Raipur, Oct 14, 2014: Media professionals from print,
electronic and digital media from the states of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi along with government representatives and health
professionals converged in Raipur to deliberate on strategies for greater media
engagement in promoting Routine Immunization (RI) of children against deadly
childhood diseases.
The Chief Minister, Government of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Raman
Singh inaugurated the two-day workshop in the presence of Mr. Aman Agarwal,
State Minister of Health & Family Welfare,; Dr. Subhash Pandey, State
Immunization Officer, Chhattisgarh; Dr. Kamalpreet Singh, IAS, Director, Health
Services, Government of Chhattisgarh; and Mr. Prasanta Dash, Chief of Field
Office, UNICEF, Chhattisgarh.
Dr Raman Singh said that reducing Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR) and Maternal Mortal Rate (MMR) in the state has been his top priority as
Chief Minister. Dr Singh said that Chhattisgarh has achieved 75 percent
coverage in RI. However, the real success would be when the state reaches 95
per cent. “The last mile is always the most difficult but we are committed to
devise ways of overcoming infrastructural, manpower and access bottlenecks to
increase RI coverage to 95 percent in coming years.”
He emphasised that the media can play a critical role in
spreading awareness and dispelling myths about RI. Vernacular language press in
particular has to play a key role in engaging the community spread over
forested and inaccessible terrain of Chhattisgarh.
The Health Minister, Mr Amar Agarwal, said only media can
catalyse critical awareness about RI among people. The present focus is to
create infrastructure and manpower with a long-term perspective so that the
hurdles in process of immunization could be removed. He assured media persons
that Department of Health under his charge would create resources which can be
accessed by journalists for informed and correct writing on health issues,
including RI.
The Vice Chancellor of Kushabhau Thakre University, Dr Sachhidanand
Joshi, highlighted the low priority of health journalism in media coverage.
“Media coverage, “ he said, “was largely event based and there is a dearth of
well-researched and knowledge-based inspirational stories. This has to be
corrected and the media should engage with issues which directly affect the
lives and health of the people. Specialised health journalism courses are
needed for it.”
Dr Kamalpreet Singh, Director, Health, Government of
Chhattisgarh, said pentavelant vaccine would be introduced in the state
shortly.
Mr. Prasanta Dash,
Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Chhattisgarh, said, “RI is one of the most cost
effective public health interventions, preventing around 4 lakh child deaths
each year in India.” Tribal areas and
urban slums, he said, were two pockets where RI coverage has to be reinforced
and media can play the role of a catalyst in these areas.
Rahul Dev, Managing Trustee, Samyak Foundation, New Delhi,
said that media has a dual role in creating community demand for RI by creating
awareness and the right pressure for delivery of services on agencies
responsible for RI. He said that media
must dispel myths regarding vaccinations, and fears about side effects of
vaccines.
My FM RJ Animesh gave an interesting demonstration on how
messages on immunization schedules can be disseminated creatively through radio
spots.
Visit to a cold chain store and immunization session were
organised to get first-hand exposure to immunization process. They engaged in
group work exercises to brainstorm on challenges of media coverage of RI
immunization. These included how to increase media space; improving the quality
of coverage; media engagement with social influencers; the use of social media
and the role of media during AEFI (Adverse Events Following Immunization).
Ms. Sonia Sarkar, Communication Officer, UNICEF, Delhi, Dr.
Ajay Trakroo, Health Specialist, UNICEF, Chhattisgarh, Mr. Syam Sudheer Bandi,
Communication Officer, UNICEF, Chhattisgarh also spoke on the occasion
The workshop was organised by UNICEF and Samyak Foundation
with the support of the Government of Chhattisgarh. The workshop was the second
of the three workshops which will cover the nine low Routine Immunization (RI)
coverage states in the country. The key recommendations of the workshop
included creating a network of health journalists, increased interface between
government, civil society and media and capacity building of government
officials on handling and responding to the media. All the journalists were
encouraged to join the online health network created for them.
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