In the third year of the Narendra Modi government, one of its flagship programmes, the ambitious Namami Gange, is set for a rebranding exercise, and pitches from top advertising agencies invited to giving a public relations push over the next few months.
The move, powered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims at a more participatory approach to the Namami Gange (National Mission for a Clean Ganga-NMCG) programme.
“Given past efforts to clean the river [such as Ganga Action Plans] there is also a certain level of scepticism over whether this latest attempt will be successful. There is thus a need to generate public confidence in the proposed programme,” said a note circulated by the NMCG to those wishing to pitch for the project.
“While there is no questioning the reverence in which the river is held, the emotional connect with the Ganges, for most Indians tends to be restricted to personal ritualistic moments and becomes passive once it is over. Invoking this reverence [ aastha ] towards the river — without however giving it religious overtones — could be an entry-point towards mass awareness and action towards river clean-up. The proposed campaign therefore needs to evoke a strong soul connect with the Ganga and leverage associated emotion to drive active participation to keep the river clean and healthy,” the note further stated.
Ideas like a Ganga Jyoti yatra (like an Olympic torch run) starting from Kolkata and ending in Varanasi, and roping in brand ambassadors like former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar are some of the things being discussed.
U.P. Singh, director of NMCG confirmed to The Hindu that a long campaign was on the anvil.
“We have invited concepts from the several advertising agencies and are hearing them out,” he said, adding that, “the message that cleaning the Ganga requires participation from everyone hasn’t effectively reached out.”
Slow progress
In spite of being a marquee project of the government, the Namami Gange is yet to show visible progress.
Out of a ₹20,000-crore clean-up programme, only ₹2,000 crore has been sanctioned to the NMCG, the executive authority tasked with commissioning treatment plants, cleaning and beautifying the ghats and setting up improved crematoria. To treat the 12,000 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage emptying into the river, that meanders through 11 States from Uttarakhand to West Bengal, only capacity worth 4,000 MLD exists and of them, only plants with 1,000 MLD capacity are working.
