Radio Vishwas, a Community Radio Station operating in Maharashtra's Nashik district which has been providing free audio lessons to school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, has bagged two awards of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
"Radio Vishwas, 90.8, a Community Radio Station (CRS) in Nashik, Maharashtra has bagged two awards at the 8th edition of the National Community Radio Awards instituted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting," an official release said here on Friday.
The station bagged the first prize in the Sustainability Model Awards category and the second prize in the Thematic Awards category for its program `Education for All in the times of COVID-19'.
Run by the Vishwas Dhyan Prabodhini & Research Institute, the station broadcasts for 14 hours daily.
Its program 'Shikshan Sarvansathi' (Education for all) that won the award was started in June 2020 to provide free education to students from std 3rd to 10th. The program features audio lectures in various languages including Hindi, English, Marathi and Sanskrit, said the release.
Station director Dr Hari Vinayak Kulkarni said the programs are meant for the students who cannot afford smartphones to access online classes.
"The project was implemented with the help of 150 teachers who recorded lectures in our studio," he said, adding that more than 50,000 students of municipal and Zilla Parishad schools in Nashik benefited from them.
The lectures were also shared with six other community radios in Maharashtra which broadcast them in other parts of the state, Kulkarni said.
Teachers also chipped in in other ways. "A group of teachers in Igatpuri tehsil distributed 451 FM devices including USB, bluetooth and high-end speakers to students....Teachers are also planning to upload lectures on YouTube which can be used when normal schooling begins," he said.
Over ten years, the station has developed an audience base of around three lakh, Kulkarni claimed.
Other programs broadcast by the station include 'Shahri Parasbaag' which gives information about how to grow a kitchen garden, while 'Mala Aavadlela Pustak' discusses books. 'Jaaniv Samajktechi' focusess on problmes of senior citizens.
