Gaon Ki Awaaz

Gaon Ki Awaaz: News Alerts for Rural Villagers

Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on Mar 15, 2010

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Gaon Ki Awaaz: News Alerts for Rural Villagers data sheet 5748 Views

One call can bring news to hundreds in rural villages in India. Gaon Ki Awaaz, which means “Village Voice” in the Avhadi language, sends out twice-daily news calls to subscribers directly over their mobile phones. Launched in December 2009, the project recently expanded to 250 subscribers spread over 20 villages. 

Basic Information
Website URL: 
http://gaonkiawaaz.wordpress.c...
Organization involved in the project?: 
International Media Institute of India
Project goals: 

The goals of Gaon Ki Awaaz are:

  • Create a local-language news broadcast that is accessible to non-literate villagers
  • Create a means of getting information from villagers and re-broadcasting it
  • Develop a self-sustaining business model through ad revenue
Brief description of the project: 

Gaon Ki Awaaz is a twice-daily news alert that is delivered via voice call directly to subscribers' phones in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. 

Target audience: 

The target audience is rural villagers in the region of Uttar Pradesh, India. 

 

Detailed Information
Length of Project (in months) : 
4
Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

There is clearly demand for mobile news - villagers would gather around subscribers' phones in order to hear the broadcasts via speakerphone. After four months, the project has gone from a closed group of 20 users to 250 subscribers.

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

The main challenge was developing a system that worked around the limitations of the target region - with limited electricity, literacy and a lack of high-functioning phones, the developers had to find creative ways to reach the target audience. 

Links to any evaluations/reports/research: 
http://www.andhravilas.com/new...