Sensitising Grass Roots Leadership on Health Issues

In 1998 a pilot training project to orient panchayat members on health issues took off in Karnataka's Chitradurga district. The â??experiment' received wide acclaim, as the methodology employed was participatory and post-training evaluation revealed higher levels of awareness and self-confidence in local participants in the programme. This paper analyses how a follow-up training project was developed soon after to create awareness on reproductive and child health issues using the medium of television. Informal channels such as television proved effective in initiating important attitudinal and behavioural changes at grass roots level, where a majority of people may have had little formal education.