Mobile Vaani, a social media platform that works on similar lines as a community radio station, has used modern communication technologies to engage those who live even in the most remote of Indian villages and empower them
“Johar! Mobile Vaani mein aapka swagat hai…” — may not sound familiar to an urban citizen. But is the most comforting welcome note for nearly one lakh villagers hailing from the most remote hamlets of Jharkhand, who connect every day to Jharkhand Mobile Vaani, a unique voice-based social platform, to share their grievances. Rajiv Murmoo, a 40-year-old farmer from Santhal Pargana has found a new friend in Jharkhand Mobile Vaani whom he can call anytime of the day to either report a corrupt practice or find a solution to a problem being faced by villagers, confident that his voice will be heard.
Imparting this confidence in Rajiv and his peers is Gram Vaani (Voice of Villages), a social technology company based in Delhi that started with the intent of reversing the flow of information, that is, to make it bottom-up instead of top-down. Gram Vaani was co-founded by Aaditeshwar Seth in 2009. The idea took shape when Seth participated in a competition in 2008 while pursuing his PhD in Canada. The competition was organised by the Knight Foundation to explore the concept of community radio in India.
The Indian Government, at that time, realises that a large chunk of rural population could be left out of the development fold if appropriate steps were not taken in time. Thus it was promoting the policy of community radio. Nike Foundation, realising the need of the hour, organised a competition where it invited young minds to devise a software that could be used easily by first-time users of community radio. Seth, who was already conducting research on Internet connectivity systems in rural India, took on the challenge, devised a unique software and won the competition. This victory provided him with a grant that allowed him to set up Gram Vaani. This was his first step into the world of social development.
The first product that Gram Vaani launched was called Gramin Radio Inter-Networking System, an integrated software solution for running a community radio station that allowed programme scheduling and play-out, full telephony and SMS integration, Internet streaming, content management and statistical analysis of play-out history.
The initial plan, to connect rural India to the policymakers, was to have 3,000 to 4,000 community radio stations across the country. This, sadly, was not to be. Five years down the line, there are only a 125 radio stations of which 35 use the GRINS platform across 12 States. Stations use GRINS for live broadcasts of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and panchayat meetings. Schools have played antakshari over the phone and broadcast it on radio, via GRINS. A station has even run a reality show on folk music similar to Indian Idol, and used GRINS to track votes by listeners. Other stations have used the Interactive Voice Response feature of GRINS to record answers to quizzes, comments on problems with the MNREGA and public distribution system, anonymous reporting of events, and other purposes.
Being a social enterprise, Gram Vaani earns revenues by licensing its technology to other non-profit organisations to run community radio stations, helplines and data collection activities. Working with non-profit organisations acquainted Gram Vaani with challenges regarding impact assessment and social audit reports. According to Ashish Tandon, vice president, Business Development and Strategy: “Often there is bickering between the donors and the executing agencies regarding impact assessment reports. Donors do not want 10,000 families impacted; in fact, they want to know each and every touch point — have you actually met the familyIJ Do you have details of the beneficiaries in these reportsIJ Have they said that you have impacted their livesIJ This was not going anywhere.”
The team realised that even if it was a for-profit company for a social cause, it required a vision and a mission tied down to objectives which could be measured in real time. This was the area, the team realised, where it could work to find interesting solutions to address the needs of non-profits. This motivated Seth to work on what is now known as v-Automate Voice Solutions.
Even as community radio was working well with v-Automate solutions, there was an issue that the Gram Vaani team thought important to address — the issue of the digital divide. The urban population has easy access to the Internet but in rural areas, where a family of seven members survives on a meagre income of Rs 2,000, the question of Internet connectivity does not arise, leaving them way behind in the contemporary model of development.
“The way social media was used in recent election campaigns to make people aware of corrupt politicians has set an example before us. Just imagine, if this happens at the national level thanks to the digital divide, 70 per cent of our population with no access to the Internet will be left out from being a part of the revolution”, said Tandon.
The team was well aware of the fact that the Internet cannot be a solution till a certain economic level is achieved. While the entire team was thinking of innovative, out of the box solutions, it recognised that the rural communities who are the ‘have nots’ with no economic means to access the Internet, already have a technology at their disposal which they not only possess but are comfortable using — mobile phones. Thus was born Mobile Vaani.
In Mobile Vaani, as a user, you have to dial a number that connects you to the server that provides a variety of options to share, complain and learn. Users can leave their own comments and also participate in ongoing surveys. Unlike radio’s uni-directional bombardment of information, Mobile Vaani engages the community and gives it a platform to voice its opinions.
Shailendra Sinha, a Dumka-based journalist, says, “Mobile Vaani has become the voice of the rural people. Villagers, long neglected by the Government and media alike, finally have a platform where they can discuss issues regarding health, unemployment and education without fear and be reasonably confident of receiving a reply from the concerned authorities.”
Today, a person sitting in latehar can listen to a person from Ranchi who is more educated and well informed. In addition, current affair programmes are also being generated on a regular basis, where two anchors pick up a newspaper and discuss the national and local news in an entertaining manner, providing essential information to villagers.
Villagers are now aware of the decisions being taken in the national capital that can affect their lives, directly or indirectly. “One of the impacts of Mobile Vaani is that it changed the perception of the villagers. For example, a community meant a 100-odd households to an illiterate villager. They were not aware of the concept of administrative blocks that together constitute a district and so on. listening to Mobile Vaani changed the definitions for the villagers, eking out a living outside the development ambit of the Government”, shared Tandon.
In addition to the interactions using voice technology, Mobile Vaani has 22 community representatives working in the field in various districts of Jharkhand. They reach out to the villagers, organise meetings where they not only discuss social issues but get a chance to sing folk songs or fables. However, there is less participation from womenfolk in meetings and in surveys.
Now in its fifth year, Gram Vaani has faced challenges of a third world where it was difficult to convince the donors who had less understanding of how technology could empower the communities and help deliver the objectives of a project. But with several impact stories being written on the ground, the team is confident enough to expand its roots across the country. According to Seth, a lot of things have changed in their journey of five years. One thing that will never change is their vision of empowered communities.