1

Date: 5
th
December 2013
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, ROHTAK

Social Change Through Media:
Mazhab Nahi Sikhata, Apas Me Bair Rakhna


Submitted By: Submitted to:
Group 3 - Section B Prof. Rajesh Pandit
Akshat Modi Prof. Vishwanath Belliappa
Oshin Anand
Rajat Lakhina
Rishav Jhunjhunwala
Shivali Jindal
Suryoday Roy


2

Table of Contents
Topic Page No.
Introduction 3
Role of Media 3
Roles Played by Media 4
Contemporary Theories 5
Challenges 6
Towards the Future 7
Framework Diagram 9
Our Framework 10
Post Implementation Strategy Framework 17
Framework 18
Our Campaign 20
Post Implementation 27
Conclusion 30
References 32


3

Introduction
Abstract
The rise and rise of the fourth estate has been phenomenal over the last few decades.
News Media, both of the social as well as print and TV variety has taken increasingly
active roles in maintaining a balance of power between the polity and the civic society.
But, it would be gross injustice to say that the News Media is the only driver of social
change and transformation.
Today a culture of multi media campaigns has taken over and ours is an attempt to
understand the intricacies of running a social campaign and formulating a framework to
assist with the future such cause campaigns.
We have also implemented this framework in running an actual campaign and have
provided the details of the same here.

Media
Over 500 years of history, starting from the invention of the printing press, the newspapers
to photography, magazines, television and then todays rage, the internet or what we
popularly call social media, media and their effects have been around.
The Indian media was initiated in the late 18th century with print media which started in
1780.With Radio broadcasting initiated in 1927, the screening of Auguste and Louis
Lumire moving pictures in Bombay initiated during the July of 1895;Indian Media is
amongst the oldest and largest of the world. Indians have seen media as free and
independent, ever since the times of Asoka. It was only during the emergency (by Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi) that the Indian media slowed down and was bound in shackles.

Role of media
Amongst the basic longings of human being is communication, which requires a medium.
Media which is plural of the word medium is the set of those medium(s) that satisfy this
basic need. Indian Newspapers cater to over 352 million people (both English and
regional newspapers included) making it the most popular mass medium among all other
media (India Readership Survey report). Radio has an estimated audience of 158 million

4

people (out of which FM radio accounts for 106 million), as compared to 563 million in the
TV segment.
"Pen is mightier than Sword" - this old proverb seems to be true even in today's context
as the media is still going strong today. Media includes mass media like TV, News
channels, newspapers, Radio, journals, magazines and most importantly internet and
email. The sphere of influence of media is increasing day by day as the coverage of even
small news articles are in depth and well covered. More importantly, in this modern
knowledge-society, media plays the role of facilitator of development, disseminator of
information, and being an agent of change. Today, media is considered the fourth pillar
of the state all over the world. This is especially true in the context of the biggest
democracy in the world, India.
Media communicates, and therefore impacts our opinion making. With the high
emotional involvement, the quick access of todays modes of communication, the
immense interaction and engagement rates, every minute incident can go viral within
seconds. Whether it is education, religion, entertainment, politics, sports or any other
aspect of society, good or bad, media plays a role. This gives media immense power and
unless harnessed adequately, can turn out to be fatal.

Roles Played by Media

Political or Watchdog Role: The media has for long served as a watchdog for the public,
watching for threatening actions from our elected officials and "growling" when necessary.
Elected officials make decisions that can affect our quality of life, but most citizens do not
pay attention until it is too late, when new laws or rules have already been enacted. The
media are at all important meetings, acting as the societys eyes, or at least reporting on
what is happening, and warns us, growls, when something that will affect us negatively
happens.

Economic Role: media helps the economy survive, both, by bringing the businessmen
and the consumer together -- advertising -- and by keeping the public informed on the
state of the economy. News about interest rates, the stock market, etc. are other ways
of keeping interested parties up to date.


5

Historical/Record Keeping Role: Considered by many to be the most important role --
to some it is the ONLY role -- is that of a record keeper. All the basic facts of any case
are answered by the very questions that the media strives to answer: What happened?
Where? When? Who was involved?
Entertainment Role: media is more than reporting bare facts. There are many media
messages competing for the reader's/viewer's time, and those readers/viewers want to
be entertained, as well as informed. So the media entertains. Indeed, many news content
decisions are made based on the entertainment value --if more people are entertained,
more will read/watch, and advertisers will pay to reach the larger audience. This has lead
to the perversion and sensationalizing nature of the media that many argue will be the
reason for its downfall.
Social Role: People like reading/hearing about other people and the media has for long
gratified them. Earlier this was restricted to the rich and famous, but with advent of social
networking everyone is interested in everyone elses life and is engaged in endless
content generation and dissemination.
Besides the entertainment factor, media bears social responsibility, which it caters to
through different campaigns, bringing out issues, discussing, dealing with them and giving
the masses a platform to voice their opinion.

