UNICEF MISSION INDRADHANUSH CONSULTATION
Radio Workshop (29th April, 2015)
Introduction
Routine Immunisation in India targets 27 million infants and 30 million pregnant women, saving 2.5 million lives each year. Since 1990, child mortality rate in India has dropped by 45 percent. This progress is a proof that life-saving interventions, technology and know-how to reach even the most vulnerable children can save millions of lives.
In spite of the steady progress, the benefits of Routine Immunisation programme and vaccines under RI have not reached their targeted beneficiaries. Present efforts have resulted in only 65% of the children in India receiving all vaccines during the first year of their life.
To address this critical issue, Government of India, has launched Mission Indradhanush, in 201 high focus districts (list attached) across the country. Nearly 50% of all unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children in India are in these 201 districts. Intensified routine immunisation campaigns in these districts will help reduce morbidity and mortality due to vaccine preventable diseases which, under the scheme, will be done through special catch-up campaigns to rapidly increase full immunisation coverage.
Internationally, this week is critical for we are celebrating World Immunisation Week 2015 (24-30 April) which signals a renewed global, regional, and national effort by governments, partners and donors to accelerate awareness and demand for immunisation by communities, and improve vaccination delivery services using as a framework the Global Vaccine Action Plan. According to statistics, each year, immunisation averts an estimated 2-3 million deaths from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and measles. Despite the enormous effectiveness of immunisation, nearly one-fifth of the world’s infants still miss out on basic vaccines. Nearly three-quarters of the children who have not received three doses of DTP-containing (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine during 2013 live in 15 countries: Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Syria, Uganda and Viet Nam.This year through our campaign we focus on closing the immunisation gap and reaching all children with vaccines.
As part of efforts to strengthen RI’s reach, the UNICEF GAVI HSS partnership has been promoting advocacy with media to create an enabling environment for increasing the demand for RI services. UNICEF is leveraging all forms of media while keeping a special focus on equity. The partnership focuses on reaching disadvantaged and hard to reach populations through engagement and discourse in the media to influence mind-sets in favour of RI, in the high priority states - Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh
Media and Routine Immunisation
Media is a key civil society stakeholder in the efforts to address issues of public interest and policy. Media has a definitive role in shaping public sentiment, mobilizing public participation and creating awareness in several domains of socio-economic development in India[1].Media plays a critical role in creating a sustained and informed discourse on any public health initiative. Specific to health, the media has played a key role in sharing information and creating awareness on issues among stakeholders.
UNICEF nurtures vibrant partnerships with media organizations and journalists to expand the media discourse on RI and create opportunities for showcasing good practices. UNICEF has worked extensively with TV journalists for better positioning of their stories on RI in prime media channels, and with print media reporters to highlight issues concerning vaccination drives in their own writings through human interest articles. Media workshops have helped create additional space for coverage on problems faced in implementation of Routine Immunisation programs and related issues.
As a part of our engagement with the media, UNICEF is looking at radio as a strategic partner and is initiating the current workshop to develop a joint strategy with radio journalists for informed public discourse that will create a supportive environment for enhancing the reach of RI.
Radio
Radio has always been regarded as one of the largest broadcasting platforms in the world in terms of the number of languages of broadcast and the spectrum of socio-economic and cultural diversity it serves. With nearly 159 million Radio listeners[2] in the country turning in, radio has fast become a crucial point of contact with the grassroots of the country.
UNICEF believes with the expertise and extensive reach of this medium among the masses, it can be a critical link in creating awareness and engaging audiences among remotest parts of the country with a specific aim to engage audiences and provide information on RI. We hope to leverage this platform to develop a detailed plan for production of key programs and capacity development through innovative mechanisms.
