the mirage that is women`s empowerment

A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA
April-June 2012
JULY - SEPTEMBER
2011
Volume
4
Issue
2
Rs50
50
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3 RS.
MIRAGE
THAT ISby
WOMEN’S
EMPOWERMENT
InTHE
a world
buoyed
TRP ratings
and trivia,
Can mainstream media play a more proactive role?
QUALITY
JOURNALISM IS THE CASUALTY
It’s truth, objectivity, credibility that count
n The right to privacy in a public place
n Is news all about just a quote or a byte?

journalism
in the
agethe
of the
n Responsible
Sanitation: Onus
on media
to join
dotsInternet
n A laudable community radio initiative
Indian TV news must develop a sense of
n scepticism
Gender equity in the media
n
WomenWhere
achievers
who
followed
passion

Assam:
justice
has
eludedtheir
journalists
At what cost child health, survival?
Children beat the odds to pursue education
n Should children appear on TV reality shows?

Your last line of defence
UNnWomen:
Promises
to keep
It’s Internet,
TV that
draw most children

Domesticdynamics
violence:ofA rural
landmark legislation
Thencomplex
Measuring
n
communication
A case for building dams with cautionreadability
n History of Urdu journalism in India
Bringing
humour to features
Book reviews
n
n
n



From the editor
Must media give short shrift
to basic issues?
R
unning the household and looking after her younger siblings comes easy to 13year-old Sita Verma of Bangra Village in Hamirpur District of Uttar Pradesh.
For eight months in a year, her parents and elder brother travel to Delhi to earn
money as it's impossible to make a decent living from their meagre piece of land. But
while Sita has learnt to cope with most of her burdens, it's the task of collecting water in
her parched village that keeps her on the edge. Indeed, water is the bane of everyone's
existence in Bangra. More than 400 families here depend on six working hand pumps
despite the presence of an overhead tank and pipelines in the village. Unfortunately,
clashes over water, owing to the strongly rooted problem of untouchability in the
region, are a disturbing reality that Sita has to grapple with every day. Thanks to
Women’s Feature Service, Sita’s real-life story has come to light. There are probably tens
of thousands like her in India who struggle every day. Things are not very different for
women in the city slums. Sometimes, the choice is as thin as whether to eat food cooked
besides sewage flowing past your shelter or to stay hungry and avoid disease? Also,
finding a toilet.
It’s sad that 65 years after Independence things on the ground haven’t really changed
much in the country’s villages and slums where the majority of the population lives.
We often blame politicians for the ills plaguing society but, apart from the legislature
and executive, what about the other arms in a democracy? Has the Fourth Estate done
enough to highlight the pressing issues that really matter? Do our national newspapers
and TV channels give enough space for sanitation, healthcare, women empowerment,
education of children, etc? Isn’t it true that we often wake up only when we read grisly
stories in our own country carried by newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal or
featured on channels such as the BBC or Al Jazeerah? Perhaps it is time news editors
paused to think, and gave more space for grassroots stories. We all know that media has
the power to bring about change, but let that power not be confined only to exposing
crime and corruption and sleaze, or to changing political equations. Let it be used with
as much vigour to cover the travails of the common man (read an Amritsar professor’s
email sent to us on page 13).
Providing a well-researched perspective to a multifaceted issue such as sanitation
is Ammu Joseph. It is a subject that usually eludes the media’s radar, she says, and
stresses that the media can play an important role in joining the dots (a phrase I like)
to reveal the connections. What connections? That sanitation is a development issue, a
social issue, a cultural issue, a health issue, an education issue, an environmental issue,
a legal issue, a human rights issue, a caste issue, a women’s issue, a children’s issue…
and much more. Referring to the Census of India 2011 Report, she says that 53 per
cent of households in India do not have access to toilet facilities; 67 per cent in rural
parts. One of every two people in the world and half of India’s population defecate
out in the open. What a shame! And you can well imagine the “disease burden” due
to lack of “managing water, sanitation and hygiene with achievable and recognised
good practices”. Joseph makes a significant point – that the absence of sanitation also
affects literacy rates and educational opportunities, especially of women and girls.
Undoubtedly, it affects women empowerment as well, and vice versa. The media has to
recognise this… and that is what Joseph means by “joining the dots”.
Referring to other aspects of sanitation such as manual scavenging, cleaning septic
tanks or “handling shit”, B.G. Verghese writes that “this ignominious and degrading
caste calling has been a blot on India’s civic life and an assault on the constitutional
right to a life with dignity”, and the “clutch of issues is as urgent as any from an
April-June 2012
VIDURA
1
economic, health and right-to-dignity point of view”. Is the government listening?
What about the health connection? (Verghese’s article appears on page 71 thanks to a
last-minute glitch during page layout, but it has to be read in conjunction with Joseph’s
to comprehend better the magnitude of the problem.) Read Anjali Singh’s piece on
tuberculosis and children, and you’ll know – lack of hygiene and sanitation as well as
poverty and pollution are the perfect triggers for onset of the disease. Also, don’t miss
the heartwarming piece by Pradeep Baisakh about how children in a village in Odisha,
despite poverty and the odds, pursue education.
At the other end of the spectrum are children who seem to have more than a fair
share of what life has to offer. No worries about sanitation or poverty for them – it’s
about making a mark on stage on television reality shows, winning prizes and money,
and gaining stardom. Needless to say, most of them come with stars in their eyes. Are
they propelled by parents and ‘well-wishers’ or is it their own burning desire to show
the world a thing or two? Whatever it is, is it worthwhile trying desperately to gain
the adulation of ‘fans’ when they should be actually studying hard and doing well
in school? Or is that an old-fashioned view? Read what Shoma Chatterji has to say.
And if you think you can rubbish children’s ideas, you are wrong. Their views matter.
Bringing to the fore a sample of their media habits is Anshu Arora, a school principal
in Haryana. No prizes for guessing – it’s Internet and TV they gravitate to.
The focus once again is drawn towards women, thanks to the question of gender
equity in the media raised by Sakuntala Narasimhan. Do women reporters get a raw
deal despite turning out stories as effectively as their male counterparts? Have women
in the media been able to break the glass ceiling? Are men able to bring a “woman’s
perspective” to a story, the same amount of sensitivity? That’s well nigh impossible,
wouldn’t you say? However, there is no doubt that women have more than made mark
in all forms of media and few have even reported from war fronts. Susan Philip writes
about what some women achievers in the media – Rasheeda Bhagat, S. Sujatha, Barkha
Dutt and Ranjini Vaidyanathan – had to say at a programme organised recently by the
US Consulate General, Chennai, as part of its Women’s History Month. The message
that came through loud and clear: don’t be afraid to follow your passion. There are
other stories, too, of women who have blazed a trail – Chandralekha, Mrinal Gore,
Neera Desai, Madhuri Shah and Irom Sharmila. Yes, women often have to bear the
brunt, like U. Vasuki says. But, like Vasuki herself, many have shown others the way.
And in many ways, that is the best way to silence critics and take that one big step
towards true independence.
I am always inspired by the discipline and punctiliousness shown by people of
an earlier generation. In this case, two octogenarians – Lal, the older, who served
The Statesman well for over three decades when reading The Statesman meant quite
something else, and Muthiah, who made a mark as features editor at The Times of
Ceylon before arriving in Madras in 1968 as head of TT Maps & Atlases, which proved
to be fertile ground for his storytelling abilities. I have never met Lal; indeed, it was
thanks to Vidura that we have been able to forge a bond. I was, of course, fortunate
to have worked closely with Muthiah for a decade and every time I meet him there
is something new I learn. While Lal here provides a meaty piece on what can and
cannot be published, Muthiah is aghast at the way some reporters function. Sitting
at your desk and making a couple of calls for quotes or arriving with a mike for two
sentences is anything but good journalism, he says. His emphasis on “enterprising
or active journalism” is buttressed by Mathrubhumi’s Rajendran, who raises several
questions relating to misrepresentation, a consistent policy on the use of language,
an ethical code covering serious aspects of reporting, and the need to report the truth.
Sometimes, you can really feel Robert Frost’s immortal words come alive…
Sashi Nair
editorpiirind@gmail.com
2
VIDURA
April-June 2012
S
April-June 2012
It’s truth, objectivity, credibility that count
N.P. Rajendran
04
Cover illustrations by Arun Ramkumar
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
The right to privacy in a public place
M.B. Lal
8
Is news all about just a quote or a byte?
S. Muthiah
11
A multifaceted issue called Sanitation: Onus on media to join the dots
Ammu Joseph
14
At what cost child health, survival?
Anjali Singh
18
A laudable community radio initiative
Ankuran Dutta and Anamika Ray
20
Children beat the odds to pursue education
Pradeep Baisakh
22
Should children appear on TV reality shows?
Shoma A. Chatterj
24
It’s Internet, TV that draw most children
Anshu Arora
28
Gender equity: Sometimes, networking helps
Sakuntala Narasimhan
32
Achievers all, they followed their passion
Susan Philip
36
Why this kola veri?
U. Vasuki
38
Chandralekha: Dancer, choreographer, feminist
Pamela Philipose
40
Irom Sharmila: ‘I am a prisoner of conscience’
Tripti Nath
43
Three pioneers and a common vision
Vibhuti Patel
46
Domestic violence: Looking back on a landmark legislation
Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service
49
A case for building dams with caution
Nava Thakuria
51
Urdu: Romance of the lashkari language
Mrinal Chatterjee
53
The seven Rs of sub-editing
Nirmaldasan
57
Remembering Maitreyee Chatterjee: She lives on through her writings
Shoma A. Chatterji
59
Book reviews
News
61
65
It’s all about getting it right
B.G. Verghese
71
3
It’s truth, objectivity,
credibility that count
N.P. Rajendran
The Internet has changed the way newspapers, publishers
and editors view the world. It’s a change that is irreversible;
indeed, it looks set to change further as we look to the future.
In the new-found space for ‘interactivity’, tough questions
must be asked and genuine answers given, says the writer.
Print, online, radio and television can all work together,
complement one another and flourish, he adds. But at the end
of the day, the common man cannot be ignored and must be
allowed to participate in the vital function of news gathering
and dissemination
T
The writer is deputy editor,
Mathrubhumi Online, and has
been writing a political column in
Mathrubhumi since 1995. He is
also chairman of the Kerala Press
Academy, the recipient of several
journalism awards and author of
seven books, four of which
are on media.
4
he news media has been undergoing revolutionary changes through
the past three decades. Working in a medium newspaper in Kerala,
I have seen it closely. I joined the news industry in the beginning
of the 1980s when metallic types and hand composing were still in
vogue. A newspaper printed in Calicut in northern Kerala often found it
impossible to publish the photograph of a major event happening in the
state capital, if it did not take place at least before noon. And if by luck the
event happened sufficiently early, an Ambassador car with headlights on
would speed across the 400-odd kilometres of narrow highway to Calicut
with the “very important photo”. Things were not very different even
during the Delhi Asiad (1982), when we sought the help of sympathetic
passengers coming from the nation’s capital to Thiruvananthapuram in
carrying the “photo cover”.
It’s been a long way from those days to the present days of live
telecast, when you get in your newsroom pictures of anything happening
anywhere in the world in a jiffy. The communication revolution has helped
newspapers flourish. But revolutions will not always be helpful. Various
types of new media have sprouted and some of them are threatening the
very existence of the printed paper. Media specialists such as Philip Meyer
predict the vanishing of newspapers by 2040, though there are ‘optimistic’
media pundits who feel the devil will die much earlier.
Indeed, these days, revolutions are more frequent. Even as experts were
saying everything was over as far as the print media was concerned, there
is now talk of the Apple iPad coming to save newspapers. We always hope
for miracles, like the knight in shining armour, sword in hand, landing in
the desert to save the beautiful princess. Even if newsprint and printing
presses threaten to become archival showpieces, will it herald the end of
news gathering and dissemination, or the end of media or journalism as
such? No, not at all. Then why are we overtly worried about the predicted
end of the printed newspaper?
It is not the news media, but journalism of the traditional variety that
is being threatened. The profession as we have known for centuries
is now being questioned by the very readers who had all along seen
newspapers and editors as those who had the last word on everything
under the sun. Reporters and editors were heroes who saw, spoke, wrote
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
and even fought for the common
man. The reporter was the one
who saw history as it unfolded,
spoke to the prominent ‘actors’,
rubbed shoulders with the high
and mighty, got the pictures
that mattered, and had access to
relevant documents. Only eyewitnesses could question the
veracity of newspaper reports,
but their number were always
limited and many chose to keep
mum. An angry letter to the
editor would perhaps find its
way to the wastepaper bin. Today,
common people own gadgets
that once upon a time only
journalists handled. What’s more,
thanks to Internet discussion
groups and blogs, there are
ever so many methods for the
‘reader’ now to disseminate news
and information. No wonder
journalists feel threatened.
When the Internet arrived,
many newspaper owners and
editors thought that it would
April-June 2012
VIDURA
eventually kill newspapers, even
refusing to put the news online.
Soon, they found that newspapers
could not survive without having a
presence in cyberspace. With new
media, the story is no different.
Newspaper editors with an eye on
future have already started using
the tools of new media. Citizen
journalists are now reporting for
the print media, too. Newsrooms
welcome pictures form citizens with
a broad smile. Bloggers have found
respectable corners in the inside
pages of mainline newspapers. What
many people do not know, however,
is that what we see today are only
slightly revised versions of old
practices. Take citizen journalism,
for example. Until a quarter century
ago, Kerala had a number of citizen
journalists who were well treated
by newspapers desks, their reports
appearing with the byline ‘By a
reporter’. Of course, they did not
have video cameras or Bluetooth.
There would be just one staff
photographer at the headquarters
and newspapers depended on
pictures from readers or witnesses.
Even today, many reporters in
newspapers depend on the less
glamorous citizen journalist.
However, interactivity is one
aspect where the print media lags
behind. The ‘letters to the editor’
column is usually the only space
reserved for readers to comment.
Language newspapers with 12 or
16 pages cannot allow much space
for letters and, generally, letters
of appreciation are those that get
printed. Criticism by readers is
not encouraged. Even so, many
newspapers now realise that media
is not one-way traffic. Editors
and journalists can no longer
dumb down and advise readers.
Many readers are educated
and even better informed than
journalists. But how much space
can a newspaper allot for reader
feedback? How many people will
spend five rupees to post a cover
5
what to believe; to figure out who's
telling the truth and who's not . . .
All of this is not only putting new
pressures on you. It is putting new
pressures on our country and on
our democracy…”
Yes, we must give space for
readers but editors should never
throw away the ‘gatekeeper’ role.
Editors must be more answerable
to readers, and address queries and
concerns. Not many do so. Two
newspapers I know have regular
columns that publish readers’
comments on mistakes that have
appeared in reports and the editor’s
response. The Hindu’s Reader’s
Editor column is a first of its kind
in India. A column in Mathrubhumi,
too, had a good number of regular
writers and readers. But both deal
with minor mistakes, most of them
grammatical, and some factual.
There are ever so many larger
issues in day-to-day news coverage.
What about misrepresentation,
for instance? Does the editor
clear the air? Is there a consistent
policy on the use of language? Is
there an ethical code covering the
many serious aspects of reporting?
Did you report the truth when it
concerned something in which your
institution had ‘other’ interests?
Interactivity is not just chatting;
it is asking tough questions and
getting genuine answers.
Coming back to print media,
circulation and advertisement
revenues are rising in all parts of
the world except in some countries
in Europe and in the US. In India,
there has not been a big shift to
online media although the drift
away from print is discernable.
People reading news on the
computer or on the Kindle or iPad
does not necessarily diminish the
importance of the newspaper as
an important part of the media
mix. In a sense, new media is
good for the Fourth Estate; it
facilitates interaction, updating
and saves the cost of newsprint.
The traditional newspaper may
give way to new media, and a new
business model will take shape.
So, print and online, radio and
television can all work together,
complement one another and
flourish. Finally, truth, objectivity
and credibility are paramount.
Citizen journalism, user-generated
content and even ‘crowd sourcing’
are useful ways to engage the end
user – the citizen – who must be
allowed to participate in the vital
function of news gathering and
dissemination.
<
to the editor to offer an opinion
or to correct a minor mistake in a
report? I found that the number of
people writing letters to the editor
has reduced drastically over the
past two decades.
With the Internet, however,
things are different. You can email
or comment immediately after
reading the article. I have been
looking after Mathrubhumi’s online
edition for about five years now,
and I have seen the difference.
You throw open a discussion on a
controversial subject and you will
see hundreds sending in comments.
When Shashi Tharoor resigned
as Central minister, we published
2500 comments. In retrospect, I
wonder whether there is meaning
in publishing so many. Who reads
them all, except those who’ve sent
them? For the Web, comments are
often not edited. I am reminded
of what President Obama said:
“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes
and PlayStations – none of which I
know how to work – information
becomes a distraction, a diversion,
a form of entertainment, rather
than a tool of empowerment, rather
than the means of emancipation…
With so many voices clamoring
for attention on blogs, on cable,
on talk radio, it can be difficult, at
times, to sift through it all; to know
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Students have been placed in newspapers, television channels, PR companies etc. Application forms can
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for SC/ST candidates), or in person. The forms are to be submitted in May.
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The fee per semester is Rs 22000. More details from I. Arul Aram: 044-22358231/41 or
+919789072466.
6
VIDURA
April-June 2012
The right to privacy
in a public place
M.B. Lal
The writer, after an M.A in English
from Allahabad University in 1951,
joined the Nagpur Times as staff
reporter the following year. In 1955,
he moved to The Tribune as special
staff reporter. In 1957, he joined The
Statesman where he would spend
31 years, serving the paper as staff
reporter, special correspondent,
chief-of-bureau, development
correspondent and assistant editor.
His studies of various aspects of the
Indian economy first appeared in The
Statesman. After retirement, he has
authored four books.
8
Is watching pornography a crime in the first place? If it isn’t,
can a minister watch it in parliament or in a state assembly
or in his office? And can the media ‘intrude’ into the lives of
people (be they public servants) and take over what many in
defence may say is private space? Do we need to be a more
liberal society? These are questions we need to address, while
also looking at the aspect of whether journalists have a follow
a code of conduct
T
he sacking of three Karnataka ministers for watching pornography
on their mobile phones in the state assembly has made me a futurist.
My neuroscientist friend in America tells me that thought-reading
machines are coming. Once they read your thoughts an animation film
maker can easily convert them into the video version. Already machines
are being invented that can photograph pictures forming in your mind.
Such reach of technology into the most intimate recesses of our private
lives has made the Supreme Court of America sit up and declare that the
citizen is entitled to some private space from prying eyes –– even of the law
enforcement agencies –– in a public place. According to TIME magazine, on
January 23 this year the court decided that the FBI had violated the Fourth
Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure when
it used the global positioning systems (GPS) signals to track a suspected
drug dealer even though the cops monitored only “where the suspect
went on public streets.” In a story titled Privacy in Public, the magazine
says: “Thanks to that decision for the first time in American history there
is now a legal right to privacy in public.” Meanwhile, Senator Al Franken
has introduced a bill based on his view that “people have a fundamental
right to control their private information.”
The fast developing science of mind reading –– a part of neuro science
–– over which the US Defense Department is spending several hundred
million dollars, has made the issue more complicated and urgent.
According to The Economist (London) “it is now possible to scan someone’s
brain and get a reasonable idea of what is going through his mind.” This
will ultimately lead to remote sensing cameras scanning people’s brains.