Contemporary Theories
Following are some of the contemporary theories on mass media, which is behind the
tremendous impact of it.
Individual Differences Theory: According to this theory there is a new trend in
the formation of a persons character and the learning process. There is a big
difference in mind sets based on motivation and the experience of learning.
Individual differences due to environmental differences result in different views in
the face of things. Environment will influence the attitudes, values and beliefs that
underlie their personalities and the way they want to respond to incoming
information. Thus influence of same content will vary from one individual to
another.

Theory of Cultural Norms: This theory assumes that the message conveyed by
the mass media in certain ways can lead to different interpretations by the public
in accordance with the culture. This implies that the media influences individual
attitudes and vice versa. There are several ways in which media influences the

6

cultural norms. First, the information conveyed to strengthen the cultural patterns
prevailing convinces people that culture is still valid and must be obeyed. Second,
the mass media campaign to create a new culture that can complement or improve
the old culture that is not contradictory will often succeed. Third, the mass media
can change the cultural norms that already exist and are valid for a long time.


Social Categorization theory: Social classification is based on income level, sex,
education, residence, or religion. This theory states that people who have certain
traits that tend to group them together will form the same attitudes in the face of
certain stimuli. The equation affects their responses to receive the messages
conveyed in the mass media.

Challenges
Infrastructure for digital media reach: India lacks in the basic infrastructure for digital
media to trend towards rural India. Although with the reach of newspapers the scenario
is slowly transforming , there remains a long way to go.
Major challenge for the media is to draw the line: Due to the huge penetration in the
society, the impact that it bears and the immense power it has, Media today has colossal
responsibilities. With todays pace and the limitless power it brings, to limit oneself within
boundaries and benefit mankind demands exercising high amount of restraint.
Apt usage: with power come temptations to deviate from the objectives, leading to the
misuse of power.
Global reach through innovation: with an industry whose current growth rate is 20 %,
maintaining the similar pace of growth requires continuous innovation in creativity as well
as medium. A global reach is essential for improved business performance.
Regulation: the way media operates is regulated and this sometimes questions the
freedom of expression. It may be the case that the government policies sometimes
hinder their work and is stifling the industry or in certain cases it may seem that the
industry is under regulated. A fine balance must be struck.



7

TOWARDS THE FUTURE
The analysis of the case studies has given certain general guidelines to follow to bring
about social change through media. In a country as deeply divided and diverse as ours,
there is no other way but to leverage media in order to bring about any type of nationwide
change. The messages to be delivered will vary greatly and the nature of the delivery will
also vary as per choice of media.
First we enlist the learning from each of the case studies and then try to extrapolate it to
our new campaign.

Chala Skul Ku Jiba: This radio campaign by radio namaskar in Odisha was initially slow
to catch up. The radio jingle failed to generate much response from the villagers as was
expected by the radio channel. The real breakthrough came with the GSM gateway and
dedicated mobile number where the listeners could call up the radio station and inform
about the statistics regarding the dropouts in their respective regions. The policy adopted
was that these statistics would be broadcasted on the community radio and thus each
region began to respond by trying to improve their own statistics.

Jaago Re: This was a nationwide go to votecampaign that later delved into different
issues including corruption. The website had various platforms for audience engagement
and keep them associated with the movement. Jaago Re did not confine the audience to
a particular cause and allowed freedom of choice in selection of the cause. This allowed
greater discussion on forums and brought out better ideas. The portal served as a
rendezvous for NGOs looking for volunteers and people seeking volunteering
opportunities. It started the One Billion Votes Campaign partnering with nationwide
NGOs to attract maximum voters to pledge their votes on the Election Day.

Lead India: This was a Times of India initiative, that tried to galvanize the country to
action against everyday evils. This campaign was high on reach but low on impact. The
lack of clarity in the campaigns real intentions and the associated ambiguity resulted in
the movement being forgotten over time. However, smartly designed content, association
with the right personalities and some innovative marketing resulted in the movement
winning a lot of awards and generating a buzz.


8

Nirbhaya Case: The unfortunate incident where a young girl christened Nirbhaya by
the media, showed immense strength and desire to live after being brutally raped by a
gang of men. The main learning from the case was the impact of social media. Peoples
gatherings were largely apolitical and not called by any leaders but by common citizens
on social media. The opinion makers were given prominent air time through the radio
shows to take the movement to the areas where radio could not reach. Print media carried
out their own surveys/ public forum discussions to arrive at solutions that were presented
to the government. This further increased public involvement. News Channels increased
involvement through celebrity involvement and keeping the pressure on the lawmakers
for swift justice.

