Social Campaigns
In a travel magazine, I read an article by Prof. Bernadette and Prof
Stephen D'Silva (both are members of the Management Faculty, university
of Mumbai) on social campaigns and social marketing. They say that
social campaigns form an integral part of the micro and macro environment.
They are often prompted by the perception that "some situations represent
a social problem and require a social action".
Social campaigns include facilitating the awareness towards treatment
for TB, Hepatitis and polio. Social campaigns should include programmes
like rainwater harvesting in Chennai. Today, it is one of the biggest
issues in Chennai. If things go on like this, Chennai should gear
up itself to face a major calamity. It could be an epidemic or an
earthquake. The water scarcity may even lead to a lot of social complications.
We must understand that as the environment is dependent on its own
factors in a cyclic way, the human life, which is intermingled with
the environment or which is a part of it can not escape from this
complicated inter-dependence. The problem what we can see today need
not be the actual cause of the calamity in the future. The social
problems are complex and inter-related. Hence, the actual remedy lies
not in managing today's issues but in completely addressing them in
all their dimensions. Hence, social campaigns require a lot of analysis
and it needs the will and courage to make people aware of both the
issues and their remedies/preventive measures. Water harvesting techniques,
for instance should be the main social campaign in Chennai today.
Those who can offer the water harvesting technologies at an affordable
price can initiate such campaigns.
The social campaigns are very similar to the commercial advertisements
for products but the significant difference lies in the fact that
these campaigns should also educate the consumers/customers about
the magnitude of an issue and the need for the "product" that they
sell. Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman explain it very easily. Social
campaigns or social marketing is the "design, implementation, and
control of programmes aimed at increasing the acceptability of a social
idea or practice in one or more group of target adopters or beneficiaries".
Social marketing aims at influencing the people's ideas and behaviour.
For instance, social marketing of the concept that family planning
is the compulsory requirement for a nation's growth would succeed
only if the tools/products of this concept i.e. "condoms" are acceptable
to the customers. The "product" would be bought only if the "concept"
is convincingly sold. This is the difficulty in social marketing/campaign
unlike the case with toothpaste advertisement where the product is
advertised and not the concept i.e. brushing is importance for strong
teeth.
In the example that we talked about earlier on rainwater harvesting
in Chennai, even if a group of civil engineers has a very good technology
to construct rainwater collection troughs and lead pipes to wells
or to the water table beneath the earth, they can have business only
if they convince the Chennai residents that it is a must to tackle
water crisis in the city. The success of Narmada Bacho Andolan lies
in its social campaign strategy by which it spreads awareness on hazards
of big dams and the related social issues. This is where the role
of educated citizens comes into play.
Reducing costs and more importantly "creating incentives" to adopt
and maintain the new idea or practice is an important task of organizations
involved in social campaigns. The "Noon Meal Scheme" initially formulated
by Mr Kamaraj and later launched in a big way Dr M G Ramachandran
(both are former Chief Ministers of Tamilnadu) is a big success in
terms of enhancing the enrollment and retainment of poor children
in schools simply because of the incentive it offered to poor children.
It also reduced the child labour to a great extent.
Ever the courage and good will of an individual can bring in a positive
change. Let us ask only one question to ourselves- "how much do I
contribute to make this society and the country a better one for my
progeny to inherit?" We can participate in social service, social
campaign or in social marketing depending on our capability and interest.
But we must do something positive to the society in return for our
dependence on it.
There are many who would like to contribute their might but they
need proper guidance to channelize their zeal and energy. All that
these people require is the exposure to committed groups and organizations
working in their nearby locality so that they can associate themselves
with them. It is important for the non-profit NGOs also to be on the
Internet to reach out to potential donors. With these views in mind,
apart from many other subjects that we have been discussing in this
column such as politics, education, economics, and science, hereafter
we would also periodically discuss about organizations and people
who are genuinely doing some good work to alleviate the sufferings
of people and the society as a whole.
