Digital democracy

Digital democracy here refers to the use of digital communication technologies to enhance the democratic process by, among other things, making the process more accessible, increasing and enhancing citizen participation in public policy decision making, and increasing government transparency and accountability.

In recent years, we have seen a broad disenchantment among people with civic engagement and representative democracy. In the mid-1990s, however, the growth of the Internet revitalized the democratic imagination:

1. The Internet promised to revive the civic sphere and extend community life by providing broad, diverse forums for discussions.

2. The Internet enabled many-to-many citizen interaction that invited online political debate, deliberation, consultation, decision-making, administration, and scrutiny as well as online mobilizing, organizing, petitioning, and protesting.

3. The Internet made polling, plebiscites, and elections relatively cheap and accessible. Conceivably, the voice of the people could be expressed regularly and loudly, expanding popular decision-making and closing the gap between citizens and their representatives.

 Ideally, netizens online, disciplined deliberations will produce sober, wise recommendations for policy-maker and law-maker consideration. In effect, deliberation will make the demos safe for democracy.

EXAMPLE:

There is a new game on the Web, sometimes of dubious significance. But its real significance lies beyond what it shows right now. I am talking about “trending.” Last week, while the country was absorbed watching the verdict in the Ayodhya dispute between Hindu and Muslim groups, Twitter, the 

micro-blogging site, was abuzz with some Indians celebrating the verdict’s online glory, when Ayodhya became the top trending topic during the course of the day.

For the uninitiated, “trending” is a reference to the number of times a topic is discussed on Twitter: a score of its importance and popularity. You can also find the Yahoo home page (www.yahoo.com) capturing the latest Web trends. Yahoo also has its Buzz (buzz.yahoo.com) that measures popular stories and topics.

While on Twitter, this is about what is being discussed by tweeters or stories viewed and shared, in Google Trends (www.google.com/trends), you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, languages, and time periods. The Twitter trending is better called “hot topics” while “hot searches” in Google Trends reflect popular searches (other than routine things like weather) as an indicator of popularity.

For Indian tweeters (still mostly in English), it was a parochial victory when their favourite topic surged ahead of US-dominated topics.

Now, consider a future in which Internet-enabled tablets and smartphones, highly affordable in fast-growing Asian economies, generate more and more searches and tweets. What happened with Ayodhya is the result of both global interest and the surging use of Twitter in India.

The rise of a connected world is going to even out cultural biases inherent in the current digital penetration levels led by the US.

As the Idea Cellular commercial (with the memorable slogan, “What an Idea, sirjee”) showed, the social use of SMS voting, tweets and searches will help policymakers, officials, leaders and companies view social trends and adapt their behaviour suitably.

In a connected world, twe-ets and searches have become live, real-time symbols of democracy at work — and it is no longer about the affluent because connections and devi-ces are ever more affordable.
Social media trends mark a new frontier in the Internet revolution — through the rise of digital democracy

Folk media

Folk media is an effective means of communication in today’s world since it not only helps connect people with their cultures but also revives the lost culture of the society. Folk media forms the language of expression for the local populace and gives them a chance to voice out their opinions on various issues. It depicts the constantly changing face of any society along with its virtues and vices. It is a method to underline certain dominant ideologies of the society through its own people. If observed closely, traditional folk media is an excellent tool to enhance communication and promote dialogue at the grass root level of any society.

The most popular form of traditional folk media is the folk dance. Colorful, vibrant, melancholic, elegant, graceful — all these attributes form the core of folk dances. They attract audience since the tunes are generally feet tapping and very well liked by the local crowd. The folk dances vary in range from the mountains to the plains to the desert to the coastal areas. Every geographical area differs in the type of dances that it offers. For example, in India, Punjab has Bhangra as their folk dance which is energetic and colorful for it is a dance of celebration for them while down south in Kerala, their folk dance is Mayil Attam( the peacock dance) which is elegant and is performed at village get-togethers. Traditional folk dances are an excellent mix of traditional folk music and folk tales that help communicate messages in an effective manner.

