Is Gossip a Useful Tool for Policy Awareness?
SRUSHTI PUNGHERA / DECEMBER 10, 2022
Insights on a cheap and efficient technique for raising awareness about policies when rural marketing fails.
olicies are nothing but a plan of action. They are comprehensive statements that express future aims and ambitions and recommendations for achieving them. In a nation like India, where 64% of the population lives in rural regions, most of our policies are targeted toward improving these beneficiaries' social and economic situation. In layman’s terms, public policies are any actions a government chooses to take or not to take. Policies are developed to operate on a high micro level, taking into account the human behavior psychology of citizens, leaders, and electors.
Policies are multidisciplinary and emphasize efficiency, effectiveness, and good governance. Around 70 essential policies have mainly shaped our nation. For example, the Nationalisation of Banks in 1969, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, Aadhaar, 2016, and Goods and Services Tax, 2017.
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This ambiguity comes from factors such as a lack of project management and heavy political intervention resulting in less clarity on the final goal, funds, beneficiaries, and strategies.
However, several policies have failed to deliver what they initially set out to change. Furthermore, it is difficult to define what constitutes a policy failure. This ambiguity comes from factors such as a lack of project management and heavy political intervention resulting in less clarity on the final goal, funds, beneficiaries, and strategies. Some public policies have the opposite impact intended or produce such evident harm that they may unequivocally be described as a failure.
To understand why policies fail, it may be necessary to understand how they are often developed. The same can be characterized in the following stages. Stage one is Agenda Setting: Deciding priorities that need immediate attention. For example, public health care facilities. Stage two Policy Formulation while considering the constitutional, financial, social, and political implications. Stage three, Clause by Clause analysis by joint Committees for unforeseen implications and Stage four, and the final stage, Policy Implementation.
Pictured: Illustration by David Plunkert
Despite these lengthy and robust steps, policies continue to be unsuccessful at the implementation stage. Lack of awareness is a significant disadvantage. The rural social structure is intricate. Cultural diversity overshadows people. The same people accept their so-called fate without questioning why and often are unaware of their problem. Over time, this type of social and cultural life depletes people's ability to adjust and stabilise systems that benefit them.
The rural system has deteriorated due to unfair and exploitative methods used to keep the majority impoverished and reliant. Caste, religion, culture, and tradition have acted as unavoidable barriers to growth and severely slowed any policy measures implemented. Even though local panchayat bodies, All India Radio, easy-to-understand banners, and public audio systems are fully utilised, policy information appears challenging to penetrate through the complexities of the hierarchical rural culture.
The rural system has deteriorated due to unfair and exploitative methods used to keep the majority impoverished and reliant. Caste, religion, culture, and tradition have acted as unavoidable barriers to growth and severely slowed any policy measures implemented.
Policy marketing or prachar is a task. Only when the knight in shining armor of awareness and networking, often known as gossip, appears. If there is one thing about villages, it is that people talk. While there are various segments of society, the so-called gossip grapevine reaches practically everyone since chatting for merriment has no social consequences. To support this, Darmouth study mentions that gossip facilitates social connection and enables indirect learning about the world through other people's experiences. One can deduce that gossip is one of the societal forces that unite us and supports social order. If employed to one's advantage, gossip can be one of the inexpensive but powerful techniques used to raise awareness of policies that do not have to adhere to the conventional social order.
This method won't operate at random. Identification of highly central figures—such as influential village chiefs or their spouses, local body members, or even organization leaders—is necessary to enable a seamless diffusion of information. However, a case study by Abhijit Banerjee and other social scientists states that the best possible solution is asking individuals about the most central figures who can pass on information effectively.
Unknown Illustration via Pinterest
Usually, it's challenging to form connections in an urban environment. But in a rural areas, networks are more extensive. A test was carried out in 213 villages of Karnataka to elucidate the importance of networks, position, and gossip. The information seeded was simple, non-controversial, and rewarding. Making it a topic worth talking about. The gossip was seeded as follows:
“In seventy one “social status seeding” villages, they had status as “elders” in the village—leaders with a degree of authority in the community, who commanded respect. In the remaining seventy-one “gossip seeding” villages, the seeds were those nominated by others as being well-suited to spread information (“gossip nominees”).”
Choosing gossip nominees produced results at a twice-as-fast rate, which was an astounding conclusion
Choosing gossip nominees produced results at a twice-as-fast rate, which was an astounding conclusion. In the same vein, information regarding policies would have spread much faster since they would be of direct benefit to beneficiaries and would also receive a fair share of scrutiny. Long story short, policies' implications would be discussed and help raise awareness given they were distributed strategically.
To sum up, a successful policy awareness campaign might focus on developing nuances like gossip. A better understanding of groups and societies can aid in understanding communication, which is urgently needed. The next possible entry point for understanding how active social learning occurs could be gossip. It is both simple and challenging to grasp that understanding the sociology of gossip enables one to accomplish what lakhs worth of marketing could not.
Unknown illustration via Pinterest
Until then, Talk away! You never know; one day, you might contribute to policy implementation.
Keywords
caste, caste mobility, caste politics, hierarchy, marwari, spatial segregation, superstructure, socio-economic, job market, industrialisation, Kshatriya, Shudras, Brahmin, Vaishyas, diamond industry, elections, reservations
References
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Chikermane, G. (2018). 70 Policies That Shaped India. Observer Research Foundation.
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Psst! Have you heard that gossip isn't all bad? Gossip creates social connections and allows for learning about the world indirectly. (2022, November 25). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210426154756.htm
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Stanley, W. (1986). CREATING AWARENESS AMONG THE PEOPLE FOR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. http://www.irdwsi.in/ad-creating_awareness_among_people.htm
Additional Links
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210426154756.htm
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