Unscrupulous TV channels could use such devices to telecast perverse
or ‘immoral’ images forming in a person’s mind, to defame him. Private
detectives could use them to ferret out the secrets of their clients’ enemies.
The government could deploy them to detect suspected terrorists.
I contacted a neuro-scientist working at Harvard University. He referred
me to literature which showed various ways of getting inside a person’s
brain. It seemed to me the simplest would be the decoding of movements
inside and outside the body of a ‘subject’ while he is thinking. We are all
aware of our physical symptoms when we are angry, afraid, amorous or
just happy. But the broad patterns have micro-elements covering every
conceivable thought in our minds, which can be read or converted into
a video film by merely recording the electrical signals issuing from the
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
brain. In short, nothing is beyond
the reach of digital electronics.
Already, by monitoring the
brain activity of people while
they watched Hollywood movie
trailers, researchers were able to
recreate a moving picture similar
to the real footage being played.
The question is no longer one
of the sanctity of the place where
a person is trapped doing what
is morally or legally wrong, but
one of clearly defining what
part of a person’s life is ‘public’
and what is his purely ‘private’
information. The article titled
Perils of Untrammeled Freedom of
Expression by Mr. B.G. Verghese
in the January issue of Vidura and
the demand by Justice Katju for
bringing electronic media under
a regulatory authority raise
issues that are worthy of a nationwide debate on the rights and
wrongs of such sting operations.
According to the Reuters news
agency, the European Union
has just finalised proposals
for ‘new data privacy rules’,
putting greater responsibility on
companies such as Facebook to
protect users’ information, and
threatening those who breach
the code with hefty fines, which
in the case of Google can amount
to $800 million. TV channels and
newspapers would automatically
come under such laws. We have
already witnessed the disaster
that overtook the Murdoch
empire (threatening even the
British Prime Minister’s future
for complicity with the media
mogul) for eavesdropping on the
private lives of ordinary people
by hacking their phone calls.
Global positioning systems
have made it possible to track
every citizen to a precise location
every moment. Video positioning
may be just a step away. We have
already started the process of
creating a digital identity of each
Indian. Linking it to GPS can be
the next move. It is naive to expect
that the use of such systems can
be confined only to the government,
though that would be bad, too.
Cyber piracy is routinely practised
by
unscrupulous
businesses,
including private detective agencies,
through facilities offered by Google,
You Tube, Yahoo and Facebook.
No place is sacred or beyond reach
for prying eyes. The governor of
an Indian state lost his job when a
sting operator managed to plant an
invisible eye in his bedroom in his
physically impenetrable fortress,
the Raj Bhavan. Proceedings of
parliament and state legislatures are
routinely telecast. An unscrupulous
cameraman can use the opportunity
to take side-views of the seamy
side of individual members and
ministers. Today, no place is strictly
private where a seeing or hearing
device cannot reach. NASA’s
communications
network
was
hacked thirteen times by its own
‘hackers’, whose job it was to test the
invulnerability of the system. Add to
it the new science of mind-reading
and you have a truly mind boggling
picture of what lies in store for you
in your private life unless there are
strict laws that clearly define areas
of your life which should never,
never be brought in the public
domain, nor encroached upon by
snoopers.
India is a complex country.
What was immoral and illegal
till yesterday may become
completely
acceptable
today.
The other day, there was news of
a boy and a girl being expelled
from a college in Tamil Nadu
for travelling together on a bus
whereas in the Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi girls can
visit their boyfriends in the hostel
rooms and are allowed to stay with
them till 10 pm (officially). Anna
Hazare’s chief protagonist and
former Union Law Minister
Shanti Bhushan has pleaded for
legalising
live-in-relationships.
Homosexuality is yet another
illustration that comes to mind.
To some people it may still be
a bigger offence than watching
pornography. But, all the same,
it is now accepted in most parts
of the world, including India, as
a perfectly normal and natural
activity. In the changing scenario
is it not better not to confuse a
9
that the ministers concerned
would not have lost their jobs. I
was posted in Chandigarh for four
years from 1969 to 1973 as The
Statesman’s special correspondent
for Punjab and Haryana. Even
in those conservative times,
Punjab was different in many ways.
The first story I sent to my paper,
after a week’s settling in period,
in May 1969 was, titled Kitchen
Revolution in Chandigarh. While
looking out for a cook I had found
that almost every other home in
the city was employing Harijan
women (who would be treated as
untouchables elsewhere) as cooks.
The story was quite a sensation.
Not only did I get a favourable
comment from my editor, the India
correspondent of a British daily
called me from New Delhi to get
more details to send the story to
his paper.
One might ask where is the link
between watching pornography
inside the state assembly today
and employing Harijan women to
cook in homes of the upper castes,
including Brahmins, in the 1960s.
The answer is that perhaps Punjab
is the only state in India where the
totally hypocritical ‘moral police’,
which runs a parallel government
throughout the country, has
very little impact. Punjab is our
window to the West. Even in those
archaic decades one or two Punjab
ministers freely toured the state
with their mistresses and shared
the dais with them at public
gatherings. And, even today,
in neighbouring Haryana khap
panchayats rule the roost with
powers to order lynching of intercaste lovers, despite condemnation
of their very existence by the
Supreme Court.
<
person’s competence in his official
work with his strictly private
inclinations? I do not wish to
burden this article with statistics
which the reader can download
any moment from the Internet
to show how widely prevalent
watching pornography is in India.
Possessing porn material is a
serious crime under the law but
watching it is not.
Speaking in a lighter vein, let
me say that the panic reaction to
the episode concerning the three
ministers displayed by most of
the concerned parties was largely
misplaced. I mean no disrespect to
either Karnataka or Punjab when
I say that had the same incident
happened in the Punjab Assembly,
some people would have frowned
upon it, others would have
laughed it away but I can assert
with a fair amount of certainty
‘Distortion of news is unethical and wrong’
B.G. Verghese speaks at the inaugural.
“The press has immense power and everyone fears it. The
media, to a great extent, sets the agenda for the day. Eighty
per cent of what happens in the parliament is based on what
they read in the morning newspapers. This, however, invests
the press with a tremendous responsibility together with its
freedom.” This was veteran journalist B.G. Verghese, speaking
recently at a national seminar in Mumbai that had the theme,
The Press in India, a Mandate for Social Transformation. Taking
a dig at those who distorted news and manipulated the media,
the former editor of Hindustan Times and Indian Express, said:
“Unfortunately the press is often manipulated, and the news
distorted by a few who own it, for their own advantage and
vested interests. This is unethical and wrong, as it does not
serve the good of the society.”
The inaugural session was followed by panel discussions that had interesting themes: Relevance of the Print
and Electronic Media, Freedom and Responsibility of the Press / Media Ethics, and the Press—Watch Dog and
Whistle Blower / Investigative Reporting. The sessions were moderated by established journalists.
While inaugurating the seminar, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of
India and the Archbishop of Mumbai, said that the media, particularly the print media, played an indispensable
role in the transformation of society. “Today, the communication media has transformed everything. I am very
much aware of the importance of the media for the society, the Church and the world.” Justice Michael
Saldanha, a former judge of the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts, said that the Fourth Estate had to
safeguard the democratic and secular fabric of the nation.
The seminar was jointly organised by the Society of St Paul, a media-oriented Institute, the Media Office of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the Archdiocese of Bombay.
10
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Is news all about just a
quote or a byte?
M
S. Muthiah
The writer has been in journalism
for more than 60 years. He is
editor, Madras Musings, author,
and a columnist for The Hindu. He
has taught journalism and print
production at the Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan, Anna University and the
University of Madras. He helped
found India’s first degree course
in printing technology at Anna
University in 1980. He has been an
office bearer of the Madras Printers’
and Lithographers’ Association, and
the All Indian Federation of Master
Printers. In March 2002, he was
awarded the MBE by the Queen of
England for his work on heritage
and environment conservation in
Chennai.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
ore and more, journalism, print or audio or audio-visual, is turning
not to the facts of a story, the facts on the surface or those beneath
it, but to quotes and bytes. And given half a dozen quotes of, often
contrasting, sentences each, or a similar number of bytes, I wonder how
any reader can understand any story or get the full picture.
I have for 40 years now been involved with the heritage and environment
protection and conservation movement in Chennai. And with the press
now becoming more conscious of such subjects that are beyond the world
of politics, I have reporters calling me up regularly to comment on this bit
of heritage or environmental news or that which has cropped up. And I go
into long explanations of the background and the consequences, suggest
reading material, urge looking at how the situation has been allowed to
build up – and it’s all in vain; all I see in print is a sentence or two from all
I’ve said, usually out of context, and often misquoted. What the reporter
has done to my words doesn’t bother me – apart from thinking what a
waste of time it was – but what he or she (and they more and more are
getting to be she-s these days) has done to the story, missing the woods
from the trees, is what upsets me.
Take a recent instance. After November’s heavy rains, parts of the roof
caved in, in three buildings stated to be heritage buildings. What did I
think of the roof collapses, was the immediate questions I got. A couple
of days later, the reporter was after a follow-up story. What did I think
could be done to stop recurrences? And that’s when I launched into a
long backgrounder about the city’s Heritage Conservation Committee and
what it should be doing. There wasn’t a line about any of that when the
story appeared; instead there were a couple of quotes from architects that
effectively said the obvious: better maintenance was needed.
Now let me summarise what I had told the reporter and suggest where that
should have led him, if what he wanted was a story which could have served
some purpose. Heritage buffs in Chennai have for 15 years been fighting for
a Heritage Act that would protect listed buildings. A little over a year ago,
after a judge had ordered the Metropolitan Development Authority to take
some action following a hearing of a long-drawn-out heritage conservation
case that seemed to be headed nowhere, the Authority set up a Heritage
Conservation Committee (HCC) and handed it a list of 400-plus heritage
buildings that had been listed for another purpose by a another committee
ordered by the High Court and headed by one of the former brethren. The
HCC sent out letters to the owners of all these buildings and advised them
that they owned what were considered heritage buildings and they could
not pull the buildings down nor change their character in any way without
discussing matters with the HCC. There was no mention of any penalties if
they did so, because the HCC had no powers to penalise anyone. But what
it could have done was to visit all the premises, have interacted with their
owners, seen how the buildings were being maintained and offered advice
on protecting the respective bit of their heritage. But they visited only a
couple of buildings – reporting to the court (in which the buildings’ future
was being argued) on the condition they were in after their owners had
wrecked parts of them before conservationists got a stay on the wrecking.
11
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
12
– windows broken, leaking badly,
trees growing out of crevices,
overcrowded, toilets built any and
everywhere, and so on.
That’s what I call enterprising or
active journalism. Sitting at your
desk and making a couple of calls
for quotes or arriving with a mike
for two sentences is anything but
good journalism. But that’s what
your daily newspaper today or your
airways are filled with. No wonder
a recent commentator on the state
of the Indian media summed it up
in one word: “Rotten”. So long as
journalists do not go for the solid
substance of a story and seek only
quotes or report only excerpts
from rabble rousing speeches by
confrontationists on major issues,
the Indian media will continue
to be seen only as tabloidish
entertainment. And that is a tragic
state for an institution to be in
given its proud heritage and the
freedom – almost licence – it has
to operate.
TAILPIECE: Eminent scientist,
former President of India and a
man popular with the masses,
Prof A.P.J. Abdul Kalam recently
had a lengthy article he had
written on the Koodankulam
project published in a leading
newspaper. Similar articles by
eminent persons have been written
on the Mullaiperiyar Dam. Has
any journalist taken the former to
the leaders opposing the project
and the latter to the leaders of the
protests on both sides of the border
and sought their views, point
by point, on what was written?
Has any newspaper sought the
technical views of international
experts? Has any paper… has
it?… has it…? So much that can be
done. So little done.
<
Now to get back to the reporter.
Against the above background
every question should have been
to the HCC. Had its members
after coming to office visited the
three listed buildings whose roof
were to later collapse? Shouldn’t
they be visiting all the listed
buildings, if only to see what
kind of maintenance/restoration
was going on and whether the
buildings were safe? What action
was the HCC or the Metropolitan
Authority taking to get teeth for
the Committee? And I could go on
with such embarrassing questions.
But these questions are not asked.
And if they are, and the replies are
not forthcoming, what stops some
enterprising reporter from taking
a look himself at some of the best
known of these buildings (most
of them owned by government
or which serve the public) and
report on their state as he saw it
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Anabel Hernández gets Golden Pen of Freedom
Anabel Hernández, a Mexican journalist and writer known for her investigative reporting on corruption and
the abuse of power in Mexican politics, has been awarded the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press
freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Hernández, who has worked
on national dailies including Reforma, Milenio, El Universal and its investigative supplement La Revista,
currently contributes to the online news site Reporte Indigo. Her most recent book, Los Señores del Narco /
The Drug Traffickers (2010), details the complicities between organised crime and high-level authorities, from
government officials to the police, the military and the business community. She has received numerous death
threats after the book’s publication.
In making the award, the WAN-IFRA Board, meeting in Dubai, said: “Mexico has become one of the
most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with violence and impunity remaining major challenges
in terms of press freedom. In making this award, WAN-IFRA recognises the strong stance Ms Hernández
has taken, at great personal risk, against drug cartels. Her actions help ensure the development of good,
unrestricted investigative journalism in the region. The award also sends a clear message to the Mexican
government that it is the duty of the state to provide an environment in which citizens are able to exercise their
right to freedom of expression without fear of violence. The authorities clearly need to do more to ensure the
protection of journalists and to end the impunity that surrounds those who believe killing journalists will silence
the freedom of the press.”
In a 2011 interview she gave to Quien Resulte Responsable TV, Hernández said she was driven to focus
on investigative journalism after the kidnapping and murder of her father in December 2000, in Mexico City.
Police investigators told the family that they were only willing to investigate the crime if the family paid them.
“Corruption grows through silence,” she has said. “If journalists of my generation keep silent, if we give up to
our work for fear or complicity, journalists after us will be condemned to kneel to this corruption. I hope I will
live… and see that that never happens.”
The rise of the Mexican drug cartels and the subsequent war against them has plunged Mexico into one of
the darkest periods of its contemporary history, with a wave of violence that has cost the lives of more than
50,000 people in just five years. The effects on the media have been equally devastating, with at least 30
media professionals killed since the start of the government’s offensive. A news blackout affects several regions
in the north of the country as drug cartels - the de facto authority in many areas - rarely hesitate when it comes
to physically silencing investigative reporters.
More space for grassroots stories, please…
As I was going through your article (editorial) in the January-March issue of Vidura, I can recall few
newspaper stories here in the local press where the facts presented in the story were fabricated. It’s a common
thing in the local dailies, especially in the city pages, where the stories covered are mostly through personal
contacts, and their authenticity hangs between the truth and the false. The facts mentioned in the press notes
are not cross-checked and mostly reproduced as such.
I completely agree with the comments of Justice Markandey Kathju. The quality of journalism has gone
down, especially in the local dailies where they play with language and fact. The city pages are full of stories
related to food stuff, fashion and gossip, and the real issues in every city are crushed. Amritsar is a borderlying area and if we really look around the city, there are many problems the city and the people face but no
newspaper or reporter seems sensitive about such issues. The need is to form a strong body or organisation,
which will take care of the ethical issues pertaining to media organisations. Or the Press Council of India may
be given enough power to handle issues, set criteria for news coverage and make it compulsory to cover issues
on the ground. Just as space is reserved for ‘masala’ content, space must be reserved for grassroots stories and
every newspaper must have a journalist covering the beat.
Arif Nazir
(Assistant professor, DAV College, Amritsar)
April-June 2012
VIDURA
13
A MULTIFACETED ISSUE CALLED SANITATION
Onus on media
to join the dots
I
Ammu Joseph
The writer is an
independent journalist and author
based in Bangalore, writing
primarily on issues relating to gender,
human development and the media.
Among her publications are two
media-related books: WhoseN ews?
The Media and Women's Issues and
Women in Journalism: Making
News. She has contributed chapters
to several other books, including
most recently, Missing Half the Story:
Journalism as if Gender Matters.
14
n February this year, Jairam Ramesh, Union minister for Rural
Development, who holds additional charge of the Ministry of Drinking
Water and Sanitation, courted controversy by stating, "Women demand
mobile phones. They are not demanding toilets." During the launch of
the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals prepared by the UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, he highlighted
the incongruity of “60 per cent of open defecation in a country which has
700 million mobile phones” and said, “We build toilets but the toilets are
not used."
In April Ramesh called upon the bureaucracy to be gender-sensitive
while constructing low-cost toilet blocks in villages, pointing out that
sanitation is linked to the empowerment of women. Delivering a keynote
address at a two-day National Consultation on Gender Empowerment,
organised by the University of Mumbai and UN Women, the minister
reportedly criticised the administrative machinery across the country for
implementing the scheme half-heartedly. It is not clear from media reports
on his February remarks what exactly the minister was trying to get at.
His April comments are certainly less ambiguous. But both ministerial
references to toilets served to focus rare attention on an issue that usually
eludes the media’s radar.
Is sanitation a development issue, a social issue, a cultural issue? Is it a
health issue, an education issue? Is it a legal issue, a human rights issue, a
caste issue, a women’s issue, a children’s issue? Is it an urban issue, a rural
issue? Is it an infrastructure issue, a political issue, an economic issue? It
is, of course, all of the above. And the media can play an important role in
joining the dots to reveal the connections. Unfortunately, if sanitation has
been side-lined by governments, political parties and even civil society
over the years, it has been neglected by the media, too Why does sanitation
demand and deserve more media and public attention? It is estimated
that over 2.6 billion people across the world are currently living without
adequate sanitation. According to a recent UN report, while India boasts
some 545 million cell phones, enough to serve about 45 per cent (or nearly
half) of the population, only about 366 million people, or 31 per cent (that
is, less than one third) of the population, had access to improved sanitation
in 2008.1
More recent figures from the Census of India 2011 reveal that 63 per
cent of Indian households now have a telephone connection of one type or
another; as many as 53 per cent of them may not have landline connections
but do have one or more cellular phones. That is the good news. The
bad news is that 53 per cent of households do not have access to toilet
facilities; the figure jumps to 67 per cent for rural households.2 In other
words, as many households as have access to mobile telecommunication
have no access to sanitation.
Another recent UN report revealed that 17 per cent of the world’s
population, or 1.1 billion people across the globe, are compelled to defecate
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
out in the open because they still
have no access to sanitation.3
India is, unfortunately, among
the 11 countries that are home
to 81 per cent (that is, well over
800 million) of these people.
The infamous 11 also include
three other South Asian nations:
Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.4
Sadly, going by 2006 figures, India
trails behind its neighbours, and
even Afghanistan, in providing
basic sanitation facilities to its
citizens.
According to the report, about
683 million of the 1.1 billion people
worldwide who defecate in the
open are Indians. In other words,
one out of every two people in the
world who are forced to defecate
out in the open is an Indian. The
situation seems to have improved
only marginally since that report
came out, with a recent media
report suggesting that more than
half (51 per cent) of the Indian
population or 626 million people
in the country continue to defecate
in the open, accounting for nearly
two-thirds (60 per cent) of the
world's total open defecations.
The continuing, chronic absence
of sanitation among large sections
of the population, particularly
in poor communities, has been
described as a “development
emergency” affecting a large
number of countries, including
India.
