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Community effects of Radio in Lutsaan
The present authors conducted a case study of the effects of entertainment – education radio in village Lutsaan, Uttar Pradesh State, Starting in 1997. Our study showed that radio programmes can create a climate for social change by stimulating inter-personal discussions and encouraging collective action at the village level.
How did we become interested in Lutsaan? In December 1996, a colourful 21x27 inch poster letter manifesto, initiated by a village tailor in Lutsaan, with the signatures and thumb prints of 184 villages, was mailed to All India Radio in New Delhi. At that time, AIR was broadcasting the entertainment-education soap opera ‘tinka tinka sukh’. We were in-charge of evaluating its impact. The poster letter stated “listening to tinka tinka such has benefited all listeners of our village, specially the women ... listeners of our village now actively oppose the practice of dowry – they neither give nor receive dowry.” This unusual letter was forwarded to the present authors by Usha Bhasin, the programme’s executive producer at AIR. Just prior to the writing of this letter, a tragic dowry death had occurred in an episode of tinka tinka sukh.
We were immediately intrigued by the postal letter. We visited village Lutsan in August 1997. The postal letter suggested that, tinka tinka sukh had had a srong impact on this village. We wondered whether or not the villagers had been able to actually change their dowry behaviour, a practice deeply ingrained in Indian culture. Upon our arrival, we learnt that the village had a Shyam club, with about 50 active members. The club carried out various sel-development activities, including village clean-up, fixing broken water pumps, and reducing religious/caste tensions in the village. The village post-master Om Prakash Sharma is chair of the club. In 1996-97, stimulated by tinka tinka sukh, the Shyam club devoted its main attention to such gender equality actions as
The present authors conducted a case study of the effects of entertainment – education radio in village Lutsaan, Uttar Pradesh State, Starting in 1997. Our study showed that radio programmes can create a climate for social change by stimulating inter-personal discussions and encouraging collective action at the village level.
How did we become interested in Lutsaan? In December 1996, a colourful 21x27 inch poster letter manifesto, initiated by a village tailor in Lutsaan, with the signatures and thumb prints of 184 villages, was mailed to All India Radio in New Delhi. At that time, AIR was broadcasting the entertainment-education soap opera ‘tinka tinka sukh’. We were in-charge of evaluating its impact. The poster letter stated “listening to tinka tinka such has benefited all listeners of our village, specially the women ... listeners of our village now actively oppose the practice of dowry – they neither give nor receive dowry.” This unusual letter was forwarded to the present authors by Usha Bhasin, the programme’s executive producer at AIR. Just prior to the writing of this letter, a tragic dowry death had occurred in an episode of tinka tinka sukh.
We were immediately intrigued by the postal letter. We visited village Lutsan in August 1997. The postal letter suggested that, tinka tinka sukh had had a srong impact on this village. We wondered whether or not the villagers had been able to actually change their dowry behaviour, a practice deeply ingrained in Indian culture. Upon our arrival, we learnt that the village had a Shyam club, with about 50 active members. The club carried out various sel-development activities, including village clean-up, fixing broken water pumps, and reducing religious/caste tensions in the village. The village post-master Om Prakash Sharma is chair of the club. In 1996-97, stimulated by tinka tinka sukh, the Shyam club devoted its main attention to such gender equality actions as