Edutainment project on Energy Efficiency and Environment

Edutainment project on Energy Efficiency and Environment
2002-2005

Summery :-
Energy conservation is one of the prime aspects of Energy security. Towards this objective, innovative use of audio-visual media, namely Radio and TV serials, was the high-point of PCRA’s conservation project during 2002-2005. Outreaching youth for attitude building and familiarizing them with total energy solutions were the KPA. Capturing highly scientific and technical aspects in entertaining manner was the challenge. The campaign received enormous response, nearly 3000 messages per week. In 3 years, over 2000 students and … govt. departments participated.
The Radio serial named BBKB (August 2002 to … 2006 -- 184 episodes) ran on 50 AIR stations in 6 languages. TV serial KKMBD (May 2003 to May 2006 --158 episodes) also had 26 episodes each in Tamil and Asamiya. This has generated a clip bank with nealy 1500 audio-vedio clips on conservation aspects which is a rich asset. The project has sensitised and activated millions of youth into energy conservation and environment protection. It has paved way to launch a 2nd media project with triple the budget.
The project :-
Introduction
PCRA (Petrolium Conservation Research Association) under the Ministry of Petroleum is established since 1976 and carries out programmes of energy audit, research and media campaign. It is known for organising Oil Conservation Fortnight in January every year. It employees engineers from oil sector on deputation. Average staff distribution is 30 officers at head office, 5 each at four regional offices and one each at 30 field offices in major cities. The budget for 2001-2002 was around 18 crores.

On joining as head of PCRA (Petroleum Conservation Research Association) in July 2002, Smt. Leena Mehendale worked to revamp it. She focussed on Innovation, System change, Training and Team building. A cyclic relationship was established in which Media Campaign, Energy Audits, Research, and T/T (Training and Team-building) have each provided, input and feed-back to the other three. The totalistic view ensured that these programmes were in tune with other Government sector programmes.

Innovations undertaken :-
Initial brainstorming exercises in PCRA resulted in shifting its education campaign programs towards audio-visual media - the most effective communication tool for reaching out to each household of the country. Innovative media campaign was undertaken for reaching the message of energy conservation all over the country. A 3 year project was envisaged.
Campaign started with a weekly Radio serial named "Boond Boond ki Baat" which ran in prime hours of Monday morning 9.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. It entwined half hour tips and messages, do's and donts for fuel conservation in vehicles and drew tremendous response from janta commuting to office. Its lead role petro uncle became a popular name.
This media campaign was taken to new heights by launching a weekly T.V. serial on Doordarshan titled "Khel Khel Mein Badalo Duniya". This innovative half hourly serial was backed with all types of integral ideas to promote conservation.

By now PCRA team firmly believed that energy conservation was not just switching off engines at red lights nor was it only reducing an industrialist’s bill by giving fuel saving solutions. It is a holistic approach towards energy efficiency. And energy efficiency is not only all about the technology nor mathematical jugglery, it concerns with attitude. Scientists have forecast that reserves of petroleum crude will be exhausted in 40 next years and we are in a world where living without petroleum products seems near impossible. Still the consumption can be effectively reduced by its judicious use. Each one of us need to be alert even about a drop of fuel wastage. That’s where attitude comes in.

Children and youths, the torchbearers of the country need to be made aware of the veracity (???) of petroleum conservation. Attitude building towards conservation amongst children can make a difference. Extensive brainstorming sessions were therefore held amongst PCRA officers, ministry officials and media persons to develop an electronic media program for imparting holistic education of energy efficiency that would be apt for the youths while at the same time making it acceptable for general mass as well.

Philosophy of the program
• Conservation must be addressed in its totality as energy conservation encompasses conservation of material, water, human resources, in short it needs improving overall efficiency.
• Entertainment in Radio and TV channel means much beyond film songs. Arousing curiosity is a powerful and effective substitute.
• Children / students will respond positively if they are told that they can change the world for better.
• Skill building leads to better maintenance that eventually leads to better conservation.
• Attitudinal change is a long process but it starts with a click when we can make people think.
• By creating familiarity with energy & environment sector, we can make children our ambassador for conservation.
• Continuous exposure to various aspects of conservation is needed for long term effectivity.