Take, for example, the impact
of poor or no sanitation facilities
on health. It is widely recognised
that a massive disease burden is
associated with deficient hygiene,
sanitation, and water supply. It is
estimated that 10 per cent of the
disease burden worldwide could
be prevented simply by managing
water, sanitation and hygiene
with achievable and recognised
good practices.5 Similarly, it is
estimated that, globally, around
2.4 million deaths (that is, nearly
5 per cent of all deaths) could be
prevented annually if everyone
practised appropriate hygiene
and had access to good, reliable
sanitation and drinking water.6
Sadly, most of the preventable
deaths are of children in developing
countries, succumbing to diarrhoea
and
subsequent,
consequent
malnutrition, and to other diseases
related to malnutrition. Although
it is rarely discussed alongside the
“big three” attention-seekers among
international public health concerns
– HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and
malaria – the fact is that one disease
alone kills more young children each
year than all those three combined.
That disease is diarrhoea. And the
key to diarrhoea control is hygiene,
sanitation and water.
As the chapter titled, Why Toilets
and Forests Matter to Women, in the
new book, Missing Half the Story:
Journalism as if Gender Matters,7
points out, if people had access
to clean toilets and did not have
to defecate in the open, everyone
would be less vulnerable to gastrointestinal diseases since human
waste would not seep into drinking
water sources and contaminate food.
In 2008, the NGO, Water Aid, tried
to convince the G8 summit meeting
in Japan that investing in sanitation
would be the single most effective
way to cut child deaths. In 2010
another NGO, Tearfund, attempted
to do the same thing during
the G8 summit held in Canada,
stressing the interconnectedness
of maternal and child mortality on
the one hand, and poor water and
sanitation on the other.
Maternal mortality, a very
serious, persistent problem in
many developing countries, and
certainly in India, is not the only
way in which lack of sanitation
affects women. For example,
women are susceptible to urinary
and reproductive tract infections
because they are unable to relieve
themselves for many hours during
the day, and often, in addition,
because they have insufficient
water for adequate cleaning.
Menstruating
and
pregnant
women have an especially difficult
time when there are no toilets. In
the absence of latrines, women are
forced to use the cover of darkness,
after sunset or before dawn, to
urinate or defecate. This leaves
them open to harassment and even
violence (for instance, this is when
many rapes, including of little
girls, take place). So sanitation is
even linked to crime.
The situation becomes even
worse when people are displaced
during disasters and conflicts. For
15
example, after the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami a major problem
faced by women in relief camps, at
least in India, was lack of access to
toilets with adequate water (not to
mention inner wear and sanitary
napkins). Survivors of floods – a
regular feature in many of our
countries – have to deal with the
same problem. And, thanks to
the minimal attention paid to this
issue, toilets are elusive during
the reconstruction phase, too. For
instance, many houses rebuilt after
the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat
(without consulting women, as
usual), which came to be described
as “new man-made disasters,” did
not have toilet facilities.
The absence of sanitation also
affects literacy rates and educational
opportunities, especially of women
and girls. According to the Annual
Status of Education Report (ASER)
2009, only 50 per cent of government
schools in India have toilets, and
four out of 10 government schools
do not have separate toilets for
girls. Even where there are separate
girls’ toilets, as many as 12-15 per
cent were found to be locked and
only 30-40 per cent were judged
“usable” (going by my imperfect
calculations, that’s at best 40 per
cent of 40 per cent). It is important
to note that lack of toilet facilities
is a key reason for girls dropping
out of school when they reach
adolescence.
The seventh Citizens’ Report on
the State of India’s Environment
recently brought out by the Delhibased Centre for Science and
Environment is based on a 71city survey and is titled ‘Excreta
Matters: How urban India is
soaking up water, polluting
rivers and drowning in its own
excreta.’ According to CSE’s
Director General Sunita Narain,
it “explains the political economy
of defecation.” She clarifies that
the report is not just about water,
pollution and waste: “It is about
the way Indian cities (and perhaps
other parts of the world that are
similarly placed) will develop. It
is about the paradigm of growth
16
that’s sustainable and affordable.”
It is about how the country should
“manage its water needs so that it
does not drown in its own excreta.”
In the course of their research they
found countless instances where
an urban drain, generally referred
to as a nullah, was once a river. As
Narain points out, “People in cities
get water in their houses; they
discharge waste; and they see their
rivers die. But they don’t make the
connection between flushing toilets
and dying rivers.”
On 28 July 2010, the UN
General Assembly declared for
the first time that clean water and
sanitation are fundamental human
rights.8 A couple of months later,
on 30 September, the UN passed
a historic resolution affirming that
access to water and sanitation are
human rights (officially derived
from the fundamental human
right to an adequate standard of
living – although I would assume,
considering the morbidity and
mortality associated with lack of
access to clean water and sanitation,
that it can also be connected to
the right to life). What’s more, for
the first time in history, the UN
Human Rights Council, the apex
official international human rights
body, has recognised that the
rights to water and sanitation are
legally binding in international
law on nation states.9 According
to Catarina de Albuquerque, a UN
independent expert on human
rights obligations, what this
means is that the right to water
and sanitation is equal to all other
human rights – and is therefore
legally binding and enforceable in
existing human rights treaties.
In India the link between human
rights and sanitation has a caste
dimension, too, thanks to the
continuing practice of “manual
scavenging”. According to a public
interest litigation filed nine years
ago, over five lakh people are still
engaged in manual scavenging
across the country. The government
recently told the Supreme Court that
a bill to deal with the abominable
situation would be tabled during
the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Prohibition of Employment
as Manual Scavengers and their
Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 reportedly
aims to eradicate the inhuman
practice by imposing stiff penalties
on anyone employing people for
the manual removal of excreta and
manual cleaning of septic tanks
and sewers, and the provision of
training and assistance to sanitary
workers to learn new skills and
pursue alternative occupations.
While most developing nations
have reportedly made some, limited
progress in providing clean water,
the targets for sanitation remain
virtually unreachable. According
to UN deputy secretary-general
Asha-Rose Migiro, “If current
trends continue unchanged, the
international community will
miss the 2015 sanitation MDG
(Millennium Development Goal)
target by almost one billion
people.” If the global goal remains
unfulfilled, India will be largely
to blame. A mid-term assessment
of the country’s progress towards
the MDGs by the Union Ministry
of Statistics and Programme
Implementation in May 2010
revealed that 63 per cent of rural
India would probably have no
access to sanitation by 2015 (falling
far short of the target of reducing
no-sanitation areas to 47 per cent).
The situation in urban India is
supposedly better, with 15 per cent
continuing to have no sanitation
facilities by 2015, against a target of
12 per cent.
Jon Lane, executive director of
the Geneva-based Water Supply
and
Sanitation
Collaborative
Council (WSSCC), says there are
many reasons for the slow pace
of progress on sanitation, “but the
main one is that political leaders
in developed and developing
countries have not grasped the
fundamental role that good
sanitation plays for people’s health,
dignity, economic well-being and
local environment.” According to
him, success with sanitation would
also support the achievement of
other MDG targets on child and
maternal mortality, education and
poverty reduction, among others.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
annually remain unused, as both
the Prime Minister and the Rural
Development
Minister
have
themselves admitted.
In this context it would be
interesting to find out the reasons
why Mizoram has emerged as
the sanitation capital of India,
scoring a high 93.4 per cdent in
terms of households with access to
sanitation and a low 5.5 per cent in
open defecation, according to the
2011 Census findings on housing,
household amenities and assets.
Considering the now officially,
internationally recognised, vital
importance of sanitation – not only at
the level of the well-being of people,
especially women and children,
in terms of human dignity, health,
education, and so on, but also at the
level of national and international
development, the environment, the
economy, etc. – it is quite a scandal
that it does not appear to be a priority
for the government and that it does
not seem to attract much media
attention. One reason for the low
visibility of sanitation in the media
and public consciousness could
be the blinkered way in which the
media tend to view and approach
such issues.
If we look at sanitation as a subject
to be covered only by reporters on the
municipal or, even more narrowly,
water and sanitation board/
department beats, there is obviously
a limit to how much and what kind
of coverage it will get. If we see it as
the far more multi-faceted issue it is,
with ramifications for many other
important aspects of citizens’ lives
(health, education, the environment
and disasters, human rights, caste,
gender, and so on), as well as the
country’s growth and development,
including
infrastructural
and
economic development, it would
crop up on many other beats and
areas of media coverage, including
big-ticket global events such as the
G8 summits, and, at the country
level, in coverage of major news
events such as the annual national
budget.
It remains to be seen whether
Ramesh’s recently reported idea of
roping in movie stars Shahrukh
Khan and Vidya Balan for a
massive communication effort to
make people use toilets and thus
ensure the success of the Total
Sanitation Campaign will yield
the desired results. Is generating
greater visibility through celebrity
endorsements the most effective
way to transform the sanitation
programme and, thereby, the lives
of millions of citizens currently
forced to defecate in the open?
The glamour factor may well
increase media coverage of an
otherwise unpopular topic but,
considering the many crucial
aspects of life adversely affected by
poor sanitation, that kind of media
attention may not be enough.
The example of sanitation serves
to illustrate the need for a more
holistic approach to covering events
and issues. In order to increase
and improve coverage of complex
and critically important issues like
sanitation it is clearly necessary to
join the dots and see the connections
between the events and issues,
policies and programmes that
the media regularly report and
comment on.
A positive step in this direction
has been taken by some journalists
calling themselves The Sanitation
Scribes (http://thesanitationscribes.
blogspot.in/). As the introduction to
the blog initiated by Assam-based
journalist Teresa Rehman says,
“Toilets, menstruation, sanitary
pads, open defecation – these are
issues 'mainstream' journalists
usually do not talk about. Inspired
by
SACOSAN
(South
Asia
Conference on Sanitation), held
in New Delhi in 2008, this is an
initiative by a group of dedicated
journalists to raise awareness on
these taboo issues.” According to
Rehman, “The Sanitation Scribes
is a humble effort to bridge the
gap between mainstream and
marginalised issues in media and
to multiply the breed of Sanitation
Journalists.”
May their tribe
increase!
<
Jamie Bartram, director of the
Water Institute at the Gillings
School of Global Public Health
at the University of North
Carolina (USA), believes that
water and sanitation should be
on the international development
agenda not simply as part of
environmental protection but
as “key motors for health and
development in their own right.”
Water Aid’s 2008 report pointed
out that “Lack of investment in
sanitation reveals a blind spot
in development policy: a failure
to recognise sanitation’s integral
role in reducing poverty.” A fact
that governments and media
obsessed with economic growth
rates seem to prefer to forget is
that economic growth cannot
be sustained if almost half the
population in a country lacks
access to something as basic as
sanitation.
The 2012 Union budget
revealed a higher outlay for
social sector schemes, including
drinking water and sanitation.
However, as environmentalist
Sunita Narain has pointed out,
while this is clearly an important
step in the right direction, it is
equally important to ensure that
the money is spent in such a way
that it will make a real difference
to people’s welfare. This is an issue
that clearly calls for sustained
scrutiny.
According to an article in
the CSE publication, Down to
Earth, last year, “The message is
clear: sanitation is not just about
toilets. It is an issue that also
concerns the drinking water and
health departments… But they
do not work hand in hand. The
information and communication
needed to make using toilets a
habit is also highly inadequate
in the Total Sanitation Campaign
and inadequate expenses are
allocated towards this. Without
community mobilisation, the
campaign has been reduced to a
toilet construction drive.” This
may help explain why half the
1.5 million toilets constructed
17
At what cost child health,
survival?
Tuberculosis continues to infect 22 lakh people every year
in India, of which 5 lakh people die as a result of it. There is
a lack of effort to control the transfer of infection from adult
to children the problem of addressing childhood TB remains
as challenging as it was decades ago. Lack of hygiene and
sanitation as well as poverty and pollution are the perfect
triggers for the onset of the disease. And once again, children
Anjali Singh and women are the worst sufferers
W
The writer a senior development
journalist and a child rights activist
who specialises in writing on human
development issues with a focus
on women and children. She is the
director of Saaksham Foundation,
an organisation that addresses child
rights violations in Uttar Pradesh.
18
hen it comes to the issue of child rights, the hype surrounding
it is unfortunately motivated by immediate incidents. Take the
case of Falak in New Delhi. The child was brutalised, abused
and neglected for quite sometime before the law or child rights agencies
intervened. No NGO, enforcement agency, child welfare organisation or
even members of civil society batted an eyelid until the child landed in
intensive care in hospital, almost dying. When such is the attitude towards
protection issues related to children, how can larger issues of child health
and survival be addressed and how effectively? Even today, children
prone to infection continue to remain exposed to hazardous situations be
it at home or at work, where the nature of work has a serious and direct
impact on the child's health.
While it is quite evident that medical interventions in terms of
addressing the infant mortality rate and efforts to raise the nutritional
index of a child are on, what is going unnoticed is the lack of intervention
and efforts to control the transfer of infection from adult to children, be it
HIV/AIDS or TB. In a recent e-consultation on childhood TB facilitated
by the Citizen News Service (a partner of Stop TB Partnership) along with
other national and international organisations, it became clear that even
today the problem of addressing childhood TB remains as challenging
as it was decades ago. This, despite all the intervention, research and
medical innovation that have taken place in treating and diagnosing the
disease. Medical experts are still struggling to ensure that awareness and
treatment techniques reach the infected population, and quickly, but the
success rates are indeed dismal.
Explains Bobby Ramakant of CNS who anchored the consultation from
Lucknow, “The idea of an e-consultation on childhood TB resulted due to
continued neglect of issues related to children with TB who have faced
not only discrimination but also remained ignored in terms of medical
intervention. TB is a preventable and curable disease. Ideally no one
should get TB as it is preventable. But since TB infection is an indicator
of a range of factors associated with social development such as poverty,
housing, hygiene, indoor air pollution, tobacco use, lack of food security or
nutrition, among others, the disease continues to infect 22 lakh people every
year in India, of which 5 lakh people lose their lives. This is unacceptable.
Also unless we control adulthood TB, childhood TB cannot be controlled
as children get TB infection from adults only. This makes it all the more
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
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no one could help her. She said she
wanted to go back to the health
centre but they didn't have any more
money and no transportation was
available. Each time she coughed she
hit on her chest to show us where it
hurt. I will never forget the pain on
her face, the shortness of her breath
when she tried to tell us her story.
I will never forget the fear I felt for
the baby on her breast and her other
two children and thinking that this
woman unless treated immediately
will soon die and leave these kids
orphans. The end of the story is that
the woman did have TB and the
last we heard was that the district
officer was trying to get the children
tested. So what went wrong? Why
was this woman sent home with
a bag of antibiotics and vitamins?
This is a very common story and it's
happening every day, many times a
day around the world, especially in
developing HTB countries.”
Chibuike Amaechi, from Lagos
Nigeria, on the other hand focused
on living conditions in a country that
contributed to childhood TB, “Some
of the causes of childhood TB is
congested and unhygienic residence,
poor refuse management and dirty
drainage in the neighbourhood
and community The government
of Lagos State identified these
infection control challenges and
introduced measures to reduce these
conditions to the barest minimum.
Also the state government policy on
free medical treatment for children
under five have contributed in
reducing childhood TB. However,
clinical management of childhood
TB still remains a challenge due
to late detection of the disease in
children. I feel TB education should
be incorporated into post-natal care
for nursing mothers and children
under-five care-givers. Maternal and
child health programme should be
comprehensive, educating mothers
and care givers on signs and
symptoms of TB in children.”
Preventing TB in terms of
preventing infection is not enough,
a rights-based approach is a vital.
An X-ray image of a child infected
with TB. Many children are being
diagnosed with the same condition.
In
child-labour-prone
areas
where children work in industries
such as metal and polishing
works, children are exposed to
respiratory diseases, TB infection
topping the list. In Moradabad,
Aligarh and other cities in UP,
every third person is diagnosed
with some form of TB and 64 per
cent of deaths take place due to
TB. This clearly indicates that a
treatment approach and followup are non-existent and children
are constantly being exposed to
infection on a daily basis. We
know through our jail visits that
a large number of TB cases exist
in jails. It is a health situation that
authorities are struggling with.
Our worry is that a large number
of children who are brought to
homes and institutions for care
and protection, or simply for being
in conflict with law, result in large
numbers being confined together.
The first infection they then catch
is TB. But none are regularly
screened or treated for it, though
there is a provision for doctors
to visit the institutions. Children
when brought in are also not put
through a medical examination so
they never receive any treatment
for any chronic infection they may
be having. Even more worrying is
the fact that we have no statistics
to ascertain how many homes have
children with chronic infection.
<
important to address adult TB
effectively so as to improve TB
responses for children.
The effort of the initiative
was to disseminate information
classified as (Theme 1) Preventing
TB in Children and (Theme II)
Diagnosing and Treating TB in
Children. At the end of it CNS
was able to compile summary
reports, photographs, videos and
publications in lead up to the
World TB Day (March 24).
Said Hara Mihalea from
PATH in a post: “I like to start
by sharing a real story which I
experienced during one of my
visits to the field last year. During
a monitoring visit for your PPM
program, I came across a referral
slip made out by a pharmacy staff
referring a 36-year-old woman to
the DOTS health centre. Looking
at the symptoms circled on the
slip one could tell that it was
certainly a pulmonary TB case –
weight loss, fatigue, chest pain,
fever, and cough with blood.
We traced the referral to one of
the district health centres where
we found out that the woman
had indeed gone for further
evaluation, she was checked,
diagnosed, given medication and
sent home. We were told by the
health centre staff that since the
first visit she came back twice,
each time sicker than before,
and was again send home, being
told she had no TB. We decided
to visit her at home where she
lived with her husband, her inlaws, two small children and one
baby. We asked the district TB
officer to join us so he could be
able to follow-up later on. When
we arrived in her small house we
were taken up to her room, she
was sitting on a straw mat on the
floor, baby on her breast, glassy
eyes, face flushed with fever.
She repeated the same story that
the health staff told us. She told
us how disappointed, sad, and
scared she felt, she said she was
getting worse by the minute and
19
A laudable community
radio initiative
R
Ankuran Dutta
Anamika Ray
Ankuran Dutta is assistant professor
in Mass Communication and incharge of the Multimedia Production
Unit at the K K Handiqui State Open
University, Guwahati.
Anamika Ray is an assistant professor
in the Department of Communication
and Journalism, Gauhati University,
20
adio is one of the most vibrant communication tools. The historic
judgment of the Supreme Court in 1995 had stated that airwaves
constitute public property and must be utilised for advancing public
good. As such, radio can and must be used for disseminating ‘edutainment’
programmes. A community radio station is possibly the most effective
medium to reach out to the local community, especially in India with its
1.2 billion population and multitude of languages. Such as radio station
is designed for a particular community and its success really depends on
accessibility and participation of people in the local neighbourhood. The
main objective is to provide a platform to the unheard and a voice to the
voiceless.
In India, 4000 licenses have been offered by the Central Government
for establishing community radio stations. Currently, there are about 120
such stations operating in India. Let us take the example of Jnan Taranga, a
community radio station in Assam under the administration of the Krishna
Kanta Handiqui State Open University. It is the first community radio
station in the entire north-eastern region. Since its inception in 2010, Jnan
Taranga has been broadcasting programmes on health issues – problems
relating to ear, nose and throat or eyes; dental care, gynecology, child care,
ayurveda, etc. A significant programme is the one on Tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is a deadly communicable disease which spreads through
air. India has more than 20 per cent of the world’s TB patients. According
to a report in The Times of India, TB infected more than 15 lakh people in
2010 and killed over three lakh. It is estimated that 140 lakh people in
India suffer from TB, of which about 35 lakh are sputum positive. TB kills
more women than all other causes of maternal mortality. TB attacks the
most productive age group (15-60 years). According to data released by
the World Health Organisation, India's case detection rate in 2010 was just
about 60 per cent, of which 73000 of the new cases were already multidrug-resistant. Again, of this, less than 3000 were detected. In order to
create a worldwide awareness about TB, March 24 is observed as World
TB Day.
