Entertainment Education Programs

Pakistan: Aahat - A Social Drama
View an excerpt
Download RealPlayer
Order the video

Aahat (An Approaching Sound) is the story of a young couple, their dreams, social pressures and the consequences of having too many children too soon. The television drama of six one-hour episodes is an outstanding example of the success of the Enter-Educate concept in diffusing family planning messages. It marked the first highly visible collaboration between Pakistan TV and the National Population Program, signaling a positive change in high-level government commitment to family planning communication in Pakistan. As in many Muslim societies, family planning has long been considered too sensitive a topic for mass media. However, the overwhelmingly positive response that the drama received has quieted such misconceptions and given high visibility to family planning. Originally scripted in Urdu, followed by an English subtitled version, the drama was broadcast on Pakistan Television (PTV) beginning October 1, 1991.
Starting in August 1990 the Johns Hopkins University/Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) assisted the Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Population Welfare (MPW) in the design and implementation of a comprehensive family planning communication strategy. The design of the National Family Welfare Campaign followed the the P-Process, a research-based, impact-oriented approach to message design and program implementation.
Analysis
Aahat, a drama woven out of the human issues at the heart of family welfare, was shaped by key research findings on the process of family planning decision-making. The drama aimed at increasing husband-wife communication on issues of birth spacing and increasing demand for contraceptive services.
A formative study was carried out to obtain an overall picture of the existing family planning conditions in Pakistan. In 1991 figures showed that awareness of family planning was high (above 80%), but contraceptive prevalence was quite low (below15%). An estimated 59% of the married couples of reproductive age were non-users of contraceptives, favoring either spacing (35%) or limiting (23%) and thus constituted an "unmet demand" for contraceptives. This intended group primarily comprises Pakistan’s emerging middle and lower classes who are high consumers of mass media, especially television and radio. Television reaches 43% of the rural and 68% of the urban audiences and is the most effective medium to reach people.
The process of message development for the campaign was carried out in many phases. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among middle income married men and women of reproductive age, as well as family elders, religious leaders, service providers and traditional medical practitioners investigated family planning decision-making and the causes for the comparatively large (59%) “unmet demand” in Pakistan. Ethnographic research on the process of family planning communication, particularly husband-wife communication, was carried out through a series of four socio-anthropological case studies.
Advocacy
A symposium, “Communication Leads the Way: Family Planning in Mass Media” was organized by MPW and Johns Hopkins University Population Communication Services. The symposium aimed at strengthening the advocacy for family planning programs among high-level policy makers and providing support for the various FP programs. The symposium, which was an excellent platform for forging alliances between the various influential parties involved in implementing a successful family planning communication campaign, was well attended by federal and state ministers, prominent media personalities and representatives from NGOs and donor agencies.
Design
The campaign was designed with two distinct components working in tandem to achieve increased husband-wife communication about family planning. One component was the production of Aahat, which conveyed indirect messages about family planning interwoven into a social drama. In support of the drama, IEC materials and advertisements with direct family planning messages along with “action cues” were developed, pre-tested and disseminated.
After extensive exploration for the most effective means of developing an entertaining social drama to reach the national audience as well as an assesssment of production and broadcast capabilities, it was decided that Pakistan Television (PTV) was the best organization to handle the entire production. The production team consisted of professionals from throughout South Asia and included Sahira Kazmi, a well-known dramatic producer of “social issues” dramas and Huseena Moeen, a reputed scriptwriter. These two women, working together with Educational TV and PTV, generated awareness and excitement about the project through favorable press.
The drama had significant impact. Aahat swept the national media, making it the subject of numerous lead articles and cover-page stories. The key persons involved in the project became national celebrities, and the drama placed family planning at the forefront of the nation’s agenda.
An evaluation to measure the impact of the family planning IEC campaign among three broad population groups (married men of reproductive age, married women of reproductive age, and married couples of reproductive age) in the major population centers of Pakistan (Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi/ Islamabad) revealed the following:
• 60% of final survey respondents viewed Aahat.
• Awareness of family planning methods increased from 87% to 94%;
• Positive attitudes about family planning increased from 65% to 75%;
• Viewer’s strongly approving of spacing increased from 69% to 79%;
• Over half of the viewers said they strongly agreed with messages about the economic impact of family planning, the need for husband-wife communication, the need for spacing children, the importance of the child and mothers health, and the need for small family size;
• Reports of talking “often” with one's spouse about family planning increased from 46% to 54%;
• There was a 12% increase in discussion of contraceptive methods between those highly exposed to the drama and baseline respondents;
• 9% of viewers said they visited a clinic after seeing the film.
Aahat was viewed by an estimated 30 million people, and was among the most popular prime-time shows on PTV’s fall season. The drama was discussed on television talk shows and covered extensively in the English and Urdu press—approximately fifty reviews and articles in all. A review in “Jang” the most widely read Urdu daily, concluded with the following lines, “ …AAHAT centers around a family’s well-being, with the entire society reflected in it. Broadcast in six parts, this mini-series has proved to ba a unique form of instruction. Perhaps in the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy, this small “aahat” brings news of bright and hopeful destiny.” Noting the tremendous response to the first episode generated, Lever Brothers offered to sponsor the remaining five episodes.