India is the largest television marketin the world, with about half thepopulation watching regularly. That's500 million viewers.

Despite the growth of private satellitestations, the state-owned televisionbroadcaster Doordarshan retains itsmonopoly over terrestrial broadcasting and has an extensivereach into India's rural heartland.

BBC World Service Trustlinked up with Doordarshanin each of the five focusstates — Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, West Bengal, Orissaand Madhya Pradesh — tomake a range of advertisingspots and repeatable, five-minutedramas.

The campaign underlined the fact that leprosy is totallycurable and that drugs are available free throughout India. Italso emphasised that leprosy is not spread by touch and thatleprosy patients should not be excluded from society.

A total of 25 advertisingspots and 12 campaigndramas in Hindi, Bengali andOriya were produced forthe campaign. With constantrepetition, they accountedfor more than 45hours of TV.

Among the formats used to carry the messages were Hindifilm romances, rural folk operas, famous Hindu fables, domesticdramas and comedies.

India's film and sports celebrities gave their services free tothe campaign, including action hero Jackie Shroff, actressManisha Koirala, India's SupermanMukesh Khanna and star batsmanSachin Tendulkar.

The campaign won Doordarshan the2001 Commonwealth BroadcastingAssociation award for social actionprogramming.