Giving a mobile voice to India’s villagers
In a remote corner of rural India, a new experiment using mobile phones is bringing people news made by local villagers. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey travels to Rajnandgaon district in the central state of Chhattisgarh to see who is tuning in.
A group of villagers sit on a shaded platform on a hot afternoon in Mirche village…
Listening to their complaints and grievances are Bhan Sahu and Budhan Meshram, who are “reporters” or “citizen journalists” for CGnet Swara (Chhattisgarh Net Voice).
CGnet is an attempt to cater to people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide, says Shubhranshu Choudhary, a former BBC journalist-turned-activist and the brain behind CGnet Swara.
“We are providing a new platform which the villagers can use to talk to each other and the outside world about issues that are important to them,” he says…And the technology, developed by Microsoft Research India and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is simple.
“Reporters” call a Bangalore number to upload a news item and a text message goes out to all the phone numbers in the contact list and anyone who wants to hear the report calls in to the same number and the message is played out…
CGnet was launched in February and Mr Choudhary says the response has been overwhelming.
RTFA. Truly interesting anecdotal tales of participants and politics, people finding a voice they know is their own.