Satyamev Jayate: This was a TV show that had episodes dedicated to different social
evils and tried to not only inform the people regarding these evils but also galvanize
action to create an environment where the government had to move fast and deliver
different legislations against the said evils. This movement showed the true potential of
adding celebrity activism to important social causes and the benefits reaped thereof.
This show generated good TRPs on the commercial side, helped build the SMJ brand
but also had impacts through the nationwide involvement that was invited via TV show
episodes and backed up through online petitions to the government and president of the
country. The galvanizing of the public opinion resulted in swift action from the
governments side.

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK:
A detailed analysis of the previous campaigns brings forth the following points that
contribute to developing a successful social cause campaign:
Clarity in objective
Extensive involvement of the audience
Building partnerships with other organizations that are alike
Generate a buzz through smart advertising/ celebrity associations
Create a platform for exchange of ideas and encourage discussion
Take pledges from audience to keep track of performance
Based on these general guidelines we have developed the detailed framework that will
be the standard way of carrying out a cause based campaign across multiple media:


9




10

Our Framework

Identify a Problem:
A solution proposed, where a problem does not exist is most certainly an exercise in
futility.
Every successful social campaign is born from a glaring need. Be it the ever deteriorating
interest in exercising suffrage (Jaago Res raison d'tre) or the large number of school
drop outs in the chosen region (Chala Skul Ku Jiba), each movement under consideration
has started with a clearly defined problem.
When starting with a cause campaign, mostly it can be expected that the organization
undertaking the same has done so in response to a felt or reported problem. However, if
an organization takes up cause campaigning as a branding strategy and chooses to use
cause marketing/ multimedia social campaign as an advertising tool, it must first analyze
the core essence of the campaign it wishes to run i.e. the core problem to which this
campaign will be directed.
In Lead India, we have a clear example of a commercially successful campaign that
gained very high PR points for the Times of India. Even though its social impact may be
suspect, the campaign certainly succeeded at touching a nerve with the common man.
This was because it was directed at the many deficiencies that our country faces and was
directed at creating a nationwide movement to address these through political activism.

Define a Clear Mission:
Its not enough to have a problem alone. The campaign must articulate its mission with
regard to this problems alleviation and undertake multimedia campaigns that are aligned
to the stated mission so as to ensure that the communication channels remain congruent
and synergized. The mission stated must have relevance to the society and be able to
connect to the people at an emotional level so that the intrinsic motivation keeps them
going and the campaign grows faster.
Taking the example of Satyamev Jayate, it is clear that it did not intend to remain
compartmentalized to any one aspect of social change and aimed to deal with the
numerous issues in a chapter wise format, paying focused attention on one issue at a
time. It is difficult for a small campaign to manage a campaign as open ended as SMJ.

11

What worked in its favor was that even though it targeted various issues, the large scale
of the project ensured that all the petitions, calls for public action etc. that were instituted
during the episode were taken good care of efficiently followed up.
For any campaign at a lower scale, it is advisable to pick a clear mission so as to ensure
maximum impact. Lead India campaign is a classic example of how a large campaign can
be perceived as having failed at its core mission purely on account of lack of clarity. Even
though there was a great amount of clamor regarding how Indians thought but did not
DO, this has not translated in the winner or the top contestants making a nationwide
impact. Largely, the participants have continued to do what they did before Lead India
and have largely failed in their political aspirations.

Pick a Name that Connects:
Any name chosen must connect with the audience. A name that is not in synch with the
cause will only do more harm than good. The name must be easily recollected and should
hold some meaning in the lives of a major part of the target audience.
Satyamev Jayate drew its name from the National Symbol connecting with all Indians
instantly. In case of the Go to School campaign by Radio Namaskar the use of the local
Oriya language made the name clearer.
In a way the name also conveys the target segment. A name in the local language reflects
the connect that campaign wants to establish with the people who speak that language.
On the other hand we have campaigns like Teach India or Lead India under the Times
Group that very clearly targeted the English speaking educated Indian and thus
connected with that type of an audience. Nothing proves this better than the fact that the
same times group named its Indo-Pak peace campaign Aman ki Asha when they
needed to connect with a deeper emotion and a larger audience base.

Select a Theme
The next step in creating a strategy defining the recurring theme: the underlying theme
should remain relatively constant and appear across the advertisements and promotions
of the campaign across different media.
Over time the need to make changes while developing media strategy may arise. The
audience however, should understand, through the media you make, what the issue is
and what it is you are proposing to do about it.

12

In case of the Hindustan Times Behave campaign, the recurring theme was the
unparliamentary behavior of parliamentarians in the parliament and outside of it, giving
clear indications as to what the campaign is trying to work against.
The same may be said about the Jaago Re campaign where the protagonist offers Tata
Tea to the wrong doers after shaming them. This worked as a way to advertise the product
while at the same time gave the campaign a distinct identity.

