Sunday, October 24, 2010

Problem of the Poor , Remedy by the poor

Today on the world polio day I want to bring just an observation to the forefront. India is the home to one of the largest number of polio patients in the world. We have been trying to eradicate the devil by roping in likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Virender Sehwag,  and who not, but still there were 741 reported polio cases in 2009. Government of India spends exorbitant amount of money for pulse polio campaigns but the results are not up to the mark, despite of all the efforts the Polio still shows it's dirty head every now and then, why?
Has anyone thought about it?

The problem is simple, majority of the polio cases comes from the poor families, poor who don't even have access to tube to look at kurta pajayma clad AB doing what he does the best, oration, nor do they have the skill to read the almost omnipresent yellow color banners flurrying ostentatiously on the top of streets and snobbishly looking at the traffic struck vehicles. The only feasible method of awareness is the word of mouth publicity for them and what they hear from their peer group is an earthly mix of obscenities, fight descriptions, wine and drug lessons and other filth. So under these circumstances what can be the solution?
Thanks to the Grace of the God the solution is much simpler than the problem, the slum children who normally go to attend the ambitious HRD minister places of learning should be sensitized about it and should later be given the responsibility to sensitize their peers , their families, their friends' families , friends friend's family and so on. They should be under an adult supervision for the same and try to spread the message during the night hours when all the people are normally at home.  They can spread their message by the use of microphones and loud speakers, even certain interactive programs like dramas can be conceptualized and performed, all in a tie up with some self help group or the NGO, even government of India can come up and fund up these initiatives. Spending cents on these initiatives is easier than buying airtime at huge dollars. Moreover these kind of initiatives will act in two ways, one they will deliver the message in the best possible manner, second they will help in  the overall development of these volunteer children, is it not at the end of the day  also our responsibility They say any publicity is good publicity but it is high time for not good but the best publicity and word of mouth is most feasible option at the moment because ultimately it is not AB or Sehwag's problem but the problem of the poor and hence, they can only be the remedy to it.

1 comment:

  1. Good one. Ankush.. Nice to see posts on social issues... liked the name too ' gurubhai' eh :) Keep it coming...

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