Emerging health issues and the role of community radio in rural areas of Tumkur Taluk

A community radio station can be defined as one that is operated by the community, for the community, about the community and by the community. Radio is one of the powerful supporting and cheap technologies for many awareness activities. Nowadays we can consider that community radio stations facilitate the sharing of information and creating awareness particularly on health issues. The majority of people living in rural areas is facing lack of medical facilities and awareness about health care. Though a lot of policies and programs are being run by the Government but the success and effectiveness of these programs is questionable due to gaps in the implementation. Community radio is fulfilling the communication gap by giving information. Our study has focused on understanding how the health related programmes are designed and their impact on the rural areas of Tumkur taluk in Karnataka state. Rural areas of Tumkur are selected purposively for the study. Because the Community radio Station services are effectively reaching the people through direct broadcasting, narrowcasting and web streaming in this taluk. 50 respondents were selected purposefully for the study. The data were collected from the respondents through direct contact and with the help of local participation. Questionnaire and Interview techniques were used for the collection of data. The overall impact of community radio indicated that more changes have occurred in lifestyle and emerging health issues of the respondents. This kind of research would help the researchers to understand how the Community radio plays an important role in creating awareness on emerginghealth issues.