Health awareness initiative ‘Donate Your Caller Tune For a Cause’ launched

11 JULY 2013 - New Delhi, 11 July 2013: Health Secretary, Mr K N Desiraju along with WHO Representative to India, Dr Nata Menabde today launched a unique health awareness initiative – Donate Your Caller Tune For a Cause.

Also present at the launch was Mr Anshu Prakash, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.

So the next time you call a friend don’t be surprised if you hear Amitabh Bachchan talking about controlling blood pressure, or John Abraham giving health tips on how to avoid obesity, or Jaya Bachchan asking you to safeguard yourself against breast cancer.

These are some of the celebrities who have donated their voice to the first-of-its kind initiative based on the use of mobile phone caller tunes to promote health awareness on several issues amongst masses.

Speaking at the launch, Mr K N Desiraju, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, said, “We are facing a growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, a large proportion of which are preventable to a large extent through modifying behavioural risk factors like unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, consumption of tobacco products and alcohol etc. It is important that we explore innovative mediums such as caller tunes to create awareness of such issues.”

"As you are aware, the government launched the National Programme for prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke (NPCDCS) in 2010 with the objective of preventing and controlling NCDs. Presently the programme is being implemented in 100 districts spread over 21 states. It shall be upscaled in a phased manner to be implemented nation–wide by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan," he added.

Explaining the rationale of the ‘Donate Your Caller Tune For a Cause’, WHO Representative to India, Dr Nata Menabde, said, “The idea is to reach out with creative messages for adopting healthy lifestyles. According to industry estimates, on an average a person receives around 15 phone calls a day, making the space of caller tune an untapped area for promoting health causes.”

“Also celebrities have proven to be good ambassadors for various causes; hence their involvement adds a lot of value to the campaign. I would like to thank each one of them for their contribution,” she added.

‘Donate your caller tune’ is a pilot initiative for which prominent celebrities have lent their voice to create simple effective health messages. A symbolic ‘donation’ is made when people give up their regular caller tunes, replacing them with any one of these health awareness messages or subscribe to ‘Donate your caller tune’. The donation, therefore, is not asking a user for funds, but simply that s/he changes/donates a caller tune with a health related message.

One can easily download the message of a favourite celebrity and use it as a caller tune on one’s own mobile handset. Instead of a conventional dial tone or popular music track, a person who calls, hears a prominent celebrity’s voice exhorting him or her to make one small lifestyle change to live a healthy and happy life.

The health awareness caller tune messages are available on the website (www.donateyourcallertune.in). One can download, after choosing a cause and a celebrity and then enter one’s mobile number and submit. Alternatively, the tune can also be obtained by using one’s mobile handset to scan specially designed QR codes embedded in celebrity images.

The celebrities and the causes they have supported are: Amitabh Bachchan (High Blood Pressure), Jaya Bachchan (Breast and Cervical cancer), Akshay Kumar (Unhealthy food), Ranveer Singh (Fitness), R Madhavan (Diabetes), John Abraham (Obesity), Shankar Mahadevan (Stroke), Shaan (anti-tobacco), Cyrus Broacha (Stress) and Parineeti Chopra (Cardiovascular disease). Other celebrities will be joining the campaign in the next phase of the initiative.

The Donate Your Caller Tune campaign is available pan India.

Launched at the Select Citywalk, the campaign has been executed by Leo Burnett India, Indigo Consultancy and OnMobile.

For more information contact:

Mr Rajeev Varma
Senior Communications Officer
WHO India Country Office
New Delhi
Tel: 91-11-47594800
Mobile: +91 8826611139
E-mail:varmar@searo.who.int

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