India: AIR, DD to expand reach in tribal areas

The Indian government is set to expand the reach of national broadcasters, All India Radio and Doordarshan, in tribal areas in the next few years. Most of these areas, affected by Maoist insurgency, will now be served by special programmes in tribal languages like Halbi, Gondi, Munda and Sargujia. The step has been initiated in an effort to reach out to the local population of the backward tribal regions of the country in their mother tongue.

It is understood that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting  has initiated this step to ensure better impact of national broadcasters amongst the local population. Sources stated that a similar step is also being initiated by the Ministry for the northeastern states, which have been affected by wide spread violence and extremism in the last decade.