Define the Use of Each Media
Each media has its own strengths and weaknesses. What works on one media may not
be a success on another media. Very clear goals or objectives must be set down for the
use each media and these will serve as the guiding lights no matter how large the
campaign grows to become.
The competitive mapping of each media will yield what its uniqueness is and where or in
which demographic division it is most useful. Based on the end goal in mind the medias
objectives must be zeroed in on.
A single campaign may target multiple end goals and each may be achieved better
through the use of a different media. In such cases the objectives become even more
important as they clarify the reasoning behind picking each media.
The Chala Skul Ku Jiba campaign showed that even using a single media a great amount
of impact can be generated. The objectives set were to get updates from the society thus
getting the peoples participation and later on using the same to provide continuous
feedback to the people regarding where their village was placed in the scheme of things
thus targeting their pride.

Analyze Previous Campaigns
The world has many precedents to learn from. In a way, each campaign is new, however,
for the campaign to be successful a detailed review of how previous campaigns have
fared when dealing with either similar problems or in the same geographical region gives
a better idea of how to go about the new campaign.
Another important step is to carry out a clear and detailed context mapping. This involves
answers to questions like

13

What is happening right now in relation to your cause? What are the key events that have
recently taken place and what are the events that will take place in the near future that
may have impact? Identify the key spokespeople for this issue and what key terms are
being used by different groups. What messages relating to this issue are reaching
different stakeholder groups, which messages are failing to reach them, and why?
The Mazhab nahi Sikhata, Aapas mein bair rakhna campaign that we later give a
detailed report on is a product of the analysis of several Indian campaigns, some of which
have been enlisted earlier.

Identify Participants and Stakeholders
This is a general directive. Any campaign at its core is a marketing initiative and no
marketing initiative can be a success unless the customer is taken care of.
In a cause campaign the participants would include those people or communities whom
youd like to see become a part of your movement. It is important to understand that the
strategically, the target audience and the stakeholders are actually different. Target
Audience would refer to those people who can actually make a difference and could
include players like the government or different regulatory bodies.
For stakeholders the commonly used framework can be used. This divides stakeholders
into three major parts:
Allies people and organizations who already support what you do.
Adversaries people who oppose the change you want to see.
Neutral people whose position or attitude is unclear or who have not become
actively involved in this issue.
Stakeholders should be mapped using these three categories and the internal
stakeholders should have a free flowing discussion on why a certain stakeholder is
perceived as being an ally/adversary. It is only after the different audiences are
understood that one can prioritize them according to their influence and importance in
terms of core objectives.




14

Create a Message based on the Audience profile
Once the different audiences have been profiled the campaigners need to start organizing
them into groups as per tastes and preferences.
Each group will respond well to a certain kind of content. While designing content for
these groups, their respective tastes as well as the objective associated with each group
must be reviewed. Any mismatch between the preferences and the message will either
render the campaign ineffective for that particular type of audience or alternatively might
end up escalating the problems. Thus care must be taken while conveying the idea as
this will be the backbone of the movement.
The Nirbhaya case is an excellent example of content creation based on issue and
audience. The whole country was watching and under such circumstances, each news
media had to ensure that they did not hurt any particular cultures sentiments while
depicting the case and presented it in the fairest manner. The content varied a lot from
one media to other but across media the objective of getting the government to take action
and bring in new legislation was very clear. The brutal truth was represented as clearly
as possible so as to leave a deep impression on the minds of the people.

Identify resources Available
A resource mapping is of utmost importance while executing any large scale campaign.
The resources available and the ones required are important in deciding which media to
go ahead with. For instance, the budgetary constraints on a campaign like Lead India
would never have allowed it to reach the scale or the level of sophistication that it reached.
Different kinds of resources required are:
Human resources (people, skills and time)
Financial resources (access to funds)
Intellectual resources (access to knowledge and information)
Material resources (access to equipment and tools

Budgeting and Funding Decisions
Once an estimate of what resources are available, you can create a budget. You can then
work from this document to ensure you do not spend funds you do not have. It is best to
create a rough budget for the campaign at the beginning, that sets out what funds and
other resources the cause campaign will have access to. Seeking advice from people

15

who have done similar campaigns is often advisable as media production often has many
hidden costs.
While it is always best to try and plan ahead for media-making needs by including funding
for this in overall campaign or project budget, if adequate funds are not available, there
are organizations, trusts and foundations which provide funds for rights-based media
campaigns.
Such organizations and different innovative ways to raise funds must be explored so as
to ensure that a good plan does not stay unrealized for the lack of funding. Crowd-
sourcing is becoming increasingly popular as a way of funding change initiatives and this
option can also be explored by the campaign managers.