Folk music is yet another popular form of folk media. Music is governed by the language, colloquial accent, and instruments used by the local people. Thus, each territorial area has a distinct folk music of its own. Folk music is especially admired since it does not require elaborate set ups or any preparation. Wherever a crowd gathers, people begin to sing and others gradually join. Lyrics of folk music are pretty striking since they echo the problems of the people with a satirical taunt to the government and the officials. Folk songs of Bihar, UP, MP are very satirical and are often used effectively before elections to keep the people from getting allured by false promises.

Street theatre is one more form of folk media that is being used widely to propagate socio political messages and to create awareness for social issues. A group of people perform on streets, and gather crowds. The objective here is to make people a part of the play and thus convey the social message. Thus, even a common man identifies with the issue and becomes a part of the act. Street plays are short, direct, loud, and over expressive since they are performed in places where there are huge crowds. They are known to propagate strong social reforms and are considered as powerful tools to mobilize crowds towards a certain matter.

Puppetry is another form of folk media that is equally entertaining and informative. Puppets come in four basic types- glove puppets, string puppets, rod puppets and shadow puppets. Each type is found in a particular state like glove puppets are found in Kerala, Odissa, and Tamilnadu. Puppet shows follow a story, a popular legend or a folk tale and end in a moral or social message. Children, adults, aged — all enjoy puppet shows. Paintings and sculptures also form an integral part of traditional folk media. The paintings depict life and socio-cultural environment of local people. This is a form of expression without words or music. They are not just images but give us a clear idea of what the people face in a societal setup, their problems, their struggles etc.

Thus, traditional folk media is much more than mere song and dance. They are a medium of expression for the common man, and a way to vent out his feelings. Along with mainstream media, even traditional folk media must be encouraged so that our grass roots are as strong as the class on top of the pyramid!

Human Development Index (HDI)

The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. Refer to Technical notes for more details.

The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO offers the other composite indices as broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and human poverty.

A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the statistical annex of the report.

Basic Needs Model

Basic Needs Model

Model: A simple description of a system, used for explaining how something works.


Introduction: The Bariloche Foundation in Argentina (1972) first developed a world model to show the possibility of meeting the basic needs of people all over the world based on certain assumptions.


Important points of BNM:


Development must reach to the poorest of the poor and satisfy their basic minimum needs e.g. food, clothes, shelter, education, healthcare etc. by providing employment and income.
It was an attempt to deal directly with the world poverty by meeting the basic needs of the lowest 40% income groups.


The model advocated for the satisfaction of non-material needs for quality of life once the material needs are satisfied.


In this model, the emphasis shifted from measuring income per capita as a growth indicator to measuring the physical quality of life (PQLI) as the indicator of welfare. PQLI is measured by life expectancy, infant mortality rate (IMR is the number of deaths of infants under one year old in a given year per 1,000 live births in the same year. India=55, Sierra Leone=160.3, USA=6.3, World=49.4 IMR as per 2006 United Nations Population Division report) and literacy.
In this model there is increased emphasis on the importance of equitable distribution of rewards, quality of life and meeting basic human needs.


BNM and causes of underdevelopment:


The model points out a few causes of underdevelopment as given below:


Poor organization of the poor. Organization of the poor serves three purposes: first to participate in community life; second, to overcome the mere survival strategy; and third, to break a pattern of powerlessness, exploitation, permanent indebtedness, and a state of dependency bordering slavery.
Lack of proper policy framework for development. It should have multiple growth goals: a commitment to development from bottom-up; local self-reliance; grass-root organizations participating in planning, decision making and implementing in areas affecting communities; substantial allocation of national funds for health, education and housing in favour of the lowest 40% income.
Information Poverty. There is information poverty among the 'have-nots' and communication gap with the 'have'.


Communication Model in BNM:


Decentralization (to give some of the power of a central government, organization, etc. to smaller parts or organizations around the country) of communication networks and democratization of their control would be essential pre-condition for the success of BNM.
Decentralization and rural integrated development in this model suggest two-way communication, both top-down and bottom-up in the development infrastructure.


The top-down communication is from the govt. to the masses for awareness of the basic amenities provided. A bottom-up communication from the people to the development planners for need based programs.


