Paper short abstract:

This paper shares the participatory process that shaped the gender sensitivity manual produced by the author and the insights from representatives of Indian community radio stations that contributed to the co-learning process. It analyses the capabilities that the manual seeks to focus on and the gender-based challenges that disrupt the agency of the community media producers at the grassroots.

Paper long abstract:

The author has been working on community radio (CR) in India and South Asia for the past two decades, and her work has contributed to policy advocacy and formulation. She has been researching the empowerment question of CR concerning women in South Asia. CR has a track record of facilitating social groups in negotiating diverse identities and articulating concerns from marginalized perspectives. Many CR initiatives are women-led, while others work on issues related to women and gender. Despite the proven ability of CR as a platform for marginalized women, there has been no systematic or conscious attempt to develop tools to build the capacities of CR stations for strengthening gender sensitivity in its policies, operations, and programming. A participatory project granted to the UNESCO Chair on Community Media by the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) was anchored by the author, who sought to address this gap by developing a Gender Sensitivity Manual for Community Radio. This paper will share the participatory process that shaped the manual despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and the insights from representatives of CR stations that contributed to the co-learning process. It analyses the capabilities that the manual seeks to focus on and the gender-based challenges that disrupt the agency of the community media producers at the grassroots.