Telephone journalism connecting Indian tribes to the world

Tribal citizen journalists in India have been reporting news in their own language through a new experiment using mobile phones - a project which hopes to connect rural regions to the rest of the world. Using principles of journalism, it is an attempt to cater to people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide and provide a new platform where villagers can talk to each other and the outside world about issues that are important to them. Essentially an internet-radio-come-website system, Chhattisgarh Net Voice or CGNet Swara, as it is popularly called, has become a rage. Tribal residents, whose population has grown to over 4 million, relay news in their local language, Gondi. In the central state of Chhattisgarh, vast swathes of the population live in the remote outback which newspapers do not cover on as literacy rates are terrible and there is no internet or private television. The service, which began in February last year, is the brainchild of freelance journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary, who was earlier a producer for BBC. The technology, developed by Microsoft Research India and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is simple. Tribal folk call a designated number to upload a news item and a text message goes out to all the phone numbers in the contact list. Anyone who wants to hear the report calls in to the same number and the message is played out. It boasts today of receiving over 300 phone calls every day. Trained volunteers have used the system to help mobilize awareness of local issues. (Deutsche Welle)