TELEVISION IN INDIA
Television is the most wanted equipment in every family now days. It decorates our leisure hours with varieties of infotainment dishes. The sour and …is familiar to our families. Spicy spinouts flow from entertainment channels is not a naughty thing; but a common joke. Simply our life is redesigned according to television schedules. Even though things are developed so, do you know that in earlier days television was an unwanted child.
While searching the grass roots of developments in television transmission in India, the researcher may fall in a face- to face with a myth and of course a reality. The birth of television in India is considered as the birth of an “unwanted child”.
An international exhibition was conducted in Delhi. It was a leading concern dealing with electronics demonstrates the function of a closed circuit television. After the exhibition, the firm was trapped in a dilemma whether the television sets return or put it in India. Considering the impracticable and uneconomic effort to carry the equipments back, the firm preferred to offer it as a gift to the government of India.
India government had no other alternative. So planned to utilize the sets on an experimental basis. As early as 1956 the government of India was in contact with international organization like the UNESCO. A proposal regarding establishment of a pilot television centre for educational, scientific and cultural purposes was designed. The emergence of television in India became a reality in September 15.1959 with one hour experimental service twice a week. The main purposes of this initiative were “educate inform and entertain the masses”
In his inaugural speech. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India stated “I hope television will so a long way in broadening the popular outlook and bringing people in line with scientific thinking” The words of the great visionary became a practice of modem India. Television is the most influential medium in our current society.
Indian television sectors had developed as part of experiments in rural development. Two major experiments mark the Indian experiences in rural transmission. They are Satellite Instructional Experiment (SITE) and the Kheda Communication Project in 1975.
SITE
SITE is a result of a recommendation by the UNESCO expert mission in 1967. Department of atomic energy made an agreement with National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) of US for the loan of a satellite for one year starting from August 1975. It was the first experiment to telecast educational programmes direct from satellite to receivers. The experiment practiced in 2400 villages spread over six selected regions in Orissa. Madhya Pradesh. Bihar, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Besides the villages, certain towns also got the programs through earth transmitters.
The earth stations at Delhi and Ahmedabad telecasted four hours programs every day. The programs concentrated on education, agriculture, health and family planning.
All India Radio personnel planned and produced these programs at the production centers setup in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Cuttack. A committee included central and state government representatives, experts from universities, teacher-training colleges and social workers helped the production team. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) set up its own Audio -visual Instruction Division to plan and produce programs for SITE. The project was concluded in 1986.
Kheda Communication Project
Kheda is a small district in central Gujarath. For empowering the rural community, an instructional television project was introduced. Social evils were addressed in the special television experiment named Kheda Communication Project. The project was in operation under the charge of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. To implement the experiment, 607 community television sets had installed in 443 villages. The television sets were owned by the community and maintained by the state government. The sets kept in the buildings of the milk producer’s co-operative society or the panchayath ghar.
Dooradarshan and the Space Application Centre produced programs for over an hour every day. Constant interaction with the people was the distinct characteristic of this project. Programs designed in charotari, a dialect of Gujarat. One of the early serials Chatur Mota on dowry and widow remarriage became an “extremely popular serial”. In the weekend series for women, the most successful were Dadi ma Ni baton (wise women’s talks), Hun Ne MaraAe (I and my husband and Jagi Ni Jus To (When I wake up and see).
The project commenced its operation in 1975 and closed in 1987. The focuses of Kheda Communication Project were:
Exposing the oppression and bondages in the present social and economic system in such a way as to heighten understanding.
Mobilizing the community and the individual himself to break away from these bondages.
Promoting self-reliance among the individuals and the community.
We are now marching towards a media driven society by transforming our tastes and ethos. A new kind of colonialism is invading and ruling over local cultural sources and practices. Indigenous expertise and practices are considered to be out fashioned by the influence of western styles. Even local channels try their best to promote such a life style through various programs and advertisements. Because consumerism is the backbone of interested groups who are the major promoters of channels and major sources of income.
e-mail me: ratheeshkaliyadan@gmail.com