Choose Media Channel
Media should not drive the overall campaign; they should be a way of achieving goals
and objectives by relaying the message and calling for action.
Decision on media format, tools and tactics should be made only after completing the
earlier strategic steps. This helps in deciding not only which media but also whether the
operation needs to be run online or offline.
The prime example is the Chala Skul Ku Jiba Campaign that chose an obscure media
like radio. However, in fact this was the most perfect way to reach the far flung villages
that could not be reached by other media. This was based on careful strategizing and
analysis of the various modes of communication available to the target audience. This is
a great example of how using a single media and very limited resources great results can
be achieved.

Decide Timeline and Implement
Once the entire plan is in place it is time to hit the road because Campaigns must be
organic i.e. they must evolve and grow with time. As time goes new causes get associated
with old ones and the scale of the campaign increase.
Thus, for any successful campaign, the campaign manager must plan a timeline to stick
to. The scaling of the project must be covered as best as possible in the timeline. Most
actual campaigns often go beyond their initial limitations as they succeed and the growth
can never be charted to perfection.

16

An example of this is the Lead India campaign that started as a simple print ad as part of
what was to be called India Poised, a series of writings on how India was going to fly in
the coming decade. The fan following it actually achieved was not foreseen by anyone
including the JWT, the ad agency that initially developed this print campaign.






















17

Post Implementation Strategy Framework:


18

Framework

Connecting People
No campaign is a movement unless it has a sizable following. The first focus for any social
campaign is to reach the maximum number of people. There exist a wide variety of ways
in which people can be reached in todays world. This immense opportunity arises from
the exploitation of the internet and other cheap mass media options.
Today, increasingly, the social media networks are being tapped into to connect to the
people. A facebook page has become the standard place to start any movement
The Nirbhaya Protests case is a prime example on how connecting to people on the
internet can bring together multitudes of people. This is not an isolated case and such
cases of protest gatherings completely planned and executed on social platforms are
spreading across the world. Another important case in point is the Arab spring where
whole nations rose to protest without any mass leader or political fanning.

Involving People
The next step is to go beyond popularizing the cause and inviting people to join it. This is
about constructive activism wherein the community at large is given a direction and
accorded the freedom to take the campaign to greater heights and bring about real
change on the ground.
The involvement of people can also be of both kinds, online as well as offline. In the online
involvement various polls and discussion forums can be started like in the case of the
Jaago re movement. This acts as the epicenter of all activity there on forward. It is here
at the discussion forum that the various people from various walks of life come together
and find some of the innovative solutions to problems.
It also acts as the networking platform where like-minded people, campaigns and NGOs
can come together to make a greater impact. Scaling up of the project also starts form
this step.



19

Outcome Analysis
Measuring the outcome effects of the pilot project forms the first step in outcome analysis.
This involves carrying out the detailed analytics on the various programs already
implemented. This gives a good amount of clarity about the relative success/failure of the
alternative routes to the desired outcome and thus helps prune the activities and retain
the most impactful.
Analyzing the short term goals involves taking stock of the progress made vis--vis the
ideals set initially. This helps in realizing the campaigns effectiveness and improving it if
found to be below expected levels. During the initial planning a lot of problems may get
overlooked. These issues then surface during implementation and thus this knowledge
can be used for further scaling up.

Scalability
Once the problems unearthed have been resolved the next step is to work on scalability.
The existing framework is applicable for scaling the project too and must be used to the
maximum extent possible.
Each step along the way will pass through the same steps that have been outlined in the
framework. Thus the framework will support the scaling of the project. Scaling is also a
function of the finances available for the scaling up and thus effectiveness and outcome
analysis are an inherent function of the scaling up.
Taking all the environmental and response related factors into consideration the further
route for the campaign is outlined and then followed.


20

Our Campaign
1. Identify a problem:
As identified by the Jaago re movement by TATA, the average voter turnout for
national elections is very less. The chart issued by the election commission also tells
the same story.



The problem doesnt end here.
As quoted by Economic Times dated 14 Nov.,2013 Caste could be a decisive
factor in around 20 constituencies in outer and rural Delhi as residents in these
areas often prefer candidates from their community rather than being
influenced by other factors.

The guest column of India Today by Mr. Jairam Ramesh dated September 27,
1999, Caste is the DNA of Indian civilisation. It effloresces most during election
time. The air is thick with Reddys, Kammas and Kapus, with Lingayats,
Vokkaligas and Kurubas, with Nadars, Thevars and Vanniyars, with Nairs and

21

Ezhavas, with Marathas, Malis and Dhangars, with Patidars and Kolis, with
Rajputs and Jats, with Brahmins, Thakurs, Yadavs, Lodhas and Chamars.
Within Dalit castes, we talk about Malas and Madigas, about Chamars,
Valmikis and Pasis.

