Reach Of DTH: An Inspiring Story

Anita devi, a 60-year-old lady working as maid faced the worst situation when her only son died of tuberculosis. He did not receive the required treatment as they were not aware of government’s Ayushman scheme.

We hear lot of government schemes but somehow implementation is not as accurate as it should be, and as a result these initiatives does not reach to wider and deserving people. A lot of times government declares a useful scheme but few months later the targeted beneficiaries are still waiting for someone to reach them with the process.

How a scheme can be implemented in every home of the rural or urban slum?
The government bodies should learn it from DTH (Direct to home) providers. The reason is that on visiting any rural or urban slum in our country, one similarity is the availability of Dish antennas on most of the slum houses. These DTH providers can “reach” every home with a purpose and their implementation is successful most of the times. In communities where there is no legal electricity connection, you may find people installing satellite dish antenna on top of their houses and then arranging electricity to watch TV.

How these DTH providers have such an amazing reach, how are they able to penetrate even to the most remote communities, how the people who are not aware of the mandatory immunization for their kids are having the access to watch TV, how the people who are not aware of the ayushman scheme are aware of big boss, how the people who are not sure if they have a low budget school nearby for their girls are watching story of Malala on television. Most of these people can identify actors but are not aware how to get a ration card or a BPL certificate. This is alarming as it means that the people responsible for channelizing these schemes are lacking somewhere.

Call it a marketing strategy or amazing work done by the agents, most of the slums are having access to satellite television whereas they may not have access to clean drinking water. This clearly implies that people who are selling the connections can penetrate deep into these slums and convince people to install satellite TV. The difference may lie in the fact that DTH providers are working for profits whereas government bodies are for social development.
 
One day I went to an urban slum in Pune to discuss one case of a girl who stopped going to school because her father did not pay Rs.350/- fees to school. When I went to their home, the entire family was watching a daily soap on television. I asked how much the family pays to the cable operator and father mentions Rs.250/- per month. My next question was obvious, and the answer was that TV brings the family together and provides good entertainment medium. This is perfectly fine as it also provides lot of information but how they got convinced to spend Rs.250/- on it and but does not admit the girl to school.
In another incident, I asked one boy of age 6-7 years who was roaming around in one urban slum in Gurgaon to recite one poem in Hindi or English, he was not able to recite it but able to sing a Bollywood song with ease. The talent is praiseworthy but evokes a question in mind that one facility is reaching them easily whereas more important facilities are missing implementation.

It is really inspiring to see the reach of DTH providers whereas it means that distributors, health care workers, aaganwadi teachers, ASHA workers or other social organizations need to increase their reach to implement government schemes. They may also need to change their mindset and not consider this as just another task. Any scheme is successful when it reaches to the deserving beneficiaries and results are evaluated.

Another thing to notice here is that government should utilize DTH to spread awareness on issues like family planning, immunization, child infanticide, domestic violence, RTE as it has reached to the most remote areas. The kids living in urban slums are deprived of early intervention and good quality preschool education, but they have access to television so we can utilize this medium to educate kids.

The idea is to evaluate that if DTH can reach every household then why not poverty alleviation schemes, learn from them and make people aware, utilize TV for more information.

So next time if you visit nearest slum, check out the satellite dish antenna on top of their houses. Please comment to this article if you see a household with DTH but missing basic facilities.

Regards

Live For The Nation