Community Radio in Rural Development

India became independent on 15th August 1947.Though, after Independence we achieved tremendous success in many fields but still much is needed to be done in order to become a developed nation. Statistics betrays that after Independence our growth rate has increased from 3% to 9%. But, still we are facing problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc. Besides, a major chunk of population living in villages (72%) is still backward. Though the government is spending million of rupees in the name of rural development, but still it’s not getting the desired results. Among many reasons, one of the foremost reasons is the communication gap between government devised policies and common masses as people largely remain ignorant regarding them. In order to bridge this gap, a firm communication policy will prove crucial. According to this policy, local community media should be promoted in order to enhance community development, at least at grass root level. Among various existing genres of local community media, Community Radio will prove most effective as it can easily cover a wider range of area as well as diversified audience. Besides, experiments with community radio in many parts of India have proved it to be the cheapest and the strongest medium for fulfilling communication gap between the community and the Govt. It has proved to be a vital tool in strengthening the ‘Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression’ As, the community radio is still evolving it might be possible that in the near future, we will witness its various new forms which will be more superior as well as user-friendly. Well whatever the case may be, community radio has proved to be one of the best medium of communication at the grass-root level