Radio Vishwas, a community radio station (CRS) in Maharashtra's Nashik city, has won two awards at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's 8th National Community Radio Awards. For its radio programme 'Education for All,' Radio Vishwas90.8 got first place in the "Sustainability Model Awards" category and second place in the "Thematic Awards" category.
The Vishwas Dhyan Prabodhini and Research Institute, Nashik, Maharashtra, has been airing Radio Vishwas since its inception. The station broadcasts for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. 'Shikshan Sarvansathi,' a CRS effort that won the award in the Thematic Category, was launched in June 2020 to give free education to pupils in grades 3 through 10 during the challenging COVID-19 period.
All pupils studying in Zilla Parishad and Nashik Municipal schools were given access to audio lectures. The show was broadcast in a variety of languages, including Hindi, English, Marathi, Sanskrit.
Dr Hari Vinayak Kulkarni, CRS's tation director, said the seminar garnered a lot of favourable feedback. “These are pupils who are impoverished and unable to purchase cellphones for digital education.” With the support of 150 professors who taped lectures in our studio, the Shikshan Sarvaansathi project was realised. The lectures were then broadcast in the time slots assigned to each subject.
Dr. Kulkarni went on to say that the lectures were also shared with six Maharashtra community radio stations so that they may air them on their stations. “We are pleased to have been able to assist kids from across Maharashtra, as six community radio stations requested us to offer this programming for transmission in their cities.” Dr. Kulkarni also discussed the efforts made by teachers to provide FM gadgets to children.
“A group of professors in Nashik's Igatpuri taluka delivered 451 FM equipment to students, including USB, Bluetooth, and high-end speakers, to ensure that they did not miss any of the current syllabus. Teachers are also intending to post it on YouTube, which can be used when regular school is not available.