Jnan Taranga, in collaboration with a Chennai-based NGO called REACH
(Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health),
has produced 16 episodes of TB awareness programmes for improving
awareness about the disease among the local communities. REACH has
been working for the past 10 years to create awareness about TB. Jnan
Taranga began broadcasting the episodes from September 2011, at 4.30
pm every Sunday, with the programme titled Sasthya Charcha. The series
ended in January this year. The episodes featured interviews, discussions
and inputs from well-known physicians, health officers and TB patients.
Some of the subjects covered included: Why is TB a problem?, how does
TB spread?, what are the different types of TB?, how do I know if I have
TB?, how can TB be diagnosed?, what are the treatment options for TB?,
the link between TB and poverty, and social impact of TB. People of the
community responded by interacting through phone-in programmes.
A pre- and post-programme survey conducted by Jnan Taranga among
the locals as well as school and college students revealed that those who
benefited the most were housewives, autorickshaw drivers, shopkeepers
VIDURA
April-June 2012
and vendors. It became clear that a
community radio station could be
effectively used to educate people
and to develop the community.
Tuberculosis is a highly
infectious
disease
caused
by bacteria (Mycobacterium
tuberculosis). The TB germs
usually spread through the air
we breathe. When a patient with
sputum-positive
pulmonary
tuberculosis sneezes or spits he
throws TB germs into the air in
the form of tiny droplets. When
the germs are inhaled by other
persons, they can develop TB. The
disease is not spread by touching
the clothes or shaking hands
and cannot be passed on by a
pregnant woman to her child. TB
is spread primarily from person
to person, by inhaling infected
air during close contact. A person
diagnosed with TB should take
complete treatment for six to eight
months. DOTS (directly observed
treatment, short-course) is the
most effective for controlling TB.
TB can be controlled if the
people are properly aware of the
disease. If a person has cough for
more than two weeks, he should
Some of the participants at a community meeting on TB.
get his sputum diagnosed. If detected
for TB germs, he should take the full
treatment as prescribed by the doctor.
One should use a handkerchief
while coughing or sneezing. Spitting
in open places should be avoided.
The first TB control programme
was implemented in 1962. But
due to various lacunae, a revised
strategy was implemented in 1992,
the Revised National TB Control
Programme, which follows the
DOTS strategy. The media can play
a vital role in spreading awareness
about TB. There should be more
TB awareness programmes in the
media. The initiative taken by
Jnan Taranga can be replicated
elsewhere in India, an initiative
to spread awareness about health
issues among common people,
which is so very important.
<
A TB patient being interviewed at the District TB Centre in Kamrup.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
21
Children beat the odds
to pursue education
Pradeep Baisakh
It is a village in Odisha which seems like the back of beyond.
Here, children are made to work to add to the family income
and parents are not too fond of sending them to school. Yet,
there are girls such as Namsi and Gurubari who just cannot
do without attending classes, despite being shouted down
by their father. They even stay away from home to attend
classes. However, thanks to efforts by the volunteers of
Sikshasandhan, things are slowly changing in these parts and
parents are beginning to send children to study
The writer is a freelance journalist
based in Odisha. He has extensively
written on transparency law, right
to work and food, migration, forest
and environment, industrialisation
and development, women-related
issues and tribal rights. He is a Media
Fellow of the National Foundation
of India for 2012.
amsi Purti resumed study by joining Class 4 at the Kathachua
Primary School after a gap. Her father, Hadi Purti, however, did not
want her to go to school as she was an earning hand for the family.
She used to help her mother in selling handia (country liquor), pluck sal
leaves and stitch them, and help in domestic chores. As she started going
to school, her involvement in household activities reduced. Namsi is from
Kathachua Village, which falls under the Kalamgadia Gram Panchayat of
Kaptipada Block in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj District.
One day, when Namsi was preparing to go to class, her father told
her to go with her mother to sell handia. But Namsi was not willing to
discontinue her classes, and she refused to heed him. “What’s the point
of going to school. Go to work in the nearby mines and help mother in
work. What will you get from education?” Hadi shouted. Namsi’s elder
sister Gurubari, also studying in Class 4, received a similar warning.
That day, the sisters left home and went to class. After school they were
clueless where to go. They decided to go to the house of their father’s elder
brother.
The sisters continued attending classes, but the problem of returning
home remained. As days passed, the sisters gradually began returning
home. But Hadi’s antipathy continued. So they chose to go to school
from home, clandestinely. On occasions, the girls would hide their books
under the skirt while going out. Over a period, the sisters’ conviction in
attending classes won over the minds of their parents. “When we were
staying outside, we would quietly jump over the walls of our house at
night to have our dinner,” says Namsi. Says Hadi, “No sir, I am for the
education of my daughters. But only once I told my younger daughter to
stop going to school and help her mother. I realise my mistake. I will now
ensure that my daughters go to school regularly”. The sisters managed the
school uniform and sandals from their own earnings. Gurubari worked in
the nearby mines, breaking the stones to pieces to earn Rs 450 in a week;
Namsi collected sal leaves and stitched them to make plates and sell. From
these earnings, the siblings purchased school dresses, sleepers and other
stuffs of necessity.
Volunteers of Sikshasandhan, a civil society organisation working on
the Right to Education Act have taken efforts to persuade parents in the
tribal area to send children to school. It may not be pertinent to blame the
parents for not taking enough interest in the education of their children.
22
N
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Photos: PB
In Kalamgadia, the children generally
double up as the economic hands of the
family. They help parents in agriculture,
collect non-timber forest produce, go
to nearby hills to break stones, and sell
handia.Feur like the ones on night are
able to go to school regwaly.
school, the parents feel, would reduce
the family income. The girls also
help the mothers in domestic chores.
The elder siblings take care of the
younger ones when the parents go
out for work or they sell something.
Asman Soy, the language teacher in
Kathachua School, a local, says “It’s
true that if the children go to school,
their involvement in domestic and
economic activities declines. But
one has to see the long-term gain
for the family and community from
education.” In order to bridge the
language barrier, Sikshasandhan
experimented by recruiting a teacher
who could teach the children in the
local language.
Constant
touch
with
the
community by social workers has
shown results. The children are
gradually being sent to schools
by parents. The language teachers
are teaching in Ho, Santhali and
Bathudi, and also narrating stories
relating to tribal culture. The children
now find it interesting as they
understand what is being taught.
The government teachers have
become regular and the schools are
opening and closing on time. “In
12 schools, the attendance has risen
to almost 65 to 75 per cent, from
barely 20 to 25 per cent two years
ago. For example, in Kalamgadia
School, out of the total strength
of 188, daily attendance varied
between 110 and 125 children.
Similarly, the Kathachua New
Primary School was really not
functioning earlier. But now the
daily attendance varies from 60 to
75, of the total strength of 94. This
is based on data colleted from the
schools by our language teachers,”
explains Pitambar Sankhua of
Sikshasandhan. “Education is
the only means to get rid of child
labour,” adds his colleague, Anil
Pradhan.
<
Teacher absenteeism is rampant
in all the primary schools. Schools
would open only for few hours
daily. The teacher would come
at 11.30 am and leave by 2 pm
or 2.30 pm. The teacher-student
ratio has been too low in almost
all the schools till recently when
some new teachers have been
appointed. In most of the schools
there was only one teacher. Schools
remained closed on Saturdays.
Given such circumstances, the
level of attendance by children
has been abysmally low. With no
monitoring mechanism in place,
the teachers, most of whom were
from the general community,
used to take advantage of the
situation and neglect their
duties. Things have improved
after
Sikshasandhan
began
alerting the community about the
opportunity of providing children
free elementary education. The
School Management Committee,
a body of parents of school-going
children, has become vigilant
about
teacher
attendance,
leading to an improvement in the
situation.
Kalamgadia has poor roads
and commuting is difficult. The
houses are mostly scattered.
The panchayat is dominated
by Ho, Santhalis and Bathudi
communities. As the literacy
level of the tribal communities is
very low, people generally do not
understand the value of education.
There exists a communication gap
between teachers and students,
thanks to the language barrier –
the teachers could not speak the
local Ho and Santhali language
and the small children cannot
understand Odia. There is no
common medium of study and
instruction.
In Kalamgadia, the children
generally double up as the
economic hands of the family.
They help parents in agriculture,
collect non-timber forest produce,
go to nearby hills to break stones,
and sell handia. Children going to
23
Should children appear
on TV reality shows?
Shoma A. Chatterji
Children in Indian metros have been participating in ramp
shows over the past several years. The issue of children
participating in reality shows on television that have cutthroat competition and take the kids away from school for
months at a stretch is old hat. Yet, no one seems to raise an
eyebrow much less point accusing fingers at the parents or
the organisations that make children participate in shows that
take away from their lives, a major slice of their childhood
joys
L
The writer is a freelance journalist,
author and film scholar based in
Kolkata. She writes widely on cinema,
gender issues, media and human
rights for print and online media.
Her articles have appeared in The
Tribune, The Statesman and The Free
Press Journal. She has authored 17
books and contributed to many edited
compilations on cinema, family and
gender. She has won the national
award for Best Writing on Cinema
twice, the Bengal Film Journalists
Association Award, and a lifetime
achievement award from LaadlyUNFPA in 2010.
24
ast month, a reputed business house had organised a three-day
fashion show to showcase kids’ designer wear in Mumbai. Around
500 children between four and 14, selected from Mumbai, Bengaluru
and Delhi, walked the ramp. This is not new in the history of live fashion
shows in India. It has been going on for several years now. It is an ironical
situation where on the one hand, we raise slogans and campaign against
the use of child labour in factories, hotels, restaurants and homes, while
on the other, many of us cheer kids from better placed homes as they
participate in reality television shows or in live ramp shows.
According to a detailed article by Ingrid Srinath (IndiaTogether.org;
29th August, 2006), the Ministry of Labour issued a notification banning
children below 14 from working in residences and the hospitality sector.
After agriculture, these are areas where the largest number of children
is employed. It was hoped that prohibiting their employment in homes
and at waiting tables would address a large lacuna in the then-current
laws against employing children. The prohibition was brought into force
by adding these areas in the list of hazardous occupations, where child
labour was already prohibited. The ban was imposed under the Child
Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 and was to become effective
from 10th October 2006.
However, the lacuna sustains and we still find young boys cleaning
tables, or, lifting luggages at railway stations, or washing cars or working
as domestics in people’s homes. It is not surprising, therefore, that the
framers of the notification did not take any cognizance of children
participating in live ramp shows as models though as children, they are
neither socially mature enough nor professionally trained to participate in
such shows. Nor did they consider children taking part in reality shows as
‘labour’ as they were not paid for participating and it were the parents of
the winners who actually stood to benefit from such participation.
Says Delhi-based psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chugh: “These children could
begin to feel special and may expect to be treated differently from other
children, often carrying the threat of becoming arrogant or rude to others.
Such exposure at a young age could make the child used to a certain kind
of fame and adulation in the absence of which, the child may feel uneasy
and unsure. It is extremely important that these children get the right
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
kind of parental guidance and are
raised in an atmosphere close to
other kids their age.” About what
makes the parents permit their
kids to take part, Dr Chugh says,
“To see their children on national
TV or on the ramp is a moment
of pride and joy for the parents.
It fulfils the parents' unmet
psychological needs, too. The
amount of fame and importance
that the children get can become
risky if parents do not know
how to keep a tight grip on the
situation. Often, parents tend to
realise their latent dreams and
wishes through their children and
hence find it hard to withdraw
from that limelight. Parents also
derive a sense of pleasure from the
attention given to them. They too
become popular and get noticed
in their own social world which
April-June 2012
VIDURA
could give them a certain high. This
could blur their vision and make it
hard for them to decide where to
draw the line.”
Kamalini Mukherjee, a noted
model and film star based in
Chennai, says she is against such
participation because it takes away
a chunk from the child’s innocence
that is a part of childhood. “Parents
often get caught up in the lure
and the child is the one who
misses out on the irresponsible,
impulsive childish joys. My parents
were very clear about the fact
that my education was not to be
compromised so show business had
to be put on the back burner till I
had laid out a strong foundation for
myself. I 'm thankful for that. It has
kept me grounded and helped me
become more sure of myself. A child
is a sponge and whatever is around
is absorbed. The glamour industry
is far too complicated and heady
an experience for a child to put its
head around.” When she becomes
a mother, Kamalini says that she
would rather take her child to a
movie, or to the zoo or to a park
or a museum than make him/
her a model walking the ramp or
participating in a reality show. “I
do not see modelling as a strategy
to use women as commodities
because they are consenting adults
who have chosen to be in it as a
way of earning their livelihood
and a certain kind of lifestyle. But
with children, the emotional and
psychological impact of walking
the ramp on an unformed mind
not aware enough to deal with
it is definitely exploitative, and
children are used as commodities
to be paraded in front of a niche
25
audience,” sums up Kamalini.
“Parents are the best role models.
The family structure, relationships,
values and the socialising process
are fundamental to the child's
self image. If this part is taken
care of then there should not be
any problem as far as the child
is concerned, says Guwahatibased consulting psychologist Dr
Bandana Dutta. “All negativities
can be overlooked if parents have a
strong base of traditional and social
values and a proper ‘identity’ of
themselves to guide their children.
But a second chance of being
focused in public space, either on
television or in front of an elite
audience may occur which should
not be encouraged. The question
of whether it is ethical or not to
use children on live ramp shows
or to perform in television reality
shows is rather tricky because
it does not bring out a definite
‘yes’ or ‘no’. There are many
layers between these two extreme
polarities that need to be examined
in depth and with objectivity.
While such participation can
draw shy and introvert children
out of their cocoons to socialise
with other children their age, it
could also make children who
are achievement-oriented and
friendly and precocious, arrogant
and conceited which is not good at
all. So, how can one take a definite
stance for or against?” she asks.
Some parents of children who
participate in reality shows say that
they are trying to motivate their
children towards excellence in the
field in which they are already very
good. Where does one draw the line
between pushing and motivating?
Psychiatrists opine that parents
who wished to achieve something
in life but could not, seek to get
vicarious fulfillment through the
achievements of their children.
“But what parents fail to realise is
that their children too, may fail to
fulfill their aspirations,” says Dr
Shiladitya Ray, chief psychiatrist at
26
Belle Vue Hospital, Kolkata.
A recent Bengali play staged
in Kolkata by Nandimukh called
Heroe Number One (Heroe
meaning ‘loser’ in Bengali) strikes
the right chord at the right time and,
perhaps, in the right place. Heroe
Number One is about the fissures
created within a family whose
entire life begins to revolve around
the only child’s participation in a
reality dance show. Jhimli, the only
child of Paromita, a housewife, and
Angshuman, a school teacher, is a
gifted dancer. She takes part in a
reality dance show. The pressures
on the child as she reaches the final
five gradually become so heavy that
she collapses under the strain and
develops serious health problems
that are diagnosed as neurological
in nature. The mother, who seeks
to enjoy vicarious victory of
unfulfilled dreams through her
daughter’s achievements, cannot
see the harm she is bringing upon
her own family. The father, haunted
by a boyhood incident involving
cricket, is so passive and so deeply
sucked into his own depression
that he does not put his foot down
at the right time.
Ajanta Iyer, special educator
of deaf and specially challenged
children in Mumbai, says, “Parents
(a) want their children to achieve the
higher goals in life; (b) parents are
also pressurised by the demands
of modern-day living where there
is no scope for also-rans or that is
what they think; (c) they want to be
a part of their children’s adulation;
and (d) they find it a way to make
children their source of income.”
She points out that there are some
short-run benefits to the children
such as a gain in self-confidence,
independence and expertise in
the given field. “But this may
harm them in the long run. For
example, this could develop traits
like over-confidence, make them
materialistic at a very young age
because they understand that there
are material rewards in cash or
kind at the end of the road and so
on. The merits I have mentioned
above can also be attained in other
ways such as through proper
training, guidance, creating an
atmosphere within the home
conducive to development and
the right amount of enthusiasm
shown by elders towards the child
to bring out its true potential in a
natural way rather than through
short cuts like ramp walks and
reality shows,” she insists.
In The Madness of Modern
Families, authors Meg Sanders
and Annie Ashworth point out
how even normally sensible, welleducated British middle-class
parents are resorting to insane
measures to outdo other families
and give their children an edge
over the rest. “From mothers
who secretly train at home for the
grown-ups' egg-and-spoon race
on school sports day, to those who
follow the school bus on its trip
to France in case any harm might
come to their offspring, parents
are taking it to the extreme,”
write Sanders and Ashworth. The
book details cases about parents
playing foreign radio stations in
the bedrooms of their children so
they can learn languages in their
sleep. In the United States, some
middle-class parents have long
been prepared to do whatever
it takes to give their children an
edge that can lead to better marks,
better colleges and a better future.
Sanders and Ashworth have
tried to lighten the seriousness of
the book by classifying pushing
parents under different categories
in a light-hearted way. There is the
Helicopter Mummy who hovers
constantly by her child’s side, not
allowing him/her out of her sight.
The Touchline Dad who is forever
nagging his reluctant son to keep
working at his football while
the Touchline Mom sits by the
swimming pool timing the child’s
backstroke laps on the stopwatch
on her mobile phone. The Eco
VIDURA
April-June 2012
past. Her parents had stopped her
from taking part in dancing shows
because her academic grades were
falling and had pulled her out of the
dance academy. Siddharh says “Too
much success at a young age can
cause burnout over a period of time.
They may not face the same success
as adults, which could result in
depression, drug abuse, suicide, etc.
we have seen classic cases abroad of
child stars who have gone astray in
adulthood like Lindsay Lohan.”
The Child Llabour Act and other
labor laws were made to ensure that
“the children are not employed in
hazardous employments, and that
the working conditions of children
working in non-hazardous areas are
regulated in accordance with the
provisions of the Act. It also entails
further identification of additional
occupations and processes, which
are detrimental to the health and
safety of the children.” Writes
Ronak, “There is no mention in the
list drawn by the Child Labour Act
of industries where children are
legally prohibited from employment
about their working in the glamour
industry like movies, TV, or walking
the ramp. So, is the list incomplete?
Should they be banned from this
kind of work too? After all, they do
get paid for the work that they do.
We are all aware of the amount of
psychological and physical stress
involved in any showbiz. Are the
kids ready to handle the kind of
stress that comes with fame and
money at an early age?”
The culture of violence and
corruption spread through cinema,
the media and the body-politic
enhances negative influences
pervading society in general and
the family in particular. Nuclear
families,
working
couples,
consumerism, and influx of global
culture means parents, who
become victims of stress, transfer
much of it to their offspring.
They do not give themselves or
their children enough space to
understand each other. Parenting
against the backdrop of an
upwardly mobile consumerist
culture is equated with the quantity
of material comforts and luxuries
it can provide the younger ones
in the family instead of sustaining
a relationship of mutual love,
understanding, empathy and
goodwill.
