“I am now familiar with basics of computer, typing in Hindi and Urdu, Internet browsing, email and can manage website content. I have also learnt radio programme production and recorded and edited one radio programme “Chanderi ki Awaaz” of 10 minutes duration on problems of the Chanderi weavers especially during rainy season. Now I can do railway reservation on line and can make beautiful occasional cards. I can give a new look to my Chanderi Sarees by the help of coral draw. I have never thought that I will learn computer and teach others. Now I am a trainer and sharing my experience with other girls coming to this Centre.”

These are the words of newly acquired confidence and awareness coming from one of the young girls, Nasreen Naj who benefited from specialized training facilitated by IPDC/UNESCO assistance in the development and reinforcement of Community Multimedia Centres in the small towns of Chanderi and neighbouring Pranpur in Madhya Pradesh.

The IPDC grant focuses on building up existing work of the Centres through capacity-building workshops to enhance life skills in areas such as CMC management, local content production, exchange and dissemination, while providing community access to information through appropriate use of media tools.

This project emerged from a former UNIDO women livelihoods project for poor self-help weaver communities of the world famous Chanderi sarees, during which women and adolescent girls expressed their keen desire to use media tools, such as radio and internet to add value to their weaving profession, and engender better livelihoods through self empowerment. This desire was fulfilled in a partnership with BASIX, a local NGO and One World South Asia (OWSA), in 2005 to introduce two CMCs in Chanderi and Pranpur, with basic training in computer literacy including use of computer applications and internet, railway bookings etc. A basic course was also undertaken in computer design in collaboration with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi.

The IPDC collaboration begun in November 2007 and reinforced the capacities of the young girls and women on various media. Twenty-three girls were trained in radio production and 6 more in website maintenance . This was followed up in February 2008 by intensive radio production training for another 50 girls.

The Chanderi CMC is presently seeking to take advantage of the new Community Radio policy of the Government of India to apply to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, for grant of permission to set up a Community Radio Station in this rural environment. In the meantime, training the communities in radio programming, narrowcasting and content creation through Digital Story telling remain ongoing.

This IPDC project appears well on its way to achieving its set objectives of empowering the Chanderi communities to use ICT tools to enhance communities’ capacities for design and local content production, market networking, leadership and self management and ensure access to necessary information as main methods of encouraging freedom of expression and democracy.