In Spotlight: Mobile Vaani | Gram Vaani
A community led, accessible, and inclusive platform for citizens to dialogue and act for justice
Building a community network - one individual at a time
Namita asked herself why she should be deprived of her father’s land. Her uncle indicated that she had no right to it. Deep in thought, she was listening to a programme on nutrition on Mobile Vaani, a community-based audio platform that she listens to often, when something clicked! She thought, “Why not post this question on Mobile Vaani?”
So she asked on a channel dedicated to women in her community. Many women from her area responded with their views. One lady told her about a local lawyer, another about Namita’s right to property, and another - Namita didn’t like her - that the property should be left alone for the uncle.
Namita did get in touch with the lawyer and was able to get her property.
Namita was introduced to Mobile Vaani by her neighbour’s son Ankit, one of the volunteers working with the Mobile Vaani team. Just before the pandemic, Ankit had moved to the city to find work as a labourer. When the lockdown hit, Ankit had no way of getting back. It was Mobile Vaani, then, that helped Ankit return home. Audio programmes from Mobile Vaani partner networks on transportation issues, food availability etc., helped him return. The ability of the Mobile Vaani platform to collaborate with other social welfare organisations to bring the necessary and, more importantly, actionable information and help was key in helping Ankit. When he returned, Ankit became a volunteer for Mobile Vaani, at the local ‘club’ as they call it, to help his community.
At the ‘club’, work was hectic. He began by helping spread the news of Mobile Vaani in his community. They had daily calls from community members raising local issues and concerns. Ankit’s job was to find a way to address those concerns.
In some cases, he organised meetings for the community stakeholders and the ‘club’ to discuss and arrive at solutions. In other instances, he contacted various partners in Mobile Vaani’s network who could help. He was also responsible for organising local campaigns when needed, moderating the content the community was putting on Mobile Vaani, and mentoring other volunteers and other such ‘clubs’.
So, what is Mobile Vaani exactly?
Gram Vaani (the founding organisation) of Mobile Vaani has been working on expanding the network of community media platforms, collaborating with grassroots partners working closely with communities to democratise and extend its innovative multi-channel voice tech stack. The objective is to simplify information access, content discoverability and participatory approaches to community development.
Built by Gram Vaani, Mobile Vaani is an audio-based social media platform that runs on any mobile phone, not just smartphones
It allows citizens to access the service through a simple missed call model (give a missed call to a ten-digit mobile number mapped to the service and get a call back immediately) or even through attractive data-driven interfaces like WhatsApp, Smart app or intelligent voice services (e.g., voice bot, voice Q&A etc.) as well. Like an IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) consumer helpline, anyone can listen to information packaged as audio episodes through simple keypress inputs.
An audio-based platform like this, designed to operate on any simple phone, ensures reach to citizens who are illiterate or do not have access to smartphones or steady internet connectivity.
The platform enables members to easily record and share their thoughts as voice messages through keypress inputs.
On Mobile Vaani, you can find moderated community voices on hyperlocal issues, local news, and a grievance airing forum where community members and social workers can connect. All this allows fellow community members to meaningfully engage and interact with each other, share common grievances, and build solidarity across distances.
On finding a shared space
“People who in a group setting, may not have the courage to ask some of these questions or have the sort of space to sort of listen to some of these topics, but they go back and listen to it at their own convenience and time. And more importantly, it gives them the courage when they listen to other people talking about certain challenges, like how Sultan said, “they build solidarity on these topics” and they’re able to know that, “I'm not the only one facing this problem, but there’s somebody else and I can also relate to it. I can share my experience and learnings and what I’m going through and learn from others’ experiences as well.”*
In the age of fifteen-second videos, Mobile Vaani stands out with its users listening to programmes of even up to eight to ten minutes, driven by the communities’ needs & demands. The audio nature of the platform, customised for local languages, breaks down communication barriers.
Spread across thirty-five districts in India and growing, Mobile Vaani is a powerful social tool with a bottom-up approach for inclusive and community-led development.
An emerging new social platform
At the heart of Mobile Vaani is the federated network or ‘clubs’, driving and fueling the tech platform. These independent clubs, consisting of ten to fifteen diverse volunteers, choose themes to focus on, such as media, agriculture issues, women’s rights etc. Mobile Vaani has over two hundred volunteers powering over thirty clubs across thirty-five districts of India. These volunteers, like Ankit, work within their communities, addressing local issues and holding local meetings. They also work with Mobile Vaani’s core team to provide information to the communities, work out approaches and solutions to various problems, and partner with other social welfare organisations.
These volunteers are changemakers and are now becoming an essential and enabling platform for more than thirty other organisations, especially those serving justice, to work more effectively with communities on the ground. For example, Haqdarshak and Jawabdehi Andolan, finalists of the Agami Prize 2022, have also used the Mobile Vaani network to extend their reach within specific communities.
With over ten to fifteen thousand calls daily, over a lakh unique callers monthly, six lakh voice reports generated on the platform, and thirty lakh plus individuals reached, Mobile Vaani continues to grow as a unique medium with a potentially manifold impact. By mapping and following the trends in individual stories and issues, Mobile Vaani is now providing insights that help build community-driven initiatives with local and higher levels of impact.
The ‘ground truth’, as they call it, in the form of community voice reports on various topics, plays a critical role in driving relevant policy conversations and changes.
Note:
*Vijay Sai Pratap, co-founder of Mobile Vaani | Gram Vaani, in conversation with Ritvik Lukose during Agami Prize 2022.
Edited by Jahnavi Jayanth, Keerthana Medarametla and Supriya Sankaran.
 | A guest post by
|