DailyPost 768
AWARENESS & STUDY; A LIFE CYCLE!
In this world of information overkill, wherever information can chase you beyond your imagination, there are innumerable agencies both in the public, provide and the NGO sector, which are incessantly pursuing awareness campaigns. If you question them on the relevance of lots of activities they indulge in, there is a standard answer, the purpose is awareness. How do we cross the awareness stage, there are lots of issues we continuously remain at that stage, even after decades of effort going into it.
Awareness is like the Project Initiation phase of a project. Henceforth, it has to move to the Planning & Execution stage. Why there Awareness campaigns don’t get ingrained into the target groups. If is very difficult to count as to how many of these awareness campaigns have ended up getting ingrained in our DNA. How many of them have got institutionalized? Road Safety awareness is a ongoing activity, on the same lines, to the same people. The impact analysis in whichever manner it is done, will show no great positive results. Even washing one’s hand clean is still in the Awareness stage. Lots of NGOs in health, education, women’s issues have awareness as the final goal.
Awareness can in itself be a scientific discipline; psychology based with follow through to deliver path breaking results. Serious planning with parameterised deliverables can do wonders. You build on from where you left. It has to be data driven as what is not measured does not happen. Replicate successful models rather than all groping in the dark. The scale of duplication is humungous, with nobody responsible for anybody. Self proclaimed results are the final word, pics to boost.
Some nobler ones get onto the next stage with haphazard projects, funding being the only criteria for project selection. Execution as expected remains shabby and result abysmal. Lots of studies are then conducted as the next phase, bringing out the same well known, albeit some trying to convince with so called researched figures, pie charts & diagrams. This vicious cycle goes on.
AWARENESS ON AWARENESS PROGRAMS WILL FORCE THEM TO DELIVER.
Sanjay Sahay