Use of Public Relations by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs): A Case Study Approach
Situational Analysis: India
is home to the largest number of child labourers in the world – 17
million continue to suffer even after the the Child Labour (Prohibition
& Regulation) Act, was passed as early as 1986. Child
labour in general terms means the work for children which harms them or
exploits them in some or the other way, either mentally, physically,
and morally or by restricting them the right to education. Children
according to international conventions are those aged 18 and under.
While
various specialized agencies and NGOs continue to aggressively push
this message in India, Child Relief and You (CRY) is the most vocal
amongst all and hence chosen as a case study for this document.
PR Objectives: To
successfully deliver the messages against Child labour, CRY needs to
first identify the key objectives (below) that it must achieve through
the PR activities.
· Educating the masses in India and helping them understand the true meaning of child labour.
· To
ensure both parents and children are aware about Right to Education
(RTE) and that children must go to a school and not work instead
· Ensuring that each family has basic rights and the pressure of poverty does not force the child to get into child labour
· Gather support from civic, legal authorities and push them to ban employment below the age of 18
Target Audience: Given
the multi-faceted nature of the cause, it’s imminent for CRY to target a
variety of groups and ensure activism can be transpired to the grass
root levels.
· Firstly, while the onus will be on people who employ children aged 18
· The
campaigns will also target people in the community who already support
the cause and are willing to help to further spread the message.
· CRY will also target associations and bodies that are in position to fund such campaigns, and
· Lastly, civic and legal bodies that can help to enforce laws to curb the issue
Key Messages: As
discussed above, while the campaign is targeted at a host of groups to
collectively make the move against this cause a success, the
fundamentals and underlying messages remain the same. The broader
messages arising from this campaign must include, but not remain limited
to:
· There’s
an imminent need to look at the children’s issues in their entirety,
rather than just focusing on education, child abuse, child labour,
health etc.
· The issues of Child labour has a strong connect to the broader issues of caste, livelihood, deprivation-gender etc
· The need for various local communities to come together and find a long term solution to these problems
Strategy & Tactics: While
a variety of PR and marketing tools can be implemented, it’s important
to for CRY to handpick those that offer a healthy balance between high
reach and effectiveness.
Stage 1: Awareness
· Create a website that explains the campaign, its activities and reasons why we must act collectively to eradicate child labour from our country.
· Use of Twitter and Facebook
– social media has proved to be an effective PR tool, offering the much
desired reach to a large base of users at an effective cost. CRY must
use Twitter and Facebook to spread awareness about the issue to large
volumes of people.
· Blogs
– A blog on Child labour can be used in tandem with the website to
reflect on the issues faced by the underprivileged youth of our country
and how all of us can help in eradicating this issue. Blogs can also be
used to arrange online discussion on the issue and exchange ideas.
Stage 2: Activism
· Celebrate World day against Child labour – The International Labour Organization has declared June 12th
as the world day against child labour and this day can be celebrated
through organizing rallies and sport events in metropolitan and other
key towns in the country. This effort can be coupled with social media
tools to spread awareness.
Stage 3: Action
· Take
the Oath Campaign – Aim to get at least 5,000 people across each Indian
metro to take oath of not employing children as a household help.
· Hold press meetings and get local governments to publicly announce their intent to help enforce law.
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