mukti was doing good work in raising women's issues," says Sharma.

Presently, the radio gets local advertisements from jewelry shops, medical houses, beauty parlours, hotels and NGOs. Radio Mukti's weekly reproductive health programme is fully sponsored by a medical house in Butwal.

The 35 women who work for Radio Mukti are all young, and are a mix of single and married [women] either working part-time or full time.

Though Radio Mukti has been fulfilling its mission of raising women's voices for equality, it has not been free of challenges or threats.

"We receive threatening calls from families of women who come to our radio programmes for interviews on dowry-related violence," says Acharya. Fortunately for them, the threats have not gone beyond phone calls.

Radio Mukti covers the travel costs of women to come to the radio station and share their experiences on the air.

"However, just doing a radio programme and raising awareness about the plight of women do not solve the problem," says Acharya, adding that they need the cooperation from other NGOs working on women's rights, legal, health issues, to name a few, to solve the problems.

Another challenge is how to keep within their limited budget and continue to go on air.

Says Sharma, "We have a running cost of about 300,000 rupees (4,000 U.S. dollars) a month, but can make an income of only 100,000 rupees (1,337 dollars) from the local advertisements."

She  adds that they are planning to start an income-generation activities of the women''s group, such as sewing and tailoring, and the surplus from these will be contributed to the radio.

The women behind Radio Mukti, however, will continue with what they have started.

"We can't stop operating no matter how difficult it is at times," says Sharma, who is quite optimistic the radio will survive to raise women's voice for equality.

(For more, visit http://kishorpradhan.wordpress.com/)