Lucknow, Dec 16 (IANS) Community radio could give a fresh lease of life to local dialects and also help reduce gender inequality, an official of the Uttar Pradesh government said Tuesday, assuring all possible help to the project.Addressing a workshop on “Community Radio, the Way Forward”, agricultural production commissioner Anis Ansari said those who were left behind by economic reforms would find a new voice through community radio.

Ansari told participants at the workshop that the state government has applied for five licenses for community radio.

“It has been seen that whenever responsibilities have been entrusted to the community, they have always responded well to it and community radio is going to be the same,” he said, assuring all government support, to the community radio movement in Uttar Pradesh.

The workshop was organised by the state planning department, the local office of UNICEF and Ideosync Media and Community Radio Forum.

State social welfare commissioner R.K.Mittal said community radio was an excellent tool for propagating government policies and removing misconceptions about schemes that would otherwise may not reach the grassroots.

He said felt that the government was often maligned because of the lack of information about its policies reaching out to the people. “We give Rs.2,000 crore scholarships and Rs. 2,000 crores as old age pensions, yet there is very little knowledge about them,” he said, while hoping that the new medium would help to overcome this barrier.

Terming it a “strategic intervention” to reach the masses, UNICEF state head Adele Khudr said: “It is not enough to reach 80 percent of the people but all the 100 percent and this is possible through community radio.”

“UNICEF wants to ensure that adequate state resources are harnessed for in favour of children and community radio is a perfect way of ensuring this,” she said.