BBC Media Action talks about 'Khoon ka rishta'

The new communication, conceptualised and executed in-house, tries to tackle anaemia and turns audience into participants in Bihar by showing the importance of iron folic acid (IFA) tablets for both expecting and lactating mothers

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | March 27, 2017

Almost 58 per cent of pregnant women in India are anaemic. Anaemia is directly and indirectly responsible for 40 per cent maternal deaths in India. Two-thirds (67 per cent) of women in Bihar have anaemia. One of the most effective ways of combating this, and turning the tide in favour of mothers and young children, is through consumption of iron folic acid (IFA) tablets by expecting and lactating mothers.

While these facts can be easily summoned up on a computer screen with the click of a few keys, actually educating young mothers and making sure they implement it in their lives is a different ballgame.

Trying to tackle this problem, BBC Media Action's communication called 'Khoon ka rishta' is based on the insight of a strong physical and emotional bond or link between a mother and her unborn child. It builds on this insight and emphasises the link between a mother and her unborn baby as the 'link through blood' – it vividly demonstrates her role in the formation of her own baby through a 'simple doable action' of taking a pill a day for 180 days. It also establishes the importance of consuming IFA tablets for pregnant women who know little about the benefits for themselves and their unborn babies. It serves as a compliance aid, nudging women to remember to take their full course of IFA tablets. It works through a simple, but relatable cultural concept of family and lineage -- the bloodline. This direct communication tool is a vivid demonstration – how IFA is critical and the simple act of having the entire dose is critical in the formation of a baby.

The Khoon ka rishta campaign has two parts to it. The first part of this campaign includes a demonstration by Anganwadi workers at the Village Health Nutrition and Sanitation Days (VHNSD), establishing the importance of daily consumption by showing that removing just one tablet breaks the blood link between mother and baby. This is followed by the expectant mother taking home a folder in which she places a red blood drop like stickers on the image of a baby for every IFA tablet consumed.

Soma Katiyar

Speaking about the campaign, Soma Katiyar, Creative Director, BBC Media Action, India, said, “Khoon ka rishta is an emotive route for an expectant mother to visually see how she is slowly making her own baby as she consumes each tablet, no mother would like to see an incomplete baby and this would act a self-driven push to complete the dose. Using blood drop-like stickers to complete the graphic of the baby is a vivid demonstration and as simple as having a pill.”

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Info@BestMediaInfo.com