Current Initiative
As part of the initiative to create a holistic discourse around Routine Immunisation, UNICEF, in partnership with the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI), organised a capacity building workshop for Radio Jockeys in 2014. The goals of this workshop was to sensitize RJs and producers of major FM radio stations in India on the critical need to expand the reach of India’s Routine Immunisation programme in the context of the country’s developmental goals and to learn from media’s experience of reporting on health and immunisation and build their capacities to enable them advocate for immunisation by creating larger spaces for discussion and discourse. The workshop brought together more than 40 radio professionals from public and private radio broadcasters (All India Radio and private FM channels) across the country. The programme also involved participation of two frontline ASHA workers, several academics, government health officials, civil society representatives and health experts of WHO and UNICEF. At the end of all activities we have received 40 clips from top radio journalists with key messages of Routine Immunisation.
Objective of the Consultation
The overarching objective is two-fold where we are looking to create visibility around the subject of Routine Immunisation by leveraging the existing infrastructure and expertise of the radio community while also building upon the capacity of radio participants from low RI states.
Consultation: 29th April, 2015
On the day of the consultation, Key strategic partners and some district level representatives of the All India Radio, the largest public service broadcaster in the country from five low RI states (North India) – Rajasthan, Punjab, Harayana, Uttrakhand and U.P. - will come together for a detailed session on capacity building around the subject of Routine Immunisation. This is envisaged to be a two-way discussion where we are looking to gain insights and innovative means to put a spotlight on RI through impactful messaging and dissemination from representatives of the low RI state radio community as well as arm them with information and training to encourage discourse on RI in states through radio.
Through the activities planned for the day we hope to provide our participants all information on RI which would feed into the brain storming session with the end goal of equipping them with meaningful content that can help them develop innovative messages around RI. Furthermore, our participants are being brought on board as potential trainers for further capacity building activities for radio journalists in partnership with UNICEF in their respective high priority states.
We request participants to share their experience on the four broad existing categories of AIR programming from your respective states – (1) Kisaan Programming, (2) Women and Youth Programming, (3) Labour programming, (4) Zila programmes. Innovation and inventive messaging around RI to be incorporated within these existing categories can be captured during the group session with participants.
We hope that this radio interaction will create stronger platforms to work together to reach out to people in the remotest parts of the country and provide them the information they need to ensure healthy futures for their children.
[1] See Ram N (2011)“The Changing Role of the News Media in Contemporary India”; Paper delivered as President, Contemporary India Section in the Indian History Congress, 72nd Session, Punjabi University, Patiala, December. See also Jeffrey, Robin (2014), “ India’s ‘Bully Pulpit’: Media in the Time of Digital Revolution”; Convocation Address at the Asian College of Journalism.
[2]The power of a Billion', KPMG-FICCI Report, 2013
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Radio Consultation on Routine Immunisation: Mission Indradhanush
Jury Meet for UNICEF "Radio4child" Awards
28 April 2015, Surajkund
28 April 2015, Surajkund
While the world celebrated the World Immunisation Week 2015 (24-30 April), UNICEF India in partnership with Speak For Change and Nagrik Foundation held a two-day ‘Radio Consultation on Routine Immunisation: Mission Indradhanush’, that focused primarily on creating stronger platforms to reach out to people in the remotest parts of the country and provide them the information they need to ensure Routine Immunisation, instrumental in securing a healthy future for their children through the medium of radio.
With nearly 159 million Radio listeners[1] in the country, radio has fast become a crucial point of contact with the grassroots of the country. UNICEF has always believed that with the expertise and extensive reach of this medium among the masses, it is a critical link to create awareness and engage audiences among remotest parts of the country with a specific aim to engage audiences and provide information on RI.
In June 2014, UNICEF-AROI partnered to conduct a workshop for capacity building of representatives from 40 private radio stations. Of these 40, UNICEF received 21 entries that were reviewed by our eminent panel of judges along the following key messages that were imparted during the training last year:
- The radio presenter must keep in mind the diverse profile of their audience and connect to them accordingly.
- They must work at keeping the message simple, short and captivating.
Pioneers closely associated with radio, Uday Chopra, Secretary General, Association of Radio Operators of India, Anupam Nidhi, Head-Group CSR, Reliance Group, Deepak Dwivedi, Chairman, Nagrik Foundation, Pervaiz Alam, Dean, School of Journalism, APJ University, RJ Simran Kohli, Director, Speak For Change Foundation, Rumi Malik, RJ AIR and Abhay Gaur, Senior Journalist, AIR deliberated upon the finer nuances of a message as they finalised the winners across the following pre-decided categories.
