Govt plans TV channel for rural masses

The rural development ministry is planning to launch a dedicated TV channel for the rural masses to ensure that information about the government’s various policies and programmes reaches the target group.

Rural development minister C P Joshi is working out the modalities with the information and broadcasting ministry. The channel is being planned along the lines of the Lok Sabha TV and is expected to be ready in a few months.

Joshi said unless people know about their rights, it is as good as not having those rights. The TV channel will air a variety of programmes, including a quiz show – along the lines of Kaun Banega Crorepati – where representatives from rural areas could participate and win prize money of Rs 1 crore. The questions would be based on village life, the right to information, government policies and programmes for the rural areas.

The channel would also focus on programmes – like the panchayat system, the schemes under NREGA, the need of watershed development and success stories from across the country in various villages – that will be of interest to and provide information exclusively for rural audience.

Joshi said crores of rupees have been spent in the last 60 years to address problems facing the rural population, but all developmental objectives could not be achieved. He said providing information to the masses was the main motive and this alone could help achieve many of the goals that had failed even after spending crores of rupees.

Lack of information had not allowed the rural population to avail the facilities provided by many centrally-sponsored programmes worth Rs 70,000 crore, he said.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who attended a workshop to determine the contents of the rural information drive, said democracy demands that the public broadcaster be used for building public awareness. The programmes will be entertaining as well as enlightening, said Soni.

He said there is a need to devise an out-of-the-box communications strategy to take the message of the ministry to the people. He said the quiz show would send across the right message to the people. The quiz, like other such shows, would be a commercial venture and could be outsourced. This could be a forum for sarpanches to learn and empower themselves, said Joshi.

The RD Ministry said funds were not a concern as far as the information campaign was concerned. The two ministries are also working on programmes that are to be aired on existing government-run channels and three weekly programmes on a private channel.