Giving voice to sanitation advocacy through radio

The recent passing of Mark Tully, the legendary BBC broadcaster, brought into focus the importance of radio as a communication vehicle in a vast and diverse country like India.

- Lalita Panicker

It is for this reason Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation (SMART)'s work on a project by the WASH-CCES team, supported by UNICEF, Delhi, that works across four states with 25 community radio stations to reinforce Swachh Bharat objectives becomes so relevant. An example from Jhabua reflects the power of community radio in remote areas.

When 25-year-old Santi Damor moved to Mohanpura, a village just seven km away from Jhabua town, after marriage, she expected rural life to be different. Born into the Bhil tribal community, she had studied up to college and she carried with her habits and ideas shaped by that education. But, in Mohanpura, she was struck by one reality above all: Despite having a toilet, no one in her new home used it. It had become a storeroom, while the family used the fields for toilet purposes.