Effective communication strategies to mobilize human resources in popularising government health projects: a field study

Abstract

Government of India and its state health departments take the projects further and reach the beneficiaries with the help of primary health centers and workers attached to social welfare department. The study tries to explore developing alternative communication methods and also developing alternative human resources, effective in popularizing government health projects. This project was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved a focused group discussion in three villages to assess the level of awareness of health and hygiene issues keeping an authentic state government publication as reference. The respondents were grouped into three small groups comprising five members in each group. The discussion with the respondents which comprised of either gender concentrated on topics such as the formation and working of health and hygiene committees, auxiliary nurse midwives, availability of community and Primary Health Centers, hospitals at District and Taluq Centers, prenatal and postnatal care provided to women by the health department of the Government, projects undertaken by the government for the beneficiaries belonging to different age groups and gender, health camps and availability of tests and treatments for diseases like TB and HIV/AIDS and emergency services. It is interesting to note that a few of the respondents were able to correlate and recognize the government projects under its project name after the lecture and particularly after the street play and this proves that there is scope and need for strengthening interpersonal communication. It is suggested that the government and the officials concerned should take some initiatives in mobilizing the community of beneficiaries to come out of their selfish and caste based cocoon in making the issues known to the public in general. Apart from this there is a need to discover and tap potential alternative communication medium.