Rights and Gender based Mass Media Campaign on HIV/AIDS; An experience and way forward- India

Jammy Guru Rajesh[1], Mallika Dutt[2], Alika Khosla[3] and Sonali Khan[4].

Gender inequality in India affects women from birth. Household is a unit of cooperation as well as of inequality and internal discrimination.  It reflects the hold of traditional masculinist values from which women may not be immune. What is needed is not just freedom of action but also freedom of thought - in women’s ability and willingness to question received values. Women do not enjoy equal rights to health, housing, and livelihood even within relationships, marriage and family. At the heart of this crisis they are, less able to exercise control over their bodies and lives. This burdened with violence and poverty appends to the burden of HIV/AIDS.

With this backdrop “What Kind of Man Are You?” an innovative mass media campaign addressing women’s vulnerability to HIV-infection and tabling the issues of inequality (especially within marriage). The rights based approach of the campaign placed women’s rights and equality of relationships at the center of the discussion.  It raised the issue of HIV/AIDS from the point of view of women while calling for male responsibility; it sought to spark a discussion about difficult but necessary issues like fidelity, protection from HIV/AIDS and communication within marriage. It also encouraged women to promote equality within marriage and to negotiate condom use and other measures to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other infections.

The campaign utilized multiple media platforms to promote condom use amongst men to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS while addressing the gender inequality that increases vulnerability of women. It was translated and disseminated in six languages. It for the first time represented a pro bono relationship with a mainstream communication and advertising agency to create a comprehensive, 360-degree multi-media campaign.  The collaboration between NGO’s and mainstream communication specialist is unique component. But this also put forth the pressing need to create a brief for the advertising agency and also sensitize them for designing the campaign. The dissemination of the campaign was done on largely pro bono basis, which made it cost effective but with its tribulations. The dissemination of the media and the impact evaluation was done by a professional organization, which revealed the various achievements, shortcomings in the dissemination and reach of the campaign. The documentation of the various processes and evaluation created a considerable support for learning. This process engendered considerable learning for institutional growth and for other organizations to implement similar programs. This experience has provided an encouraging environment, which paved the road ahead for further scaling of the program.

This paper aims to document the process of conceptualization, creation, production, dissemination and evaluation of the campaign. It highlights the challenges, successes and learning’s, creating the road ahead / model for multi cultural and rights specific mass media campaigns for better reach, penetration and impact. 

Key words: HIV/AIDS, Gender, Mass media

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