TV COMES TO THE VILLAGE
P., S.
Some time ago, writing about India's population problem, I offered the suggestion—probably not original—that the introduction of television into the villages, aside from its potential educational...
...Some of the informants candidly admitted that these programs were switched on only if somebody made a specific request for them...
...The most popular programs were those with the least "developmental" thrust...
...Factionalism and fights in some villages have been on the increase because of the television set which is in the charge of the village council, which in its turn was controlled by one party as against another...
...They were described as good and useful programs, but which unfortunately not many people watched...
...Some villages have surrendered their sets voluntarily because they found themselves faced with problems of rowdyism every evening, or because parents began to complain that their children did not study or do homework because of television...
...In most of the villages the "generation gap" seemed to have widened because of the introduction of television sets...
...The Panchayat, the village council, is in charge of the day-to-day operation of the sets...
...In urban areas the working-class community sets are put under the care of Labor Welfare Centers...
...A paradoxical situation has arisen, where the more backward and poorer villages—which theoretically, at least, are in greater need of developmental television— have thus lost their sets...
...In some villages, influentials belonging to the opposition have bought their own sets and opened them for public viewing...
...The villages we visited were equipped with community viewing sets under a scheme worked by the Rural Broadcasting Department of the Government of Mararashtra...
...In some villages the village elders, members of the village councils, were in favor of restricted viewing hours while the younger people wanted the television sets to be on for the whole evening...
...When asked about the special programs for farmers and workers, the answers from our respondents were evasive...
...Some time ago, writing about India's population problem, I offered the suggestion—probably not original—that the introduction of television into the villages, aside from its potential educational value, might have the effect of reducing the birth rate in that the villagers could spend their evenings watching TV at the village center instead of...
...P. 290 NOTEBOOK...
...the sets were installed free of charge but now under a new scheme the local body has to pay an initial amount of 950 rupees [$135] and an annual fee of 200 rupees [$28] for the maintenance of the sets...
...At the beginning of the scheme...
...By all accounts, the largest audiences were for Chayageet (a potpourri of songs from Hindi feature films) on Thursdays followed by Hindi feature films on Sundays and regional language feature films on Saturdays...
...Alas, things are more complicated and the reality is harsher...
...This report on the effects of introducing TV into the villages of India, taken from the Economic and Political Weekly (March 8, 1975), tells its own story: It [is] worthwhile to recount some of the experiences which my colleague and I had recently, in our quest to assess the informational "needs" of randomly selected villages in the Bombay-Poona television viewing area...
...Many villages found themselves unable to meet this financial requirement and had to withdraw from the scheme...
Vol. 22 • July 1975 • No. 3
