More about our work in India

India

Women citizen journalists being trained for the Aagan Ke Paar radio programme
The BBC World Service Trust is focusing on health and emergency preparedness in India. We are currently working with a wide range of partners to promote condom use among 48 million men. We are also working to improve and increase media coverage of how the risk of natural disasters can be reduced.



Context

Modern India has emerged as one of the world's great economic powers.

Service exports and manufacturing have pushed economic growth to over 9.2% per year. Thirty six billionaires on the 'Forbes' list are now Indian.

But not everyone is sharing in this new prosperity.

In a country of more than one billion people, over 300 million live on less than $1 a day (34.3%) and over 500 million live on less than $2 a day.

In a culture where open discussion of sexual health has traditionally been frowned upon, levels of HIV infection are among the highest in the world.

India is also the country worst-affected by natural disasters in South Asian. Much work is needed to prepare communities for disasters and strengthen the use of media to assist in reducing the risk of natural disasters.

Facts

  • One in three of the world's poor people live in India
  • 48.5% of children under five are malnourished
  • Approximately 2.5 million people in India are living with HIV and AIDS
  • Only two in ten young women know how to prevent HIV infection
  • Of the 32 states and union territories, 22 are disaster-prone
  • 5-6 tropical cyclones form in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea every year - 2-3 of them are severe
  • 57% of India is earthquake-prone


Working in partnership

Health

We have been working in India since 1999, where we have built an excellent reputation for our health work, including leprosy and HIV and AIDS.

From 2001 to 2007 we worked in partnership with the Government of India's National AIDS Control Programme and the public broadcaster, Doordarshan, to deliver a mass media campaign that increased awareness of HIV and AIDS. More

For example, our 120-episode drama series about an HIV-positive detective, which was one of the top ten most-watched TV programmes in India, increased awareness that condom use prevents HIV transmission from 26% to 51% among female viewers. More

Read about the impact of the mass media campaign here.

We also worked in partnership with a range of Indian non-governmental organisations, All India Radio and the BBC Hindi Service, to produce a radio programme for rural women about HIV and AIDS in the context of women's empowerment.

Twelve rural women were trained to act as ‘citizen journalists' for the programme, which reached more than 12 million listeners in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. More

Since 2006, we have been working to promote condom use among 48 million men in four states with the highest rates of HIV infection in India. More

Strengthening the local media

We have also worked in partnership with a wide range of partners to deliver extensive journalism training across India. The training focused on improving the coverage of social affairs reporting, such as HIV and AIDS and the environment.

Environment

For example, we worked in partnership with The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and the Stockholm Environment Institute to mobilise public opinion around the environment by training 108 Indian print and television journalists in nine states how to improve their coverage of environmental issues. More

Emergency preparedness

In 2007 we have launched a new initiative to strengthen disaster prevention and resilience in the Indian states of West Bengal and Orissa.

The aim of the initiative is to increase and improve media coverage of how the risk of natural disasters can be reduced in these disaster-prone states by strengthen media and NGO capacity to communicate on these issues.