Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Strategic communication is well recognized as an important medium for population behaviour change, especially when campaigns are designed to provide multiple trusting messages through a combination of mass media and interpersonal communication channels. In various public health settings, there is evidence that campaigns can influence - at the population level - knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, even when the "dose" of exposure is high and exposure is supported by messages delivered by trusted local actors. The study draws on these findings and seeks to explore the awareness and changes in behaviour of the tea garden workers in Assam during the pandemic of COVID-19 and how information was created and transformed their behaviour in terms of preventive action and seeking treatment, and their role of the institutions like trade unions or estate management. Mixed method evidence from estate observations (e.g. Sessa, Amgoorie and Pertabghur), community survey (n = 120) and in-depth interviews (n = 30) revealed anxiety levels-12% (men and women) and significant fear rates 15% among workers in 19–37 age group. The research evaluated the effectiveness of communication activities using interpersonal communication and mass media. To reflect the possibility that the intervention might not have been implemented in every household, a measurement of exposure was adopted following the approach used in previous intervention studies, with a dichotomous measure (campaign exposure: yes or no) defined in two ways: campaign exposure all home visits, and campaign exposure any home visit. The quantitative analysis results are positive, with signs and symptoms of general illness and COVID-19 reported more accurately as a result of campaigns, and reporting and treatment seeking have increased from formal sources such as public health sources. Qualitative evidence places these findings into the framework of constraints of precarity, employment and local institutional trust. The study underscores the importance of drawing on the local risk communication and institutional support to reduce the spread and increase the health system linkage in a public health emergency in plantation communities (WHO, 2020).</p>