Resumo de Communication Technology And Human Development: Recent Experiences In The Indian Social Sector

BASED on the writer?s personal experience of more than three decades as a development communicator and consultant, this useful book provides an understanding of the practical issues that arise in the planning and execution of communication programmes to bring about behaviour change in the Indian context.

Avik Ghosh, the author of this book, was co-founder of the Centre for Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT) in 1972, an NGO that introduced the use of audio-visual technologies for development communication. Later he joined the National Literacy Mission and worked as a media coordinator for the Department of Adult Education. He has worked in various Indian national and international organisations and is deeply committed to the idea of using communication for development.

The book is basically a documentation and evaluation of the several projects that have used communication technologies as an integral aspect of development projects. Its first section provides a classical background of the growing nature of the application of communication technology in development. Case studies of innovative applications for development through communication both in India and abroad are described to assist a thorough understanding of the emergence of the role of development communication.

The actual theme of the book lies in section two where the author presents recent experiences in three important social areas ? literacy, population issues and rural development. He describes major creative ideas to apply communication technologies in these sectors for their development.

In the concluding chapter, Ghosh makes a strong argument for professionalising the business of development as the Indian government failed to deliver its development promises thereby losing the trust of the people who in turn are becoming more and more abject and hopeless. He argues that behaviour change is slow and difficult because it involves resisting intrinsic orthodoxy and prejudice.

Ghosh believes that the social sector should learn from market tactics and the consumer profiling of the private sector. Marketing strategies advocating behaviour change don?t challenge the status quo, whereas behavioral change in the social sector requires a radical remaking of social relations and hierarchies. And of course, no one is more aware of this than Ghosh himself who has detailed the difficulties of facilitating social change at the local level.

This book is a valuable addition to debates and discussions on India?s development programmes. It is a rich and detailed summary of information for students, scholars, activists and practitioners involved or interested in the process of development. Its only weak point is its style since it sometimes lapses into reading like a report.

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