[cr-india]Population Foundation's radio programmes
Frederick Noronha (FN)
fred at bytesforall.org
Tue Jun 17 04:11:00 CEST 2003
POPULATION FOUNDATION OF INDIA
The story of Population Foundation of India (PFI), as it has grown over the
last 30 years, is based on its constant endeavors to respond to the
challenge of population. The Foundation is unique in the sense that it is a
collaborative initiative of industrial houses for human welfare. It is in
the forefront of non-governmental efforts to focus its activities on
Reproductive and Child Health; Population, Health and Social Development
issues and to establish a balance between resources, environment and
population. It is the one and only institution of its type in the country.
The Foundation was established on 26th September l970 by a dedicated group
of industrialists and population activists led by Bharat Ratna, the late Mr.
JRD Tata, who guided it as the founder Chairman until his death in l993. Its
present Chairman is the noted industrialist, Dr Bharat Ram, who is a founder
member and was Vice-Chairman until 1993. The present Executive Director is
Mr A R Nanda, former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare.
The Foundation has come a long way since l970, marching with time and
reshaping its activities in the light of the changing priorities. Beginning
with pure research-oriented studies, its activities now cover the entire
range of population, health and social development issues in a developing
society. Apart from addressing reproductive health and population issues, it
has always been in the forefront to raise awareness of these issues in the
country.
MISSION
Foundation's Mission
The Population Foundation of India (PFI) is dedicated to promote effective
formulation and implementation of gender sensitive population and
development policies, strategies and programmes. PFI seeks to accomplish
this by extending technical and financial support to individuals and civil
society institutions; piloting innovative approaches; and building support
at the national, sub-national and community levels through informed
advocacy.
The Foundation endeavors to address the critical issues of population,
health and sustainable development for better quality of life by increased
access to services, promotion of advocacy programmes, capacity building at
various levels and facilitating enabling environment for optimal utilisation
of resources.
The Foundation aims to promote, expand, build awareness and strengthen
commitment towards a rights-based approach, empowerment of women, increased
male responsibility, a life cycle approach, gender equality and equity,
informed and expanded choice of contraceptives and promotion of small family
norm by forging meaningful partnerships with institutions both in public and
private sectors.
The Foundation strives to focus its activities on issues of reproductive and
sexual health and rights, HIV/AIDS, child health & rights, women's health,
adolescent health and development, unmet need for family planning services
and female foeticide. The vision encompasses serving the economically weaker
and marginalised sections living in the socially and demographically
backward districts of the country for sustainable social change.
The Foundation acts as a think tank and advocate at various levels in
formulating and influencing population policies and programmes. It serves as
a catalytic agent to promote programmes directed towards the goal of
population stabilisation and development.
COMMUNITY RADIO PROGRAMMES
As a part of its Advocacy programmes, the Foundation launched Community
Radio Programmes in the States of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in the year
2000 and in the State of Madhya Pradesh, in the year 2002.
KUSUMALE IN KARNATAKA
In Karnataka, the programme "Kusumale" having 52 drama series in
Kannada, was launched on November 1, 2000, for a period of one year,
with special focus to tribal community of Mysore, the soligas, in
liaison with All India Radio, Mysore and Bangalore; and Vivekananda
Girijan Kalyan Kendra, a local NGO in Mysore.
UJALA IN UTTAR PRADESH
In Uttar Pradesh, the programme "Ujala" having 30 drama series in
Hindi, was laucnhed on 19th March 2001, for a period of one year,
with special focus to backward community of Sonbhadra District in
Uttar Pradesh, in liaison with All India Radio, Obra and Banwasi
Seva Ashram, a Non-Governmental Organisation in Sonbhadra.
UJALA IN MADHYA PRADESH
In Madhya Pradesh, the programme "Ujala" having 52 drama series in
Hindi, was launched on 3rd February 2002, for a period of one year,
with special focus to rural community of Indore in Madhya Pradsh, in
liaison with All India Radio, Indore and Bharatiya Grameen Mahila
Sangh, a Non-Governmental Organisation in Indore.
Strategies involved during implementation of the Community Radio Programmes
1.Selection of Script Writers
Script writers are selected from the focussed community itself. Topics for
the scripts are discussed in detail with the script writers, keeping in mind
the cultural milieu of the target community, so that focussed themes emerge,
which acknowledge people in their own rights, take into account their
concerns, and provide them with information and knowledge to enable them to
decide what is in their best interest.
