ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN GOVERNMENT

SECTOR

PUBLIC RELATIONS ROLE IN GOVERNMENT

The Government public relations contributes to:

Implementation of public policy.

Assisting the news media in coverage of government activities.

Reporting the citizenry on agency activities.

Increasing the internal cohesion of the agency.

Increasing the agency’s sensitive to its public’s.

Mobilisation of support for the agency itself.

GOVERNMENT PR PROBLEMS

• Lack of Transparency

• Public Apathy

• Bewilderment

• Bureaucracy Stanglehold

• Politicians’ Interference

• Vote Bank Pressure

• Low Literacy Level

• Unsupportive Media

• Government’s Poor Image

OVERVIEW

• Pulse Polio is an immunisation campaign established by the government of India in 1995-96 to eradicate  poliomyelitis (polio) in India by vaccinating all children under the age of five years against polio virus.

• It was supported by various international institutions, state governments and NGOs, as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by Rotary International, the WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

STEPS TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT

• All States and Union Territories in the country developed a Rapid Response Team (RRT) to respond to any polio outbreak in the country. An Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) was also developed by all States.

• Recruitment of ASHAs, Volunteers and Other Health Workers in Cities, Villages and Small Towns.

• Focus on interpersonal communication (IPC) for raising awareness in urban slums and rural areas supplemented by mass media & print material.

• Special booths were established in areas bordering neighbouring countries.

• Amitabh Bachchan Aishwarya Rai, Shahrukh Khan and sports personality Sachin Tendulkar were made Brand Ambassador by the health ministry.

• Posters and almost everything was developed using a uniform color i.e. Yellow & logos (EPI LOGO) for improved recognition of campaign material even by illiterates. Tag line of the campaign was “do boond zindagi ki”

• GOI issued guidelines for mandatory requirement of polio vaccination to all international travellers before their departure from India to polio affected countries namely: Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia Syria and Cameroon.

• Surveillance was established in Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Kolkata, Punjab and Gujarat undertaking different regions of the country.

• An extremely high level of vigilance through surveillance across the country for any importation or circulation of poliovirus and VDPV was maintained.

• A rolling emergency stock of OPV was maintained to respond to any WPV or cVDPV

• National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) has recommended Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) introduction as an additional dose along with 3rd dose of DPT in the entire country in the last quarter of 2015 as a part of polio endgame strategy.

COMBATING RUMOURS

• Link between Polio vaccine and impotency or HIV virus.

• The central health managers designated one person to be the spokesperson for  the District.

• All inquiries were channelled directly to that person for any official comments.

• Area wise communication: Megaphones mounted on rickshaw to announce that the rumors were baseless and and OPV has no harm.

• The districts were subsequently instructed to intensify their interpersonal communication, through door-to-door visits and the use of religious leaders, chiefs, and other ‘influence brokers’.

ROLE OF MEDIA IN PULSE POLIO CAMPAIGN

• Advertising by commercial interests of polio vaccination. Promotion of concept of health as a basic right, sometimes supported by leaflets providing more information or reinforcing the message.

• Books, documentaries, articles about health issues; and silently including the importance of being polio free healthy citizens.

• Discussions of health issues as a by-product of news items or entertainment programmes.

• Sponsorship of vaccination-promoting activities by organizations or commercial companies.

• Inviting people who combated polio to narrate their stories

RESULTS: GOING WITH THE NUMBERS

RESULTS

1. Regional Certification Commission (RCC) on 27th March 2014 issued certificate which states that “The Commission concludes, from the evidence provided by the National Certificate Committees of the 11 Member States, that the transmission of indigenous wild poliovirus has been interrupted in all countries of the South-East Asia Region

2. India has achieved the goal of polio eradication as no polio case has been reported for more than 3 years after last case reported on 13th January, 2011.

3. WHO on 24th February 2012 removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild polio virus transmission

About the Campaign

l Incredible India is the name of an international marketing campaign by the Government of India

to promote tourism in India in 2002 to an audience of global appeal.

l Incredible India title was officially branded and promoted by Amitabh Kant, then the Joint

Secretary under the Union Ministry of Tourism, in the year 2002.

Since the tourism industry is on a high in the 21st century and that there is a shift of international tourists from developed countries to the developing ones, the Indian economy leveraged it. With a view to bring focus on the rich multi cultural heritage and diversity persisting in India and to lay emphasis on several aspects like tourism, infrastructure, natural resources, festivals, historical monuments etc., the Government of India Ministry of Tourism coined the concept of Incredible India.

A Government of India initiative, Incredible India is an international marketing campaign to promote tourism in India

to the global audience. The then Joint Secretary under the Union Ministry of Tourism, Amitabh Kant officially branded

and promoted the title Incredible India.

BRAND IMAGE

lAamir Khan was the brand ambassador for the campaign for 5 years, that is, from 2008 to 2012.

OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this campaign is to create a distinctive identity for the country.

(Destination Branding)

Another objective was to promote spiritual tourism around the world.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Since the campaign started in 2002, India has become the largest destination in Asia, and

Incredible India has been made the World's Best Tourism Project.

The accuracy rate in terms of travel decision makers’ target segment has risen from 19 per cent

to 84 per cent.

GLOBAL CAMPAIGNS UNDER INCREDIBLE INDIA

ITB Berlin, 2007India Now, London 2007

Cannes, 2007India@60, New York 2007

LA Campaign, 2009

TECHNOLOGICAL UPDATES AND SENSITIVE ISSUES

lAn online marketing campaign was created in 2007 to cater to the growing use of social media and internet which signficantly increased the tourism.lA guide for women has been set up on the website to be taken care of while visiting the country.

SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAAN

A GLANCE

•Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.•It is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event. The mission was started by Prime Minister Modi, who nominated nine famous personalities for the campaign, and they took up the challenge and nominated nine more people and so on (like the branching of a tree). It has been carried forward since then with people from all walks of life joining it.

OBJECTIVES It’s specific objectives are:•Elimination of open defecation•Conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets•Eradication of manual scavenging•100% collection and scientific processing/disposal/reuse/recycling of municipal solid waste•A behavioral change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices•Generation of awareness among citizens about sanitation and its linkages with public health•Supporting urban local bodies in designing, executing and operating waste disposal systems•Facilitating private-sector participation in capital expenditure and operation and maintenance costs for sanitary facilities

IMPLEMENTATION

1. Nominees and brand ambassadors: The Prime Minister nominated some eminent people from various fields who took up the challenge and propagated the campaign by going on cleaning drives and promoting the cause through their social media handles. Later, M. Venkaiah Naidu also listed the brand ambassadors who became faces of the campaign.

2. Swachh Bharat Run A Swachh Bharat Run was organized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 2 October 2014. According to a statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan around 1500 people participated and the event was flagged off by President Pranab Mukherjee. Participants in the run included officers and their families.

1.Real time monitoring The government will be launching a nationwide real-time monitoring system for toilets constructed under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. For this the government of India is bringing awareness among the people through quite good advertisements . With this system, the government aims to attain a 100% open defecation free India by 2019.

1.Swachh Bharat Short Film NIT Rourkela PhD students and Sacred Heart School Students, Tumkur have made a short film on Swachh Bharat, conveying the message that Swachh Bharat is not a one-day event but should be part of life, in order for the goal of a clean India to be achieved.

CRITICISMS

•Some regard the motives of Prime Minister Modi as purely political.•That it’s mere renaming of previous campaigns and projects which failed to deliver as a result of corruption.•No acknowledgement given to sweepers and ragpickers.

THANK YOU!