Ramvati is not your ordinary mother, she’s an RJ for Community Radio Dhadkan 107.8 FM and has 5 villages in her domain.
Her day starts early, she finishes her household work and sets off for office. After all the hard work and perseverance with which she runs her office, she is easy to find now.
Her abode is a thatched hut close to the national highway leading to Shivpuri, a district in Madhya Pradesh. If you see a decently clad woman walking in the fields and talking to farmers and their wives, a radio in hand, that’s her.
The radio station is run by a local NGO called Sambhav that started broadcasting after getting funding from UNESCO in 2008. Community radios are playing a huge part in broadcasting information to the rural areas of India, where all might not be literate. These areas might not be on the high priority list of the government, but the efforts of women like Ramvati are closing in the gap. She talks about her people, to her people, and with her people.
She belongs to the Sahari tribe, which was till sometime back one of the most backward in the region. In four years, she has managed to trickle information on maternal health, education and hygiene down to the grass root level. The seeds of change that she has planted are sure to bring in Acche Din.
