Folk Power for Sustainable Future

The main challenge in the journey of Modern civilization of human society is not a nuclear war or economic crisis, it’s about environmental instability or sensitivity. Environment is always a global issue. Though it is a global issue we must have act regionally because every country, state has different policies and they have different group of people, tradition, language and many more. The root cause of environment change is human activity towards nature. So, everybody should be aware of what has to be done and what has not to be done.

Effective communication tools are required to communicate properly from policy maker to ground level and find out suitable communication models which can work easily in the regional level to create awareness about environment among all sections of the  people in our country. Environment pollution activity and practices degrade the rural environment and it affects the natural surroundings. So, environment awareness campaign must be designed to reach different groups of people in different communities. Despite barriers in communication the Government must design policies or missions for the public creating awareness on different issues and uttilise alternative media since print, electronic or social media can cater to a certain section of the society. In Assam where literacy rate is not satisfactory, infrastructure is  a developing process and many groups and community’s speak different languages mainstream communication fails at certain levels. As a result government policy and other information can’t reach every individual.

Assam is an underdeveloped state. Electricity, well developed road system can’t cover the whole state. The geographical location has been creating communication disturbances since ancient time. In print or electronic media, commonly English, Hindi and as a regional language Assamese are used. But in Assam there is almost 25-30 tribes and each tribe has their own language, so it poses a problem. Therefore we have to think differently to select proper communication tool for every specific community and Folk Media may play a significant role here. It has been a common observation that through Folk Media, it is possible to penetrate to the sections where other media have limitations. Puppet shows, street plays, skits, stage performances, folk songs and folk dances and other traditional means of communication belong to this category. The main characteristics of Folk Media is that it is familiar media with community involvement and it is the cost effective media also. In Assam other Folk media like ojha pali, dhuliya, bhauna, mobile theater are also present which we can used for communication process and disseminating information. With the help of this media the policy and other necessary information can reach every individual because this medium uses community language, tradition and they are oral form involving two way linear communication processes. Therefore the acceptability of this media is more compared to other media. Feedback is also an immediate outcome of this process, therefore people’s responses, views, and comments can be quickly recorded.

However there are many challenges available in this medium like its mobility, proper implementation, organization, creative teams etc. But if we reduce these challenges and government and other organizations show their interest on Folk media using this medium as a communication tools in environment awareness campaign can surely be an effective process.

Abdul Momin