Nashik’s Community Radio Station that helped students without smartphones to pursue their studies bags National Award

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 2nd July. Radio Vishwas, a Community Radio Station (CRS) in Nashik, Maharashtra has bagged two awards at the 8th edition of the National Community Radio Awards instituted by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Radio Vishwas 90.8 won the first prize in the “Sustainability Model Awards” category and the Second prize in the “Thematic Awards” category for its radio program ‘Education for All’ in the times of COVID-19.Radio Vishwas is run by the Vishwas Dhyan Prabodhini & Research Institute, Nashik, Maharashtra and has been broadcasting since its launch. The station broadcasts 14 hours daily.’Shikshan Sarvansathi’ (Education for All). The CRS’ initiative, ‘Shikshan Sarvansathi’ (Education for all) that won award under the Thematic Category was started in June 2020 to provide free education for students from 3rd to 10th grade, during the difficult time of COVID-19. Audio lectures were aired and made accessible to all the students who study in Zilla Parishad and Nashik Municipal schools. The programme was broadcast in various languages i.e. Hindi, English, Marathi, Sanskrit.
About the functioning and the approach of the CRS, Station Director, Dr. Hari Vinayak Kulkarni said the programme received a very positive response. “These are the students who are trapped in poverty and cannot afford smart-phones for digital education. ‘Shikshan Sarvaansathi’ project was implemented with the help of 150 teachers who recorded lectures in our studio. The lectures were then aired according to the slots allocated to each subject. The programme received a huge response from the targeted community; approximately 50,000 – 60,000 students of municipal and ZP schools benefited”.