COVID-19
An Initiative by Dr Dharampal Singh Under the Banner of FCRS
As the wave of novel Corona virus approached, everything came to halt. Travel, educational institutes, companies almost everything started shutting down gradually and normal life was hampered. People were forced to shut in their houses to stop the spread of the virus. Though some of the office employees were working from home, daily wagers, workers, servants, etc lost their jobs. Business got a blow, students were worried about their future, violence against women increased. People got bored with the daily monotonous life and started getting depressed by watching continuous news about COVID-19. Social media flooded with fake and misleading news related to COVID was another serious threat to the community. Labourers were continuously migrating in a very miserable state.
There was a need to work on some front amidst this crisis. Community Radio Kamalvani, broadcasting hours were increased from 10 hrs to 18 hrs but that was not enough. With zero physical interaction among people and zero allotted budget, the Internet seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. And then CARUNA CR GATEWAY: knockdown the lockdown – work beyond walls, was initiated. The aim was to discuss the COVID related issues in different areas and how to tackle them. Under this initiative, till date 100 international and national level webinars have been organised on almost all the relevant dimensions of life to help the society amid COVID-19 and it has benefited the lives of more than 1 lakh direct participants of 30 countries and innumerable viewers on social media. Topics of the webinars cover almost all aspects of life i.e., social, economic, physical-mental health, education, women-upliftment, road safety, etc. To promote physical health, webinars on Yog were organised, while webinars such as Lets talk, Lok geet, Kavi samelan helped to reduce stress. The present state of emotional health was discussed along with rising home violence. Webinars on Ramayan, Guru Granth Saheb, Quran helped the participants to rejuvenate the feeling of unity. Symposium on all forms of education including the Gurukul system helped to analyze the system in depth. Online workshops on Cyber-security & Ethical hacking helped the public to fight cybercrime. One of the significant points is to have an opportunity to interact with experts of the relevant field from all over the world, which was not possible physically otherwise, and to know their views/ ideas/ solutions to the problems amid this crisis. Road safety, market price & adulteration, knowledge-college-village scheme, Atmanirbhar Bharat, etc were some more hot issues tackled during series of webinars. The role of NGOs and others amid this crisis was discussed and many initiatives and collaborations emerged. Radio bridge programs came into the picture where experts sitting in their radio stations discuss the respective challenges faced and relevant solutions implemented by them, and the same is broadcasted live on air on all CRS at the same time.
Though this project was initiated by Dr Dharampal Singh, later several institutes/ organisations joined hands in the social cause namely,
- Federation of Community Radio Stations (FCRS), New Delhi
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jaipur
- Indian Alliance of NGO’s for Road Safety
- Azim Premji University, Bangalore
- Rajyoga Education & Research Foundation
- Chetna International Journal of Education
- MJD Government College, Taranagar, Churu, Rajasthan
- Rajasthan Shikshak Prashikshan Vidyapeeth, Shahpura Bagh, Amer Road, Jaipur
- Teacher Educator & Principal Association
- Sohang Education
- Govind Guru Janjatiya Vishwavidyalaya, Banswara, Rajsthan
- KVIC Government of India, Jaipur
- Raj BN NCC, Churu, Rajasthan
- Abhimanch Sahitya Sabha, New Delhi
- Srimati Ramadevi Women College, Kolsiya, Rajasthan
- Anand Mahila Shikshan Prashikshan Mahavidyalaya, Bharatpur, Rajasthan
- Bhartiya Sanskriti Sewarth Nyas, Haridwar, India
- Govt. S. K. Girls College, Sikar
- Kanodia B Ed College, Mukundgarh