Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP)

The Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) Painting Competition organised by Directorate of Field Publicity started functioning with 32 Field Publicity Units and 4 Regional Offices in 1953 as Five Year Plan Publicity Organisation under the control of the Ministry of I&B. Renamed as Directorate of Field Publicity in 1959, with the passage of time many Field Publicity Units and Regional Offices have been opened. There are presently 22 Regional Offices and 246 Field Publicity Units which are doing extensive publicity coverage in rural areas. The reach of the Directorate is quite extensive and the effort is to reach even the remotest and most inaccessible villages by the Field Publicity Units. The Field Publicity Units use a variety of publicity techniques such as film shows, song and drama, photo exhibitions, group discussions, seminars, symposia, rallies and various competitions like debates, drawing, rural sports etc. All these programmes are targeted specially for the welfare of the people and to educate the masses, particularly those living in the rural and tribal areas. The DFP is also mandated to promote the people’s participation in the development activities, particularly at the grassroot level, and to provide a forum to the people to express their views and reactions on the various national programmes and project the feedback to the Government. The emphasis is on intensive publicity in selected areas by rotation with special attention on remote, tribal and backward areas. Broadly, the aims and objectives of the Directorate are: (i) To project the policies and programmes of the Government by bringing its men and material face to face with the people and to inform them about the plan and schemes formulated for their benefit. (ii) To educate the people about the fundamental national values of democracy, socialism and secularism and reinforce their faith in such values through constant personal contacts. (iii) To establish rapport with the people at the grassroot level for their active participation in the developmental activities as also to mobilize public opinion in favour of implementation of welfare and developmental programmes. (iv) To gather the people’s reactions to the programmes and policies of the Government for appropriate and corrective action by the Government and their implementation down to the village level and duly project to the Government for appropriate and corrective action by the Government. The Directorate thus works as two way channel of communication between the Government and the people. The Directorate is in the process of restructuring and revamping to improve the efficiency by rationalization of manpower. The emphasis is also to target DFP’s activities in the tribal, border and backward areas, which are uncovered by the reach of electronic media. Modernisation is an ongoing process in DFP. It started computerizing its offices and use of e-mail and networking is being done in the DFP (Headquarters) as well as its various Regional Offices and Field Publicity Units. In the Tenth Plan DFP envisages to replace its audio visual equipments with modern gadgets like DVD, Data Projectors and Wireless Public Address System. Computers are being procured for the computerization and office automation programmes. Old vehicles are also envisaged to be replaced.