Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Social Media and the Government Programs in India

The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has hailed social media as a force for democracy and good governance, which is echoed in all the central government policies for the past one and a half years. The government has been using the power of social media as a tool of empowerment and transparency.
To take its flagship schemes like Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojna, Give it Up and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao to the last mile, the government has started an extensive outreach program through inter-personal communication and social media.
Beyond the bureaucratic red tape, the Prime Minister chose to kick-off the drive for Swachh Bharat (Clean India) with a social media campaign in which he issued challenges to a veritable list of who’s who, urging them to join the campaign. Many of the PM’s followers on Twitter had eagerly taken the task with post after post declaring support for the campaign with hashtags like #MyCleanIndia and #MyIdeaofSwachhBharat.
For the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) campaign, the PM launched a new social media stunt. During his monthly radio address, he asked moms and dads throughout the nation to tweet photos of themselves and their daughters. This #SelfieWithDaughter campaign was a smash hit. Selfies of parents with their daughters have flooded Twitter from all around the world. (New York Times, June 29, 2015 – nytlive.nytimes.com)
The government also leveraged social media to popularize the campaign of “Make in India” that encourages businesses to manufacture in India; Jan Dhan Yojana campaign, a financial inclusion program and “Give it Up” campaign that encourages volunteer giving up of subsidy on LPG campaign. All these social media campaigns have been very popular.
With many new initiatives taken by the Modi government, extensive use of social media for promotion of citizen centric schemes and program is a welcome initiative.
(Source: various articles on internet)

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