Raging Pandemics and Taming Epidemics

The Role of Behaviour Change Communication in India’s Polio Eradication

  • Arvind Singhal Professor, Department of Communication The University of Texas at El Paso, and Professor 2, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Keywords: Social communication, behavioural communication, micro-targeting, messaging intervention, social mobilisation, data-driven strategy

Abstract

This article, drawing upon the author’s past research and scholarly writings on communication strategies to prevent, contain, and mitigate pandemics and epidemics, including HIV/AIDS, analyses India’s march towards polio eradication, focusing on the relentless implementation of its macro and micro-level social and behavioural change communication strategies. It discusses the micro-targeting and messaging interventions to achieve large-scale vaccine adherence and behaviour compliance, especially in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—the last sanctuaries for polio in India. It also analyses how India eradicated polio with relentless social mobilisation, involvement and engagement of local opinion leaders, and an adaptive data-driven strategy. No country, at any time, has utilised the art and science of social and behavioural communication for a greater public good as India did to wipe out polio. This article represents a modest attempt to analyse the communication-centric elements, focusing on the interpersonal and ground-based elements of the polio communication strategy, that contributed to this public health triumph of epic proportions, and represents India’s gift to the world.

Author Biography

Arvind Singhal, Professor, Department of Communication The University of Texas at El Paso, and Professor 2, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway

Samuel S. and Edna H. Marston Endowed Professor of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and appointed Professor 2, Inland School of Business and Social Sciences, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway. His teaching and research interests include the diffusion of innovations, the positive deviance approach, the entertainment-education communication strategy, and liberating interactional structures. 

Published
2020-07-16
How to Cite
Singhal, A. (2020). Raging Pandemics and Taming Epidemics. The Journal of Development Communication, 31(1), 1-10. Retrieved from https://jdc.journals.unisel.edu.my/index.php/jdc/article/view/167
Issue
Vol 31 No 1 (2020): The Journal of Development Communication (June 2020)
Section
Research Article
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