It has been operational all these years to promote community interaction and dissemination of information

Radio JU 90.8, Jadavpur University’s community radio, is back on air through digital platforms.

The station at 90.8MHz was set up as part of the JU Project, TEQIP (Technical Education and Quality Improvement programme), in collaboration with school of media communication and culture in 2008.

It has been operational all these years to promote community interaction and dissemination of information and has provided students, teachers, and people of the area with a platform to to showcase their creativity.

Radio JU, which operates from the top floor of a building adjacent to Gate No. 4, had last aired a show on March 17, after which the institution had closed because of the lockdown to prevent the possible spread of the novel coronavirus.

The station started airing programmes on YouTube on Tuesday on ways to reach those in distress because of the lockdown and observing the safety protocol to fight the virus. Programmes are being aired on Facebook, too, Iman Kalyan Lahiri, the convener of JU Radio, told Metro.

One can forward his/her queries, complaints or content to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCljoKfKwxRdqiezp-Os9dkA/videos and Facebook page Radio JU Fight Against COVID 19, Lahiri, who is a teacher at the university’s international relations department said.

One can send queries to covid19radioju@gmail.com as well, Lahiri said.

The programmes include interviews of students facing problems in the absence of classes and professors offering guidance apart from an on-call platform by doctors. There’s a programme highlighting how JU students started a community kitchen to feed footpath dwellers in south Calcutta.

Metro on Monday had reported about the community kitchen initiative by JU students and research scholars.

A university official attached with the station said several JU students from South 24-Parganas and Bankura have posted contents seeking help for villagers during the lockdown.

A student from South 24-Parganas posted a message saying many villagers who had stayed put in their homes in the initial days of the lockdown had started going back to the fields because they had run out of resources. The student requested people to contribute “generously”.

On the Facebook page, Angira Mukherjee, a former student now living in London, on Monday had requested people to maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.

On the digital platforms, RJs are hosting programmes on mental health and well-being.

Life in quarantine can get very difficult at times and the world can become a scary place. Anyone in need of professional help will be put in touch with a psychiatrist or counsellor, a university official said.

Metro had reported last week about a group of Calcuttans starting a community radio station to bring back social solidarity in times of the lockdown.