Unlocking the Indian Rural “Mind”

Now there is a thought I often have when I watch political rallies which have so much grandeur, pomp and ceremony to them, especially in rural areas and small towns. And it is not easy to pull crowds, so all kudos to them. But of course I do not know how these rallies work. I know some emotionally charged speeches connect with the crowds and if there is a communal angle to it, all the more better. But is there an intelligent connect with the crowd? I doubt it. Now you may laugh, what intelligent connect with the rural folks! But let me take you back to an eye opening experience I had with illiterate villagers in several villages in the back of beyond of UP.

So, we had some kind of social work project to popularize use of child de-worming tablets. Basically, people do not have access to clean water and children particularly suffer the most. In particular, stomach and intestinal worms are a major cause of malnutrition. So, I went to a UN office in Lucknow (or was it Kanpur) and brought some scientific video tapes on the subject. Then we selected the ones that had maximum video content (and less of the anchor talking kind of stuff). The tapes showed life size pictures of these worms inside the stomach and how they eat away up to 40% of the nutrition. With a mobile video unit, then we went to several villages, called a gathering and showed these tapes to them. I would then sum it up with a brief talk, no dumbing down, mind you. And after all this just for some celebratory mood and entertainment we would run a show of a Hindi movie – Jai Santoshi Maa. Now here was the response. The villagers would queue up to buy the tablets. The market price of the tablets was Rs 6 and that is what we sold it at – no giving free or at a discounted price etc. That was a big sum for them as for many of them, it would have been more than their daily wage. Within two weeks, we exhausted all the stocks we had of the tablets, bought some from chemists all around Etah and then got some from Delhi and yet could not meet the demand. It was a rout.

In my experience, I found them to be rather intelligent and smart in their own earthy way. They see through the empty rhetoric that is often flushed out at them. While 70% of India is rural, I do not know if anyone goes and explains policies and programs in an intelligible manner or connects with them at that level. Issues like population control, hygiene, water conservation, spreading development to remote areas etc. can be conveyed in a manner that can have a deep impact on them. I don’t see any such program/s afoot. I think most urbanites including the urban oriented media see them as some sort of an illiterate “mass” incapable of discernment. Well, they have limited exposure but once exposed to good ideas, in the right manner, they understand and are refreshingly open to change. I think we haven’t tried reaching out to them and connecting with them at that level, you know when you see them as your equal. We don’t show them enough respect and maybe if we do, their potential is unimaginable.