The Community Media Trust of the Deccan Development Society started in October 2001 in direct response to the demands of thousands of very poor, Dalit women who wanted their unrecognized voices to be heard and acknowledged by the outside world. It works with women’s sanghams in about 75 villages of Medak District, Telangana, where the official media were seen to be dominated by commercial and poli
tical actors whose interests conflict with those of rural communities and their environments. The CMT was a response to the exaggerated importance given to literacy in development in India. PV Satheesh, a development communication specialist and Director of the Deccan Development Society, noted at the time that literacy has become a Holy Grail in the world of development. For him, the possibility of providing video and audio technologies as a means of expression for disadvantaged rural women was an exciting idea. In an initial experiment led by the DDS, efforts were made to equip a group of 10 women with the skills to handle video film making. They have brought fresh perspectives into film making. Whilst the primary engagement of the Community Media Trust lies in a horizontal communication with their own communities, their members have also produced dozens of films for other groups and agencies on environment and development issues. The range of issues that the CMT has been working on includes: Childcare, Local markets, Food Sovereignty, Soil Fertility Management in dry land India, Water and Livelihoods, Genetic Engineering in Agriculture, Community controlled watersheds, Biodiversity in Agriculture, Ecological farming systems, Gender and Agriculture and the coverage of innumerable conferences and meetings. Today, through their films, radio programmes and ways of working, the women of the CMT have engaged with their own communities and other actors in debates over food and seed sovereignty, control over natural resources, market and media. Through participatory communication process, they have facilitated and recorded critical evaluations of state policies and programmes. They have also established relationships of solidarity with local communities in South Asia and other regions of the world, helping them to develop their own, locally controlled, autonomous media.