The invited scripts are edited by the Foundation in order to disseminate
correct messages and then submitted to All India Radio station for approval.
Topics for 52 episodes for scripts
Prenatal care and safe delivery
Postnatal care and clean weaning
Safe abortion and Medical Termination of Pregnancy
Knowledge on contraceptives in detail
Family planning and family welfare
Male responsibility
Personal hygiene and environment hygiene
Food and nutrition
Communicable diseases and their prevention
Diarrohea and its prevention
Acute respiratory infections
Safe and clean drinking water
Child health and immunization
Adolescent health
HIV/AIDS
RTIs/STDs
Responsibilities of parenthood
Gender equality
Early Age at Marriage
Female Foeticide
Neglected girl child from 0-6 years
Literacy and Education
Importance of girl child in the family
Empowerment of women
Development through panchayats
Role and Responsibilities of Panchayats
Population Pressure and Development
2.Production/Recording of the selected dramas
In Karnataka and Obra, the responsibility for production was given to the
respective All India Radio stations, but in Indore, the production was done
by the Foundation itself, in order to have a full grip on the theme,
contents keeping the cultural mileu and the quality recording of the
programmes. In future programmes, the Foundation would like to do the
recording of the dramas
3.Selection of Non-Government Organisations in the target community
The selected NGOs play a crucial role in implementation of the Community
Radio Programme
Before organising the script writers; workshop, NGOs in the state assist the
Foundation in knowing the community for which the programme has been
designed. Apart from getting the information on health and social
indicators, the information is collected on their media habits, the kind of
radio sets used by them, the number of radio sets available, suitable time
for broadcasting the programme and any specific health and social problems
prevailing in the community.
The NGOs help in promotion of the programmes through their regular project
activities. Every week, before the broadcast of the programme, the topic is
announced in the community, discussions are held to motivate them to listen
to the programme, facilitate them to have an access to the radio sets, be
with them during the broadcast and after the broadcast, messages are
discussed in detail to enable them to understand and co-relate them in their
own lives.
Knowing the scarcity of radio sets in the target community, NGOs help the
Foundation to distribute the radio sets in the community for effective
listenership/promotion of the programme.
NGOs assist in selecting the script writers and in organising the script
writers' workshops.
Apart from introducing the radio programme in their project activities, NGOs
also help in publicity of the programme by word of mouth and through print
media in the other communities, which do not come under their project areas,
for which the Foundation bears the expenses.
4.Re-broadcast of the Radio programmes
After receiving good response from the listeners and also in order to
increase the listenership, the programmes are re-broadcast through AIR
stations. On demand, the audio cassettes are also made available for use in
their project activities.
5.Mid-term and Final Evaluation of the programmes
Apart from the mid-term evaluation done by the respective Radio stations,
the Foundation also conducts the mid-term as well as final evaluation of the
programmes.
The Foundation did the final evaluation itself in case of Ujala in Uttar
Pradesh and Audio-Visual Research Centre, Mysore University did the final
evaluation of Kusumale in Karnataka.
Future Community Radio Programme
Based on the success of the three Community Radio Programmes in Karnataka,
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Foundation is launching three more
prorgrammes in Bihar, Chattisgarh and Orissa.
Meetings with NGOs and script writers have been organised in Jagdalpur and
Patna.
GIST OF EVALUATION REPORTS
Community Radio Programme in Karnataka : Its reach and Effectiveness
Evaluation done by Audio Visual Research Centre, Mysore
A Community Radio Programme on Empowerment of Community on Issues of
Population, Health and Social Development, implemented by the Foundation in
collaboration with Vivekananda Kalyan Kendra, a local NGO at Mysore and AIR-
Bangalore, for Mysore District of Karnataka, was specially focussed to the
Soliga tribes of Banjara Hills. A 52 half an hour episode drama series in
Kannada namely "Kusumale" were aired from November 2000 to November 2001.
Simultaneously, it was re-broadcast through F.M. from 3rd July 2001 and the
series will be over by June 2002.
The final Evaluation study of Kusumale programme has been done by the Audio
Visual Research Centre, University of Mysore. The purpose of this study was
to evaluate the effectiveness and reach of Kusumale programme among the
target area. In the evaluation process 40 villages in Mysore and
Chamarajanagar districts were selected. Five programme listeners in each of
40 villages were searched to obtain a sample of 200 programme listeners.
