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IVR Technology Successfully Mobilizes Grass-Roots Environmental Drive
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IVR Technology Successfully Mobilizes Grass-Roots Environmental Drive

 
December 13, 2013

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  By Madhubanti Rudra, TMCnet Contributor
 


Interactive Voice Technology recently helped garner people’s support in rural India and helped topple a corrupt political force from the power.

In an Internet and smartphone-powered world, it has become easy to reach out to people and communicate messages to them. Thus when it comes to mobilizing masses for a cause, the government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can utilize various tools and channels to send across their message.


But it’s less likely to work for NGOs operating in the rural areas of developing countries. Low literacy rates and other socio-economic constraints make the task truly challenging. However, mobile phones have made the task a bit easier in the recent times. The widespread popularity of this device among rural populations in many Asian countries, including India, made it possible for NGOs to use mobile phones as an effective communication tool and benefit from a number of services that these devices support.

A recent environmental campaign in India showcased the effectiveness of mobile technology in reaching out to rural populations showcasing the efficacy of IVR technology that allows interaction with people through recorded voice messages.   

Following a political controversy related to misuse of irrigation water in a drought-prone region in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, a not for profit environmental organization called Greenpeace India launched an awareness-building campaign that propagated the theme, “Water For Farmers / Not Power Plants”. While, the organization found it easy to reach out to urbanites and garner their support for the cause through various Web-based channels, the real challenge was how to reach people in rural areas, the ones hurt most by the drought. Greenpeace India decided to send their messages to farmers via two different mediums, SMS texts and IVR messages.

When the Digital Mobilization Lab at Greenpeace did a post-mortem of what worked and what didn't, it found out that it was the IVR messages that has been more helpful in convincing people and win their support.

The IVR technology enabled the organization to send recorded voice messages, read by a Sarpanch (an elected village leader) to the farmers. The recorded voice of the village head appealed to the villages to show their support for the campaign (the selling of water meant for agriculture to commercial establishments should be stopped and released back for farming) by pressing any button after the call ended.

Of those contacted via IVR, nearly 71.5 percent, or 232,000 people, indicated their support.

The SMS on the other hand could persuade only a limited number of people to show their support for the campaign. The SMS campaign encouraged villagers to call a number and hang up—what's known as a missed call—to show their support for the campaign. Only 4.5 percent of the population contacted called after receiving an SMS.

Although SMS has its own benefits -- you can read a text over and over again -- a voice message from a trusted and respected person helps build up confidence and credibility. And this precisely helped the campaign to be successful. The campaign was so successful that it was ultimately able to force the minister at the center of the controversy to resign.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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