Fading Future of Development Communication

It all started at the time of social evaluation of one year (1975-76) – world famous and may be largest satellite based techno-social initiative for education and development known as Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). Briefly paper aims to describe and discuss the experiences of development communication over a period of time in India. The term “development”, in the context of India which has encountered multiple communication changes within a very short span of time as commonly understood and expressed by political leaders, academics and a several UN bodies is an enabling force for improvement of the socio-economic life of the poor. It helps to empower the poor, reduce exploitation, oppression and unequal treatment by those having economic, social, psychological and political power. It also means an equitable sharing of resources, improved healthcare and education for all. Communication is considered as a support intervention and pre-condition to accelerate the development process and bring transparency in governance for development. The rise of development communication seems to have declined at the turn of the century as a concept and practice which was yet to be fully internalized and accepted by the Indian scholars beyond non-government organizations and in few university departments. Development communication as it stands today is inter and multidisciplinary in approach, content in which almost all disciplines of social sciences have contributed which has anything to do with, development and change. As the interest of other disciplines has enlarged the scope of development the old concept of development communication in India has started dying as an old paradigm.