Though the target listeners were 200, it was able to get only 157 listeners
out of 1707 households searched.
The following are the highlights of the Evaluation Study :
Out of the 40 villages 23 villages provided the required five household
clusters. On an average 13.88% was the media reach in these 23 villages. A
total media reach in 40 villages was 9.19% in Mysore and Chamarajanagar
districts.
In total population of the area covered, 50% of them belonged to Schedule
Caste, Schedule Tribes and Backward Caste. The sample consisted of
agricultural labourers, housewives and unmarried girls. Radio was the major
media with a listenership of 99.36% and majority of the viewers were regular
listeners.
A moderate number of listeners had listened all the 52 episodes. Kusumale
had established an identity of its own as great majority of listeners
recalled the correct timings of the programme broadcast. About 93% of
household listeners have found the programme informative whereas 86% found
it interesting.
The programme had desired impact on the listeners denoting high degree of
recall of specific issues like age at marriage and small family. The study
revealed that listeners had not only liked the programme but also found it
very useful.
The target listeners had not only received the information but also
learnt some lessons out of it. Some of the girls during survey said
they would not marry before 18 years even if their parents force
them to do so.
Community Radio Programme in Uttar Pradesh : Its reach and Effectiveness
Evaluation findings
A Community Radio Programme UJALA on Empowerment of Community on Issues of
Population, Health and Social Development, implemented by the Foundation in
collaboration with Banwasi Sewa Ashram, a local NGO at Sonbhadra and AIR-
Obra, for the Sonbhadra district . A 52 half an hour episode drama series in
Hindi, was aired from March 2001 to March 2002. It was re-broadcast through
Rampur Station from 28th November 2001 to 30 June 2002.
Evaluation was conducted by the Foundation in May 2002. The targetted sample
size was 100 listeners of UJALA programme but evaluation team could
interview only 53 listeners after listing the 1707 households. The following
are the highlights of the Evaluation Study :
It was found that in Sonebhadra District the media reach of UJALA community
radio programme was slightly less than 3 percent (2.87%) which may be
considered as very low. Probably the main reason for such a low media reach
was broadcasting this programme from Frequency Modulation (FM) Band Radio.
On an average there were only 10 Radio sets in a village and out of them
only 3-4 had FM Band Radio. Most of the Radio sets were very old and due to
poverty, people in this area were not in a position to purchase a FM Band
Radio set.
The sample size was 49 spread across 20 villages in Sonebhadra district. Out
of 49 respondents 79.6 % (39) were males and 20.6 % (10) respondents were
females. The highest numbers of respondents were young in the age group of
below 25 years.
Literacy level especially female literacy was very low in the target area. Out of the total respondents 22.4% (11) were illiterates and 7 (14.3%) were below primary education. Most of the women were either illiterate (40%) or literate but below primary education (30%).
Radio continues to dominate the lives of the respondents in villages where
almost 90 percent of the respondents had a radio set in their house and only
10 percent (5) respondents did not have a radio set in their home. Because
of high illiteracy newspaper and magazine reading was very poor and only
12.2% (6) and 34.7% (17) respondents read newspaper or magazine respectively
at their home. Television was available in 32.7 percent households and Cable
TV was available in only 4% (2) households.
The findings substantiate the immense interest it generated among the
programme listeners. A very high proportion of listeners i.e. 92% have rated
the programme as very interesting and informative. When asked to name the
specific issues broadcast by the serial a majority of the listeners recalled
the drama on abolition of dowry as a major issue followed by education of
girl child, family planning, age at marriage, population problems & Women
education, prevention of diseases and safe delivery. The study reveals that
the programme was quite effective among its listeners.
Mid-Term evaluation of UJALA in Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Audience Research Unit of All India Radio, Indore has conducted a mid term
evaluation of the 'Ujala' programme in the urban areas along with their
other programmes broadcast through their station. According to them, there
is around 18% of urban listenership of the 'Ujala' programme.
Inspite of many TV channels and private radios available in Indore the
sponsored programme Ujala has got a very good response. AIR Indore is
receiving thousands of appreciation letters as well as phone-calls in
response to 'Ujala' Programme. The Foundation is repeating the broadcast
through the Medium Wave channel of AIR for wider coverage.
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