Development Communication | Role in Population and Family Welfare

Development Communication can play a tremendous role in popularising Family Planning Schemes. Before knowing about the role of DevCom in this regard, it is necessary to examine the size of the Indian Population and its role in economic development. From the viewpoint of population, India ranks 2nd in the World and from the viewpoint of the area, it occupies the 7th place. With 2.4% of the world’s area and 1.5% of the world’s income, India is supporting 16.7% of the world’s population. It proves that there is an excessive burden of the population in’ India. The growth rate of population in India is also very high. Every year we add to our population, the total population of Australia. According to an observation numerically, there is an increase of about 1.4 crores in our population every year.

Rapida growth of population in India can effectively be lowed by resorting to family planning methods. The government has widened the Scope or this Programme and re-named it as Family Welfare Programme. The programme has a great signifíicance for our country. Control over the growth rate of population is the pre-condition for the economic development of the country and success of the plans. Family Planning not only benefits the family concerned but the entire nation also. It also leads to improve the standard of living. Here more important to know first about the concept of Family Planning as well as Population Education.
In the context of academics, population education is comparatively a unique concept which came into existence during the middle of the previous century. At times people do not conceptualize it correctly as different nations take different definitions of it. If we divide all the countries of the world into two sections, one will consist of those counties wherein the population is decreasing i.e. France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany etc. The second section will cover those countries wherein Population is increasing at the fast speed i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya etc. We will locate the reasons for decreasing population in those countries where it is decreasing and make the audience about them so that they develop an attitude for the large size family. However, for countries like India, where the population is increasing at a rapid speed, we will impart population education amongst the viewers/listeners/readers in a scientific way so that they develop positive attitudes towards small size families and the population is controlled and they become conscious about the population problem. In this way, population education is differently conceived in different types of countries. A good many times Population Education and Family, Planning is taken as one and the same thing, but in fact, both these terms mean quite different concepts, however family planning inseparable part of population education.
By Family Planning we mean family by choice, not by chance. It means enlarging the size of the family up to a limit, in keeping with the size of the income of the family. The small size will improve the standard of living of the family or, at
least, check it from falling. It therefore implies, to have children by choice not by chance, by design and not by accident. So in the Indian context, it is thus clear about concept formation that audience is to be made informative, aware and conscious, in such a way that when they enter the reproductive stage, they should be considerate about the population problem of the country and form a positive attitude to solve the problem of over Population. Family Panning deals with the situation in which one develops the sexual relationship, without giving birth to any child. It can be done in so many ways i.e, by using the safe period method, taking some medicines, using some mechanical devices, loop and some other methods, undergoing some surgical operations etc. but in population education, such an attitude is to be inculcated amongst the viewer that they, before the time of their reproduction age and during this time too, keeping in view the positive of their country, they go tor
small or large size families.
As we know that today India is facing the huge problem of the excess population so Mass Media or Technological Media should feel the need to promote family planning programmes. Secondly, it is also the social responsibility of the Media
Owners to educate the audience about the harmful impact of large families. AlR stations broadcast thousands of programmes on family Welfare Programmes every month in all over the major languages/dialects of our country e.g. programmes on Sexually Transmitted diseases, family planning, AIDS, and Motherhood Programmes. Success stories are also broadcasted, regularly. Govt. is also using Television for Family Planning Campaigns., with the help of advertisement.
Attempts are made to popularize the family planning programmes. A part form the entertainment and information, we know that imparting education is also one of the primary function of a media. So publicity in favour of family planning should be done by the all means of media i.e, radio, TV, newspapers, internet etc.
OBJECTIVES OF POPULARIZING FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES:
Media is a powerful tool of social change. It has the potential to cultivate the minds. The aim of family planning is to restrict the number of children for the family to two or three, So Media can play a major role in popularizing the Family Planning Schemes. The following are the points explain the objectives of popularizing Family Planning Programme in India:
To know the danger of overpopulation.
To know about the importance of family planning
To ensure awareness and understanding of family planning
To lend a helping hand to the government to fulfil its population goals.
To understand various. crises such as increasing sign of global environment crises; reduction o World wIde 1ood grain production; shortage of potable water and fresh air etc.
To create intelligence citizenship FamilyPlanning Education is necessary
To understand society and its present and future needs.
To improve the quality of life.
To produce national wealth i.e, human resource.
To establish equality of sexes.
To get educate the masses about the burden of a huge population.
To inculcate rational humanism.
To improve moral responsibility.
To develop the country as a whole.
To help common masses-For betterment of Indian Masses, particularly in rural areas, there is a greater need to emphasize proper registration of their births, deaths and migration. This Justifies the need for Family Planning Education to help us for better forecasting in order to meet the various challenges of serious nature confronting us.
ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION IN POPULARIZING FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES OR REMEDIES TO POPULARIZE THE. FAMILY WELFARE PROGRAMMES:
Though Development Communication has been playing a vital role in the development phases of the family planning programme in Spite of large efforts of education and motivating people for accepting small family norms, changing the health practices of the people, and introducing spacing methods, the programme could not produce desired results. Following are some suggestions for the success of family welfare programmes:
  • Advertisements can be used as a tool for publicity. They provide an opportunity for the individual to tune their living in accordance with the demand of time i.e. low growth of population.
  • Social factors like traditional ethos, illiteracy diversity of language and cultures, religious impact and caste system have been responsible for the failure of the programme. Therefore, Devcom can play a successful role in breaking the barriers of orthodoxy and infusing scientific temper among masses.
  • Lack of proper coordination of communication between people and policy planners and the overall resistance to change is also responsible People and for the failure of this programme. So the media should make an attempt to coordinate the different public evolved in these programmes.
  • Most of the administrators view motivational and educational techniques as a kind of magic, which when applied anywhere on anybody can yield good results, but these programmes require not only patience but also the capability of
  • Workers. So a journalist can also highlight the weakness and essential for family planning programmes in his- articles and comments.
  • It is generally thought that putting messages in the mass media channels would ensure positive results, the psyche, ethos and socio-economic factors are given less importance. But proper importance should be given to socio-economic issues.
  • It is noted that Development Support Communication efforts in family planning programme seldom use the knowledge and the talent available at the local levels. A Part from this inadequacy of motivation of the staff is also responsible. So,
  • the proper motivation for the working staff should be given.
  • Cultural factors have also been responsible for preventing innovative ideas from being functional and operational at the community level. So the media should play a role in reforming society.
  • Factors like media habits of the target audience, their access to medía, and the appropriateness of the channel have not been researched. So, work should be done in this regard.
  • Special attention should be paid to the developmental news, quiz programmes and participation programmes.
  • Many other concepts of different terminologies are so confused with the term family planning e.g. Sex education etc, Thus, it becomes more essential to clear the audience about the family welfare. So that their attitude towards family planning becomes more clear.
  • Media must pay due attention to adult literacy, the danger of overpopulation and the importance of family planning Developmental programmes must promote research and development activities in order to get proper feedback on peoples’ participation.
  • To develop the country as a whole, the Developmental Programmes should improve the moral responsibilities of the masses and emphasis should be given on rationalism.

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