Empowerment of fishermen is all set to tune in to the airwaves, thanks to an initiative taking shape among the community in Kerala.
With active participation from a group of organisations, including the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies, indiadisasters.org, D C School of Management and Technology and some of those who work at the Technopark here -- the new initiative is the launch of a unique FM radio channel that will cater to the various needs of the fisherfolk. Christened Radio Alakal (waves), the FM channel will commence broadcast on an experimental basis on May 1.
Talking to Business Standard, T Peter, president of the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, said, "Post-tsunami, the fisherfolk have been deprived of exact information that would help them carry out their activities unhindered. Moreover, the information they now get is half-baked and there have been instances of the info they were fed with turning out to be negative. This is why we thought of the need for a medium that would disseminate exact information to the fishermen."
Radio Alakal has been planned in such a way that fisheries related news, traditional knowledge relating to fishing activities, info on the prevailing market rates of fish, the prices of fishing gear available in the market, answers to export-related queries and art forms prevalent among the fishing community and the like are aired.
The network will run on a low power transmitter operating at 90.4 MHz.
The recording and editing of the programmes for broadcast would be done at the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) campus at Sasthamangalam in the city. SPACE provides the technical support for the project.
According to Peter, initially the broadcast has been planned for three-hour duration. The federation is also establishing radio clubs and will set up radio kiosks at all the fish landing centres along the coast. Local volunteers would be in charge of the programming, he added.
This being the election season in Kerala, the brains behind the project are waiting for the poll process to come to an end and plan launch Radio Alakal in a major way soon afterwards.
