Participatory Communication in Valleys of Manipur: A Yet to Leap for Sustainable Development

Participatory Communication is one stage of the inevitable changes of communication which turns out the rational of sustainable development. The idea of participation and participatory communication came forth as early as 80s but still many developing and less developed nations hardly take the advantages of it. The importance of public participation seems intentionally ignored or whether public is deprived and mislead which in return stops them to empower themselves. This is the situation in many rural areas of the country. Moreover in the state of Manipur, through which Trans Asia Highway is passing, people in the rural are still fighting against socio-economic constrain, insecure life, unemployment, poverty etc. Looking reasonably into the matter, the study on participatory communication was set out during 2015-16 in Manipur valley where development is at the outset and the transition from traditional to modern would be undeniable. The study reasonably reveals the resonance between affordability, usage and responsibility of media and where public stands whether to participate for sustainable development or to moil against poverty is a big perplexity. Yet another issue is publics trust in Governments plans and programmes and its implementation. As such people in the state had already experienced the debile functioning of the development projects, now they become more prone to participation in development issues. This study reveals the way how they participate and where media stands for a sustainable development.