At a time when healthcare-related information can mean the difference between life and death, DD’s programme Kalyani was a trailblazer in its communication strategies
Once, when there was no electricity in a village in Odisha, there was a scramble to get batteries to generate power, so that the whole community could watch its favourite television programme. No, it wasn’t Big Boss that the villagers wanted to see. Neither was it any of the popular serials or music and dance reality shows. It was Kalyani , a pioneering health programme broadcast by Doordarshan (DD) to raise awareness about preventable ailments like malaria, tuberculosis, water-borne and tobacco-related diseases and iodine deficiency disorders. The programme also featured episodes on leprosy, blindness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health.
First broadcast in May 2002, Kalyani ran for 10 years in nine States, making it the longest-running health communication initiative not just in the country but also globally. However, in April 2012, this bi-weekly show was discontinued and replaced by Swasth Bharat, a similar health programme. However, Swasth Bharat has not struck the same chord with the people as Kalyani did.
At a time when healthcare-related information can mean the difference between life and death, Kalyani was a trailblazer in its communication strategies. Even today, chloroquine tablets promoted by the programme as a measure against malaria are better known as “Kalyani tablets” in many villages in Madhya Pradesh, thanks to the popularity of the programme and the awareness it created on the mosquito-borne disease.
Though it may seem unbelievable but Kalyani even garnered profits and TRPs equivalent to news programmes. It also won prestigious international awards, including the Gates Foundation Award for malaria, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (for the best communication strategy on HIV/AIDS) and the Rose d’Or, popularly known as the television Oscars for its effective health communication.
A brainchild of DD’s Development Communication Division (DCD), the programme was produced in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). Broadcast on Mondays and Thursdays from 6.30 to 7 pm, the half-hour programme was strategically broken into different segments to include quiz competitions, phone-ins, panel discussions with doctors as well as real life stories. With a catchy title song composed by popular music composers Jatin-Lalit, penned by eminent lyricist Naqsh Lyalpuri and sung by famed singer Kavita Krishnamurty, the programme reached out to thousands in the nine States where health indicators were poor. These States included Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand.
In Kunra, a small village in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh, a group of women were so inspired by Kalyani that they decided to get together to spread awareness in their village. But they didn’t know how to go about it. So they approached the producer of the programme who suggested the idea of forming a “Kalyani club” that would carry forward and implement Kalyani’s messages on health. Within four years of the institution of the club, awareness about HIV/AIDS became so widespread that even schoolchildren in the village knew the different modes of transmission. The women dovetailed information on HIV/AIDS with information on other health programmes like diarrhoea, a major childhood illness in the village (and State), malaria, tuberculosis and reproductive health problems.
But first the Kalyani club members discussed these diseases among themselves to ensure that they were well-informed about them. Then the women went from door-to-door to disseminate information about the diseases. By packaging information about HIV/AIDS with other infections, they were able to bring down cases of malaria and reproductive tract infections (RTI) and ensure special care for pregnant and lactating mothers.
When women of neighbouring villages heard about how the club had engendered development and improved health indicators, they were galvanised into forming similar clubs of their own. Consequently, over 300 clubs, each with a membership of at least 25 women, were formed in 16 districts of Chhattisgarh.
The clubs became an integral part of the lives of women. According to Usha Bhasin, then DCD head, 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. This way the gender component was also integrated in the communications strategy. It also meant dedicated partners in the field to keep hammering the health messages home to ensure their sustainability and total recall. This is exactly what the women of the Kalyani clubs did in their own innovative ways. One such novel tactic adopted by Sunita Vishwakarma, president of Kalyani club in village Raveli in district Durg, was to get the health messages printed on the cover of ration cards. Her rationale was that since all club members were housewives like her and used ration cards, it would be a simple and effective way of getting everyone in the house to see the messages. But Vishwakarma did not stop at ration cards. Having heard on the Kalyani programme that her district had the highest prevalence of HIV in the State, her club members knew they had to stop families from following the traditional practice of tattooing. They knew it would be difficult but they went door-to-door explaining how HIV could be transmitted through unsterilised needles used for tattooing. It took several months and repeated visits before the practice completely stopped.
Data showed that three years after the programme was launched, there was rise in the percentage of women who had heard about AIDS as well as those who knew condoms could reduce chances of getting it. Additionally, more pregnant women began to avail of facilities at hospitals for deliveries. This was a big change, as earlier women used cow dung water to induce labour pain and give birth at home.
After the women of Kalyani clubs got into action, this practice came down and the increase in institutional deliveries helped to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality.
Although the entire credit for these improvements does not go to Kalyani clubs, some part of it can be attributed to them. This was because at least one member of the Kalyani club was a mitanin (community health worker). This was an integral part of the strategy to enable these clubs to provide health services. In villages where there were no mitanins, the club selected one member for training. This way their credibility as well as skills increased.
The local woman sarpanch (head) and anganwadi (rural child care centre) workers also become members of the Kalyani clubs and this added to their clout.
Thousands of Kalyani clubs formed across these nine States, where the programmes were produced and broadcast, strengthening the Kalyani programmes further.
It was the huge network of Kalyani clubs that translated the words of the programmes into action and brought health and sanitation to these villages. Roads were swept by the community, ponds cleaned of garbage and even a primary healthcare centre, that had remained closed because it was in a Naxal-infested area of Jharkhand, reopened.
In village Kandarka, Kalyani club members were seen as equivalent to medical doctors. When 24-year-old Deepmala was in a dilemma whether to ask her husband to use condoms or not, she sought the advice of Kalyani club members. Dhaneshwari Thakur, 21, an agricultural labourer in Raveli village said that if it wasn’t for the persistence of Kalyani club members who ensured timely vaccinations during his wife’s second pregnancy, she may not have been able to deliver a healthy child. In fact, several newborn girls were christened Kalyani and as the name denotes, they were seen as a blessing or a benediction.
During the time the 3,000 Kalyani clubs were active in the nine States, the percentage of fully immunised children doubled. The number of children (under three years) breast-fed within one hour of birth also registered an increase. In a country where pneumonia, diarrhoea and low birth weight kill hundreds of children every day, informed Kalyani clubs were able to make a difference thanks to the well thought out messages shared by the health programme.
Their success also underlined the importance of putting people at the centre of health communications and engaging their active participation and ownership, something which is lacking in the present milieu.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
