Elderly from Tamil Nadu care home take internet by storm via podcasts

CHENNAI: Until three months ago, K Subramanian, enjoyed the leisurely pace of life at the Coimbatore retirement home where he lives. Now, the 62-year-old makes audio programmes for Tapovani, an internet radio channel, with 14 others, talking about myths related to the vaccine and why the elderly should get it. Their programmes/podcasts including song and dance performances have become so popular that more than 2,000 people tune in every week.
The Centre now plans similar models at 20 locations across the country on a proposal from Alagappa University.“It’s a brilliant idea that can engage the elderly. A proposal has been submitted by R Sreedhar Ramamurthy (a member of the home and brain behind the scheme) and we are examining it,” said Reddy Subhramanyam, secretary, department of social justice and empowerment, government of India. Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, Union ministry of science and technology, said, “It is good they [the elderly] are getting a voice and it will be heard.” Vigyan Prasar, department of science and technology, is set to take up the idea for discussion on June 4.The senior citizens, many of them retired doctors and government employees, were trained by students from PSG College of Technology in using microphones, audio editing software, making podcasts and uploading them. They pay Rs 3,600 a month for using Iradiolive.com, a national podcasting portal run by an NGO, to make the podcasts.
While Subramanian is enjoying learning something new ‘so late in my life,’ for Anantha Ramakrishnan it is a way to show off his mridangam skills after 32 years. M N Vardarajan, another member, says, “This is an opportunity for us to showcase our talent, while Girija Nandakumar, who earlier shared stories with her grandchildren, now reaches millions of children across the world.
Sreedhar Ramamurthy, who started the country’s first community radio station at Anna University in 2004, says it was a random idea. “We were alone, bored and scared during the pandemic. There was a lot of misinformation, myths and complete lack of verified medical information. So I thought why not start a small internet radio. Licensing process for a community radio station is tedious. So, we opted for I-radio live.com. We got computers, mikes, trained ourselves and began making programmes,” he said.
Soon they began getting enquiries from other retirement homes in the city and Ramamurthy, an adjunct professor at Alagappa University, sent the proposal to the Centre.
Ramamurthy says the elderly have so much to offer to each other and the world at large. “It’s essential that the elderly get a voice that’s heard and echoed across generations. In Kerala one hears of a retirement living community being built for doctors, where they will live together, offering their services to each other and to the larger community around them. This is where a medium like internet radio (and offline podcasts) can help. And the retirement communities would be the ideal locations to set them up,” he said.
Setting up and running internet radio and podcast services can be done with minimal technological assistance and is affordable, he says.