1. Best PSA
2. Best Jingle
3. Best RJ Link
4. Best Creative Campaign
5. Mission Indradhanush Best Radio Spot Award
Most of the clips were brilliantly executed and composed, so much so that the jury decided to add another award, “Clarity of Message” to the list.
The jury recommends the following as a way forward:
Most of the jury agreed for a foreign field trip for capacity building of the winners. The jury stressed on choosing one of the SAARC countries, in particular, Nepal. It was suggested that the winners attend their Public Broadcasting of the nation as they tie up with a leading broadcaster of the to be decided nation. The winners must submit a PPT or a report for the UNICEF and AROI to gain from. The suggested timeline to hold the award function: May last week or June 2nd week.
The last leg of the event also deliberated upon the audio book for Public Health for Radio on RI which will be curated by RJ Simran Kohli Director,Speak For Change Foundation.
It was advised that the book should also have a listener survey to understand their point of view. Other features suggested were as follows:
- Include all winning entries with explanation on why they won.
- Make it a style or a guide book for referencing
- Involve all media schools to do a workshop around “effective healthcare messaging” and distribute these books.
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“Training workshop on Routine Immunization (RI) for Radio professionals” - 6-7 June 2014
Radio for Routine Immunization (Are you Up-to-date?)
NEW DELHI, 6 June 2014: Over 40 Radio jockeys and National Programming Heads of private FM radio stations gathered in the capital today for a first-of-its kind brainstorming and hands-on training workshop on Routine Immunization (RI) for radio professionals. The workshop was organized by UNICEF in partnership with AROI (Association of Radio Operators of India), as part of its efforts to build awareness on Routine immunization.
The two-day workshop brought together India’s top FM players from 9 priority states to stand up for a common cause- saving childrens’ lives from vaccine preventable diseases.
AROI president Anuradha Prasad, Prof. M. Obaid Siddiqui, Director, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Ms. Monica Chaturvedi, Senior Advisor, Strategic Communciations, ITSU, Mr Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer, Radio Mirchi, Ms Pallavi Rao, Group Head, Radio Mirchi and Mr Anand Raj, National Programming Head, RED FM, also took part in the initiative.
Organized as part of the World Immunization Week, the workshop focused on how radio’s unparalleled reach and dedicated listenership could be leveraged to highlight the importance of vaccination for saving children’s lives.
Speaking at the occasion, Ms Anuradha Prasad, President AROI said, “FM radio has brought in vibrancy to radio broadcasting and is extremely popular across various sections of people—students, housewives, vendors and executives. It can play a significant role in promoting important social issues while weaving them in regular programming.”
Dr Obaid Siddiqui underscored that radio has always been an effective platform to disseminate information on social causes. “People can listen to radio anytime and anywhere they want. It is also a free medium. At places where literacy rates are low, where people cannot afford a TV set, radio is the only medium that can be relied on for information dissemination,” he stressed.
Currently, the radio sector is witnessing a boom, with private radio (allowed through FM) operating in 91 cities across the country, where there is about 70 to 80 percent radio penetration. There were 245 private FM radio stations operational by March 2012, besides the public service broadcaster - All India Radio (AIR), serving 99.18 percent of the population.
UNICEF is leveraging the strengths of FM radio to ensure a sustained discourse on immunization. Ms Caroline Den Dulk, Chief of Communication, UNICEF India, said, “All children have the right to survive and thrive and vaccines protect children for a lifetime. There is need for diverse stakeholders to focus on reaching out to the most vulnerable and marginalized children. As part of our media engagement, we realise the importance of engaging with radio as it has enabled us to reach key messages to audiences across the country.”
Of the 27 million children born in India every year, some 7.2 million remain unvaccinated. These children are mainly from the most marginalized sections, living in difficult-to-reach areas with lack of access to essential services.
