Welcome To Charkha Development Communication Network

Development in our country continues to elude the ‘last man’. In large tracts of rural areas, individuals and communities face exclusion, sometimes in multiple forms.

They remain bereft of ways to access information on their rights and entitlements, on existing programmes and potential avenues to improve their lives. Their issues and perspectives remain largely missing from the mainstream media.

Charkha’s focus is on this last man. It sees communication as the key to empowering rural marginalized communities enabling an access to information and to articulate their issues. It seems the mainstream media as a potent force to reach these issues to the policy makers and governance systems at the local, regional and national levels.

Charkha effectively uses the power of the mainstream media to articulate the concerns on the ground and reach these to decision-makers at every level.

The Charkha-UNICEF partnership

Violence against children is all too often unseen, unheard and under reported. UNICEF has announced an initiative that urges citizens, lawmakers, journalists, filmmakers and governments in India to speak out more forcefully to fight violence against children, with a special focus on child marriage and early childhood development, as part of its campaign ‘End Violence against Children’.
The Charkha and UNICEF partnership would address the aforementioned issues by implementing communication activities in such as writing skills workshops with college students, dialogues with Screen Writers, Theatre Persons and Journalists and features/articles on the issues to be published on Charkha Web Portal.

The Buzz Now

Communication Workshop for Aga Khan Foundation held from 18^th to 20^th September 2018 at Patna

A total of 27 participants attended the workshop on all three days.Charkha was represented by Mr. Mario Noronha, CEO and Mr. Mohd. Anis Ur Rahman Khan, Deputy Editor as the two trainers for the entire workshop.

DAY 1 – Introductions were done through a fun exercise. All the participants were asked to divide themselves into pairs and then introduce their partners. They were asked to mention their partners name, father’s name, education qualifications, hobbies and interests.

Writing Skill Development Workshop for Rural Reporting, Leh, Ladakh

Charkha organized a four-day capacity building workshop, titled “Writing Skill Development Workshop for Rural Reporting’ in Leh, Ladakh from 20-23 March 2018. This was held in coordination with the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (SLC- IT) an organisation that works to promote community awareness on wildlife conservation, natural habitats, and environmental protection. The workshop was held in a large well-lit airy hall in SLC’s premises –with seating on the ground and attractive low tables embossed with colorful motifs.

Testimonials

Shri Niranjan Singh

who teaches Journalism at the Maharishi Shasakiya Mahavidyalaya at Bhanupratappur, Kanker District, Chhattisgarh, led the participants of Charkha’s Skill Building Sessions to bring out a bi-monthly two-page Newsletter named Bhanuday. The initial issues focused on activities within the College and of interest to students. Plans are afoot to expand the scale and coverage of the Newsletter to highlight the development issues of the rural communities in south Chhattisgarh and Raipur, best practices and development opportunities for the target audiences.

Shri Qamar Alam Sahz

A participant hailing from Sitamarhi District who attended the Skill Building Session held in July 2009 in Darbhanga, Bihar, has started writing regularly as Staff Reporter for “Qaumi Tanzeem”, an Urdu periodical published from Patna and Ranchi simultaneously. At the same time, he is reporting for a Mumbai based newspaper “Tirchi Aankhein” which carries a special page on Bihar. He told us, “After the workshop, I started working for Nepal FM Radio too, in addition to the mainstream papers. I now have access to space for development stories, for which I would like to thank Charkha and the teachings I received in the Sessions.”

Media persons

including local journalists writing for district newspapers requested that similar training programs be organized for them to build greater sensitivity and orientation towards development issues from the people’s perspective. Involvement with the initiative would also give them access to information and links with grassroots people, enabling them to represent the unheard voices of marginalized rural communities.

Prof. Vidyanath Jha

Principal,MRM Girls College, Darbhanga, endorsed the view in an independent discussion, when he said, “I want to thank Charkha for creating such an opportunity for our students - their writings are now being published in various Urdu newspapers. The students have shared these published articles with the Faculty. In recognition of their efforts and exemplary initiative to speak on behalf of the disadvantaged, we have recognized them with Awards on Independence Day, August 15, 2009. The Skill Building Workshop was very necessary for students of this Girl’s College as most of these girls hail from marginalized villages. As a teacher, it is our duty to encourage them.”

Dr. Imam Azam,

Regional Director, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Darbhanga, prolific writer and Chief Guest at the Skill Building Session held at Darbhanga, appreciated the initiative saying, “Such programs are rarely conducted. Everyone should take part in them so that they receive help with writing skills, and are not dependent on those who are supposedly more ‘learned’.”

Charkha

Welcome To Charkha Development Communication Network

The Charkha-UNICEF partnership

The Buzz Now

Testimonials

About Us

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