Sam Balsara of Madison World and Raj Nair of Madison BMB talk about the second phase of the Jiyo Parsi campaign, a clarion call to create more Parsi babies
The clarion call to create more Parsi babies just became more strident, with the launch of Phase II of the Jiyo Parsi campaign in Mumbai on July 29. The Parzor Foundation and Madison BMB along with Bombay Parsi Panchayat, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and Federation of Zoroastrian Anjumans of India collaborated on the initiative.
While Phase I of the campaign, created by Madison BMB in September 2013, focused on awareness about Jiyo Parsi and sensitizing the community and its youngsters to the issues, Phase II consists of 12 ads that focus more on trying to persuade young Parsis to get married and have children for a better balance in their lives. Raj Nair, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Madison BMB, says about the creative execution of the campaign, “After the huge success of the deliberately tongue-in-cheek Print campaign in 2013, we have created a new proposition. We have continued to focus on issues like togetherness, the importance of family, that having children is joyful and doesn’t come in the way of life at all, that there is no positive outcome to choosing to be alone and so on. We hope they will resonate with young Parsi people.”
“Marriage and having children is a private and delicate matter, so we need to deal with it sensitively. Phase II of the Jiyo Parsi campaign is more formal than the first,” says Sam Balsara, Chairman of Madison World, whose daughter Lara Balsara Vajifdar delivered her second baby, just before the launch of Phase II of the campaign.
WHAT IS JIYO PARSI?
The Jiyo Parsi Scheme is initiated by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA), Government of India to reverse decline in the Parsi population by adopting scientific medical protocols and structured interventions to stabilize and increase the population of Parsis in India. The Parzor Foundation, along with other Parsi organizations and reputed doctors across India, is working to spread awareness on the sociological, psychological and medical issues which have led to the critical decline in numbers, and to make Parsis benefit from the huge advances in assisted reproductive technology available today. The number of Parsis is 57,264, according to Census 2011. Between September 2013 and now, 101 babies were born under the Jiyo Parsi scheme.
