Social media a key medium to reach women

NEWDELHI: In some of India’s most malnourished districts, voice messages and social media platforms Whatsapp and Facebook are emerging as the key mediums to reach out to women to teach them nutritional values.

A study conducted by NITI Aayog to assess social and behavioural change among beneficiaries of Centre’s key nutritional programme Poshan Abhiyan showed that these forms of communication had recorded fastest growth in reaching women.

Voice messages recorded a 13 percentage point increase in reaching women between November 2018 and November 2019 from 26% to 39%. Whatsapp expanded its reach from 9% to 20% in the same period and Facebook doubled its from 6% to 12%.

The private nature of communication over these platforms, and wider mobile phone penetration, is likely to be the reason why women prefer to use them. Whatsaapp and Facebook were unavailable for comment.

The study was conducted among 1,901 women in 16 of the country’s 112 so-called aspirational districts, which are underdeveloped and selected for a concerted government push to boost their level of development. The survey’s findings, reviewed by HT, were presented to officials of the Union ministry of women and child development in February.

The 16 districts were chosen from five states, and included Damoh, Singrauli, Barwani, Vidisha and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh; Katihar, Begusarai, Sheikhpura, Araria, and Sitamarhi in Bihar; Chitrakoot, Balrampur, Bahraich and Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh; Baran in Rajasthan; and Nandurbar in Maharashtra.

Yet, interpersonal communications and government-aided community events -- such as the Centre’s community programme to disburse health services, the

Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND), home visits by care workers and television programmes -- continued to reach the women the most in 2019.

In 2019, the VHSND and home visits had a reach of 65% respectively, while television programmes reached 46% of the beneficiaries in these districts.

Alok Kumar, adviser on health and nutrition at NITI Aayog, said that the government carries out these surveys routinely to assess the progress made “Since we started in 2018, there has been a substantial change in nutritional habits. Many of the beneficiaries do not know that small changes can go a long way,” he said.