Giving a brief on India’s Universal Immunization Program (UIP), Ms Genevieve Begokian, Chief of Health UNICEF India said the program is one of the largest public health initiatives in the world, in terms of geographical reach and number of children covered. However, on account of bottlenecks on both demand and supply side, there is still a long way to go as far as the program’s coverage was concerned.
Dr M K Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner (UIP), in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, spoke about the measures taken by the Government for increasing the immunization coverage. and enhancing the cold chain network.
Nearly 4000 children die in India every day and in most cases, these deaths are due to vaccine-preventable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles and new born complications like sepsis.
Highlighting radio’s critical role in the fight against polio, Dr Sunil Bahl of the World Health Organization urged radio professionals to join forces for raising awareness on RI.
AROI’s Secretary General Uday Chawla said, “As so many child deaths can be avoided everyday through routine immunization, it is imperative for all stakeholders, especially media in India to focus on achieving 100 % immunization.”
Panelists Anand Raj, Mr Sen and Ms Rao welcomed the UNICEF-AROI initiative and said that FM radio was not all about music and entertainment. Each FM channel has its own target groups, its own brand positioning and was doing its bit in various program formats, they emphasized.
Prof Pervaiz Alam, Dean, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Apeejay Stya University, who also spoke at the conference, said that radio has a very strong connect with the people. “The good part is you cannot teach anyone how to do good radio. But you can tell the radio professionals what are the areas that need the personal touch, that need special attention and that can trigger change,” he observed.
Radio Mirchi’s RJ Naved, whose pranks on Mirchi Murga are hugely popular among listeners, said,”Apart from entertaining their audience, RJs too can act responsibility and use the platform that radio gives them to take up social causes.
Top Radio professional RJ Simran Kohli who is the creative consultant for this initiative, has contributed to making the workshop more attuned to the needs and requirements of radio as a medium. She has initiated an online forum to bring all the RJs working on the issue together on Facebook page radio4child.
Dipping their palms in colours, participating RJs took the “pledge of life”, promising to raise awareness on RI on airwaves. RJ from Rajiv Nair of Big FM, Bhubaneswar very enthusiastically said, “Improving immunization coverage across poor performing states like Odisha is very important. Through my evening show that targets the youth and those driving back from office, I hope to get the message across.”
Awards have been instituted by UNICEF-AROI for the best program innovations and communication bytes on RI.
In the coming months, this national initiative will be expanded to states through a series of nine workshops in states with lowest immunization rates, namely Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
The workshop also came out with a set of recommendations that will be disseminated to policy makers, civil society institutions, and media research institutions.
Certificates of participation were distributed at the end of workshop.
For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org and www.unicef.org/india
For more information, please contact:
• Caroline den Dulk, Chief of Communication, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-, Email: @unicef.org
• Geetanjali Master, Communication Specialist, UNICEF India
Tel: 91-981 810 5861, E-mail: gmaster@unicef.org
• Sonia Sarkar, Communication Officer- Media, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-981 017 0289, E-mail: ssarkar@unicef.org
The two-day workshop brought together India’s top FM players from 9 priority states to stand up for a common cause- saving childrens’ lives from vaccine preventable diseases.
AROI president Anuradha Prasad, Prof. M. Obaid Siddiqui, Director, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Ms. Monica Chaturvedi, Senior Advisor, Strategic Communciations, ITSU, Mr Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer, Radio Mirchi, Ms Pallavi Rao, Group Head, Radio Mirchi and Mr Anand Raj, National Programming Head, RED FM, also took part in the initiative.
Organized as part of the World Immunization Week, the workshop focused on how radio’s unparalleled reach and dedicated listenership could be leveraged to highlight the importance of vaccination for saving children’s lives.
Speaking at the occasion, Ms Anuradha Prasad, President AROI said, “FM radio has brought in vibrancy to radio broadcasting and is extremely popular across various sections of people—students, housewives, vendors and executives. It can play a significant role in promoting important social issues while weaving them in regular programming.”
Dr Obaid Siddiqui underscored that radio has always been an effective platform to disseminate information on social causes. “People can listen to radio anytime and anywhere they want. It is also a free medium. At places where literacy rates are low, where people cannot afford a TV set, radio is the only medium that can be relied on for information dissemination,” he stressed.
