"We are convinced that if we are to play meaningful role nationally and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society which we find in our country."
Dr Vikram Sarabhai
The father of Indian Space Programme

It was this vision of the founder of the Indian Space Programme, that led to the use of space technology for the benefit of the common person to overcome the problems of development. The Development and Educational Communication Unit (DECU) of the Indian Space Research Organization, took up this challenge to reach out to the citizens through television. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) of 1975 was the beginning of educational television programmes for rural areas, in India. This led on to the use of television for similar educational programmes over the years. The most recent initiative is the Jhabua Development Communications Project (JDCP), which has completed over a year of operations.

Development Communication for Jhabua

Jhabua, with a population of 11.3 lakh, is one of the districts of Madhya Pradesh, touching the borders of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The main occupation of the district is agriculture-either cultivation or labour, and has a very low literacy rate.

The JDCP broadcasts development programmes five days a week from the DECU studio at Ahmedabad through their own earth station. The subject areas for the programmes have been identified based on discussions with the district authorities, local people and experts, and the needs assessment studies. The subject areas thus identified and covered for programming include:

• Watershed Management including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, etc.

• Health covering child and women's health, family welfare and prevention of various diseases.

• Panchayati Raj including role of women and its function

• Education including non formal and adult education

• Socio-economic Issues covering employment, government development schemes, etc.

• Culture covering folk and traditional aspects

Though most of the issues are hardcore development ones, efforts are made to make the programmes interesting. A variety of formats like documentary, drama, dance,animation, etc., are being used to make the programmes. The programmes were made keeping them field based, using the local language, using the local cultural preferences and having active participation of the local people.

Researching for the programmes

The objectives of the research were to determine the impact on knowledge level of villagers about the subject areas transmitted, impact on knowledge levels of participants in the interactive training programmes that were organized for functionaries of village/block level and NGOs. The attitudinal and behavioural changes were also to be studied.

The research plan included selecting villages, conducting needs assessment studies, developing communication briefs, pretesting of programmes, feedback, benchmark survey, mid-term survey, interactive training feedback and documentation. All the research has been divided into three main areas:

1. Formative research-carried out before the production of programmes, to determine the communication needs, estimate the initial levels of knowledge, attitude and practices to develop appropriate communication strategies,
2. Process research-to find out the progress of the project in terms of its utilization, usefulness, relevance, comprehension, etc., so that mid term corrections can be done if necessary and
3. Summative research-to find the overall impact and see if objectives are met and if there are measurable effects in the priority areas identified.

Working together

In order to make the programmes interesting and acceptable, innovative programming was consistently and consciously followed from the very beginning by the various members of the team. A different approach was practiced in the way the researchers and producers interacted. The research reports though submitted in the traditional style was also followed with a presentation by the researchers to the producers. This helped both the researchers and the producers to interact and discuss the issues and arrive at better programmes. There are constant interactions between the various members of the team-researcher, producer, script writer, camera persons, etc., to ensure that every member of the team is aware of the objectives and are able to work towards it.

Learnings from Jhabua

The viewers appreciated programmes which were in the local language and related to the local situations and happenings around them. They liked the drama format but wanted the programmes to come directly to the message rather than going around in circles. Twelve to fifteen minutes appeared to be the optimum attention span and the appearance of an expert with long monologues led to the loss of attention. It was found that a maximum of two to three messages were more effective rather than having too many messages. When the messages were many the risk of not adequately covering even one message was there.

JDCP is conceived as a pilot project for extending similar programmes to other districts and eventually paving way for a national "Gramsat" configuration directed towards rural development communication.

This communication project is an example of alternative broadcasting in the country to meet the goals of information and education needs of Jhabua rooted to its culture. It is just one of the many such rural areas of India with low level of infrastructure. JDCP shows how broadcast television can be used for education and development. With more of such communication projects we are inching closer to realizing the dream of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, of applying technology for the benefit of the common people.

Extracted from: Pursuit, a publication of DECU-SAC-ISRO, brought out on the occasion of a two day seminar "Retrospect and Prospect" organized at DECU to commemorate completion of one year of Jhabua Development Communications Project.