Int. J. Reviews and Research in Social Sci. 5(1): January- March 2017 15 www.anvpublication.org ISSN 2347-5145 (Print) 2454-2687 (Online) RESEARCH ARTICLE Mass Media and Pulse Polio Awareness Campaign Santosh Kumar Gautam Senior Research Fellow, School of Media & Communication Studies, Doon University, Dehradun *Corresponding Author E-mail: santoshgautam80@gmail.com ABSTRACT: This Study aimed to find out a popular medium of mass communication that played the most significant role in polio eradication. The research paper was based on the concept of health communication, which is an integral part of development communication. Mass media, especially television is the most powerful and effective medium of mass communication and a very important tool for shaping Indian society. It can be informing, educating and motivating the people to perform desired behavior. This study explored awareness levels of people on health issues is very high. Most of the respondents claimed they had been watching advertisements about social issues on television. It was also revealed that the level of participation of people in polio eradication was very high, i.e., 96 percent respondents reported that they came to the polio booth after watched the advertisement on television which was advocated by celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aishwerya Rai and many more. Thus, this study showed that TV as a mass medium for health communication was a very effective tool and it could also be argued that it had played a very pivotal role in making India polio-free. While planning the present research it was felt that an attempt should be made to provide a complete picture of the role of communication in semi-urban society of Lucknow district with specific reference to polio eradication. KEYWORDS: Health communication, Television, Polio eradication, Mass campaign, Awareness. INTRODUCTION: India’ s polio eradication awareness campaign tells inspiring story for many nations which are struggling to overcome from this health hazard due to poor Medicare facilities. On 13 January 2013 UNICEF announced that India had completed two years without any reported case of polio. The last case came to light when a two-year-old girl was diagnosed with polio in Howrah district of West Bengal on 13 January 2011. Received on 04.02.2017 Modified on 12.02.2017 Accepted on 06.03.2017 © A&V Publication all right reserved Int. J. Rev. and Res. Social Sci. 5(1): Jan.- Mar., 2017; Page 15-21 . DOI: 10.5958/2454-2687.2017.00002.8 India achieved a major milestone with the World Health Organization (WHO) striking it off the list of polio endemic countries on 25 February 2012. (UNICEF, 2012) WHO recorded 23,800 cases of polio between 1988 and 13 January 2011 in India (Sachffer, 2012). Through polio eradication efforts, a significant investment has been made in strengthening health service delivery systems in many countries. An estimated 10 million health workers and volunteers have been engaged in implementing the necessary polio supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) on a recurring basis and at least 35 000 well-trained workers have been conducting polio surveillance (Goswami, 2007). Polio eradication campaign is a joint effort of Ministry of health and family welfare, UNICEF,