Currently, the radio sector is witnessing a boom, with private radio (allowed through FM) operating in 91 cities across the country, where there is about 70 to 80 percent radio penetration. There were 245 private FM radio stations operational by March 2012, besides the public service broadcaster - All India Radio (AIR), serving 99.18 percent of the population.
UNICEF is leveraging the strengths of FM radio to ensure a sustained discourse on immunization. Ms Caroline Den Dulk, Chief of Communication, UNICEF India, said, “All children have the right to survive and thrive and vaccines protect children for a lifetime. There is need for diverse stakeholders to focus on reaching out to the most vulnerable and marginalized children. As part of our media engagement, we realise the importance of engaging with radio as it has enabled us to reach key messages to audiences across the country.”
Of the 27 million children born in India every year, some 7.2 million remain unvaccinated. These children are mainly from the most marginalized sections, living in difficult-to-reach areas with lack of access to essential services.
Giving a brief on India’s Universal Immunization Program (UIP), Ms Genevieve Begokian, Chief of Health UNICEF India said the program is one of the largest public health initiatives in the world, in terms of geographical reach and number of children covered. However, on account of bottlenecks on both demand and supply side, there is still a long way to go as far as the program’s coverage was concerned.
Dr M K Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner (UIP), in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, spoke about the measures taken by the Government for increasing the immunization coverage. and enhancing the cold chain network.
Nearly 4000 children die in India every day and in most cases, these deaths are due to vaccine-preventable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles and new born complications like sepsis.
Highlighting radio’s critical role in the fight against polio, Dr Sunil Bahl of the World Health Organization urged radio professionals to join forces for raising awareness on RI.
AROI’s Secretary General Uday Chawla said, “As so many child deaths can be avoided everyday through routine immunization, it is imperative for all stakeholders, especially media in India to focus on achieving 100 % immunization.”
Panelists Anand Raj, Mr Sen and Ms Rao welcomed the UNICEF-AROI initiative and said that FM radio was not all about music and entertainment. Each FM channel has its own target groups, its own brand positioning and was doing its bit in various program formats, they emphasized.
Prof Pervaiz Alam, Dean, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Apeejay Stya University, who also spoke at the conference, said that radio has a very strong connect with the people. “The good part is you cannot teach anyone how to do good radio. But you can tell the radio professionals what are the areas that need the personal touch, that need special attention and that can trigger change,” he observed.
Radio Mirchi’s RJ Naved, whose pranks on Mirchi Murga are hugely popular among listeners, said,”Apart from entertaining their audience, RJs too can act responsibility and use the platform that radio gives them to take up social causes.
Top Radio professional RJ Simran Kohli who is the creative consultant for this initiative, has contributed to making the workshop more attuned to the needs and requirements of radio as a medium. She has initiated an online forum to bring all the RJs working on the issue together on Facebook page radio4child.
Dipping their palms in colours, participating RJs took the “pledge of life”, promising to raise awareness on RI on airwaves. RJ from Rajiv Nair of Big FM, Bhubaneswar very enthusiastically said, “Improving immunization coverage across poor performing states like Odisha is very important. Through my evening show that targets the youth and those driving back from office, I hope to get the message across.”
Awards have been instituted by UNICEF-AROI for the best program innovations and communication bytes on RI.
In the coming months, this national initiative will be expanded to states through a series of nine workshops in states with lowest immunization rates, namely Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
The workshop also came out with a set of recommendations that will be disseminated to policy makers, civil society institutions, and media research institutions.
Certificates of participation were distributed at the end of workshop.
About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org and www.unicef.org/india
For more information, please contact:
• Caroline den Dulk, Chief of Communication, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-, Email: @unicef.org
• Geetanjali Master, Communication Specialist, UNICEF India
Tel: 91-981 810 5861, E-mail: gmaster@unicef.org
• Sonia Sarkar, Communication Officer- Media, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-981 017 0289, E-mail: ssarkar@unicef.org
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