Challenge of producing a scientific and technical program
Main challenge was to produce educational programs dealing with relatively serious topics of scientific and technical nature. The conscious decision was to develop a weekly edutainment programs for the target group of children and youths. The TV program was in a quiz form wherein 2 schools groups of 4 participants each competed against each other. These schools were chosen from all over the country. To reach maximum number of households, AIR and Doordarshan were contracted for telecast, while DAVP did production. All views were taken on :-
• Naming the program.
• Duration of the program.
• Structure, theme & topics of the program.
• Bringing in nationalistic appeal to the program.
• Quality, acceptability by Radio / DD and its publicity.
• Production in limited budget.
• Work within the constraints of Govt. policy, delegation and work culture.
• Selection of producer, anchor

Overcoming the challenges
TV program --
The title “Khel Khel Mein Badlo Duniya” was itself a true reflection that it was meant to bring about attitudinal change and to sensitize each household in the matter of efficient energy utilization. The structure, format, packaging, treatment and target group of the program were so designed that it retained the educative value while offering entertainment to the viewers at the same time. The 30 minute Hindi program was packaged in 5 different segments of “Kuch Kar Dikhana Hei”, “Duniay Badalne Ki Baat”, “Aankdein Boltein Hein”, “Ek Choti Si Baat” and “Aaj Ka Sawal”.

The first segment of the program “Kuch Kar Dikhana Hei” had performances by two participating teams, in the form of skit, mimicry, dance-drama etc. on the topics of energy conservation, petroleum products, electricity, water, wild life, environment protection, ecology, social issues of national concern etc. As teams needed to write their scripts and rehearse for this segment, the entire school or college, along with the parents, teachers and staff, become a part of the conservation movement.

The second segment was named Duniya Badalne Ki Baat. It was felt that the present generation needs to be motivated and inspired by the works of real time stories of individuals or organizations who have made a great impact at a day to day or national level. This would ensure courage and conviction amongst them to initiate and accomplish the most difficult tasks in life. “Duniya Badalne Ki Baat” had two alternative structures. In the first format, were various success stories. The second format had vocation-based clips, giving hands-on demo. There is a large segment of underprivileged youths from the lower strata in our society, who have learnt the nuances of their profession by virtue of being in the trade from their so-called masters and who are going to fill the maintenance industry of the whole country in the coming years. But these youths need to be corrected and updated in finer technical points so that right type of skill will eventually leads to energy efficiency.

The third segment was “Aakdein Bolte Hein”. It dealt with various statistical facts & figures on natural resources & social issues, depicted in the form of graph / chart etc. They informed the viewers on various interesting topics relating to energy conservation. Simultaneously, our camera team interacted with public all over the country and asking them questions and making them aware of important conservation aspects.

The fourth segment was “Ek Chhoti Si Baat” - a conservation message delivered by a celebrity or newsreading on latest developments of hydrocarbon sector.

Finally, the half hour program had a question “Aaj Ka Sawal” sponsered by different govt. departments, which informed viewers on various schemes of those departments and allowed viewers to get cash awards from them.

The program was launched on Sunday, 18th May 2003 in channel 1 of Doordarshan at 15:30 hrs. and subsequently shifted to prime time of 11 Am on Sundays. By virtue of its educational values and crisp format, the program has received unprecedented success that can be gauged from the TRP rating that sored as high as 9 in specific Hindi belts, while the average TRP was between 4 & 4.5.

PCRA was successful in disseminating the importance of its approach of handling the mass awareness program through electronic media and thus a number of Ministries / Departments of Govt. of India and oil PUSs had extended their association with this program.

The program received large number of responses every week from a student to an adult, from a housewife to a business lady, from a farmer to an industrialist, from all walks of life.

The program of such educative nature is perhaps the only program that ran successfully for more than 3 years on a national channel. These programs give results in the long run to the citizens of the country.

Innovative media campaign was undertaken for reaching the message of energy conservation all over the country. Campaign started with a weekly Radio serial named "Boond Boond ki Baat" which ran in prime hours of Monday morning 9.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. It entwined half hour tips and messages, do's and donts for fuel conservation in vehicles and drew tremendous response from janta commuting to office. Its lead role petro uncle became a popular name.
This media campaign was taken to new heights by launching a weekly T.V. serial on Doordarshan titled "Khel Khel Mein Badalo Duniya". This innovative half hourly serial was backed with all types of integral ideas to promote conservation.

The highlights of two programmes are :-
i) Together they generated responses from nearly 3000 viewers per week.
ii) The were highly scientific and educative and yet entertaining, confirming my view that electronic media can and must play a big role in propogating education - primary, vocational, technical and higher.
iii) Both contained stories of new researches in energy conservation, energy audit methodologies hands-on training tips for proper maintenance, practices required in industries such as steam traps, belts, vehicle maintenance etc. They also covered PCRA's cluster approach on energy conservation in glass, steel and other industries.
iv) The rating received for both these programmes was Excellent.
v) They were supported by other minor programmes such as
a. One PCRA page in 30 children magazines
b. Another T.V. serial named "Sanrakshan Yog" focussing on work efficiency for conservation, based on Bhagwatgeeta message of योगः कर्णसु कौशलम्
c. A conservation rally for women driving 2 wheelers in major cities during Energy Conservation fortnight.
d. PCRA monthly Hindi journal संरक्षण चेतना
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