Public Relations professionals and media key in preventing COVID-19 related Stigma & Discrimination

Managing and verifying information to make sure the right message reaches the public at the right time - that is the role played by public relations professionals and the media. A role that has become even more critical today than ever before. UNICEF collaborates with key organizations of the Public Relations and Media fraternity in Madhya Pradesh to curb COVID-19 related stigma and discrimination. 

8th August 2020, Bhopal UNICEF Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), organized a national webinar to discuss how to curb COVID-19 related stigma and discrimination. With participation from 25 chapters of PRSI spread across 25 states, the 59 public relations professionals in attendance represented the corporate sector, the public sector, state and national government, media profe

ssionals as well as university students and faculty from institutions like Sagar University, LNCT, Rabindranath Tagore University and Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism.

While stressing upon the need to manage misinformation, Siddhartha Shrestha, Chief of Communication for Development at UNICEF expressed his appreciation for this collaboration during his address,

“I see great opportunities of partnering with PRSI, that has a national presence, and is spread across different states of India on documentation of national and state initiatives and orientation of PR professionals on curbing stigma & discrimination.” 

Dr. Ajit Pathak, National President of PSRI was the special guest,

He spoke about many of the PRSI initiatives, like “Vijay Bharat Abhiyaan”, a positive mood building exercise, that was launched by HRD Minister, GoI and how they’ve been able to lead numerous global conferences on social issues due to their existing footprint in 75 nations across the world.

He added, “I am excited to explore partnership opportunities with UNICEF on issues of childcare, women empowerment and COVID related work, especially on curbing stigma and discrimination.” 

Pushpendra Pal Singh, President of Bhopal PRSI Chapter and Chief Editor of Rojgar and Nirman weekly magazine, joined in to talk about the importance of ethical journalism, given the impact of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases and related issues of stigma and discrimination. 

Anchored by Sanjay Singh, Communication for Development Specialist at UNICEF Bhopal, he concluded the webinar by summarizing the key action items, that included the possibility of a National  level MoU between UNICEF and PRSI on COVID-19 response focused on Risk Communications and Community Engagement; Documentation; state wide orientation of media and PR professionals with PRSI chapters; Development of media toolkit and behavior change communication kit; and outreach and sensitization programs.