Acehtsunami

Effective communication among the stakeholders is one of the vital pillars for the success of any type of programme and it is worth appreciating that Tata-Dhan Academy has attempted to use folk media for enhancing community’s understanding and knowledge on vulnerability & disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Basic objective behind using folk media among the community is because of its clear-cut advantages over other forms of media (print and electronic). The languages and dialects are their very own, because of which, intelligibility is very high. Apart from familiarity of language, gestures, music and rhythm is what makes this media acceptable among the rural folks (who mostly have low education, limited outlook and face difficulty in understanding different concepts). This media creates a forum, where there is direct personal contact between the sender of the message and the receiver. Thus the personal contact and the various factors of familiarity, makes the messages more credible and acceptable than if it were transmitted through the electronic media.

Community has been exposed to these art forms for centuries and it has become a part of their ethos. So, the effective method of communicating with the backward population in rural areas is to talk to them in terms of myths and legends which are a part of their religion. The farmers and the fishing folk residing in Tamil Nadu’s countryside (coastal districts) must be having their own god and goddesses and myths (mythology and folklore), and if such myths are combined with DRR concepts, and communicated in their own local dialects, then it would go a long way rather than a performance by an urban group. In most of the folk art forms, audience participation is an integral part, and it is this all important aspect of everybody being able to participate that encourages greater attentiveness and therefore greater and better understanding of a message.