MEDIA MATTERS
Unique experiment
SEVANTI NINAN
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The State Institute of Rural Development, Mysore, makes use of satellite TV technology to bring sex workers across the State and top-level bureaucrats face to face, as a part of its battle against HIV.
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The questions came from everywhere, and were about breast cancer, nutrition, housing, getting their children into government hostels, and how to keep harassing policemen at bay.
Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar
Need for a common platform: Sex workers voicing some of their concerns in Bengaluru.
Even as the media’s focus in Karnataka last fortnight was on the violence against churches, a unique experiment in transformative media was unfolding all over that State. Satellite TV was used to link up sex workers to a panel of senior bureauc
rats in Mysore, in an effort to reach a crucial target population in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Karnataka is one of the worst affected States in the country, 28 out of its 29 districts are in the high prevalence category.
In a green panchayat hall mottled with post-rain fungus, some 35 women in the district town of Mandya sat in front of a TV set listening to a panel and asking them questions through a mobile phone, whenever they managed to get through to the studio. Neatly dressed working women, with handbags, mobiles and flowers in their hair, getting high-level attention of a kind they have never got before. As an experiment, it took some eight to 10 months to put together, and was certainly the first of its kind in India, maybe even in the world.
Innovative use
As a medium, satellite-based interactive communication is used by several State governments for a variety of development purposes. But this is the first time it is being used for HIV-related outreach anywhere. The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) in Mysore is the hub from where the uplinking was done to Insat 2B, and then downlinked to extended C Band antennae at reception centres in the district headquarters.
H.L. Mohan of the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, who conceptualised the marriage of their ongoing sex worker outreach with satellite TV technology, describes it as an experiment in bringing a shunned section of the population into the mainstream. “We had reservations about how taluk panchayats would react to these women coming into government buildings.”
But they came, and in a one-way video, two-way audio exchange, asked questions of, and got answers from people at the top echelons of the State’s bureaucracy.
The effort was twofold. To “bring them out”, as Mohan repeatedly puts it, and to use the satellite TV capability to effect a common platform for sex workers’ groups all over the State. His senior colleague at the SIRD, H.S. Ashokanand, makes two points. One, the extended C Band is a robust technology of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) which works beautifully for rural extension. Unlike the smaller, lighter Ku Band dishes which DTH households have, which are easily buffeted by wind, it is a large, heavy and rugged dish which can withstand vagaries of weather.
Two, the technology is a brilliant leveller. Used imaginatively, it exposes a large, dispersed population to a small bunch of good people. Says Ashokanand, “the greatest advantage of this technology is that I can make the best of resources available to the whole State.” And then it does the opposite: gives a small bunch of people feedback from a wide swathe of respondents. Says Mohan, “it was a real education for the panelists.” These were Secretary-level bureaucrats being exposed to the realities of sex workers’ lives for the first time, in their own voices.
In the press
It was enough of a landmark event, particularly at the district level, for local newspapers to cover it. At Davangere the women looked at the Kannada Prabha’s display the next day and asked disarmingly about the politically correct coverage, “Why have they taken pictures of our backs, and not our faces?” Over two days they listened to panellists, watched films (made by women like themselves) and asked questions. The relevant district on a map on the TV screen would light up with each question that was asked.
The third phase of the AIDS control programme is working through sex workers’ collectives rather than NGOs. All the women gathered at the 29 district towns are members of such collectives. The big revelation from interviews with the women is that many of them knew neither about condoms nor about HIV before they joined a collective. And from this satellite interaction they learned how much more a collective can do for them. Government benefits that are hopelessly out of reach for a rural sex worker become accessible when applied for through a registered collective.
Plenty of questions
The questions came from everywhere, and were about breast cancer, nutrition, housing, getting their children into government hostels, and how to keep harassing policemen at bay. From Koppal District: “Wherever we do sex work the law says it’s illegal. Could you please tell us the appropriate place to do sex work?” From Shimoga: “Police are not allowing either the Project staff or lawyer to meet us in the police station.” From Kolar and Chitradurga: “When they arrest thieves they cover their face. When they arrest sex workers they don’t.” And one woman asked, “how will I come to know if I have HIV?”
When the Additonal Director General, Police at Bengaluru gave his phone number to call for help, a sex worker at Mandya entered it into her mobile phone. And another at Davangere scribbled it on the palm of her hand. For women constantly at the receiving end of violence, this was huge. And for an administration battling HIV, the interaction with women through whom it can spread, became an invaluable step towards fortifying them against the disease.
Declaration: My travel to Karnataka was paid for by the Centre for Advocacy and Research which works on media sensitisation in this area.
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