<
Mummy keeps herself in a state of
constant worry over feeding the
kids on “biodynamic falafel and
organic mushroom pate.” The
Craft Mummy carefully hands
her kid a collage of leaves and
grasses, not exactly dry, drilling
the child to create something
aesthetic and utilitarian at the
same time.
Siddharth
Iyer,
senior
programme executive with a
Mumbai-based international NGO
says that he is against children
participating in ramp walks and
reality shows because “children
are not capable of handling the
pressures of the competition and
the ramp walks. They are often
asked to make statements about
other competitors, which is not
healthy. They grow up faster than
they should and are deprived of
a normal childhood and as they
become famous at a very young
age, they lose focus in academics
and lose out on a proper formal
education.
He has a point there because
in 2011, 11-year-old Neha Sawant
hanged herself with her dupatta
at home in Dombivli in Thane.
She had participated in three
TV dance reality shows in the
Bhaskar School of Media Education set up
Dainik Bhaskar Group believes there is a gap in quality media training and education in India. To fill the
gap and provide training to media professionals in the country, it has launched the Bhaskar School of Media
Education. The school in Bhopal is supported by the Sanskaar Valley School and plans to train up to 75 students
at a time. It has tied up with Dale Carnegie Training Consultants to adapt and create training programs in
identified areas. Commenting on the initiative Sudhir Agarwal, managing director, Dainik Bhaskar Group
says, “This endeavour is an extension of Bhaskar's vision to drive socio-economic change as the largest print
media group and to help develop professionals attuned to the latest trends in media systems, processes and
values.” The Bhaskar School of Media Education will work under the leadership of Jyoti Agarwal, who is also
the director of Sanskar Valley. The curriculum has been designed to meet the current and future demands of
the media industry.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
27
It’s Internet, TV that
draw most children
Anshu Arora
This study on the development and cultivation of media habits
during a child’s formative years in school throws some light
on the sensitivity of children towards media. Children are
today exposed to a whole range of mass media from print to
electronic; they have a variety to choose from – newspapers,
periodicals, posters, television, radio, computer, mobile
phones, MP3 players, i-Pod… The study was carried out in a
public school campus.
The study covered:
• Students - Six groups, from Classes I to XII. A selective sample of
300 was made from after dividing it into six groups of 50 each. It
contained an equal number of boys and girls, low graders and high
graders and students from financially different backgrounds.
• Teachers – A set of 50
• Parents – A set of 50
A complete understanding of a student can best be made when personal
aspects/traits/behavior are known from parents and professional (school
and campus life) behaviour are gleaned from teachers. When a child
enters LKG, he is exposed to A B C and slowly he accumulates a great
deal of information; likewise, the learning graph and media habits are
established. The use of media may be classified as a habit only if:
• The user has complete know-how about the use of media
• Media serves as a source of information
• The received information is used in some form
• The receiver spends some time with the media
Anshu Arora is a
research scholar at
Kurukshetra University
and principal of Bal
Bharti Senior Secondary
School, Bahadurgarh,
Haryana. She has 20
years of teaching and
administrative experience.
She has authored books on
computers and multimedia.
she was a coordinator at
the Fifth Internatinol
Children’s Festival
in 2005.
28
• Receiver influence others for use of that media
EDUCATION FOR ALL
is still a distant dream!
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A journal of the Press Institute of India promoting the human condition
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RIND Premises Second Main Road, Taramani CPT Campus,
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VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
29
Comparative analysis of the opinion of parents, teachers and students.
an hour every day from
Classes 7 to 12
• Radio listening was nil till
Class 6, it then gradually
grew from an hour in Classes
7 and 8 to two in Classes 9
and 10 and finally three in
Classes 11 and 12
• Phone usage was nil till Class
2, it then gradually grew
from an hour in Classes 3 to
8, to two in Classes 9 and 10
and finally four in Classes 11
and 12
• Television
showed
a
downward trend and moved
from four hours in Classes
1 and 2 to three in Classes 3
and 4 and finally two hours
from Classes 5 to 12
• Newspapers were found to
be on low priority, though
students said they spent half
an hour every day reading
them, while both parents and
teachers denied it.
• Radio was liked a little more
than newspapers; children
especially liked listening to
music. While children said
they spent about half an hour
every day listening to radio,
parents and teachers felt it
was about one hour.
while parents and teachers felt
it was about three.
• The Internet was a big favorite.
Students and teachers felt that
about two and a half hours
were spent by children on it
every day, parents felt it was
about three hours.
• The phone was liked more
than the radio. While students
felt they spent about an hour
and a half every day using the
phone, parents and teachers
felt it was about two hours.
Time spent with media became
the most important variable
since there were availability and
ease of use. The children were
generally found to be at ease while
handling the various media and
had adequate knowledge, too.
They acknowledged the role of the
school, family and environment
in shaping their media habits.
They were unable to ascertain
who played what role and to what
extent. Furthe analysis revealed the
following:
• Television was liked a lot.
Students felt they spent about
two and a half hours every day,
• Newspaper reading was nil
till Class 6, it then picked up
and was maintained to about
30
<
Findings
• Internet showed a steady
upward trend and moved
from nil in Classes 1 and 2
to one in Classes 3 and 4. It
further increased gradually
from two hours in Classes
5 and 6 to three in Classes
9 and 10 and from four in
Classes 9 and 10 to finally
five in Classes 11 and 12.
Tinkle is best
Tinkle
Holiday
Special
Magazine, produced by ACK
Media, won the award for the
best publication for children at
the 2nd Comic Con India Awards
2011. The category included
single issues of comic books,
magazines and illustrated novels
aimed at younger readers. The
Jungle book, The Kashmiri
Storyteller and Three Men in a
Boat were the other nominees
in the category in which Tinkle
Holiday Special won the award.
Tinkle Holiday Special was a
special issue that had lot of fun
activities and fascinating stories
for children.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
31
Gender equity: Sometimes,
networking helps
Sakuntala Narasimhan
What role did women play in the recent protests that Egypt
saw, against its leaders? There were a few small items in
parenthesis, but no deeper focus on the issue. How do women
fare in reporting from danger zones, during conflicts or when
faced with mafia gangs who do not want the media probing
into their links or activities? Who rewards the intrepid female
reporters for such courageous reporting, in the face of threats
and worse? How many of us, even among media persons,
know that there exists an international award for courage in
journalism, given annually by a global network of women in
the media?
A
The writer, based in Bangalore, gave
up a job (1978-84) with the Times
of India Group in Mumbai to write
her columns, acquire two PhDs and
become an activist for consumer
rights. She is a recipient of the Media
Foundation's Chameli Devi Award
for Outstanding Woman Journalist of
the Year (1983), the PUCL National
Award for Human Rights Journalism
(2000), the Deepalaya National
Award for Child Rights Journalism
(2000) and the K.S. Aiyar Memorial
award for Outstanding Writing on
Socially Relevant Issues (1993).
Her fortnightly columns on gender
issues and consumer rights ran in the
Deccan Herald for 27 years.
32
nother question: Why does the USA have the highest maternal
mortality rate in the developed world? Stumped? Didn’t even
know that the US has the highest MMR in the developed world?
Not knowing is the reality, for most of us, worldwide (including the US).
Forget about mainstream media analysing the issue, it does not even find
a mention, and the fact comes as a surprise because most of us think of the
US as the leader in terms of lifestyle parameters.
International Women’s Day on March 8 brings round an annual exercise
in exploring different approaches to a focus on gender equity, which
the media report on, but what about gender in the media itself, and in
newsrooms – and not merely in the sense of adding a gender dimension to
news reports and analyses? Women working in and operating the media -as reporters, editors, news presenters, anchors, radio programme producers
and bloggers – are no longer a rarity; what is professional life like, for
them, how do they encounter – and deal with – gender discrimination in
the work place? More specifically, is there a need for a network of women
in the media, or does increasing visibility of women working in and for
the media, make such gender-based linking anachronistic, or make it
tantamount to ‘ghetto-isation’ as other networking initiatives (for blacks,
for instance) have been described? Let us look at a few media networks
meant exclusively for women, some Indian, and others international, to
make the point that networking does indeed bring bonuses to women and
helps them in their professional enrichment.
There exists a national Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI)
with 16 regional networks (like NWMB, the network based at Bangalore)
that maintain links to the all-India network, even though each regional
network enjoys autonomy in its non-hierarchical operations and activities
(meetings, events, Web sites). An annual conference brings together the
various regional networks together for interactions, discussions and
presentations, with the venue of the conference rotated around the different
states (Bangalore and Manipur have played host to such conferences in
recent years). Yes, they do focus on issues that do not normally get on
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
the agendas of mainstream media
conferences or enjoy at best
a token inclusion. And yes, it
does make a difference to the
professional dimensions of the
women participants, in terms of
enhanced support that a network
provides as against an individual’s
efforts, for improving workplace
facilities.
When Roop Kanwar, an 18year-old bride committed sati
by jumping into the funeral
pyre of her deceased husband
and died in Deorala Village in
Rajasthan in September 1987, it
was a quick investigative report
titled Trial by Fire, put together
by members of the Women and
Media committee of the Bombay
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Union of Journalists, that resulted in
bringing to light the deeper, genderlinked implications of the sati event,
and eventually led to the Indian
government passing legislation
banning the glorification of sati .
The websites of NWMI and NWMB3
keep women in the media linked
electronically, to share information
about fellowships and grants
available, job opportunities in the
media, resources, assignments, and
forthcoming conferences, besides
facilitating discussions on social
developments and news reports
concerning gender (judgments on
sexual harassment cases, landmark
rulings on women’s rights in
marriage and maintenance, for
instance). It also draws into the links
women journalists working in the
local presses in local languages
(Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam,
Hindi), which enables them to
network with a larger group on a
broader canvas of national issues.
NWMB also associates itself with
the annual award of the Anupama
Jayaram prize for the Best Young
Woman Journalist of the Year, in
memory of a woman journalist who
worked for the Indian Express.
The monthly meetings at the
Bangalore Press Club also discuss
ideas for special events (a musical
feature on Women Composers of
India – in 8 languages, focusing
on women over a span of 2000
years, who did not get recognition
mainly because they were females,
33
was put up some years ago, for
instance). The national meet in
Manipur helped focus on Irom
Sharmila (read more about her later
in this issue), an intrepid Manipuri
woman who has been on a hunger
strike for a decade, in protest
against draconian army rules in the
northeast, through multiple articles
in various language publications,
written by media women who
attended the Manipur conference).
Says Laxmi Murthy who was
one of the founders of NWMI in
Delhi in 2002, “There is always
a ‘women’s perspective’ to news
reporting, and this means looking
beyond the obvious, or the
more typical ‘women’s stories’,
like domestic violence, rape or
fashion, all of which only reinforce
gender stereotypes. It is crucial
to be sensitive to the women’s
angle in seemingly ‘neutral’
topics like disasters, budgets, and
development.” She also points
out that special interest groups
(like women in the media) always
have to “walk a tight rope between
serving a special interest group and
becoming an exclusive club. But
as long as there is discrimination
against women, which also
includes women in the media, a
group like NWMI is very relevant.
Its mission is also relevant because
gender sensitivity makes for better
reporting and better journalism.”
A swamiji (holy man) writing
a popular column in the Deccan
Herald once remarked in his article
that women “are not interested in
going to the moon because there
is no shopping there”. That was
offensive and crass, and NWMB
members were quick to condemn
the sexist comment. Khushwant
Singh likewise, once wrote that
Himachali women are lovely and
that he “would have liked to buy
one”. I don’t remember seeing
condemnation of such a crass
sexist comment in the media but
we in NWMB did exchange our
views about such writing. Buying
a woman? As if she were cattle or a
piece of soap? And coming from a
34
senior columnist, and former editor
who also served in our diplomatic
mission in the UK! Getting away
with making such a remark, in
a widely read column? That, in
essence, is what having a network
for sensitising the public is all
about.
The
Delhi-based
Women’s
Feature Service, an agency which
distributes articles on gender issues
to a large number of publications in
the Indian subcontinent (as well as
online sites), describes itself as "for
women, by women" but although
its contributors are mostly female,
there are some “extremely talented
male writer-contributors who are
sensitive to gender concerns” as
Pamela Philipose, who took over
as director of WFS in 2008, puts
it. And WFS is “happy to have
them contribute to WFS’s media
content”, she adds, demolishing the
myth that only females can write
about women’s issues. Pamela,
who earlier worked for the Times
of India and other mainstream
papers, does confess to having
felt, at the beginning of her career,
a trifle sidelined when women
editorial staff were assigned to do
stories on (for instance) “umbrella
sales” (always important in premonsoon Mumbai!) but her
generation of media women has,
over the past three decades, helped
change perspectives in media
reports, towards more equitable
viewpoints. Many mainstream
publications (magazines as well as
daily newspapers) carry genderrelated reports syndicated by WFS.
There is also a WFS based in the
Philippines, an “all women media
organisation working for women’s
human rights through media
campaigns, building awareness
about women’s situation among
policy makers and the public
(female migration, for instance,
which is a gender specific issue
especially in the Philippines which
sees a lot of women heading west,
in search of incomes that they then
repatriate to their homes)”. Then
there is the Washington DC-based
International Women’s Media
Foundation (IWMF) (founded in
1990) which keeps media women
linked globally in 130 countries,
through its varied activities,
ranging from the publication of a
directory of members, to awarding
a Courage in Journalism prize
annually.
I remember interviewing one
Courage award winner, Carmen
Gurruchaga, a political reporter
for the Spanish paper El Mundo,
in Madrid. She had taken on the
Basque separatists group (ETA)
and written fearlessly about them,
inviting their wrath, resulting in
her home being bombed while
she was inside with two children,
and forcing her to relocate several
times. While I interviewed her
in a cafe in the heart of Madrid,
she and I had to sit with armed
security guards on either side,
while we chatted for the interview
and I took pictures. Razia Bhatti
of Pakistan was a Courage
award winner in 1994. Other
media women who had risked
political persecution and injury,
even death , in unearthing and
pursuing news stories on human
rights or fighting corruption, from
Burundi to Zimbabwe, Russia to
Lima, have been honoured with
the annual Courage awards by
IWMF, which also awards the
Elizabeth Neuffer fellowship
to women media persons and
trains promising journalists in
Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia
through workshops, in addition
to publishing a global report on
the status of women in the news
media, and holding international
conferences on barriers faced
by women in the newsroom.
2012 will be IWMF’s twenty
second year of work supporting
endangered women journalists
around the world. Its home page
says it succinctly: “Cultivating
leadership, honouring courage,
pioneering change”.
IWMF
has had among its board of
directors,
such
well-known
names as columnist-author Ellen
VIDURA
April-June 2012
whose roles were equally significant
– and more) The electronic network,
which runs on donations, also
profiled Women’s Campaign Fund,
the oldest organisation to financially
support female candidates in US
elections, and the woman who was
instrumental in getting women’s
ski jumping events included in the
Olympics after a long campaign. A
recent heartwarming report (Her
Story) was about Juliette Gordon
Low whose husband left his estate
to his mistress; undaunted, Juliette
sold her pearl necklace to start an
organisation called ToGetHerThere
(for leadership training for girls).
Stories from India are picked up
through the Delhi-based Women’s
Feature Service.
Says Rita Henley Jensen, founder
and editor-in-chief of womensenews,
of the interns whom the group
mentors: “They learn, they engage,
they excel.”.. One such intern, Naili,
whose command of English was
conceded to be “insufficient” when
she came in wanting to be an intern,
has, as Rita points out, quickly
learned enough to file several
stories that have been carried by the
network. Perhaps, without a mentor
like womensenews, Naili would
have not had the “leg-up” that
helped her reach for something that
was, initially, just part of a personal
dream. Whether it is a national
group or an international one, an
important part of the functioning
of such networks is mentoring – by
the group and by individuals, who
as senior media women help other,
younger women in the profession to
get ahead. But for womensenews
reports online (which go out to and
are reproduced by several print
and other media outlets) we would
not know much about Arab and
Palestinian women’s situations, for
instance, or the peace initiatives
that Israeli and Palestinian women
have come up with, in their strifetorn region.
These groupings and electronic
links are perhaps the modern
avatars of the old-fashioned
‘women’s magazines’ that started
out as outlets for focusing on
“women’s concerns” (which, they
asserted, were also worthy of note)
but have, of late, become mostly
fashion supplements, glossy food
pages and page 3 women (film
stars, models, boutique owners,
‘show-stoppers’ – with the accent on
what we in the media call ‘masala’
news, the spice that is supposed
to be today an essential ingredient
to woo readership or viewers).
Three decades ago, when I began
work for a women’s magazine, we
were among the first to expose
dowry deaths and carry articles
on women’s legal rights, but over
the years, commercial compulsions
have reduced the ‘reading matter’
to a small percentage of the glossy,
ad-filled bulk of most of these
magazines. All the more reason,
then, why women in the media
need links that retain a serious
focus on ‘matters that matter’,
where gender equity is concerned.
<
Goodman of the Boston Globe
and Carole Simpson, the genial
ABC News personality, familiar
to millions of viewers. The IWMF
newsletter also shares info about
opportunities for women in the
media, about fellowships and
awards worldwide
Women’senewstoday , founded
in 2000 and reaching 100000
readers per day, is one more
international online link that
focuses on news from around the
world featuring women, including
success stories from little-known
corners of the globe that never
make it to mainstream media
but serve a significant purpose
of enthusing others, including
NGOs, in other regions of the
developing world. This year, on
May 3, the group will be holding a
gala in the US to honour “leaders
for the 21st century”, women
who are making a difference
(not merely as media persons but
as activists or professionals in
various fields fighting for human
rights and battling corruption) It
was womensenews that focused
on women’s role in the ongoing
protest movements in West Asia,
including Egypt, discussed the
high MMR in the US7, and did
a report on women’s role in the
civil rights movements of the
19th and 20th centuries in the US
(the world knows about Corretta
King, and Rosa Parks whose
refusal to move to the other end of
the bus sparked a movement that
helped integrate blacks into the
mainstream, but not the others
Malayala Manorama to launch Watch Time
Malayala Manorama plans to launch Watch Time in July this year. It has partnered with German publisher,
the Ebner Group. The new magazine will feature premium and prestige watch brands from across the world.
“We feel it is the right time to launch the world's best watch magazine, Watch Time, for serious watch enthusiasts
in India,” says Varghese Chandy, senior general manager, Marketing Operations, Malayala Manorama. The
quarterly magazine is targeted at men and women who are above 25 years of age and have a passion for
premium watches, and will be priced at Rs 100. Adds Chandy: “We will use our huge distribution network to
promote the magazine, especially at our premium outlets at metros, airports, luxury hotels, etc. We will work very
closely with the watch trade to generate a good database and ensure that almost all watch enthusiasts get to buy
the copies.” Neha Bajpai is the editor of the magazine.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
35
Achievers all, they
followed their passion
Susan Philip
Women in the media – the challenges they face, their insights
into the profession, and their advice to aspiring young
journalists – was the topic of a discussion organised by
the US Consulate General, Chennai, as part of its Women’s
History Month celebrations on March 20, 2012. Leading
women journalists from Chennai – Rasheeda Bhagat, senior
associate editor, The Hindu Business Line, and S. Sujatha, senior
correspondent, Deccan Chronicle, were joined by Barkha Dutt,
group editor, NDTV, and Ranjini Vaidyanathan, reporter, BBC
News, Mumbai, via video conferencing. The panelists held a
packed audience at the MOP Vaishnav College riveted as they
talked of their experiences and accomplishments
L
After a decade-long stint at the desk
with the Press Trust of India, the
writer chose to work freelance; she is
based in Chennai.
