© Kamla-Raj 2011 J Communication, 2(1): 41-47 (2011) Folk and Traditional Media: A Powerful Tool for Rural Development Manashi Mohanty and Pritishri Parhi* College of Home Science, O.U.A.T, Bhubaneswar 751 003, Orissa, India Telephone: *<9437302802>, *<9437231705>; E-mail: [email protected] KEYWORDS Folk Media. Traditional Media. Rural Development ABSTRACT Tradition is the cumulative heritage of society which permeates through all levels of social organization, social structure and the structure of personality. The tradition which is the cumulative social heritage in the form of habit, custom, attitude and the way of life is transmitted from generation to generation either through written words or words of mouth. It was planned to focus the study on stakeholders of rural development and folk media persons, so that their experience, difficulties, suggestion etc. could be collected to make the study realistic and feasible. The study was conducted in the state of Orissa comprising 30 districts out of which 3 coastal districts, namely, Cuttack, Puri and Balasore were selected according to the specific folk media culture namely, ‘Jatra’, ‘Pattachitra’ , ‘Pala’, ‘Daskathjia’ for their cultural aspects and uses. The study reveals that majority of the respondents felt that folk media is used quite significantly in rural development for its cultural aspect but in the era of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), it is losing its significance. The study supports the idea that folk media can be used effectively along with the electronic media for the sake of the development of rural society INTRODUCTION their willing participation in the development of a country is well recognized form of reaching The complex social system with different people, communicating with them and equipp- castes, classes, creeds and tribes in our country ing them with new skills. It is a verified fact that with inadequacy of mass media to reach almost the development and communication of infra- 70% of people who reside in villages, puts over structure has been enormously expanded and the 3.5 millions of people under illiterate category resultant communication and development pro- who suspect anything in terms of modernity. cess being complementary to each other take the Rural development is viewed as overall devel- country forward. opment of rural areas in social, economic, po- On the other hand, the quest for expressing, litical and cultural dimensions where agriculture communicating and sharing something in a beau- plays the most important role as the livelihood tiful manner has given birth to the performing of majorities is dependent on agriculture. Rural arts. Tradition always plays an important role in development is also considered as national de- creating artistic process, particularly in the field velopment and it is very much true in case of of folk performing arts. Tradition is the process developing and underdeveloped countries as ru- of transmission of the age old values and the ral population outnumbers the urban populations. contextual manifestation and interpretation of the For alleviating poverty in developing and under universe. The traditional performing arts indicate developed countries, rural development is the belongingness and affinity in cultural context and only solution having two major components as are considered as an integral part of general life economic betterment and social change. The of people in traditional societies. basic purpose of rural development is individual The first significant international recognition and social development, development of indig- of the traditional media in the communication enous capabilities, improvement of living stan- and development strategies of the developing dards of all categories of people especially rural countries came in the year 1972 when the inter- poor. Any development which does not treat the national parenthood federation and UNESCO vast masses cannot be justified and the rural eco- organized a series of meetings in London relat- nomic growth is in the narrow sense viewed as a ing to integrated use of folk and traditional me- balanced social and economic development with dia in family planning communication prog- emphasis on the equitable distribution as well as rammes. The interest generated by this meeting creations of benefits. The importance of com- and the continued efforts to highlight the folk munication in mobilizing people and seeking media as effective form to convey developmen- 42 MANASHI MOHANTY AND PRITISHRI PARHI tal messages resulted in a number of seminars proverbs and poems: the mirrors technique. and workshops around the world. The folk me- Chiovoloni (2004) stated that folk media or lo- dia in India seems to be used as supplements to cal or traditional communication systems refer the mass media rather than at the centre of com- to organized processes of production and ex- munication efforts to reach 70 percent of India’s change of information managed by rural com- total population who live in villages. Traditional munities. These all include traditional theatre or performing arts being functional, interpersonal dramas, masks and puppet performances, tales, and having a contextual base would be able to proverbs, riddles and songs. They are cultural carry the message of change, development and and endogenous responses to different commu- growth. “Baul”, “Kavigan”, “Chhau” dance of nity needs for information, education, social pro- Bengal, “Lavani” of Maharashtra, “Gee-Gee” of test and entertainment. Karnataka, “Villupattu” of Tamil Nadu change According to Chiovoloni et al. (2004), for their content and focus depending on their con- sustainable development of agriculture, there is temporary needs and were effective in arousing a need for close collaboration between develop- the conscience of the people against the colonial ment agents and traditional and new rural com- rule of the British. The traditional media became municators to revive or strengthen the traditional effective in many political and social campaigns communication system for making optimal use launched by Mahatma Gandhi. Likewise, the of its interactive power to stimulate peoples’ par- eminent Tamil poet Sumbramanium Bharati ticipation. started using folk music to evoke patriotic feel- Chauhan (2004) stated that policy makes in- ings. Folk tunes were used to popularize songs volved in planning and implementation of re- and glories of spinning wheels and consequently search and extension activities of agricultural boycotting British goods. Similarly, in 1940’s fields should use the combinations of traditional India People Theatre Association successfully and electronic extension methods, make avail- handled some of the popular regional theatre like able rural agricultural libraries and facility of Internet at village level. Kamla (2004) empha- “Jatra” of Bengal, “Bavai” of Gujarat, “Tamsa” sized that the need for community social work- of Maharastra, “Burkatha” of Andhra Pradesh, ers to understand the rudiments of indigenous to increase social awareness and political edu- communication. Moreover, this becomes realis- cation. tic when considered that indigenous people are The outcome of various researchers has es- often favourably disposed to development ini- tablished the importance of folk media in devel- tiatives when the changes advocated have a mi- opment communication. Kamlongera and Van nimal understanding of their language, music, Den Stichele (2000) viewed that dialogue is the cultural and religious beliefs. Penelist and Ad- essence of any work in communication for de- oyo(2004) defined drama as a traditional means velopment. Folk media has quickly been recog- of information which allow different possible nized as one way of ensuring such a dialogue. endings by encouraging audience participation Zwaal (2000) said that folk media is a communi- which is aimed at changing the behavior of par- cation vehicle for promoting and improving dia- ticipants of such means of communication. logue which the common people or rural farm- In a developing country like India, an effec- ers employ to deliver their messages. Panford et tive communication system of folk media along al. (2001) explained the types of folk media used with mass media is an essential element in mod- in the traditional Ghanaian setting and explores ernizing agriculture, in producing healthy, liter- their consistency with well known theories. Folk ate and trained workers for industry and for bring- media will be integrated with broadcast radio ing about effective participation in nation build- for interventions under the HIV/AIDS Behavi- ing activity. All these together contribute im- our Change Communication Project being un- mensely for making rural development a reality. dertaken as part of the CARE-CDC Health Ini- Thus, it is in this context and background that tiative (CCHI) in 2 districts in Ghana. a study entitled “folk and traditional media as a Adoyo (2004) reveals that many rural people powerful tool for rural development” was con- utilize folk media for communication of cultu- ducted in the coastal areas of Orissa with the fol- ral messages. In African context, sensitive infor- lowing objectives: mation is never passed in a straightforward man- 1. To enumerate traditional media use in rural ner but through songs, dances and plays using areas of Orissa. FOLK AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA 43 2. To study the extent of use of selected tra- clude the “Dotara” a multi- stringed instrument ditional media for rural development.