Role of communication in BNM:


In BNM, the emphasis is on inter-personal communication channels, which are used to inform, educate, motivate and persuade the masses with support from the mass media.




The govt. should provide community TV, radio sets and newspapers etc. and make use of satellites and other improved methods of broadcasting, such as short-wave, to the poor who have low physical accessibility to mass media because of low purchasing power or living in areas where reach of the media is low.
Along with physical access, it is necessary to have access to the operation of community media. This will safeguard against information blockage to the have-nots.
The efforts to meet the basic needs and to affect the required attitudinal changes require unprecedented inflow of information into the village capable of reaching the poorest of the villagers as well.


Therefore, it is necessary to develop programs designed to transform the village from the traditional society into and Information Community of a new kind.


Conclusion: Though the BNM is not yet considered as a replacement for development strategy but it has contributed a lot in shaping the policy of many developing countries.

Development message design and communication

Development message design and communication

The effectiveness of development message is of the foremost importance in development communication. The message selection has to be based on the holistic view of the development project objectives as message selection forms one of the important factors affecting the success of the overall project.


Points should be kept in mind while designing the message:


1. Usefulness of the content: People should see the advantage in the message conveyed to them.
2. Timeliness: Messages should be coordinated with the timing of the activities they have intended to influence, to increase the implementation potential of the content.
3. Appropriateness: Development messages should include the reason or logic for suggesting any new idea apart from the process to be followed in putting the idea into action. This can help people to decide what is appropriate for their individual conditions.
4. Simplicity: Simple messages are easy to communicate and understand.
5. Needs assessment of the target groups: Various methods like community study, observations, contacting key persons or leaders of the community, referring the reports, if any, can be used to find out the needs of the people.


Important steps in message designing:


1. Priority: Determining the priority issues and define them. For example: Whether health, nutrition, women’s issues and so on.
2. Media: Communication channels to be used should be decided keeping in mind the:
a. Literacy level of the target group
b. Channel access
c. Channel availability
d. Purpose of communicating.
3. Local resources: Incorporating local resources in planning the communication strategy.
4. Different content for different channel: If TV is to be used, the script should be written. If drama or behaviour format is to be used in the strategy, script writing will have to be done accordingly.
5. Pre-testing: Pre-testing the strategy with a sample of your target group to avoid any loss or wastage in communication.
6. Proper delivery system: Transmission of the message has to be done step by step, if a number of the media have to be used in a sequence or order of occurrence and importance under the controlled condition and observation of the communication.
7. Evaluation: Evaluation of the communication strategy should be carried out in terms of its objectives.

Factors for loss of meaning of messages:


• Production team related factors
• Content related factors
• Media related factors
• Audience related factors
• Context/environment related factors


Messages conveyed through media have an impact on behaviour and hence, its usage for development. The type of influence and the extent of impact of these message would be determined by the content, its presentation, creditability of the media and the source, audience characteristics such as their education level and exposure to other messages or sources etc.

Role of cyber media in development

Cyber: connected with electronic communication networks, especially the Internet.


The communication landscape in the country has been undergoing major changes largely due to technological developments during the last two decades. Use of computers has revolutionized the process of collection and dissemination of information. Internet is widely used by corporate houses, educational organizations, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and voluntary bodies.


The new technology, in fact is being increasingly used for governance (Electronic governance) and during emergencies.


E-Governance: At the most basic level, it's about putting services online and making it easier for people to access them. On a broader definition, it involves an effort by the government to lead society from an industrial to an information age.


Benefits of E-governance: e-Governance sees the people in government, business and citizens working together for the benefit of all. If properly implemented, the benefits of e-Governance are enormous. Some of its obvious benefits are:


Integrated Information: e-Governance targets to use a government-wide electronic information infrastructure to simplify service delivery, reduce duplication, and improve the level and speed of service to clients at a lower cost. It recommends creating, managing, and prudently sharing information electronically among the various government departments and the different services offered by them.
Integrated Services: Different types of services offered by different government departments like collecting taxes, granting licenses, administering regulations, paying grants and benefits, can be availed at one place.
Anywhere Services: Provision of fully interactive on-line services by e-Governance gives public access to government services with quicker responses at convenient times. This on-line accessibility of stored information from remote locations allows government officials to serve any citizen from a government office located in any part of the state or country.
Anywhere, Anytime Information: Delivery of services may require interaction between government officials and citizens, but delivery of public-domain information to citizens can be done without any such interaction. Citizens can obtain information related to government processes and procedures through an on-line system without interacting with any government official. There is no pressure on individuals to physically visit a Government Office.