36
eading off, Rasheeda Bhagat said her entry into the field of journalism
at a time when it was almost unheard of as a career option for Indian
women, was mostly happenstance – bored at home after marriage,
she responded to an advertisement for a sub-editor’s post at the Indian
Express. She was offered a job as a reporter instead, and accepting, became
the first woman in the reporting section of a mainstream English daily in
the south. She spoke of resistance from male colleagues once she began
proving her mettle as a serious journalist. After the birth of her first son,
she was strongly discouraged from coming back to work, but she would
have none of it. Go back, she did, stayed on, and how!
Joining in, Barkha Dutt was all praise for women like Rasheeda and her
own mother, Prabha Dutt, who had broken the glass ceiling for women
journalists. Barkha recalled how her mother had wanted to cover the IndoPak war of 1965 for her paper, but was denied permission on the grounds
that she was a woman. So she asked for leave to visit her parents in the
conflict zone, and, acting on permission granted for the fictitious request,
went to the warfront and filed reports which were so good, the paper had
no option but to publish them. The conflicts in those days were external;
today they’re more internal, in Barkha’s opinion. Remembering her own
experiences while covering the Kargil War, she said there had been no
resistance from her employers, but the Army did raise objections – who
would take care of her, they asked. And what about practical difficulties
like toilet facilities? When she brushed these aside they allowed her to
come, but she still had to contend with her own inner conflicts -- her
overriding desire not to be seen as ‘girlie’ or ‘softie’, she recalled.
Ranjini Vaidyanathan, growing up in the UK, was plagued by different
demons. She was told by her Indian family doctor that she would never
make it, as an Indian, in the field of journalism. Happily, she had the
support of her parents. She approached the issue logically, picked politics
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
each panelist gave her take on
what she felt was important. Be
passionate about your field, said
Sujatha. Develop expertise, said
Rasheeda. Choose an area or two to
specialise in, and make those your
forte. Describing journalism as a
marathon, not a sprint, Ranjini’s
advice was to learn the basics
first. Also, be nice to everyone, she
said. Join journalism for the right
reasons, said Barkha. It shouldn’t be
about wanting to be on TV and look
glamorous. You should want to be
remembered for the story you told,
not how you looked, she cautioned.
Adding her own advice, Asha said,
“Be persistent; That’s the only way
to succeed.”
The interactive session with the
audience saw a range of questions
being posed to the panelists, which
yielded further insights into the
profession. Asked about the value
of a degree in journalism or mass
media, the panelists felt there was
no substitute for learning on the
job. A course in journalism would,
however, help one to pinpoint areas
of specific interest and specialise
in those, qualified Sujatha. To
questions on sensationalism and
paid news, the panelists told the
audience clearly: “You get what
you want. As readers and viewers,
it is up to you to stop subscribing to
what you consider unwanted.”
The topic of balancing home and
career vis-à-vis a woman journalist
drew passionate response.
A
woman journalist will not be able
to spend as much time as she would
wish, with her children during their
formative years, and the guilt never
leaves you, confessed Rasheeda.
But it’s the same with all working
women, she said, adding that she felt
her sons were better human beings
because they were the children of a
working mother, not necessarily a
journalist mother. It’s a tough call,
but it isn’t limited to journalism, was
the consensus opinion. The problem
can be overcome by prioritising
and proper planning, said Sujatha.
What about discrimination, asked
the audience. Women and men in
public life are perceived differently,
felt the panelists. For instance, the
word aggressive is positive when
applied to a man, and negative
with reference to a woman, said
Barkha. “Be answerable only
to yourself,” was her advice.
Summing up, Sarah Talalay came
up with five takeaways:
Find good stories
Do your homework
Check facts
Pay attention to your readers/
viewers – they’re your bosses
• Above all, follow your passion.
•
•
•
•
<
as a field where her race and her
appearance wouldn’t matter,
taught herself about the subject,
and went on to make a success of
it.
S Sujatha’s story was a little
different, in that she met with
almost no conflict or resistance
in her journalistic life – probably
a sign of the changing mores.
She told of how she, as a chess
player, had been inspired by
the journalists who covered
her matches to want to write
herself, and went on to become
the first woman sports journalist
in Hyderabad, of how she had
been accepted and encouraged
by her male colleagues from the
start, of how she’d moved on
to business reporting and later
general reporting, post marriage,
bolstered by a supportive
husband and family.
All the panelists talked of their
exciting journeys -- Rasheeda and
Barkha recounted experiences in
exotic locales covering breaking
world news. The panelists moved
on to discuss a range of topics, the
relevance of social media among
them. Twitter and Facebook were
described by Barkha as the new
wire agencies, the PTI and UNI of
today. They’re a good source for
breaking news, everyone agreed.
But they were equally united in
the view that social media should
not be a substitute for being
out in the field. Use them as tip
offs, but don’t rely on Facebook,
Twitter, Google or the like as the
sole source of information. Check
your facts. There’s no substitute
for hard work. This was the
message strongly conveyed.
Asked for tips by the
moderators, Asha Beh, Social
Media/Website manager and
former multimedia/TV producer,
and Sarah Talalay, vice-consul
and former print reporter, for
new young entrants to the field,
Muallim set
for launch
Maxim Media is set to launch
Muallim, a monthly English
Islamic magazine, in May. The
magazine will target Englishspeaking Muslims who want to
know about Islam and its Shariah.
The first issue will come out in
Mumbai and neighboring cities
such as Kalyan and Thane. There
are plans to make it a national
magazine in the coming months.
Managing director and editor-inchief, Maulana Ubaidurahaman
Qasmi says, “Muallim is an
Islamic magazine with a focus
on the religious needs and
obligations of Muslims in India
and abroad.” The cover price of
the magazine is Rs 50 and print
run for the first issue will be 3000.
It will be available on newsstands
and
for
subscription
May
onwards.
37
Why this kola veri?
IT APPEARS WOMEN ALWAYS
HAVE TO BEAR THE BRUNT
A
U. Vasuki
(The writer is vice president, All India
Democratic Women’s Association,
Tamil Nadu.)
38
few months ago, a film actor from Karnataka beat up his wife black
and blue, strangled her, burnt her with cigarette butts and she
was admitted in the hospital in a very critical condition. Women’s
organisations in Bangalore rightly protested against the incident,
demanding his arrest. The Kannada film producers association got angry
with the protesting women. They said, “It is after all a family matter. Why
should you interfere?” What does it mean? A husband has a right to batter
his wife and nobody should intervene? They were blissfully unaware of
legislations such as the Protection of women from Domestic Violence Act.
If you think this is the height of male chauvinism, sorry you are mistaken.
There is more to come.
After a few days, there was news that the actor’s co-star had provoked
him into doing it. Nobody asked why Darshan did what he did even if
he was provoked; after all, he is not a child. Now, once again, the film
producers’ association entered the scene. This time, they were very upset
about the female c0-star “spoiling” a family and so, they banned her from
acting for three years. If it is a three-year ban for a person who provoked
the incident, then how many years’ ban has to be imposed on the person
who actually perpetrated the crime? May be 6 years? No, you are in a
patriarchal society, can’t expect all that. The ban was only for the lady costar and nothing whatsoever for the hero. In the meantime, the male actor
was arrested and put behind bars. The women’s movement demanded that
the ban on the co-star be lifted. Many other prominent individuals and
organisations also started protesting and the film producers’ association
had to revoke the punishment. Recently, the actor is out on bail and, guess
what, there’s no stigma attached to him. He is in full demand for acting
and offers are pouring in. What would you call the situation we are in?
Why is it that always women have to bear the brunt?
Recently in Gurgaon, a woman employed in a club was gang-raped
when she was returning late night from work. When she went to the
police, the question was, why were you coming late, why did you go alone
etc. A senior police official went to the extent of saying that women should
not work after 8 pm. That drew a strong protest from women workers.
Instead of giving protection to women and taking stringent action against
the culprits, the police were finding fault with women. Just a month ago,
the Andhra DGP told the media that women invite violence by dressing
up fashionably. How is it then that children as young as four or five and
adults as old as 70 or 80 are sexually assaulted? What dress they were
wearing? As somebody had written, they would even say Sita had invited
abduction by Ravana by dressing up provocatively. When protest mounted
against the utterance of the DGP, he immediately backtracked, saying he
had heard the chief minister speaking in a function and had repeated it.
Both the print and electronic media covered the above incidents. It was
mere coverage. What we expect from media is that the editorial should
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
April-June 2012
VIDURA
assault complaint to them, will they
receive the complaint and proceed
legally? Or will they size her up
before taking a decision whether to
accept the complaint or not? Does
the IPC give license to perpetrators
of violence to go ahead and sexually
abuse if the dress of the victim is
‘provocative’? And how do you
define ‘provocative’?
The sad part is, instead of the
IPC we know, society has drawn a
patriarchal IPC that is binding on
everybody, including the police.
That has to be decimated before we
go any further.
<
unequivocally condemn this kind
of partisan attitude. It should
question such regressive ideology
and firmly put forth values of
gender equality. The police have
no business to say what they said.
It is totally unconstitutional. How
will they protect law and order?
About 10 years ago, in Tamil
Nadu, I was one of the resource
persons for gender sensitive
training of police personnel. I
took classes for three batches
consisting of 50 a batch. I posed a
simple question to them – what is
the reason for sexual harassment,
that is, eve teasing? All of them
said uniformly, the reason was the
woman’s appearance and dress (in
Tamil, it is nadai udai baavanai.)
If a woman goes with the sexual
Metered pay
model aids NYT
Since implementing a metered
model for online content a year
ago, the New York Times has
attracted 455000 subscribers
and is seeing gains both in
online and print revenues, says
company vice chairman Michael
Golden.
“Circulation
revenue
at The New York Times Media
Group was up 7.9 per cent and
we have seen improvement in our
print subscription and renewal
rates,” Golden says, adding,
“Implementation of the pay model
has had no measurable effect on
premium advertising sell-through
at nytimes.com.”
39
Chandralekha: Dancer,
choreographer, feminist
Modernist, institution-hater and one who disliked leaving
behind a legacy, a courageous woman who “used her body like
a weapon”, a woman of a kind… remembering an exemplary
achiever
Pamela Philipose
The New Delhi-based writer is
director, Women’s Feature Service,
a features agency mandated to
make visible gender in media (www.
wfsnews.org). Earlier, she was senior
associate editor with The Indian
Express. She has been awarded
the Chameli Devi Jain Award for
Outstanding Woman Journalist
and the Zee-Asthiva Award for her
journalism.)
40
T
he line does not join the dots. Instead, it curves around them making
intricate and infinitesimal patterns. These configurations, known as
kolam or rangoli, have adorned household courtyards and thresholds
for ages. The late dancer-choreographer Chandralekha left behind some
40 notebooks of kolam patterns she had drawn. They were to inspire her
later work, including the 10 major dance productions she choreographed
in a burst of creative energy from the mid-1980s onwards, beginning with
Angika in 1985, which sought to contextualise the human body, to her last
composition, Sharira in 2001, which celebrated male/female energy.
As Sadanand Menon, one of India’s foremost art commentators, who
was Chandralekha’s companion and associate for over 30 years, explains,
it’s clear that all the work of the late dancer emerges from these kolams.
“She devised a pedagogical method on how the line moves through the
dots,” he says. Today, Chandralekha’s kolam notebooks are part a valuable
collection of material associated with the feminist dancer-choreographer’s
life that presently occupies a backroom in her Chennai residence at 1,
Elliot’s Beach Road. It includes 30000 to 40000 photographs; innumerable
newspaper clippings, some dating back to the 1950s; around 300 video
documentaries; interviews; enormous amounts of writing and drawings,
posters and costumes. Taken together, these varied effects could potentially
make up an important archive on the times and genius of a woman whose
work sought to re-interpret, liberate and energise the human body.
But there is a central problem that lies at the heart of such an enterprise:
An unwilling subject. Chandralekha was a rebel. Not only did she battle
stultifying interpretations of classical Bharatanatyam, she was constantly
defining modernity on her own terms while infusing it with the energy
of an indigenous martial art from like Kalarippayattu or the therapeutic
values of Yoga. “Chandralekha was not just suspicious of the idea of
institutions, she hated them. She also detested the idea of leaving behind
a legacy,” says Menon. This made her naturally hostile to audio-visual
documentation – which she saw as two dimensional recordings of a
three dimensional form. So how can such a life be archived? That is the
conundrum faced by people close to her. On the one hand, they knew
there’s a deep interest in her work; on the other, here was a woman who
chose to travel light. As Menon puts it, “The idea of an archive, to be frank,
is a counter-Chandra idea.”
Menon shares an amusing tale of how Chandralekha herself coped
with the task of dealing with memorabilia. Once, when she had to move
house and had to decide what to do with her old love letters, she and
VIDURA
April-June 2012
(Photos: WFS/Sadanand Menon)
Clockwise, from top, left: In one corner of 1 Elliot’s Beach Road is a small samadhi for Chandralekha; her home, 1
Elliot’s Beach Road in Chennai, has been built as a place where dancers and performing artists can train and showcase
their work; Sadanand Menon, one of India’s foremost art commentators, who was Chandralekha’s companion and
associate for over 30 years, has taken on the tough responsibility of archiving her vast body of work; Chandralekha’s
life presently occupies a backroom in her Chennai residence and includes 30000 to 40000 photographs; innumerable
newspaper clippings, some dating back to the 1950s; around 300 video documentaries; interviews; enormous amounts
of writing and drawings, posters and costumes; and the sunken amphitheatre with a Kerala roof constructed in the style
and proportions of the kalari – the traditional stage of Kalarippayattu artistes.
a friend sat before an old iron
tub temporarily converted into
a furnace. Chandralekha asked
her friend to read out the first
line of every letter. On the basis
of that first line, the decision on
which letter was to feed the flame
in the tub was made efficiently.
Those that began, “Dear Beloved
Chandra” were immediately
consigned to the fire!
But for Menon there was no
getting away from working
on a Chandralekha archive. “I
remember, a couple of weeks
after Chandra had passed away
in December 2006, and after an
obit on her had appeared in the
New York Times, someone from
Princeton University called me,
indicating that the university was
April-June 2012
VIDURA
keen to have all the material on her.
I was assured that it would be very
well preserved. I just said, ‘Yes, yes’,
and forgot about it. But later there
was another call from Princeton,
and then another one. That began a
buzz in my head. I thought to myself
that while people at Princeton were
so keen to gather all the material on
Chandralekha in one place, our own
Sahitya Natak Akademi – of which
Chandralekha was a fellow – hadn’t
even sent a condolence message.”
So, a point of reference on
Chandralekha’s work was obviously
needed and the responsibility of
ensuring it fell on those left behind.
Just as obviously, such an archive
needed to be located, not in some
distant land, but in the space
Chandralekha had called home, in a
city she had lived in since she was
17. For her, 1 Elliot’s Beach Road
was more than a home, it was her
working stage. Around 1979-80,
Chandralekha, Menon, and artist,
design pioneer and close associate
Dashrath Patel, had got together
along with other associates, and
began building it as a place where
dancers and performing artists
could train and showcase their
work, with Chandralekha herself
staging her major works. Only
by locating the Chandralekha
archives here, would it become an
organic part of her life and work.
Menon, who is of course an
intrinsic part of this archive,
also feels that the resource could
provide a fresh lease of life to
her body of work, “Currently,
41
Chandralekha, never met her, so
I see it differently, almost as an
outsider. Clearly what emerges
is the sheer inter-disciplinarity
of her work. The feminist idea
was, of course, a strong element.
She used her body almost like a
weapon. As a woman for her it
was a special thing, a liberating
thing. Then there is her notion
of time and space. The slowness
you see in her work is not seen in
today’s world, but it was integral
to her philosophy of dance.”
Walk around her home and visit
its central theatre space - now rechristened the Chandra-Mandala and its clean-lined elementariness
comes across powerfully. The
trees around it have acquired
impressive proportions despite
the sandy soil from which they
grow – including the neems
the late dancer had loved and a
banyan, all of 30 years. There is
also a sunken amphitheatre with a
Kerala roof constructed in the style
and proportions of the kalari – the
traditional stage of Kalarippayattu
artistes. Also, in one corner of the
campus, is a small samadhi for
Chandralekha and Dashrath Patel,
who died in 2010.
The complex takes you part
of the way to Chandralekha;
the archive, once it takes form,
promises to take you closer. In
her last interview before she died,
she was asked by Menon how she
responds to those who attack her
work for ranging on the obscene.
Her response was characteristic of
a woman who never lacked either
courage or cool, “I would like to
tell the audiences: ‘I have walked
half the distance. Now you should
walk half the distance towards me.
Because, I have finished my walk
towards you. Now you have to
come walking towards me. Then
only we will understand each
other’.” Chandralekha has finished
her walk. Now those who seek to
comprehend her would have to
walk towards her. An archive would
help in that walk to understand one
of India great modernists.
<
only her last work, Sharira, is still
being performed. The others don’t
exist except in the minds of those
who had danced them. So with
an archive there is the potential of
the original performers recreating
her work.” He also believes that,
besides bringing together all the
material associated with her, an
archive can play a subversive
role by highlighting the ‘constant
rupture’ that marked her work.
“Take the idea of Western dance
choreography, cast in a geometric
grid. She knew all of that, but
she looked to kolams, curvatures
instead of lines, for her own
compositions. So at some point,
when there is a debate on this,
there will be material to join that
debate,” explains Menon.
Given the compelling arguments
for a Chandralekha archive, Menon
got down to the task, despite
serious constraints, including a
conspicuous lack of funding for
archival documentation. Neerja
Dasani, who is assisting Menon
in this, is excited about the
project, “I had only heard about
Kerala Press Academy journal released
The Kerala Press Academy has launched a
bilingual monthly magazine, Media. At a function
held at the Kesari Memorial Journalist Trust Hall in
Thiruvananthapuram, eminent Marxist thinker and
writer P. Govinda Pillai presented the first copy to
well-known novelist and Kerala Sahithya Akademy
president Perumbadavom Sreedharan. Pillai, who
was chairman of the academy three decades ago,
stressed the role it should play in shaping a unified
style for the language used in the print media in
Malayalam.
The Kerala Press Academy was the only institution At the release of Media: (l-r) Binoy Viswam, B.R.P.
of its kind when it was established in 1979, jointly Bhaskar, Perumbadavam Sreedharan, N.P. Rajendran and
by the Government of Kerala, the Kerala Union of P. Govinda Pillai.
Working Journalists and the Indian Newspaper
Society. Media will focus on the developments taking place in the news publishing business around the globe.
Academy chairman and Media’s editor N.P. Rajendran presided over the function. Veteran journalist B.R.P.
Bhaskar, Janayugam chief editor and former minister Binoy Viswom and Mathrubhumi deputy editor K.G.
Muraleedharan spoke.
42
VIDURA
April-June 2012
A ‘prisoner of conscience’
Irom Sharmila is India’s best known face of peaceful protest. For almost 11 years, Manipurbased Irom Sharmila has been making a daily demand for peace and withdrawal of the
draconian Armed Forces Special Powers a Act from her state by being on a fast-unto-death
until the Act is repealed. A report by Tripti Nath
April-June 2012
VIDURA
bond securing court attendance as
required by it. Sharmila refused and
has not budged from that stand. So
her world today has been reduced to
a special ward, measuring 12 feet by
10 feet, at Imphal’s Jawahalal Nehru
Institute of Medical Sciences. The
ward is administered by the Sajiva
Central Jail and Sharmila’s only
outing is a fortnightly visit to the
court of the chief judicial magistrate
for the extension of her judicial
remand. For companions, Sharmila
only has her doctors, paramedics and
security staff. Any communication
addressed to her is first vetted by the
authorities. Even her requests for a
telephone call to family members
are often denied.