Caste politics is not new phenomenon in Karnataka, but it has achieved
greater proportions in the recent past. The Times Of India, Jul 10, 2012
We can clearly see the roots of communalism in the voting pattern of the ones who come
for voting. The problem continues even after the elections when the elected individual
takes care of his sub-group only neglecting the other groups.

2. A Clear Mission:
The Mission of this campaign is to keep communism out of the election 2014.
Spreading the awareness to first go and vote and second give the vote on the
basis of the capability and intentions of the candidate not caste, creed or religion


3. Pick a name that connects
Mazhab nahi sikhata, apas me bair rakhna lines of famous poem Sare Jahan
se achha by Muhammad Iqbal. It means - Religion does not teach us to bear ill-
will among ourselves
We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan. Every Indian has read or heard this
poem during his childhood days, so connecting it to their childhood learnings we
gave this name to our campaign. The clear meaning is dont mistrust the person if
he is from any other community, we all are Indians and he will work for the welfare
of us all. This names also gives a sense of patriotism to the listener.


4. Select a theme:
The theme selected is spreading awareness on the lines of communal harmony. If
in every professional area people from different religions, castes and creeds can
come together and do wonders then why not politics. Every individual is Indian first
and then comes the community. So it targets just to make masses aware about it.





22

5. Define the use of each media
Newspaper & Magazines:
According to the Indian Census 2011, One-sixth of the country, or 200 million
Indians, don't possess any of the most basic assets like a transistor or TV, phone,
vehicle of any kind or a computer. In three states - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland
and MP- close to a third of the households own none of these assets. The only
reach to them through any media is newspaper and magazines.

Nearly 24% households have newspaper subscription (15%rural, 39%
urban) and 8% (5%rural, 12%urban) magazines. Three out of every four youth in
the country is literate. Rural India accounts for around two-third of all 333-million
literate youth and newspaper reach 177 million of them (NATIONAL YOUTH
READERSHIP SURVEY 2009), so the newspaper can be used to reach that strata.
Moreover the newspaper readership amongst individuals above 35 is far more than
the adults so this medium can cater to them.

TV:
According to TAM Media, Youngsters in Mumbai spend 95 minutes a day watching
television. As per National Youth Readership Survey 2009, Television remains as
the most popular source of information with 78% (91%urban, 70%rural) youth
viewership. Newspaper comes second with 53% (65.3%urban, 45.9%rural)
readership. The numbers have just increased thereafter. So to spread the
movement across the nation Television can be used.


Social Media:


23

Internet usage in India is growing at a very healthy rate and has registered close
to a 138 million users in 2012; its a share of 5.7% in world internet users.
According to the study by networking giant Cisco, Internet users in India are
estimated to have 348 million by 2017, up from 138 million in 2012.
Globally, by 2017, internet users will swell to 3.6 billion, which will be more than
48 per cent of the worlds projected population of 7.6 billion. In 2012, worldwide
internet users stood at 2.3 billion against a population of 7.2 billion the VNI
forecast said.
The penetration of internet usage in India is currently at 11.4% and is expected to
have 27% by 2017. As per the study, 75% of the Indian Internet population is below
35 years. Male users account 60.7% and female 39.3% of the total audience.


Radio:
Radio is a medium that reaches millions of people across economic classes and
backgrounds. According to RAM report 2012, the average weekly cumulative
reach of radio has grown in Delhi and Mumbai. For instance, the weekly reach of
radio in Delhi more than doubled from around 6.35 million in 2008 to around 14.85
million in 2012. In Mumbai, radios reach grew from around 7.11 million to around
10.47 million over the same period. In Ahmadabad there is increase in morning
listening Peak hour at 9am increase by 70%, Out of Home Listening grown
significantly from 9-16%. In- home listening increased from 76-87%. Same trend
has been seen in other areas of India. So there is a big chunk of housewives and
travellers who can be targeted through this media channel. The no. of shows
catering to different segment of society Adults, Housewives etc. are now on radio.



6. Analyse previous campaigns:
There is a National Foundation for Communal Harmony, but its major aim is to
prevent communal riots and spreading communal harmony. The Jaago re
Campaign by TATA is undertakes the first part of the mission of creating
awareness amongst the youth to just vote. So no prior campaign has been
launched in this respect.