Improved Overall Productivity: e-Governance will significantly contribute to improved overall productivity of both the government officials and the citizens, as it ensures faster interaction among them by electronic mail instead of moving paper files and letters, and in streamlining the workflow of internal government administrative processes. On the other hand, improved productivity of citizens results because of the facility of anytime, anywhere services and information.


Better Decision Making and Planning: The integrated information base of e-Governance helps planners and decision makers to perform extensive analysis of stored data to provide answers to the queries of the administrative cadre. This facilitates taking well informed policy decisions for citizen. This in turn helps them to formulate more effective strategies and policies for citizen facilitation.


Better Security and Protection of Information: E-Governance uses the integrated information approach for keeping all information at one place in electronic form. Thus, keeping the information secure against theft or leakage. Proper backup mechanisms also help in protecting the valuable information from getting lost due to natural calamities such as fires, earthquakes, and floods.


Successful E-governance projects in states:


BHOOMI of Karnataka: The first e-governance project of on Land Records Computerization System.
WARANA of Maharashtra: ‘Wired Village’ concept at Warana cooperative complex in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra.
RASI (Rural Access to Services through Internet) of Tamil Nadu: Rural IT infrastructure in Tamil Nadu.
E-SEVA of Andhra Pradesh: Provides services relating to payment of Utility Bills, Certificates, Permits / licenses, reservation etc.
CARD of A.P: System of registration through electronic delivery of all the registration services.
Tax Administration: Better, faster, easier: In order to ensure that tax administration, including that of VAT, is faster and easier, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has flagged off an initiative called the National Tax Information Exchange System (TINXSYS) project across the country.
IT for Railways: Railway Reservation Systems and online delivery of tickets.
Community Benefits: Community centres with IT: The Government of India has set up Community Information Centres (CICs) in the North East and Sikkim. These CICs provide broadband Internet access at each block.They provide services such as birth and death registration, and act as e-Suvidha service facilitation centres for marriage and SC/ST certificates. They also provide information about agricultural prices and related matters, and educational and employment opportunities.
Computerising the Police: Connecting the cops: The Kolkata Police has built a WAN that connects the police headquarters and important bureaus with more than 400 police stations across the state of West Bengal. This network is in its final stage of implementation. The older special messenger system has been abolished, and all information is sent over the new network.
Sukhmani: The government of Punjab commissioned a project called Sukhmani as the citizen gateway for over 120 services provided by the government.


E-Governance is also referred to as SMART Governance because it aims at using IT to the processes of Government functioning to bring about Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent Governance.


Emergencies: During/after natural disasters, it is difficult to install radio communication stations for establishing contacts with the outside world. However, much easier to communicate through cyber media.


During the 2001, Bhuj (Gujrat) earthquake, cyber media played an important role in establishing contact, treatment of the injured and other relief and rehabilitation operations.

Development Support Communication

Development Support Communication (DSC)

Origin of DSC:


In the 50’s of the last century, many developing countries used agricultural extension education to improve agricultural production.


As in developing countries, even though, a large part of population is engaged in agriculture, the small and marginal farmers are not able to produce adequate food because of the unscientific method of farming (the traditional way of tilling the soil and dependence on the monsoon). It was therefore, considered necessary to help these farmers to change their agricultural practices, through extension methods.


This approach of spreading/diffusing innovation, new ideas, practices, and technologies in agriculture to the farmers became very popular as agricultural extension during 1950’s.


In view of heavy reliance of agriculture extension on communication techniques and methodologies, in due course communication applied to agriculture extension came to be known as Agricultural Communication.


By and by, extension approach was used to transfer knowledge to the rural mass on health, hygiene, nutrition, sanitation etc. Hence, it came to be known as Rural Communication.


