In a remote region of central India, a citizen journalist reached for a cell phone recently, and with the push of a few buttons filed a report to a mobile phone news service developed by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary. The story was about school workers going unpaid for more than a year, and included contact information for the education secretary.
Once it was confirmed and approved by professionals, the story was made available publicly. Subscribers to the news service got a prompt on their own cell phones that a new story had been posted. Villagers – many of them illiterate, with little access to community news in their local language – called a phone number and listened to the story.
Scores of people soon called the education secretary to express concern about the school workers. Within a week, they were paid.
Since the service began earlier this year, citizen journalists trained by Choudhary have filed nearly 200 other stories. Choudhary is the mastermind behind CGnet Swara, which loosely translates as “the voice of Chhattisgarh,” an Indian state with a large population of tribal citizens. There are more than 80 million tribal Indians, or Adivasis, in India.
“As a journalist,” Choudhary says, “I found the mainstream media completely cut off from the locals of Chhattisgarh.”
He began with a vision: to provide a news service for the impoverished people of this vast region. Because the tribal communities have severely limited power supplies, the challenge was finding a means of mass communication they could readily access.
“There is at least one mobile phone in every village,” Choudhary says, “so I thought there must be a way to take advantage of this to get news to the people.”
Partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Microsoft Research India, he developed a low-tech system that essentially turns cell phones into community radios. The first of its kind, the project is a prototype that could be replicated in remote areas around the world. With funding through UNICEF, Choudhary has trained a corps of citizen journalists.
The stories they have filed are making a difference. One report highlighted community concerns about a liquor store located in front of a school. After the report aired, the head of the district ordered the shop to be closed.
Calls now average 50 per day, and some of the reports are also sent by email to a group of 1,700 activists and journalists. Mainstream media outlets have begun to pick up some of the reports, giving far greater exposure for tribal issues.