| NEW
DELHI: Doordarshan’s weekly programme on health issues ‘Kalyani’
has been selected by the Asian Media Information Communication Centre (AMIC),
Singapore, as the best communication strategy on HIV/AIDS from India for the project
titled ‘HIV/AIDS Prevention in Asia: Communicating the Message’.
Supported
by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, AMIC has also selected
Nai Zindagi from Pakistan, Sri Lanka’s Putting HIV on
the front page; Bangladesh’s Durjoy Nari Shongo on women’s
empowerment; and Malaysia’s Mak Nyah on empowering transgender
and transsexual people.
Kalyani,
which means "benedictions from a Goddess", is broadcast in nine states
creating health awareness about malaria, tuberculosis, tobacco, reproductive health,
sanitation, hygiene and HIV/AIDS. The programme is produced in partnership with
the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family Welfare and the National AIDS Control
Organization (NACO). As
a result of the programme, Kalyani Clubs have sprung up in various parts of the
country to spread the message of good health. The concept of Kalyani clubs (with
membership of local people of the village who watch the programme avidly and strategize
on how to implement the health messages) was a crucial part of the communications
strategy.
To
date 2500 Kalyani clubs have been set up in the country with
a membership of over 58,000. The programmes, beamed across
nine states, have a common theme but each state produces it
independently adding local colour and flavour.
The
best communication strategies being used by different countries of Asia on HIV
and AIDS are being documented in a CD-Rom as well as a resource book . Noted journalist
Usha Rai and Swapna Majumdar travelled to Orissa and Chattisgarh to study the
impact of the Doordarshan programme Kalyani and how it is changing rural lives.
Senior
Doordarshan Executive Usha Bhasin, who heads the development
communication division of Doordarshan, told indiantelevision.com
that the objective of forming Kalyani clubs was to give a
platform to women, particularly those who had never stepped
out of their homes, to participate in the process of development.
"The concept of Kalyani clubs was part of the communication
strategy of the Kalyani programme started in 2002. We know
that as a medium we can enter into the houses of people but
we need support to sustain the messages. It was important
to have partners in the field to keep hammering the health
messages and the women of the Kalyani clubs have done that
in their own innovative ways," she pointed out.
A
novel tactic adopted by Sunita Vishwakarma, 28, president of Kalyani club in village
Raveli of district Durg, was to get the health messages printed on the cover of
ration cards. "All our members are housewives like me and use ration cards.
So it was a simple and effective way of getting everyone in the house to see the
messages," she reveals.
Today,
the Kalyani programmes have almost the same TRPs (Television
Rating Points ) as the news programmes beamed by the regional
stations of Doordarshan. Commercially viable, Kalyani is actually
bringing in revenue for the public broadcaster. In view of
heavy demand for advertisements in Kalyani, the cost of air
time had to be increased to make it the highest - same as
the regional news of Doordarshan.
If
music and dance are at the heart of commercial television’s reality shows,
Kalyani is the reality show of rural India. The falling sex ratio, sex selection
and female infanticide have given India a bad name. But in areas where these shows
are popular, several new born girls have been christened Kalyani and as the name
denotes they are seen as a blessing or a benediction. | 
