The Hindu : TV used to spread health awareness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

TV used to spread health awareness

By Nagesh Prabhu

BANGALORE MARCH 8. The State Government often comes in for praise for involving the panchayat raj bodies in the execution of projects and programmes. But unfortunately, most of the gram panchayat members are unaware of many issues, particularly those related to health.

The awareness level is quite low among gram panchayat members on health-related aspects such as the care to be taken during pregnancy, high-risk pregnancy and delivery care, problems of adolescent girls, anaemia, and immunisation schedule for children, according to a project report prepared in February 2003.

The report, `Empowering panchayat raj institutions on health issues through the electronic media: A pilot project in Karnataka,' sponsored by the Population Foundation of India (PFI), New Delhi, states that a good number of panchayat members had wrong notions about various health aspects relating to breast feeding and contraception methods. It was found that the awareness level was lowest among members belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. However, the level of awareness among women was slightly better than among men from a similar socio-economic background.

The project, implemented in Dharwad, Mysore, Bijapur, Bangalore Rural, Bidar, and Gulbarga districts, covered 115 gram panchayats. The objective of the project was to sensitise panchayat members to issues of population, health, and social development using television as the medium, the first such exercise in the country.

The PFI selected 12 of the 16 episodes produced by India Population Project - IX for telecast from Doordarshan, Bangalore, every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., from June to September 2002. The programme, titled `Thiliyavva Thangi', covered aspects such as age at marriage, women's health problems, ante- and post-natal care, breastfeeding, and immunisation. Six NGOs and health experts were roped in to create awareness about health among panchayat members, according to the project coordinator, T.V. Shekar, of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

The TV serials helped in countering certain practices and superstitious beliefs, particularly with regard to puberty, breastfeeding, and immunisation. A gram panchayat president in Dharwad taluk had no idea on how to breastfeed her twins until she watched the serial on breastfeeding, according to the report. Similarly, a family in Hosahalli in Doddaballapur taluk decided to postpone the marriage of a 12-year-old daughter after persuasion by panchayat members who watched the TV programme on age at marriage.

The programme had a positive impact on the functioning of public health centres and sub-centres.

The report states that panchayat members started monitoring the attendance of doctors, paramedical staff, and anganwadi assistants in some areas.

Though the Prasar Bharati Act prohibits the private cable operators from blocking Doordarshan channels, in some villages the project was adversely affected as cable operators were not telecasting the Doordarshan channel. In villages in H.D. Kote taluk in Mysore District, the panchayat members hired an antenna to view the serial on health.

In line with the National Health Policy of 1983 and National Population Policy of 2000, the report recommends telecasting more programmes of health education by Government-owned and private channels to promote health awareness among people.

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