"UNICEF India's television soap opera Kyunki... Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai bears testament to entertainment-education's (E-E) efficacy in fostering positive social and behavioural change."

This production book details the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) India's journey in creating a prime time televised daily soap opera in India from 2008-2011 that explored critical health issues affecting women and children. It traces the entire process - from conception, ideation, story development, production, post-production, and, finally, a monitoring and evaluation framework.

As explained here and, further, in the Related Summaries link, below, the entertainment-education (EE) drama series blended with new and time-honoured forms of storytelling to result in a show that was watched by over 145 million viewers of the national service broadcaster, Doordarshan. In short, Kyunki...Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai featured a rural setting with characters reflecting the large majority of Indians who reside in rural areas. In an entertaining yet also educational format, it addressed socially sensitive issues such as the ill effects of child marriage and early pregnancy, gender equality, proper use of contraceptives, and prevention of HIV/AIDS; it also simply provided information about the importance of education, motivating children to stay in school, immunising children, and regularly washing hands with soap. It portrayed "the trials and tribulations of six unique heroes through multiple engaging plot lines...". The 6 protagonists included: an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), an AWW (Anganwadi Worker), an ANM (Antenatal Midwife) a teacher, a Sarpanch (elected village head portrayed by a woman in this serial so as to promote women's role in local governance), and Meena, a spirited village girl who promotes the need for children's education and, in particular, girls' education [see Related Summaries, below].

"Research showed it had definite impact in increasing knowledge, awareness and self-efficacy; bringing about positive attitudes, behaviours and challenging social norms."

How did this come about? It is the aim of this book to explain this. And it is the process of developing content that seems to be crucial: "The rigorous research on every thematic track, to the creative crafting of storylines that gave people information and entertainment, kept Kyunki...Jeena audience coming back night after night."

The first substantive chapter of the book explains the impetus and purpose of the show - e.g., to "promote behaviour and social change, in conjunction with other components of a multi-level, multi-channel communication strategy, measured through qualitative and quantitative research specially designed to assess the behavioural outcomes of the regular viewing of the serial." As explained here, the primary audience was women in the age group of 15-34 years in the Hindi speaking states. The secondary audience was ANMs, AWWs, ASHAs, teachers, and local governing bodies. This is because: "Prior to the show, research studies revealed that frontline functionaries had low self-esteem and self-confidence. In order to boost their morale and confidence, aspirational protagonists playing frontline workers were developed to portray them as champions of change."

Chapter 3 of the book provides an overview of the production process, including details about the work of all the teams who participated in making it happen. For example, once every 16 episodes or once every month, the production team composed and choreographed songs whose purpose was to reinforce core messaging through hummable tunes. "Similarly, big events provided opportunities to the creative team to make special demands from the production team - be it elaborate special sets, acting talent, special choreography, action sequences and extra actors to have the necessary head count in a scene....[F]rom the social and behavior change perspective having community members present in a scene was crucial to trigger community dialogue, action and acceptance of a certain behavior or social norm."

The next chapter offers an intricate look at the stages of the production process. Many communication strategies are outlined here. For example, it is noted that "[e]very stage of story development, from ideation, bullet points to the actual screenplay, followed a strict feedback process." One reason is that, as an EE soap opera, Kyunki...Jeena had to be "technically accurate, well researched and strategically designed in its messaging. This required several rounds of internal feedback and technical inputs. A thorough feedback process guaranteed there were no inaccuracies or loopholes and the messages communicated were sticky as well as easy to comprehend." On the matter of the screenplays, writers attempted to:

• Use non-didactic, engaging, and simple conversational dialogues (unpacking complicated messages into dialogues wherein you would explain it as if talking to a friend.)
• Ensure technical accuracy in messaging. "Research showed, many viewers considered Kyunki...Jeena as their family doctor. They relied on it for accurate information pertaining to health, hygiene and other issues."
• Turn to the barriers listed in the message matrix (found on page 32 of the resource) and case studies provided by the Message Design Unit (MDU) to enrich stories.
• Coin catchy phrases and simplify complex ideas into easy-to-remember words and phrases for the viewers. (This is known as "sticky messaging".)
• Use the classic "show and tell" technique when unpacking messages. "For instance, in the child marriage track, Masterji (school teacher) used the analogy of a 'kachcha ghadda' (a raw clay pot) to that of a young girl being married at an early age. Masterji picked up a freshly made clay pot and explained in simple terms to the father of the girl, who was a potter - just as this raw clay pot cannot physically hold any water yet, your daughter cannot be married just yet. If you don’t wait, your daughter, like this raw clay pot will break."
• Ensure that dialogues are culturally relevant, socially contextual, and sensitive - for example, with regard to the HIV/AIDS messaging.
• Adhere to character sketches and maintain continuity in how protagonists acted and what they said. "Liberties were taken at times with transitional and negative characters, that underwent attitudinal and behavioural change."

Chapter 5 focuses on the importance of measuring change via a qualitative and quantitative monitoring and evaluation framework. "Consistent research and evaluation...provided rich insights into viewer engagement, message recall, character likes and dislikes, perceptions, provided evidence of social and behavior change and allowed room for course corrections, if need be. Without this data, it would have been impossible for the show to develop and improve over the years." More specifically, a baseline was conducted prior to the launch of the television drama serial in 2008 with 10,000 respondents in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. In 2010, a midterm evaluation was conducted (as per baseline sampling frame) after the telecast of 260 episodes in order to measure change in knowledge, awareness, efficacy, social norms, behaviours, and action among the intended audiences in comparison to the baseline data. The endline study was undertaken after the completion of the 501 episodes in December 2011. In addition, a comprehensive concurrent monitoring framework was designed for an in-depth assessment of the show on a regular basis that involved audience assessment (e.g., focus group discussions and viewer groups) and content analysis.

Chapter 6 shares the results from the endline study. To reach excerpted data gleaned from that portion of the report, please see Related Summaries, below. In short, the conclusion is that "Kyunki... Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai was one of the longest running E-E soap opera in India. Research shows that the serial was popular and successful in changing knowledge and attitudes about issues that help children survive and thrive. The true success of the serial has been its ability to challenge existing social norms and inspire people to be the change."

The concluding section notes, amongst other things, that Kyunki...Jeena is now being re-broadcast in several states, with 10 thematic 1-hour movies edited from the show being used by frontline workers for small group discussions and adaptation of the series for mobile phone viewing. Finally, there are character sketches of each of the protagonists. Click here to access the 104-page book in PDF format. "The publication or parts of it may be reproduced for educational or non-profit purposes without permission from the copyright holder, providing acknowledgement of the source is made. Permission in writing is required to use this publication for any commercial purposes."