24

7. Identify Participants and stakeholders

Stakeholders Type Their description of
movement
Reaction
First time
voters
Allies A movement in alignment
with my thought process
More people to the
movement, More curiosity
Adversaries A movement misguiding
people
Resistance from the public
Neutral Yet another movement More curiosity to know
Habitual
Voters
Allies A new social movement
for spreading awareness
and more trust over the
voters
Even higher support to the
movement.
Adversaries Potential threat to the my
community, Spreading a
wrong message
Higher level resistance,
Will try to defame the
movement
Neutral A publicity stunt No reaction
Political
Parties
Allies A step towards a justified
voting process
Will try to associate
themselves with the
movement
Adversaries Misleading people,
Baseless movement as
no such problem exists,
Oppositions movement
Will openly challenge the
movement and try to have
more hold over their
community
Neutral a fad Just another movement
NGOs Allies Working as a similar
domains as ours, a step
towards change
Will Support the cause,
may enter into
collaboration
Adversaries A political partys
movement, Internally
controlled by them
Either will not speak or
speak bad about the
movement
Neutral A good cause but may not
succeed
Will just wait and watch
Corporations Allies A movement we may look
to partner with in future
May provide sponsorship
and collaborate for CSR
Adversaries Hidden political motives
behind movement
Will not associate with the
movement in any way
Neutral Wait and watch attitude No reaction







25

8. Create the message based on audience profile

Designed print Ad:
Given at the last of the research paper.

Link of the video made for social media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZQqhvR9pc
The transcript of the video is:
Indian flag flying high with a child singing Sare Jahan se Acha in the background
signalling to the time when we all learnt this patriotic poem. Then comes in a write
up signifying the strength and imagination of India. An image pops in, in it the 6
major religions of India are written and the word INDIAN gets formed by taking one
letter from each word. The background music changes to instrumental of Sare
Jahan se Acha to continue the momentum. Then an image comes containing 3
kites of three different colours of our national flag with 3 different religions symbol
in it and collectively they read we are one. Then starts examples of various
individuals who along with persons of different communities came together and
created the difference. In background plays a poem by Rabindra nath Tagore
Where the Mind is without Fear telling the viewer to broaden their horizon and
rise above the walls of communalism. First come Sachin Tendulkar and Navjot
Singh Sidhu who made a 231 run partnership against Pakistan in Sharjah. Second
is the match winning partnership between Ajay jadeja & Md. Azharuddin which won
match for India against Zimbabwe. Cricket has been included to appeal to the
cricket passionate nation. Next comes in image of our national game that binds
whole nation. Then is the Panj Pyaare of different castes who were ready to
sacrifice their head when demanded by Guru Gobind Singh ji. For the Bollywood
crazy country, an image of duo Yash Chopra & Shah Rukh Khan pops in who took
Bollywood across borders. For the music enthusiasts, next come Shankar, Ehsaan
& Loy hailing from different communities and producing great music together. Then
is the entry of Verghese Kurien and Lal Bahadur Shastri who brought Milk
revolution. The background music then changes to Mazhab nahi sikhata with the
image of Indian army where there is no religion only one identity INDIAN. Then a
question to the viewer if in different professions people can come together and do
wonders then why not politics. Below lies the link to the official page of the
movement and ends with a picture requesting the voters to use their right to vote,
rightly.



26

9. Identify your resources

Human resources: The initiation of the movement was done by the 6
members but the movement also has the support of approximately 300
members who liked it on Facebook. The supporters are increasing but right
now the major handling is done by 6 members only.

Financial resources: It is a movement started by students so there was no
finance available as such. This movement can be expanded further by tying
up with NGOs and Corporates for their CSR, but to reach that level there is
a need to gain proper stand and a certain base of followers.

Intellectual resources: The case studies of various campaigns that has
been already taken up by people. The Jaago re movement, the Nirbhaya
case, Lead India Campaign, Anna Hazare campaign to name a few.
From the learnings of these cases we developed a framework to unfold our
campaign.


10. Budgeting & Financing Decisions
The current finances present with our team is nil, but the movement looks forward
to tie up with NGOs and also if possible with some companies like Tata, Coca
Cola, Aditya Birla group etc.

11. Choose the media channels

Considering the current resources, the social media was selected. The youth is the
primary target through this social media movement. Moreover the reason for
selecting this media is its direct effect on various constituency elections. "There
are 160 high impact constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies, which are
likely be influenced by social media during the next general elections," the study
by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and Internet and Mobile Association of India has
said.

The state of Maharashtra has the maximum 21 high impact constituencies followed
by Gujarat (17), the study said.

27




12. Decide timeline & Implement

We started our movement on 1 December 2013 from a Facebook page named
Mazhab nahi sikhata apas me bair rakhna. It got more than 300 likes within 2
days of its joining Facebook. The link to our page is

https://www.facebook.com/mazhabnahisikhata

We also made a video and posted it over the official FB page of the movement and
approx. 1400 people saw it. The video is also on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZQqhvR9pc

POST IMPLEMENTATION
1. Connecting to people:

Make the people more and more aware about the density of the problem
and need to bring the change.
The first goal is to create awareness among people. So, first target of our
movement is to get more than 1000 likes on Facebook within 2 weeks.