This is the stifling and selfforgetful existence that Shamila has
chosen for herself to secure peace
for the people of Manipur. When I
met her recently outside the court
of the chief judicial magistrate of
Imphal (East), she was clad in a
green sarong with a white shawl
draping her shoulders. Escorted
by a policewoman, she headed to
the last bench in the courtroom
and sat resting her right fist on the
bench to prop up her body. Her
face sometimes wore an expression
of pain. Her fasting has made her
very sensitive to sunlight – it takes
her a while to adjust to it. She
is weak, pale and with thinning
hair. But she is not complaining.
She answered questions about her
day-to-day life in a matter-of-fact
manner, with no trace of self-pity,
“I am a prisoner of conscience. I
Photos: Tripti Nath\WFS
I
rom Sharmila’s struggle has
earned
her
international
recognition and admiration.
Prestigious awards have come her
way, including the Gwangju Prize
for Human Rights in 2007. But her
awe-inspiring determination has
not moved the Indian government
so far. The 12-day fast of anticorruption crusader Anna Hazare
once again brought the spotlight
on Sharmila. It compelled the
Central government to state that
it was prepared to revisit the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act
issue and attempt a consensus to
amend the law. Sharmila has been
described by a British newspaper
as “the world’s longest running
hunger striker”. All these years
she has not even had a drop of
water and cleans her teeth with
cotton wool. In her home state the
government’s response all along
has been perfunctory. All that the
state is doing is to keep her alive
to discharge its constitutional
obligation.
For refusing food and water,
interpreted as a self-destructive
act, Sharmila has attracted charges
under Section 309 of the Indian
Penal Code and is force-fed liquid
diet by the hospital authorities
through a nasal tube. The
maximum sentence for attempt to
suicide is one year. In Sharmila’s
case, the government keeps
extending her remand, year after
year, because she resumed fasting
after being set free. Attempt to
suicide is a bailable offence. But
when Sharmila was first produced
in court, it ordered her release on
bail provided she furnished a
While Irom Sharmila's world today has been reduced to a special ward at
Imphal's Jawahalal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences her only outing is a
fortnightly visit to the court of the chief judicial magistrate for the extension of
her judicial remand.
43
44
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar
just think that it is my destiny to
change society,” she says, adding
with steely resolve, “I just see the
goal and it is approaching. I know I
will get success by being positive.”
Sharmila explains that she is
content reading two Manipuri
newspapers, the Huyen and the
Lanpao. She is not interested in
television. She does yoga for about
four hours every day because “it
helps to balance my mind and
body”. For the rest of the time
she reads books. The books have
been sent to her mostly by her
admirers, among who is someone
very special. Sharmila says with a
smile that lights up her face, “Most
of the books come from the man I
love. He is British and is now based
in Nepal.” His name is Desmond
Cutinho, and she helps me with
the correct spelling by writing his
name in her shaky handwriting on
my notepad. This May, Desmond
had sent Sharmila a laptop, but
she has been denied an Internet
connection.
Asked if she has a message for
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi,
the iron lady of Manipur replies, “I
just want to tell Sonia Gandhi not
to see us as stepchildren. I want to
remind her that she is also a woman
and should try to understand the
mind of a conscientious woman.”
Sharmila has reason to say this.
Human rights activists point out
that when Gandhi visited Manipur
in 2010, neither she nor the Manipur
chief minister met her. When the
time came to say goodbye, I, like
innumerable others before me,
pleaded with her to give up her
fast. But she just smiled. She had to
be helped to climb into the police
van. The door then shut behind her
and she was gone.
Perhaps what has kept Sharmila
going is the support of her mother
and elder brother, Irom Singhait.
Looking back at the fateful events
following the Malom massacre
of November 2, 2000, in which 10
innocent civilians were mowed
down by the Assam Rifles,
Singhjit says, “It was a Thursday
and Sharmila used to fast every
Thursday. She did not eat anything
the following day either. On
November 4, she went with some
friends to a bakery in Imphal and
had her favourite cake. The next
day she went to a youth club
building in Malom and announced
her indefinite fast. She was
arrested at 7.30 am on November
6 and charged under Section 309
of the Indian Penal Code. She was
then taken to Sajiva Central Jail
where she was administered a
drip. Between November 11 and
21, the police brought Sharmila
several times to our home with her
release papers. They even beat up
my brother. But the Meira Peibai
(meaning torch bearers – a group
of local women peace activists)
formed a ring to shield him and
also asked me not sign the release
documents.”
Every Sunday, for five years
now, Singhjit has been carrying
a home-made hair wash solution
known as csinghi, in a jug for
Sharmila. Although he is 14 years
older, he is very close to her. It is a
bond dating back to her infancy. It
was he who had taken her as a baby
to local women with newborns, who
worked as wet nurses to ensure that
she got her feeds, since her mother
was unable to feed her. Today, he
continues to worry, “I support her
because I am convinced she has
extraordinary will. But I am also
terribly anxious. I have told her to
continue as long as she has strength
and I will support her.”
At her modest home in
Kongkham Lieikai, Sharmila’s 78year-old mother, Shakhi Devi greets
us. She exhibits a resilience that
reminds us of her daughter. She has
decided not to meet Sharmila as she
fears it may weaken her resolve.
But she misses this youngest of her
nine children deeply, and has even
approached astrologers to find out
if Sharmila would ever be set free.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
victorious.” After her miraculous
survival, one hopes that Sharmila
emerges victorious. It is not enough
for the government to “share her
disappointment” as lip sympathy.
<
Irom Sharmila's struggle has earned
her international recognition and
admiration - prestigious awards
have come her way, including the
Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.
Some of them have predicted that
a decision on the AFSPA will come
from a “distant land”. Sharmila’s
protest has touched her family in
innumerable ways. Singhjit has
kept his promise to Sharmila by
never seeking her release. He has
even given up his government job
to ensure that justice is done to her
cause by actively working for Just
Peace, an organisation founded by
Sharmila with the cash component
of her Gwangju award.
As for Shakhi Devi, ever since
Sharmila began her fast she has
not cooked Changempomla, a
traditional dish of rice, vegetables,
fermented fish and soyabean, that
she really relished. Says the frail
old woman, “I often see Sharmila
in my dreams telling me that she
has become successful. I pray to the
Sun god that my daughter emerges
Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service)
45
Three pioneers and
a common vision
A look at the lives of three extraordinary women - Mrinal Gore, who was at the forefront of
what came to be known as the “new women’s movement” – the anti-price rise struggle of
1972; visionary academic Neera Desai, who saw the importance of framing women’s action
and experience in academic and policy terms; and outstanding educationist Madhuri Shah,
who went on to institutionalise Women’s Studies as a discipline within the university system
in India. All of them had one goal in mind: the liberation of women. A report by Vibhuti
Patel
M
umbai has, in many
senses, been the birthplace
of the Indian women’s
movement. The last quarter of the
19th century saw the seeds being
sown in what was then the Bombay
Presidency. Social reformers such as
Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule
fought female infanticide, widowburning and the segregation
of women from the public life,
among other concerns. They also
organised public functions for
widow remarriage and worked for
legal reform.
Interestingly, as the new
century dawned, many women
from Bombay’s wealthy families
turned philanthropists, helping
to set up educational institutions,
shelter homes and vocational
training centres. It was from such
institutions that the first generation
of women professionals emerged:
Teachers, nurses, skilled workers
and white-collar employees, such
as typists, clerks, accountants and
secretaries. There is an enormous
amount of literature from that time
in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and
English that bears witness to these
path-breaking efforts.
The first generation of Englisheducated Mumbai women became
founders of the nascent women's
movement in pre-independence
India. Most of them channelised their
energies into building pioneering
organisations like the All India
Women's Conference, the Young
46
Women Christian Association
and the Anjuman-e-Islam. They
fought against child marriage,
promoted women’s education,
mobilised public opinion in
favour of voting rights for women,
and established institutions to
impart basic professional and
domestic skills. The beginning
of the 20th century saw women’s
wide-scale participation in the
national independence movement
under the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi. During the Quit India
Movement of 1942, for instance,
even women from conservative
families gave up the purdah, came
out on the streets, courted arrest
and faced imprisonment.
But it was the post-independence
period that saw Mumbai’s women
coming forward in large numbers
to help build the new nation.
They contributed to various
fields, from politics to films, from
music to scholarship. It was their
pathbreaking contributions that
laid the foundation for the Indian
women’s movement as we know
it today. There are many women
who could figure in the list of
greats. For this piece, I will focus
on three near contemporaries:
Mrinal Gore, who was at the
forefront of the first initiative
of what came to be known as
the “new women’s movement”
– the anti-price rise struggle of
1972; visionary academic, Neera
Desai, who saw the importance
Outstanding educationist Madhuri
Shah, who went on to institutionalise
Women's Studies as a discipline
within the university system in India.
of framing women’s action and
experience in academic and policy
terms; and outstanding educationist
Madhuri Shah, who went on to
institutionalise Women’s Studies as
a discipline within the university
system in India.
Let’s look at the life of the first
in this amazing triumvirate. Mrinal
Gore was inspired by Gandhi’s Quit
India exhortation as a young girl
of 14. Drawn to social causes, she
soon discarded a promising career
in medicine in order to organise
the poorest and most powerless.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
A political reformer by instinct,
Mrinal helped to set up in
September 1972 the Anti-Price
Rise Committee, which mobilised
the largest-ever turnout of women
on the streets ever seen since the
Independence movement. At the
same time, Mrinal also worked
within the Socialist Party and
outside, to get the government
to focus on drought in rural
Maharashtra.
The year 1975 was an eventful
one for Mrinal. It saw Indira
Gandhi’s government impose
an internal Emergency and
suspend
the
constitutional
rights of the people. Mrinal
went underground to guide the
protests against the Emergency.
She was arrested in December
that year and placed initially
under solitary confinement. Once
the Emergency was withdrawn
in 1977, she was elected on a
Janata Party ticket to Parliament,
winning by the highest margin
of votes in the entire state of
Maharashtra. The 1980s found
her working with the emerging
feminist groups and participating
actively in protests against rape
and dowry. A natural organiser,
Mrinal employed a large spectrum
of protest action to get the issue
across – from street marches to
sit-in and fasts. Not only did
she set up a support centre for
women survivors of domestic
violence, she founded a workers’
association – the Shramjeevi
Mahila Sangh – expressly for
women employees.
Mrinal’s aim always was to
encourage women to work for
themselves. For her, the concerns
of Dalits, women, workers,
farmers,
and
indigenous
communities were indivisible and
demanded a holistic approach.
Her politics, consequently, was
always inclusive rather than
divisive. This was why she could
win the affections of diverse
sections of people and come to be
universally called Mrinal-tai, or
elder sister.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Mrinal Gore, chairing a session of women's Liberation Movement Coordination
Committee in 1986. Gore was inspired by Gandhi's Quit India exhortation as
a young girl of 14.
The Quit India movement was
also a turning point of sorts for
Neera Desai. A college student
then, she faced arrest several times
for her involvement in the freedom
struggle. In fact, this association
had begun when, as a school girl,
she actively worked for the Monkey
Brigade formed by Gandhi. Despite
the frequent interruptions to her
education, Neera could complete
her post graduation immediately
after India gained independence.
A socialist, her PhD thesis touched
on the economic, anthropological
and historical dimensions of
women’s status in India. It was
published in 1952 as a book,
Women in Modern India, and was
received with praise for providing
a historical understanding of the
status of Indian women from the
Vedic period to the early years of
independent India. In the foreword
to her book, veteran freedom
fighter Kamaladevi Chattopadhaya
labelled her analysis as “feminist”.
In fact, Neera’s observations made
in the early Fifties were validated by
the women’s rights movement in the
Seventies, showing her as a woman
much in advance of her times.
According to Neera, constructing
knowledge on women demanded
the five arms of teaching, training,
documentation,
research
and
action. In that sense she functioned
as a bridge between the women’s
movement and women’s studies
and she went on to found the first
Research Unit on Women’s Studies
of India, in Mumbai’s SNDT
university. Neera was also one of
the founding members of the Indian
Association for Women’s Studies
and was closely associated with the
India Centre for Human Rights and
Law in Mumbai and the Centre for
Women’s Development Studies,
in Delhi. But the ivory towers of
academia was not for this builder
of institutions. Neera always made
it a point to be closely associated
with feminist groups throughout
the country. Four generations of
women activists and academics
have benefited from her wisdom,
intellect, advice and experience.
What we liked about Neera was the
relationship of mutual respect we
had with her: She never preached,
she always talked to us as equals.
47
among women students a positive
sense of self and an awareness of
women's rights.
Many, who knew Madhuri
personally, speak of how gregarious
and witty she was. She was a
natural orator and it was always
an intellectual treat to listen to her.
In her inaugural speech at the first
Indian Association of Women’s
Studies Conference in Mumbai, she
averred, “One has to take inspiration
from Michael Angelo, who created
works of art unequalled by any
other man and yet, when he was
ninety, he regretted that he must die
just when he was beginning to learn
the ABC of being a sculptor and
painter. Education never stops.”
Three pioneers with a common
vision. Each of them believed
Dr Neera Desai at a rally against sex
selective abortions in 1986.
that the liberation of humankind
would not be possible without the
liberation of women.
<
Another woman who was
convinced
about
the
need
for Women’s Studies to be
mainstreamed as a discipline
in
Indian
universities
was
Madhuri Shah, the nationally
and internationally acclaimed
educationist, who had served
as an international president of
World
Education
Fellowship
International from 1972 to 1989. As
vice chancellor of SNDT University,
during what was historically the
most vibrant period of the women’s
movement, she helped Neera
achieve her dream of establishing
her model unit on Women’s Studies.
Madhuri, too, clearly saw the link
between this discipline and the
women’s movement. For her, it was
of utmost importance to inculcate
(Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service)
HT launches You Read, They Learn initiative
With its You Read, They Learn effort, Hindustan Times will contribute 5 paise from every Metro copy
it sells in Delhi-NCR towards creating a corpus that will fund the education of more than 10000 children
over the year. So, every time a reader picks up a copy of Hindustan Times, a child goes to school. Besides
this contribution, HT will raise the issue of children’s education rights and focus on the problems that need
immediate attention.
Commenting on the initiative, Rajiv Verma, CEO of HT Media says, “We at Hindustan Times strongly believe
that a newspaper has the ability to drive positive change in society. As a newspaper, we are intrinsically linked
to the cause of education. With this initiative, we wish to contribute strongly in the space of pre-primary and
primary education as we believe that education is every child’s right.” To begin with, HT is partnering with
Pratham Delhi Education Initiative and Child Rights And You to utilise funds for bringing underprivileged
children to the classroom. Going forward, it will also engage with other NGO partners working in this space.
Sanjoy Narayan, editor-in-chief, Hindustan Times says, “We are proud to launch the ‘You Read, They Learn’
initiative and seek active participation from our readers. Our reporters and writers will dig out stories of change,
of people making a difference and of readers’ contribution to the lives of children whom nobody has time for.”
Adding to this initiative, textbook pages were inserted in copies of Mint and Hindustan Times. Every page of
the newspaper included a page of a textbook. Following three simple steps, readers could tear the pages and
staple them together to form a text book and give it to a student in need.
48
VIDURA
April-June 2012
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Looking back on a
landmark legislation
When the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was passed by Parliament in
2005, it marked an important milestone in the country’s legislative history. Indira Jaising,
executive director, Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative, which was associated with
the piece of legislation from its very inception, termed that moment an “unforgettable one”.
It took a year for the law to come into force, and today – some five years later – while many
gains have been made, there continue to be serious lags that undermine the efficacy of the
Act. Excerpts from the report, Staying Alive: 5th Monitoring and Evaluation on the Protection
of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
T
he issue of violence against
women in India was
highlighted for the first
time in the mid-1970s, through
the campaign against dowry and
related violence. The campaign
led to the Criminal Law (second
amendment) Act in 1983, which
introduced Section 498A in the
Indian Penal Code (IPC). Under
this provision, ‘cruelty’ to the wife
by the husband or his relatives was
a cognisable, non-bailable offence
punishable with imprisonment up
to three years and a fine. Cruelty
was defined as including both
physical and mental cruelty, and
any harassment associated with
the demand for dowry. Similarly,
Section 304B was introduced in
the IPC in 1986, which created
a new offence of ‘dowry death’.
This provision made it possible
to prosecute the husband and inlaws of a woman, if she died as a
result of burns or any other injury
within seven years of marriage
under suspicious circumstances
and if it could be shown that she
had been subjected to cruelty or
harassment by the husband/inlaws in relation to the demand
for dowry.
Although criminal law is
a powerful tool and its very
April-June 2012
VIDURA
The report, Staying Alive: 5th
Monitoring and Evaluation on the
Protection of Women from Domestic
Violence Act, 2005, assesses the gains
and gaps with regard to the enforcement
of the Domestic Violence Act in India.
objective is to act as a deterrent,
violence against women did not
disappear with the enactment of
Section 498A. Criminal law, by its
very nature, requires the state and
its agencies to activate it, which
means it necessitates the police to
act, to make an arrest, to investigate
and to prosecute. Hence, more
often than not, the law was
defeated by sheer inaction which
soon came to be institutionalised
all over the country, along with the
policy of ‘counselling, conciliation
and mediation’. Moreover, Section
498A included cases of everyday
violence against women in the
home or within its ambit, but
Section 304B could only be used
when the violence and the eventual
death were linked with dowry.
Secondly, only married women
facing violence at the hands of
the husband or their families
could claim relief under Section
498A. Thus, a lot of other forms of
violence faced in non-matrimonial
relationships were not included in
these provisions.
For example, it did not protect
women from violence in natal
relationships or in relationships
that have not received the legal
sanction of marriage. The definition
of ‘cruelty’ also posed difficulties
when one tried to include issues of
sexual violence, economic violence
or even threats of violence within
the ambit of the same. Additionally,
49
Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act:
The PWDVA was designed and
passed to address the gap between
the guarantee of the Constitution
of equal rights and the problems
faced in existing laws. It provided
comprehensive
definitions
and effective civil relief, while
incorporating a criminal element
which comes into play on breach of
civil order by a perpetrator which
leads to imprisonment and fine.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
Definition of domestic violence
The Act has a fairly broad
definition of domestic violence and
includes a range of harms, injuries
and threats that degrade and/or
terrorise women. The definition
includes physical, sexual, verbal,
emotional and economic abuses,
with each aspect further defined
with illustration.
Domestic relationships
The Act was an innovation over
the conventional understanding of
domestic violence, in that it did not
limit the protection against violence
solely to marital relationships.
It introduced the concept of
‘domestic relationship’ which
included all relationships based on
consanguinity, marriage, adoption
and even relationships which were
‘in the nature of marriage’. The
inclusion of relationships outside
the marital context was much
needed since there was an urgent
need not only to recognise that
unmarried women faced violence
from their natal families, but also
to protect women in bigamous or
fraudulent marriages and women
50
who were in relationships in the
nature of marriage. These women
had been ignored by the laws
existing so far and needed the
same protection as women in ‘legal’
marriages.
