What type of themes were promoted by India's first long running soap opera 'HUM LOG'?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Social Issues
Option (3) Literacy Campaigns — Incorrect. The programme carried educational content, but its themes were social values, not a campaign to teach reading and writing.
Option (4) Social Issues — Correct. Hum Log (1984–85) used the entertainment-education strategy, placing educational content inside an entertaining serial. It promoted social themes such as gender equality, small family size and national integration, and at the end of each episode the actor Ashok Kumar summed up the lesson and connected it with viewers’ everyday lives.
NCERT (2025-26): “Hum Log: A Turning Point Hum Log was India’s first long-running soap opera… This pioneering programme utilised the entertainment-education strategy by intentionally placing educational content in this entertainment message. Some 156 episodes of Hum Log were broadcast in Hindi for 17 months in 1984–85. The television programme promoted social themes, such as gender equality, small family size and national integration. At the end of each 22-minute episode, a famous Indian actor, Ashok Kumar, summarised the educational lessons from the episode in an epilogue of 30 to 40 seconds. Kumar connected the drama to viewers’ everyday lives. For instance, he might comment on a negative character who is drunk and beats his wife by asking; ‘why do you think that people, like Basesar Ram drink too much, and then behave badly? Do you know anyone like this? What can be done to reduce the incidents of alcoholism? What can you do?…” |