Strategic Communication Beckons Young Talent

One heard sounds of sobbing during a meet of stakeholders involved in implementing DOTs - or Directly Observed Therapy system introduced for controlling TB.This was at Sanjay Gandhi Chest Hospital in west Delhi, one year after the new programme had for the first time launched a multi media communication campaign to spread the message that there was sure and simple cure for TB under DOTs and both diagnosis and treatment were free of cost. The stakeholders-patients, their families, DOTs workers, doctors, NGOs, program policy makers were meeting to discuss whether the programme and its communication were working and what the communication gaps were. The meet was being filmed for training and other purposes.

The sobbing came from a young man accompanied by his wife and three children. He had broken down to crying when a programme officer asked him what his experience with DOTS was. He was a migrant worker. His story was that his family was almost starving as he was ill and unable to work as a wage labourer and doctors were unable to cure him of what ever illness he suffered from. A friend advised him to contact the TB clinic and he did. A miracle occurred according to him. He tested TB positive and received medicines free of cost under the condition that his friend watches over him when he takes the medicines. The friend became the DOTs or observer who ensures that the patient takes his medicines regularly. Within a few days he resumed his wage employment. ‘Hum bahut nirash the’ (we had lost all hope) and ‘roshni mili’ (we received light), was how he described DOTs.

In this recorded true story, witnessed by the author, what came out strongly was that the year long communication had worked. It helped galvanizing the machinery of health workers, doctors and DOTs workers on the one hand and at another level, the infected and affected had received the DOTs simplicity message.

TB kills more people in India than all the other communicable diseases combined. The program to control it-revised national TB control programme (RNTCP) was aiming to cover all the 600+ districts of India. While the program was training doctors and para medical support staff and involving NGOs in its implementation and ordinary persons who could observe patients while they took their medicines, the missing link was communication.

Before launching the campaign, India wide study of people’s perception about TB and its treatment was initiated. Social researchers like the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), the communication specialists such as those who design the message and disseminate through media (advertising agency) undertook field visits for formal and what is called ‘formative research’. Messages were field tested to find out whether they communicated to people what was intended and whether the people related themselves to this message. CMS at different stages of this campaign brought essential feed back from the ground and programme designers-central Minsitry of Health, the World Bank funding the project and states used this feed back for revising and improving the programme and its communication.

A communication campaign that is not accountable for outcomes wastes a lot of money. In this campaign results were measured for outcomes and gaps. Communication campaign designers trained implementers in using the campaign for reaching DOTs to people. The communication campaign created a virtuous circle as a platform for all stakeholders to meet and exchange experiences for the good of the program and its stakeholders. Ordinary persons who were not experts in TB control –shopkeepers, a temple priest, gate-keepers in factories, neighbours, private doctors volunteered to become DOTS workers in a grand display of self less social service.

This was” strategic” social communication doing its destined and unsung duty. Some things were still missing in this campaign.CMS research showed that the campaign had addressed a limited number of social and personal issues concerning TB infected and affected persons. The initial campaign by design wanted to address only few issues-that TB was completely curable through simple diagnosis and treatment free of cost. Irregular treatment could cause drug resistant TB. Hence, some body, not necessarily a doctor, take responsibility that the patient does not fail to take the medicines regularly. The message was: ‘you can conquer an age old disease’.

Strategic communication is defined as a planned communication campaign, based on an analysis of the problem. It answers questions like - why is free TB treatment not being availed ?, why is family planning  not succeeding? Why do people not take HIV/AIDS seriously? Or why is a good product or service is loosing out to market competition?, Or why is a good firm is not able to earn or retain reputation in caparison to competition?. Strategic communication not only supports other vital efforts of the organization such as corporate or program leadership, marketing, HR, Finance but functions as the enabling platform for all to work towards a common objective.

In the example given earlier to TB control program, communication alone could not have succeeded without other stakeholders working to make RNTCP a success. It was necessary to bring different stakeholders on a shared platform, promising service and results. It supported the program. It inspired the program. Because it delivered results or outcome and subjected itself to evaluation so that the money spent on communication was linked to outcomes. Thus, it satisfied the communication canon:  ‘communication is an essential component but it alone cannot guarantee success’.

Strategically used to bring varied stakeholders to a common goal, it delivers results cost effectively. For young minds wanting to be different from the crowd, a career in strategic communication is a voyage in exciting discovery of self creativity and job satisfaction. In social communication it can change lives and destiny of people. And in marketing communication; it can transform a firm’s place in the market place and enter people’s daily life and their mind-scape.

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