The Radio Gal

Pinky Chandran runs the city’s first community radio station

By Zahid H Javali

Pinky Chandran’s next-door neighbour is Sector 5. A resident of Teacher’s Colony, she runs Bangalore’s first community radio station, Radio Active 90.4 MHz. “I moved in here 14 years ago,” says the 38-year-old. “My earliest memories of this area were only FernHill Apartment and Aranya restaurant. Beyond that, going towards the other sectors of HSR on late evenings was a bit intimidating as there were hardly any street lights and plenty of empty plots. Today, it is buzzing with more parks, more buildings and unfortunately, more traffic.” Radio Active celebrated its 10th anniversary this June and has had many firsts so far. This Jain University’s media venture is a platform for many diverse communities, including auto drivers, waste-pickers, sex workers, sexual minorities, garment workers, domestic workers, poets, people with disabilities, neighbourhoods, NGOs and even children.

One of the station’s high points was when it hosted Shiv Kumar, the world’s first radio jockey who happened to be an auto driver. “I boarded his auto on MG Road and noticed that his auto had full of certificates applauding his honesty by the city police commissioner,” recalls Pinky. “I invited him over to the studio for an interview when he dropped me at my office. After the interview, we explained the concept of a community radio and casually remarked that he should start hosting shows. The next day, we invited all the auto union heads and a few auto drivers for a discussion and that’s how the show Mukha Mukhi (face to face) was launched in 2010. In 2011, Shiv Kumar was shortlisted for the Namma Bengaluru Awards as well. The show has been running since then.”

Today, the station’s radio jockeys include garment workers, domestic workers, waste pickers, scrap dealers, animal activists, poets, North-East communities, sex workers and more. Radio Active is blazing away round-the-clock with almost 11 hours of original programming and an average of 10 shows a day. One such show is RJ Shanthi’s. “In May 2015, she was invited by a fellow sex-worker to a discussion program at our station where she spoke her heart out through a poem she had composed,” recalls Pinky. Soon, she began hosting the show that featured life stories of sex workers and also addresses issues like housing, social security and the need for decriminalisation of sex work.

RJ Radha Mani hosts a radio show for the community of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) and the residents of Srirampura. “Radha’s husband was HIV+ but he was unaware of it till it was too late,” says Pinky. “In 2003, she lost her husband, but she reached out to other people like her to keep her sanity. She started working with World Vision, an NGO for five years, where she counselled people. In 2013, she took part in the Community Women Broadcaster’s Workshop conducted by Radio Active CR 90.4 MHz, on behalf of Commonwealth Educational Media Centre For Asia (CEMCA). It was at this workshop where she felt that her voice is important and felt the need to reach out to the PLHIV community. She began as a volunteer at the station and eventually joined us full time.”

Pinky is not just a community media practitioner, but also a writer, photographer, poet, social worker, researcher and part-time painter. An avid dog lover and pet parent, she loves to wander around and take up social causes along the way. “My typical day begins with rolling on the carpet with Puchi, my Indie dog, followed by aqua aerobics and then I head to the radio station,” says Pinky about her daily itinerary. “Apart from running the station and the other initiatives I am part of, it really depends on what I am working on. I just wrapped up a study on ‘valuing urban waste’ and why there is a need for a comprehensive recycling policy by the Indian government. I am also doing a paper on tracing Bangalore’s history of waste management since 2009.”

That’s not all. She is working on a festival to be held in February (“it’s under wraps”) and volunteering for Pickle Jar, a curating platform for film festivals, conversations and programmes of social relevance.

Pinky is also an active member of the Solid Waste Management Roundtable Bangalore. “I am passionate about promoting three-way segregation of waste at source, at the household level, through the 2bin1bag model,” she says. In addition, she advocates community recycling programs and saying ‘no’ to dumping unsegregated waste at faraway places or someone’s farm or worse, landfills.

She is also on the board of HasiruDala, a membership-based organisation of waste pickers, buyers and waste sorters in Bangalore. “We are working to recognise the contribution of waste pickers and highlight their role in diverting waste from the landfills. We are also working towards securing them the benefits of social security, improved working conditions and educational opportunities for their children.” 

Pinky’s work log is endless. She was also the Joint Secretary of the Community Radio Association, a registered body of operational community radio stations in India. Her work included conducting workshops, creating newsletters, fundraising and liaising with the government, among other things. 

Right now, she is a member of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), and International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and a Steering Committee Member of the South Asian Network for Community Media (SANCOM) based in Hyderabad.

With so much at work, she still manages to make time for other pursuits. Like spending time with her doggie, curling up with a book (she’s currently reading Game of Thrones and Maid in India), writing poetry, painting and travelling. In addition to learning how to salsa, cook or play musical instruments. Essentially, anything that catches her fancy.

But ask her about her future plan, and she quips: “Live in the moment”.

MILESTONES
* Pinky represented India at the Australia India Youth Dialogue in 2012.
* Recipient of the AIYD Alumni Grants in 2014.
* Jury member for the National Community Radio Awards in 2014 and 2015.