AIDS-Stamp A worthy initiative?

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

Stamps reflect a nation's priorities, commitments, achievements and it is no

different in India. " *Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may

be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.*(

Yeats)

Looking through India's issues of stamps I realized that there is yet no stamp

on AIDS. On an average 10-12 new stamps are issued every year by the Department

of Posts & Telegraphs. Looking through the issues of this century is

interesting. Most of the issues are focussed on individuals- a couple who have

no achievements save the dubious distinction of being Union Cabinet Ministers

who died in office. There is one commemorating the Diplomatic relations between

the Republic of Korea and India! One recurrent issue is the Children's day

stamps which are truly a pretty picture.

The content and message is the material for another article and another forum.

Just as I was losing heart, I was mildly reassured to discover that there have

been as many as 70 items of Postal stationery which mostly include Meghdoot Post

cards and inserts on Inland Letter Cards. *For those of you who are unfamiliar

with the complexities of good old mail- A Meghdoot post card is priced at

25paisa which is half the price of a regular post card.*

*The writing space available on the address side of the regular post card is

made available for advertising in multicolour in case of Meghdoot. The

distribution of these cards is limited to the area specified by the advertiser.*

These have been used by various State AIDS Control Societies with messages in

the regional languages. The states that have taken this initiative include

Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Bihar Jharkhand, Rajasthan Maharashtra, Madhya

Pradesh, Chandigarh and Orissa. Most messages focus on Condom use, some even

talk of Abstinence.

One of the earliest is from The AP- SACS in 2003 which talks of safe Blood

Transfusions. A message from Maharashtra SACS talks of an AIDS free state and

the responsibility of everyone in achieving such a goal. One message issued by

the Bihar State AIDS society says In Hindi in a forbidding red colour- " Come

home but do not bring back

AIDS. " The message is loud and clear perhaps too harsh- what if some hapless

infected labourer decides not to come home at all? Time for some empathy!

The post card is the poor man's postage- one even today sees an illiterate

villager requesting someone at the post office to scribble a few lines on the

post card for him to send home from the city- the reverse is also true.

If this is the audience that these messages are to reach out to why are they so

text heavy? This is a mass communication tool that can be effectively used-

messages need to be imaginative- short-visuals more than text and applying all

of the principles that apply to reaching out to a less literate audience are

vital.

Till the stamp is released – wonder what will be the visual or the message- can

the forum members come up with suggestions- let us all prompt the Department of

Posts & Telegraphs into action. India now sadly is home to nearly 1.2 million

children affected by HIV- let our commitment to improving the situation of

these children and many others to come be reflected in the Children's day stamp

this year.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee

25A, Sarat Bose Road, 3B, Sindu apartments

KOLKATA 700020. West Bengal

Phone- 91-33-24750991, Mobile-98305-99464

e-mail: <charulatha.banerjee@...>

[Guest guest]

[Moderators note on HIV/AIDS Philatelic collection follows the main text of the

message]

Dear Charulatha ji and Forum,

Greetings from Drik India! I fully agree with you that the stamp as a tool of

mass communication lie underutilised where health issues are concerned.

And HIV/AIDS is one of the diseases from which people need some brainwashing to

clear away the myths and falsely woven fables involving the disease. But I feel

Government offcials themselves belong to the bracket of people who are as much

in the dark about it as poor and illiterate people.

As far as stamps are concerned I would like to share with you that 10

years a stamp was designed featuring Tuberculosis which was back then

feared as badly perhaps.

We as an alternative media organization have organized an International touring

photography exhibition called " Postive Lives " and also have been conceptualizing

and desgining the yearly calendar of WBSAPCS for three years. The importance of

visual litearcy cannot be more highlighted in the view of what Charulatha ji

says that why do we always need heavy text for imparting information when such

visual tools can be more effective.

Regards,.

Supreeta Singh

Communication and Media Relations

17/1C Ganga Prasad Mukherjee Road

Kolkata - 700 025. West Bengal, India

Ph: 2475 5391, Mobile: 098315 04110

email: supreeta@...

_____________

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