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Kheda Communication Project

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Sakshi Kasana
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148 views

Kheda Communication Project

Uploaded by

Sakshi Kasana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Kheda

Communicat
ion Project
• The Kheda Communications Project or KCP aimed at the
development and local communication in Kheda district of Gujarat.
• The project was in operation under the charge of the Space
Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. The Development and Education
Communication Unit (DECU) of Space Application Center (CAS) is
involved in the conception, definition, planning, implementation and
socio-economic evaluation of space applications.
• This project began in 1975 and continued till 1990.
• Kheda Communications Project is believed to be a milestone in the
history of Indian television.
• The Development and Education Communication Unit managed this
project and produced the development and educational programmes
that involved the local audience.
• This project was tested for the production of research based
participatory development programmes receiving worldwide
recognition and acceptance.
• Dooradarshan and the Space Application Centre produced programmes for
over an hour every day.
• Programmes focused on alcoholism, caste discrimination, minimum wages,
family planning, gender discrimination and cooperatives. Television serials,
folk drama, puppet shows and other popular formats used for local
productions.
• Villagers worked for the project as actors, script writers, directors and
visualizers for the programme production teams. Constant interaction with
the people was the distinct characteristic of this project.
•
Programmes designed in charotari, a dialect of Guajarati. One of the early
serials Chatur Mota (wise elder) on dowry and widow remarriage became
an “extremely popular serial”.
• In the weekend series for women, the most successful were Dadi ma Ni
haton (wise women’s talks), Hun Ne Mara Ae (I and my husband)
and Jagi Ni Jus to (When I wake up and see).
The focus of Kheda Communication Project was:

• Exposing the oppression and bondages in the present


social and economic system in such a way as to heighten
understanding.
• Mobilizing the community and the individual himself to
break away from these bondages.
• Promoting self-reliance among the individuals and the
community.
• Thus Kheda Communication Project could broadcast
either local television programmes or national
satellite television programmes.
• Around 650 community television sets were provided to
400 villages and also installed in public places like
schools, where village audiences gathered in the evenings
to view the broadcasts.
• Technicians periodically toured these villages to get
service and repair the television sets.
• Kheda district comprises some 1,000 villages with over three
million inhabitants.
• In recent decades, it has become a major center for milk
production in India, as part of the so-called "White Revolution".
• The Kheda Communication Project was independent of
commercial interests, as it depended mainly on government
funds for financial support.
• Managed by the Space Application Center, it enjoyed a great
deal of political autonomy from the national government, and
the support of the state government.
• The Kheda Communication Project greatly depended on
audience research by conducting assessments of village
audiences and by carrying out formative and summative
evaluations of Kheda television programs.
• The venture promoted rural development and social change
at the local level.
• Audience participation was vastly encouraged at all levels.
Villagers were involved as actors, writers, and visualisers in
the production of television programs dealing with such
local issues as exploitation, caste discrimination, alcoholism,
minimum wages, co-operatives, local and national elections.
• Television serials, folk drama, puppet shows, and other
popular local formats were used to continue issues such as
family planning, gender equality, and village sanitation.
• Chatter Mota (Wise Elder) and Nari Tu Narayani (Woman
You Are Powerful) were two popular entertainment-
education serials produced by Kheda Communication
Project with the lively participation of its audience members.
• The Kheda Project was instrumental in decentralizing television
broadcasting in India.
• Kheda Communication Project received the prominent UNESCO
Prize in 1984 for rural communication efficiency.
• However, the Indian government did not replicate the Kheda
Communication Project community-based television model in
other regions of India.
• Instead, in 1985, when a high-powered transmitter was
commissioned in Ahmedabad with a range that covered Kheda
district, the government decreed that the Kheda transmitter should
be shifted to Chennai in order to facilitate a second entertainment
channel for its urban residents.
• Spending money on running a rural community-based
communication project was considered to be useless, when
advertising incomes can easily come from metro audiences.
• The Kheda Communication Project later demonstrated the
missed out opportunities to capitalise the lessons of SITE in
utilizing television for social progress.
• The Space Application Center designed these hardy television
sets with easily replaceable fuses, and sealed them to reduce
problems of vibration during transportation and the penetration
of dust and moisture.
• Chicken-mesh antennae and television sets represent
examples of how technology can be reconfigured to meet rural
needs, benefiting the most disadvantaged audience segments.
• Kheda Communication Project reflected the idea of "limited
rebroadcast" and inherited the technology of direct
broadcasting. This network was widely used for local village
communication in Gujarat.

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