Later on, the slums of the urban areas were also included to help the poorer sections living in them. Thus, communication theory and practice applied to help stimulate the development process in general branched off as the Development Support Communication (DSC).


In DSC, the emphasis is on greater participation of the beneficiaries in the development process in general, and in message development in particular.


Example: Pulse polio fiasco in pockets of U.P and Bihar.


DSC Links Agencies:


DSC was a concept popularized by the UNDP, FAO, UNICEF etc. It links all agencies involved in the planned development work such as political executives, policy planners, development administrators, subject specialists, field workers, opinion leaders, the media representatives, the researchers and beneficiaries who constitute the final delivery points and consumers of information.


Route of Communication in DSC:


The route of communication envisaged are not only vertical from top to bottom and bottom-upwards, but also horizontal between the institutions and personnel connected with the process of development.


Wood’s Triangle:


John L. Woods (1976) conceived a triangular nexus with three points: Knowledge generators, political leaders and development knowledge users, called Wood’s Triangle.







According to Woods, the role of DSC, is to link all three elements in the development linkage triangle along with all the intermediate user groups.


His emphasis is not only on pushing the information towards the target groups, but also on taking into account the information seeking pattern of the target audience and integrating them into the development planning process.

Development Support Communication in Health Sector in India

Improvement in the healthcare system is essential for social and economic development. Moreover, unless people have healthy living, they cannot enjoy the other benefits of life. These are the reasons why activities attempting to improve health and socio-economic situations should be regarded as mutually complementary to each other rather than competitive. Health is an essentially productive factor contributing to the overall development.


Example: The control of certain communicable diseases often helps to promote development in general. Proper nutrition and reduction of sickness increases the productivity of work. Breaking the vicious circle of malnutrition and infection leads to improvement of physical and mental development of the child. Vaccinating an entire child population against diseases brings reduction in child mortality, which can induce a feeling to have a small family.


Limitations of traditional health communication:


• Unlike other areas, the influence of mass media in changing the health behaviors of an individual is limited.
• Opinion leaders are comparatively less effective in changing the health behaviour of an individual. For example: The big land lords were the first to accept changes in the agricultural process and production but not in health (e.g. family planning).
• Not all opinion leaders can influence everyone. They generally specialize in some fields. For example: A progressive farmer might succeed in disseminating new innovations in the field of agriculture but may fail in the sector of health.


DSC Strategy:


In the context of the complexity of health behaviour, DSC assumes greater significance. Some of the important points of DSC strategy are:


• In health communication, word-of-mouth and personal communication form a trusted source and is significantly more effective than mass communication from a remote source.
• In a country like India, a DSC strategy needs to be developed in a manner that can cater to the needs of the diverse groups based on social and cultural background.
• The Govt. of India’s National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which envisages a key role of Panchayati Raj institutions in the implementation of health programmes. This programme is in line with DSC.
•The mission relates health to determinants of good health viz. sanitation, nutrition and safe drinking water; optimization of health manpower including Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) among others.
•The goal of achieving health behaviour change should be a central point of the DSC strategy. This needs to be operated in that spirit. The health communicator, should, therefore pursue the following activities if he aims to achieve behavioural change.


1. Assess the needs of the community or different target groups.
2. Assess the local resources available to meet these needs.
3. Assess the likes and dislikes of people towards the different types of communication.
4. Convince the stakeholders on the need of the programme.
5. Provide scientific, specific and basic information to the policy-makers and decision-makers.

Difference between DC & DSC models

Source:


DC: University-based
DSC: Development agency based


Structure:


DC: Top-down, authoritarian
DSC: Horizontal knowledge sharing between benefactors and beneficiaries.


Paradigm:


DC: Dominant paradigm. Effort is externally directed social change.
DSC: Participatory paradigm.


Level:


DC: International and national.
DSC: Grassroots.


Media:


DC: Big media: TV, radio and Newspapers.
DSC: Small media: Traditional media, group and inter-personal communication, video, film strips etc.


Effects:


DC: To create a climate of acceptance by beneficiaries for new ideas and innovations.
DSC: To create a climate of mutual understanding between benefactors and beneficiaries.

Kailash Yadav Nanded