India: How the People of India Live with Climate Change and What Communication Can Do

"How do people in India live with climate change now? How will its impacts shape their future, and how will they, in turn, shape their environment? What are the most effective ways to support people to adapt to climate change, and how best can the media, governments, organisations and businesses communicate with them?"

 
These research results from Climate Asia, BBC Media Action's study of people's everyday experience of climate change, come from its work in India. The project surveyed 33,500 people across seven Asian countries - Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam. From May to August 2012 across cities and villages in five states, Climate Asia recorded the opinions, insights, and needs of this population, about 70% of whom live on less than US$2 (£1.30) a day, through 24 focus group discussions, eight community assessments, and 30 in-depth interviews with key experts and opinion formers from government, civil society, business, and academia.

The document describes findings on people's perceptions, shaped by a range of factors including exposure to media, communication with peers, personal beliefs and values, and education levels. In addition, the results are analysed for what they mean for new ways of communicating for awareness building, including advocating for a role for government, convincing people to take action by fostering a spirit of responsibility, giving people information on how they can take action, inspiring people by showing others like them being successful, and encouraging people to share examples of simple actions that help people lessen the impact of climate change.

"People trust television more than any other source of information including government. Communication should use television to reach audiences and then seek to enhance this with face-to-face communication where appropriate. There is also a role for partnerships between television, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government to increase exposure to existing activities that have a positive effect and create new opportunities to bring the issue of climate change to life."

Media preferences by group with recommendations on communication strategies include:

• Farmers in Madhya Pradesh: "Communication can support these farmers to respond to change, in particular by enabling greater participation in their communities and empowering them to make changes to their agricultural practices. Local television programmes can help by providing simple information, and can encourage participation by using inspiring stories of farmers in Madhya Pradesh who have used innovative ways of coping with change. Knowledge of the impact of future changes in climate on agriculture can be built up among this group through educational programming aimed at the younger generation. This can be supplemented with information, delivered through existing channels and media, on alternative livelihoods and ways of diversifying existing practices to reduce risk."
• Urban economically poor in Mumbai: "When communicating to this group, the key aims are to increase engagement in the issue and to encourage the belief that they can do something by understanding what action is possible. However, many of the issues that people in this group face are a result of poor infrastructure and provision of services in cities. Therefore it is important for communication to feature people like them, who feel the impact of changes in climate in urban areas and can show how they are taking simple, doable actions to deal with day-to-day issues of food, water, energy and extreme weather events. There is also an opportunity for communication to share and emphasise the benefits of community actions - entertaining formats such as competitions where communities work together could be popular."
• Housewives in Uttarakhand: "When communicating to this group, the key aims are to empower people through taking action and to help them feel involved in decision-making, building on a desire to change and to protect the environment. Traditional formats, such as songs or st