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Community based media initiatives in various parts of the world creating an ideal communicative atmosphere to encourage democratization of information, participatory local development, mainstreaming gender equality and non-formal education. The Indian context is not an exception to this reality. Among the various media, in particularly community radio has been emerging as powerful source for empowerment, especially for disenfranchised and marginalized groups in Indian society. Since MacBride commission internationally scholars from media and development studies are fanatically involved in conducting research to explore various facets of such communicative processes at grassroots level. The present book can be seen as a potential contribution especially from the south towards the developments in the area of communication for development (C4D) at global level. The book is based on ethnographic accounts of two pioneering community radio stations in the most marginalised regions of India. Offering a theoretical elaboration of Paolo Freire, the book investigates the role of CR for facilitating NFE and participatory development among the rural marginalised people.

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Dhanraj A. Patil, PhD: Development Communication at Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Currently, heading the Department of Sociology, Walchand College of Arts & Science. He was a fellow of ICSSR, Ministry of Human Resource Development. His research interests are Communication for Marginalized Communities; Environment and Rural Studies.

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