28

Original creative content will be posted every 2 3 days which will keep the
movement afresh in followers minds.
Create an event over FB page ELECTION 2014
Launch a basic website of the movement and registering users over the site
and FB
Moving over other social media networks like Twitter, YouTube etc. when
we have an ample following because no campaign is a movement till it gets
support of the public
The Collaboration with NGOs is also one of the major part of this phase.
NGOs like Spirit India, Janaagraha, Badhte Kadam NGO etc. work for this
cause
Approach companies like Tata, Aditya Birla Group, Coca Cola and other
socially responsible corporates for sponsorships.

2. Involving the people

Connecting with student unions of various colleges and universities to take
this movement to colleges.
Making a campus ambassador from each college.
Introducing various competitions across colleges like essay writing, Street
Play etc. through campus ambassador and council.
Inviting volunteers from various areas to promote movement in their
respective areas.
Getting into tie up with the NGOs and provide volunteering opportunities to
the interested individuals.
On a single pledge day request people to take pledge towards voting for the
candidate who deserves rather than on caste.
Start a discussion and petition forum over the official page and website.
Encouraging people to write articles and the best article of the week will be
displayed over the official page and website along with the photograph of
the writer.








29

3. Outcome Analysis

In the pilot project following were the learnings:

Started on 1
st
December the page reached approximately 2000 people
across the globe with 61% men and 38% women within 50 hours of its
inception. Out of these 54% of men and 46% of women liked it. With more
than 75% belonging to age group of 18 35.
It had highest reach in India of 1816 and at second is USA with 45
individuals
In India Bangalore, Chandigarh & New Delhi had the largest reach of
219,216 & 194 respectively.
The problem we faced was the reach of our posts were not converting into
likes for the page


4. Scalability

The existing Facebook platform can be used to measure the effect of the
movement by using a hashtag #intelligentvoter. People will be requested
to change their profile picture to the picture of their marked finger and
caption it #intelligentvoter. It wont give the proper counting of the people
who voted to best candidate but it will for sure tell who the people whom we
were able to influence are.
Include various other campaigns inside this big umbrella of this campaign
Involvement of various celebrities with the movement so as to attract more
people towards this cause.
Up gradation of the basic website to a high interactive website.
More NGO Collaborations

30

Conclusion
With the growing corruption and inequality in the society, it is important to
communicate to the voters that votes based on caste, community or religion is not the
right answer to the countrys growth. It is the youth of India who can take an initiative and
open the minds of the people to break free from the growing vote bank politics based on
community and vote a party based on their merits. Through this initiative, our objective is
to spread the awareness through social media and involve the youth who will pay it
forward by taking oath.
A country with more than a billion people poses a time challenge for any initiative
taken, but its right implementation will reap the benefits over a period of time.
Implementing this plan now is the right time as there is an exponential rise in the number
of people using social media and with its growth will grow our reach to people even in the
smaller towns.
With the current political and economic situation, the future of the country does not
seem too bright as it requires a correct sense of direction by the leader which we may not
see in a coalition government.
We believe that if we can ignite the young minds, it will create a great impact on
the coming generation as we look at molding students from schools, colleges and the gen
x in the corporate. We feel that starting our movement through social media would be the
right move as it has the reach to every home which utilizes internet technology. This can
help us reach everyone, right from a common man to a celebrity. Having involved as
many people as possible, we can bridge the gap between where we are today and where
we want to reach.
An effective campaign can happen only when it moves from a smaller targeted
audience ie.social media to catching attention of print and television media which will
reach to the masses. Our end focus is reaching to the people who are uneducated and
innocent via educated people as the former falls in the political trap. This is where we
make a difference and play a role in the society.
Our twelve step framework with a 4 step post implementation is a way to start a
movement and we may face some hiccups and roadblocks when we walk ahead. To add
to our motivation, we have made the campaign viral as, in less than 50 hours we reached
300 plus likes and more than 2000 page views.

31

The hardest thing about any task is its implementation and we are looking forward
to this challenge.
Let us together make a revolution and bring about the change so that the one who
deserves the most takes the country forward. LET US TOGETHER BRING THE
CHANGE.
Mazhab Nahi Sikhata, Aapas Me Bair Rakhna, an initiative by students of Indian
Institute of Rohtak.


32

References
1. http://www.neoncarrot.co.uk/h_aboutindia/india_statistics_1.html#various_stats
2. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-
14/india/31164801_1_households-penetration-mobile-phone
3. http://www.international-television.org/tv_market_data/indian-pay-tv.html
4. http://www.currentweek.com/internet-users-and-penetration-rate-in-india-trend/
5. http://www.currentweek.com/internet-users-and-penetration-rate-in-india-trend/
6. http://www.jaagore.com/
7. http://www.juragentium.org/topics/rol/india/en/consolar.htm
8. http://radionamaskar.org/