Communication for Awareness

CSE researches the underlying processes of change and events and pushes for sustainable policies in the area of natural resource management. Through its informational products, CSE has provided advance warnings, perceptive analyses and intellectual leadership in the field of environmental management and helped to build an informed public opinion. 

Down To Earth
Down To Earth, the magazine that CSE produces in partnership with its sister organisation, the Society for Environmental Communications, is today an established medium, respected and read.

For instance, the issue on arsenic contamination in Uttar Pradesh catalysed debate and thinking on the issue on water management among policymakers, water and health experts, development agencies and bureaucrats.

The story on TRIPS, sent to parliamentarians helped them to understand the issues and raise questions during parliamentary debate. The story of tigers, the first one to print narratives from villagers in the core area, led to the formation of the Tiger Task Force.

The magazine gets a large number of letters, which shows that people take it seriously. In addition, many write asking to report on their work in Down To Earth so that it can make a difference.

Therefore, Down To Earth has become a way to drive change not in the sense of the campaign which is an issue driven single minded approach to push for change but in a way in which the information which is credible and forceful can push people to make the change in different areas in different ways.

Website

CSE website is an effective campaigning tool that allows campaigners to reach thousands instantly. Every month, about 1,000 people fill in the online feedback forms for more information.

The Feature Service is also quite successful and CSE recently started an additional version in Hindi to extend the reach to regional areas.

CSE has thus been reasonably successful in getting information out to people and it reflects the need for this task of providing information to people to bring change.

CSE’s reportage involves researching the underlying processes of change and events and pushes for sustainable policies in the area of natural resource management.

Because it focuses on news that is not normally available as well as new perspectives, it has definitely helped to build an informed public opinion.

It has also made an impact on policy and opinion makers.