With the urban centres of India inundated with information thanks to the plethora of satellite channels, the focus of business, in particular marketing and communication, seems to be shifting to rural areas — in order to tap its vast and potential sections — with industry and media are all set to make inroads there.
An effort in that direction took place last month with the launch of a 24/7 Green India infotainment channel in Hindi with the objective of reaching out to the vast farming community and rural population and empowering them with relevant knowledge and opportunity to improve the quality of life. Pointing out that though a vast majority of Indians are dwelling in rural India every marketer wants to entice the urban people, Junaid Memon, the Director of the channel in an e mail interview comments, “Just count the number of channels we have for the urban viewer, over 200 for less than 30 per cent. None for those whose livelihood depends so much on information and innovation.” He points out that launching the channel “is the least one can do for this information deprived and often misinformed community”.
This comes as a sharp contradiction to what has been prevailing for the last so many years with Central and State Governments only initiating measures and methods and implementing to at least reach out to those confined to villages if not the remote areas. The lack of resources and shoddy execution proved to be a stumbling block.
The channel is not dedicated solely to agriculture but rural India and purports to cover everything that impacts and influences the lives of people in thousands of villages. The programme list is exhaustive and includes agriculture, poultry, fisheries, bee farming, cattle farming, dairy, horticulture, floriculture, education, sanitation, healthcare and sports, each designed with clear focus. Some examples of these are “Baatein Kheti Ki” (daily), “Poultry Times”, “Fishery Times” and “Dairy Times” (all weekly). The majority of the shows are designed to provide information on all aspects of farming to improve productivity and better understanding of the market and include “Khabar Munafe Ki” and “Mandi Live”, both commodity-based. The contents will also enable the viewers to have an effective perception of international markets and best farming practices used abroad and in other parts of the country.
Subjects crying out for attention like woman empowerment, sanitisation, child, woman health issues and environment, too will be tackled. Emphasises the director, “These programmes are not just cut and dry information. The attempt has been to make every programme informative, at the same time entertaining and memorable.” Sample environment-based “Dharati” which gives an overview of India’s environment ranging from the metros to the towns and villages.
The key software will be repeated thrice, not on the same day but within one week on different time bands, so that viewers can catch their desired programme as per their convenience. Interestingly, the prime time slots are 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. –– the opposite of any other TV channel, specially general entertainment channels.
Junaid is confident about meeting the challenge of providing shows for a 24x7 channel and says the material available for producing the contents for both agriculture and rural programmes is so much “that it will take few more TV channels to be able to showcase everything.”
He adds, “We are not worried about content at all. Rather we are worried what to show and what not to.”
Describing Green TV as a platform “which has two-way communication”, he explains that the “programmes are interactive and we are touching the grounds through all our shows every day.”
He expects it will also prove to be an effective mouthpiece for various ministries, non-governmental organisations and corporates to disseminate information on rural development schemes, incentives and rights. He cites the example of “Baat Pate Ki”, a studio-based weekly programme on Central and State Government schemes.
“The farmers and villagers are and will always be involved as integral part of the shows. The rural Indian is the hero of Green TV. It is his/her platform, voice and we call it ‘Mitti Ki Aawaz’ (voice of the soil).”
Though in Hindi, Green TV does not expect the language to handicap its viewership. “Our team is trained in visual communication. Our language is visual. Sound plays the secondary role, hence we are really confident that language will not be a barrier for us to communicate. We are trying to be very careful while designing our content.” He is sure that the northern, central, western and eastern part of India can be covered with visual language with the support of Hindi audio. Plans are afoot for a Tamil feed in about six months and he admits that “it is a challenge but I am sure we will overcome it”.
Eager to make its presence felt outside Indian boundaries, there are plans to launch the channel in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. “We believe the region has a lot of similarities in food habits, the soil and agriculture practices. We can have knowledge exchange programmes and can open new markets for each other,” highlights Junaid.
He concludes, “For me, Green TV is not a business venture. It is a mission with a clear vision. Make the rural ‘respectable’.”
Over the decades, multiplying recreational opportunities powered by growing technology have focused the energies of the entertainment industry on the upwardly mobile urban elite and on aspirational India.
As a result, when it comes to programming and new initiatives, large swathes of the country that make up the rural segment have been left out of the reckoning. With the exception, of course, of widely popular programmes like “Krishi Darshan” that caters to the interests of farmers. This is produced by Doordarshan, whose mandate, like its fellow public broadcaster All India Radio, is less tethered to pure profits.
But now, with the recent launch of a new private channel Green TV, and with Doordarshan expected to unveil its dedicated channel DD Kisan some time next year, it looks like the fields are increasingly drawing the limelight.
