TALK ABOUT PROOF

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ISSUE 37

“VOICES, a unit of Madhyam Communications (a registered non-profit trust), was set up in 1991 as a development communications organisation working towards the empowerment of the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society.”

Vision

We believe in a world without prejudice where people are empowered to make informed choices and live with dignity. We believe that media has a catalytic role in making this a reality.

Mission

We advocate communications for change through

Communication production and dissemination
Communication training and action research
Development education
Networking and consultancy

Voices For Change

Gujarat, Governance and the Media is not just about Gujarat. It is about all of us in the context of a professedly multi – cultural society which should conform to the constiutional legitimacy of social, democratic and secular republic. Citizenry has to get its act together and actively engage in the governance process if these precepts are to be substantiated by practice and not insidiously violated. The events in Gujarat also clearly leave no room for sitting on the fence. As Martin Luther King pointed out long ago, ” A time comes when silence is a betrayal.”

Public memory is notoriously short. This, coupled with the lack of citizenry engagement has contributed to lessons of the past being consigned to the backburner, and history repeating itself. Timely information, communication, documentation and dissemination can play a vital role in preventing mistakes of the past from casting a long shadow. Media’s role, both in terms of raising questions as well as tracking events pertinent to governance, then, assumes additional significance. It is against this backdrop that the raison d’etre for the current issue of the journal has taken shape.

Development Education

VOICES, in collaboration with ActionAid, Bangalore, has, in February 2003, operationalised a media education programme which will train college & school students in Bangalore on issues related to communal harmony

The programme uses the crisis in Gujarat as a peg ; however, it will also take from other related issues which are covered in the media to discuss secularism and peace .

PROOF Puttanna

A radio programme to communicate the status of the PROOF campaign in simple terms is being aired in Kannda every Wednesday over Akashvani FM 101. 3. To make this seemingly heavy subject appeal to the listener, an common man character called PROOF PUTTANNA has been introduced and the programme itself is named after him. He is on a journey of discovery in the world of PROOF and he shares his views and understanding with the listener and gets to meet important PROOF participants on the programme. Every episode offers the chance to win a prize, by responding to a question on some aspect of the campaign.

Want to know more?

Meet PROOF PUTTANNA every Wednesday between 8 & 8.15 p.m. on FM 101.3.

Community Communications & Media

In July 2002, Mr Ashish Sen, Director, VOICES presented a paper on Community Radio at the Asia – Pacific Forum on National Human Rights to address the subject of media for the purpose of human rights education .
As a part of the Our Media (a global community communications initiative) group , he was part of a panel on community media in Barcelona , prior to the IAMCR conference . In September, he participated at an Asia -Pacific meeting on media reforms and community media in Manila. The consultation was an initiative of WACC and SIGNIS and culminated in the formation of a task force for the region.

HIV/AIDS Media Advocacy

VOICES collaborated with the India Canada Collaborative HIV/AIDS Project (ICHAP) & the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) to bring out an HIV/AIDS Media Advocacy Kit in November 2002. The kit focuses on disseminating information about HIV/AIDS , in an attempt to educate the media and encourage them to attack the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS.