Context: Recently, National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Department of Science & Technology (DST) has launched a programme on health and risk communication ‘Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH)’ with focus on COVID-19.
About YASH

• In the absence of vaccines and cure for COVID-19 the communication strategies have to be multidimensional, engaging, informative and delivered with speed and scale.
• It is a comprehensive and effective science and health communication effort for promoting grass-root level appreciation and response on health.
• It aims to help saving and shaping the lives of people at large, as well as build confidence, inculcate scientific temper and promote health consciousness among them.
• The programme will encompass development of science, health, and risk communication software, publications, audio-visual, digital platforms, folk performances, trained communicators, especially in regional languages to cater to various cross-sections of the society in the country.
• The programme is aimed at minimizing risks with the help of public communication and outreach activities, promoting public understanding of common minimum science for community care and health safety measures like personal sanitation and hygiene.
• It promotes physical distancing, maintaining desired collective behaviour and so on.
• It also includes information dissemination mechanisms to reduce the fear of risks and build confidence with necessary understanding for adopting sustainable healthy lifestyles and nurturing scientific culture among masses and societies.

Need & Significance

• The current pandemic requires scientific awareness and health preparedness to help combat the situation.
• This requires translation and usage of authentic scientific information to convey the risks involved and facilitates communities to overcome the situation.
• Under the programme, strategies have been worked out to involve academic, research, media, and voluntary organizations to facilitate necessary actions and emergency preparedness of society to address the challenge.
• Planning has been done to translate and use authentic scientific and health information to communicate the risks and facilitate risk management--an effective science communication requirement for promoting community-level response.

YASH will envisage specific outcomes such as:

• Improved risk understanding amongst target groups including working with local sensitivities, belief systems, traditions, and indigenous knowledge;
• Bringing about attitudinal changes among target groups about appreciating risks, associated challenges, solutions, and coping up the situation with courage and confidence;
• Better working relations with community leaders, influencers including doctors, faith leaders and so on.
• It also encompasses improved ability to clarify misperceptions, misbeliefs as well as introduce practices based on authentic knowledge duly verified by scientific processes; trust in scientific competence of solutions and service providers.