Right to residence and shared
household
The most important aspect of
the Bill was the concept of ‘right to
residence’ which protected women
from being simply pushed out of
their homes. The objective of the
law was to provide a right to reside
in the shared household and ‘due
process’ protection to the women
in domestic relationships. The
Act also introduced the concept
of ‘shared household’ which was
more appropriate since women
in non-matrimonial relationships
were also covered by the law. The
PWDVA gave the women the right
to reside in the ‘shared household’,
even in the absence of a formal title
over it. The Act does not create a
substantive right over property
but a right to residence and is a
safeguard against dispossession.
Protection Officers
The office of Protection Officers
(Pos) was created to provide a link
between the aggrieved women and
the legal system. The role of the PO
was seen as assisting the woman
in accessing the court and other
support services (such as legal aid,
medical facilities, shelter homes
etc.,) and assisting the court during
the course of the proceedings and
in the enforcement of orders. The
PO are often termed as the ‘face of
the PWDVA’.
Reliefs provided
In keeping with the objectives of
the law and the rights recognised,
the Bill provided civil reliefs in
the form of protection orders or
stop violence orders, residence
orders and others, including
orders restoring the woman to
the shared household, preventing
dispossession, restraining the
respondent from entering the
shared household etc., orders
for monetary relief including
maintenance, compensation orders
aimed at providing damages for
the mental injury suffered by the
aggrieved person, and temporary
orders for custody of the children.
The civil nature of the relief was
deemed appropriate in recognition
of the fact that a woman facing
domestic violence requires holistic
support, which cannot be met
through a criminal proceeding or
a divorce petition.
Challenges to Implementation of
the PWDVA
Although domestic violence has
now become a legally recognised
category in the Indian legal
framework, the phenomenon of
violence against women within
the confines of a home continues.
The law and its implementation
face new challenges every day. In
the count of law the issue of forced
sexual
relationships
without
marriage has taken a long time
to be recognised as violence. The
inclusion of ‘relationships in the
nature of marriage’ continues to be
debated with some questioning the
morality of such inclusion while
others pose questions of practical
aspects of such a relationship.
Magistrates across the country
have struggled to interpret this
law with a purposive approach
and provide effective reliefs to
women approaching the courts.
The mandate of disposal of cases
within 60 days remains far from
being achieved, with the case
loads of magistrates increasing
every day.
<
when the issue of support systems
for affected women comes into play,
the criminal law itself has little to
offer with respect to taking care of
the women’s immediate needs of
protection, shelter and monetary
relief.
(Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service;
This Report has been brought out by
LCWRI, in collaboration with the
International Center for Research
on Women and supported by the UN
Trust Fund to End Violence Against
Women)
VIDURA
April-June 2012
VIEW FROM THE NORTHEAST
A case for building dams
with caution
Nava Thakuria
The mass movement in northern Assam against the large
hydroelectricity projects primarily planned in Arunachal
Pradesh saw a brief lull following the intervention of the state
government under Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. A group of
ministers sat for discussions with the agitating organisations
and it helped reduce tension in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji areas
of upper Assam where thousands of agitators had taken to the
streets, blocking vehicles carrying machinery to the hydroelectric project site in lower Subansiri.
(The writer is a senior journalist
based in Assam.)
large dam project is likely to cause problems for people living in
the downstream area; medium and small hydroelectricity dams
produce smaller volumes of power but the negative impact is far
less. Technically, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have the capacity to
construct large dams on the mighty river Brahmaputra and its tributaries,
but the general population is apprehensive about the after-effects. So, the
conflict between supporters of large hydroelectric projects (more than
2500MW installed capacity) and representatives of the common people
starts continues in northeast India. As most of the dams are being planned
in Arunachal Pradesh, with the downstream area comprising Assam, there
is a sort of bickering between supporters of dams (read politicians) and
leaders of different Assam-based organizations, even rubbing of on the
Assam Government and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation,
which is reposnsible for the construction.
Northeast India has now been identified as a region with huge
hydropower potential by the Central Government. It is estimated that the
region, comprising eight states and 60 million people, can produce nearly
60000 MW of power. The present installed capacity of large hydropower
projects in the region is around 1700 MW (it was only 215 MW in 1985-86).
The question: can the indigenous people can face the consequences, people
who are dependant on natural resources. “Considering the geo-seismic
situation and fragile erosion-prone mountains of the eastern Himalayas and
its silt-laden rivers, the appropriateness of large hydroprojects has come
under fresh scrutiny. Huge movements have built up in Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh, Manipur and many other parts of the northeast in view of the
serious downstream impact of these projects, including changes in the
flood characteristics of rivers. Poor appraisal and even poorer compliance
are characteristics of such projects in India; in the northeast the situation is
much worse,” says Himanshu Thakkar and Bipin Chaturvedi, environment
activists, who represent South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and
People.
Various student associations, farmer organisations and civil society
groups are opposing the proposed construction of more than 150 mega
dams in Arunachal Pradesh. The proposed production target of the dams is
around 75000 MW, with most of the electricity designed to meet the industrial
A
April-June 2012
VIDURA
51
52
Photo: Dhaniram Kalita
A view of the NHPC 2000 MW lower Subansiri project site at Gerukamukh.
organizstion of environmental
journalists based in Asia-Pacific
region argues that once the
dams over the 2900-km river
is commissioned, there will
be massive ecological affect
in northeast India and also in
Bangladesh. The APFEJ, in a
statement issued by its chairman
Quamrul Islam Chowdhury from
its head office in Dhaka, cautioned
that “if the government at Beijing
diverts some volume of water
from Brahmaputra, Bangladesh
will be severely affected, as the
saline water of Bay of Bengal
will enter to south Bangladesh
and destroy the aquatic life and
agricultural field”.
More recently (end-February
this year), at a Centre for Science
and
Environment-sponsored
dialogue on Green Clearances
at the India Habitat Centre in
New Delhi, various speakers
put forwards their fears that
the hydroelectricity projects in
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam
would leave a devastating impact
in the northeastern part of India
and also in Bangladesh. According
to KMSS’s Akhil Gogoi, there should
be an independent consortium
of regional and national experts
set up, to conduct environment
impact assessment studies. Before
conducting
the
studies,
the
experts should have a mandate
from the local communities.
Under no circumstances should
such studies be funded by
project proponents, he adds,
asserting that advance downstream
impact assessment and public
consultation
in
the
entire
Brahmaputra floodplains in Assam
should be mandatory for upstream
dams. Partha J. Das of Aaranyak
(Guwahati) feels that the environment
impact assessment process, based
on which clearances are given, are
inferior and misleading. Moreover
the cumulative environment impact
assessment is not carried out despite
the fact that the basins of each
major river have multiple projects.
<
needs in central India. Another
argument is that the region comes
under a high seismic zone and the
downstream affect will have to
be borne by the people of Assam.
The protesters have taken the
2000 MW lower Subansiri project
in Gerukamukh as a model case
study and they are now raising
voices against it democratically.
Since the project was taken
over by the NHPC in May 2000,
protests began. Primarily led by
the All Assam Students’ Union,
an influential students association
in the region, the anti-dam
movement gained momentum,
being backed by a farmers group
named Krishak Mukti Sangram
Samity and other like-minded
organisations. The issue was
discussed many times in the state
legislative assembly, too. Even
a public hearing was organised
in Guwahati in September 2010
where former Union Environment
Minister Jairam Ramesh was
present. The minister was
reported to have written to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh saying
“some of the concerns that were
expressed cannot be dismissed
lightly”. However, construction
of the lower Subansiri mega dam
continued.
Meanwhile, there emerged
difference of opinion among some
of the agitating leaders. While
KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi vowed
to resume the movement against
NHPC, AASU leader Samujjal
Bhattacharya, who is also the
chairman of North East Students’
Organisation, insisted on “a
peaceful resolution of the issue
through talks”. He clarified that
they “are not against development,
but if it comes at the cost of the
people’s life and civilization”,
they would not allow it. The AsiaPacific Forum of Environmental
Journalists expressed concern
at the construction of a number
of hydroelectric dams over the
Brahmaputra inside the Tibetan
region of China. The umbrella
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Urdu: Romance of the
lashkari language
C
Mrinal Chatterjee
(The author, a journalist-turnedmedia academician, presently heads
the Eastern India campus of the Indian
Institute of Mass Communication
located in Dhenkanal, Orissa.
Besides teaching communication
he also writes columns and fiction.
This article forms part of a series
on the history of regional language
journalism in India.)
April-June 2012
VIDURA
ontrary to popular perception, Urdu is not the language of Muslims.
It was a lashkari (soldier’s) language (Urdu comes from the Turkish
word ordu, meaning camp or army), nourished during the period
of Mughal emperor Shahjahahn. It had words from Persian and local
languages. The purpose was to make communication easy among soldiers
who were Arab, Turk or locals. Based on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and
Western Uttar Pradesh in the Indian subcontinent, Urdu developed under
local Persian, Arabic and Turkish influence over the course of almost 900
years. It began to take shape in what is now Uttar Pradesh, during the
Delhi Sultanate (1206–1527) and continued to develop under the Mughal
Empire (1526–1858).
Urdu is written from right to left, just like Arabic and Persian. The
language has 39 basic letters and 13 extra characters, altogether 52; most
of the letters are from Arabic and a small quantity from Persian. It has
almost all the 'sounds' available in any other language spoken in the world.
The Persian newspapers of West Bengal were fore-runners of the Urdu
press. After the decline of Persian as an official language, Urdu gained
prominence.
The first newspaper of Urdu language was Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, founded
by Harihar Dutta in 1822 in Calcutta. He was the son of Tara Chand Dutta,
eminent Bengali journalist and one of the founders of Bengali weekly Sambad
Koumudi. The editor of the three-page weekly paper was Sadasukhlal. After
English and Bengali, it was the third language newspaper in India and
continued to be published till 1888.
On 14 January 1850, Munshi Harsukh Rai started the weekly, Kohinoor,
which had a remarkably high (for those times) circulation of 350 copies.
In 1858, Manbir Kabiruddin started the Urdu Guide, the first Urdu daily,
from Calcutta. Another important paper founded that year was Roznamhae-Punjab from Lahore. Oudh Akhbar by Munshi Nawal Kishore was the first
Urdu newspaper from Lucknow, also begun in 1858. The Sepoy Mutiny
or Great Rebellion of 1857 had impacted Urdu journalism in terms of the
number of publications, volume of circulation and content. While some new
Urdu papers appeared during the period, a much larger number ceased
publication. The number of publications dropped from 35 in 1853 to 12 in
1858. The decline is directly related to the reign of terror let loose in 1857. In
the North West Provinces, most Urdu papers had ceased publication after
the outbreak of the war.
After 1857, Urdu journalism entered a new era of development. Mention
may be made of some major papers such as the Oudh Akhbar, Lucknow;
the Scientific Gazette, and the Tahazib-ul- Akhlaq, Aligarh; the Oudh Punch,
Lucknow; the Akmalul Akhbar, Delhi; the Punjab Akhbar, Lahore; the
Shamsul Akhbar, Madras; the Kashful Akhbar, Bombay; the Qasim-ulAkhbar, Bangalore; and the Asiful Akhbar, Hyderabad. Oudh Akhbar lived
long and was soon converted into a daily. Published by Munshi Nawal
Kishore, it shot into great prominence under the editorship of Ratan Nath
'Sarshar'. The first Urdu newspapers of Delhi were Fawaid-ul-Nazarin and
Kiran-us-Sadai, founded by Rama Chandra in 1852. The Urdu press in Delhi
became highly critical of the British Government. The best example was
53
the Urdu Akhbar, edited by Syed
Hasan, which highlighted many
civic issues such as drainage,
sanitation, adulteration of food
and corruption.
In 1877, Maulvi Nasir Ali,
one of the founders of Anjuman
Islamia – an Islamic intellectual
and political movement – founded
three newspapers – Nusrat-ulAkhbar, Nusrat-ul-Islam and Mihire-Darakhshan. The papers focused
on current civil and political
affairs and were valuable aids of
Muslim empowerment. In 1877,
Oudh Punch, the first humour
magazine in Urdu was started by
Sajjid Hussain. The first women’s
journal in Urdu was Akhbar-unNisa. Darul Sultanat, one of the
most important newspapers
of 19th century was published
in 1881 by Shaikh Ahsanullah
Sandagiri Dehlawi from Calcutta.
Mathura Prasad Savmar was
its editor. It started as a weekly.
Later it was made bi-weekly and
then tri-weekly.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, there were only three
Urdu dailies, the Paisa Akbhar,
the Oudh Akbhar, and the Sulh-iKul. Politically, they all belonged
to the moderate group. However,
as a new political wave swept
across the country, newspapers
and periodicals such as Zamindar,
Hindustani, Al Hilal and Hamdard
introduced new political zest
in journalism. The Hindustan,
Lahore; Deepak, Amritsar, Desh,
Lahore; Urdu-i- Molla, Kanpur;
Muslim Gazette, Lucknow; Madina,
Bijnore; Hamdam, Lucknow; and
Swaraj, Allahabad did a great deal
to awaken political consciousness
and to enlist popular participation
in the national movement for
freedom. Politics and social reform
dominated Urdu journalism from
the very beginning of the 20th
century. The political and social
movements launched by the
Congress, the Muslim League,
the Hindu Mahasabha, the Arya
Samaj, the Khilafat Committee
and the Aligarh Movement,
54
Akhbarnama was the first Urdu daily published from Odisha. It started
publishing from January 2012.
exercised profound influence on
Urdu language newspapers and
periodicals. They contributed
towards the general growth
of literature as well. The style
became more forceful and direct
and a much richer and varied
vocabulary developed.
Urdu journalism took on
a strongly nationalistic note
towards the turn of the 20th
century. Zameendar was started
in Lahore in 1903. It was the first
Urdu newspaper to subscribe to
news agencies. Zameendar was
intensely nationalistic, which
boosted its circulation to over
30000 copies. In 1902, Maulvi
Sanaullah Khan started the weekly
Watan, meaning ‘motherland’.
Watan was intensely nationalistic
and continued for 33 years.
Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar
started Naqeeb-e-Hamdard in
1912. Another powerful political
periodical was the Madina,
edited by Hamidul Ansari. The
greatest Urdu periodical the
time was Al Hilal, started by Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad. A weekly, AlHilal created political and religious
consciousness among the Muslims.
It was one of first Urdu newspapers
which put equal importance on
content and presentation including
layout and design. It was designed on
the pattern of Egyptian newspapers.
But its greatest asset was content.
It addressed the readers in a new
language and style of expression.
In 1919, Pratap was started in Lahore
by Mahshe Krishnan. It vigorously
supported Gandhi’s policies and the
Indian National Congress. It was a
victim of government harassment
and suspended publication several
times. It had great influence among
the
Urdu-reading
Hindus
of
Punjab and Delhi. In 1923, Swami
Shraddhanand founded Tej, with
Lala Deshbandhu Gupta as editor. It
had a wide circulation in Rajasthan,
UP and Delhi. It was confiscated
several times by the government
and banned in a number of princely
states. In the same year, 1923, the Arya
VIDURA
April-June 2012
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Abdul Qaiyum Ansari was editor of
Urdu weekly Al-Islah (The Reform) and
an Urdu monthly Musawat (Equality),
published from Bihar in the preIndependence days. He also started
the Momin movement to work for the
betterment of backward Muslims and
vehemently opposed Partition.
Azad Hind, Rozana Hind, Akhbaar -eMashrique, Aabshaar and Akkas.
After 1980s there was a
gradual decline in the number of
publications and readership of Urdu
newspapers. Several publications
ceased publication. For example, in
West Bengal Shan-e-Millat, Imroze,
Asre-Jadeed, Ghazi and Iqra were
closed. However, in the first decade
of the new millennium, resurgence
was marked in the Urdu media with
a number of new newspapers and
television channels making an entry.
The big media houses made their
presence felt in the Urdu media
across several states.The major
Urdu newspapers and television
channels that are run by major
media houses are Rashtria Sahara
(launched by Sahara Group in 2006),
Inquilab (Jagran group took over the
Mumbai-based Urdu newspaper
in 2010), Azad Hind, Hind Samachar,
ETV-Urdu, Aalami Sahara and Zee
Salam. In 2011, Hyderabad-based
newspaper Munsif, which is the
largest circulated Urdu newspaper
in India, launched its news channel,
while Mumbai-based Urdu Times will
launch its print editions from Delhi
and Lucknow shortly. Hyderabadbased Siyasat was the first Urdu
newspaper to start a Web edition in
the late 1990s. Several other Urdu
publications presently have their
Web editions.
Besides Delhi and North Indian
states such as UP and Bihar, Andhra
Pradesh has a tradition of fostering
the Urdu press, Hyderabad being
a major publishing centre. Besides
Munsif, Siasat, Rahnuma-e-Deccan
and Saaz-e-Deccan are published
from Hyderabad. In 2005, two
more Urdu dailies were published
from the city: Etemad and Rastriya
Sahara. There are smaller Urdu
dailies like Aina-e-Hyderabad and
Bhagyanagar Observer. Not many
Urdu publications have appeared
from Orissa, though the state has a
sizable Urdu-knowing population.
In the late 1980s, Eastern Media,
publisher of Sambad, started a Urdu
weekly, Sahara. It closed publication
within a year. According to RNI,
the total number of publications in
Urdu was 3315 in 2007-8 including
703 daily newspapers and 1443
weeklies.
<
Samaj started the Milap, a daily
in Lahore. It was known for its
powerful nationalistic editorials.
Jawaharlal Nehru founded Qaumi
Awaaz in 1945. Urdu journalism
suffered heavily during and
after Partition. Riots in Lahore
lead to mobs raiding the office of
Milap and burning machines and
newsprint. Its managing editor,
Ranbir, was stabbed and the
paper was closed for six weeks. It
then shifted to Delhi. Due to the
unrest, Pratap shifted to Delhi.
At the time of Partition, there
were 415 Urdu newspapers
including all daily, weekly,
fortnightly
and
monthly
magazines. After Partition, 345 of
them remained in India; owners
of 70 newspapers migrated
to Pakistan. According to the
Registrar of Newspapers report
of 1957, there were 513 Urdu
newspapers and the combined
circulation was 7.48 lakh. Fifty
years later, the number of Urdu
dailies alone was 3168 and the
combined circulation of all Urdu
newspapers was 1.7 crore (RNI
report, 2007). Some of the Urdu
newspapers after Partition in
India were Dawat, now a biweekly, started by the Jamat-eIslami Hind. Maulana Abdul
Waheed Siddiqui started Nai
Duniya, a popular Urdu weekly,
which was later edited by his son
Shaheed Siddiqui. The Sahara
Group started a weekly-Aalmi
Sahara. A good number of Urdu
newspapers were published
in Hyderabad including the
daily Siasat, Munsif, Indian
Etemaad and Rehnuama E Deccan.
Until 2006, Andhra Pradesh
had the maximum number of
registered Urdu newspapers
(506) among all the states of
India. Mumbai also had several
Urdu publications including the
Inquilab daily and Urdu Times.
West Bengal, especially Kolkata,
also had a sizable number of
Urdu publications. In 2005 there
were five Urdu dailies in Kolkata:
Winners all
The Star (Malaysia), The South
China Morning Post, Jawa Pos,
Kompas Gramedia and Gulf News
were among the winners of the
11th annual Asian Media Awards
presented recently in Bali, Indonesia
by the World Association of
Newspapers and News Publishers
(WAN-IFRA).
The
awards,
which
recognize
outstanding
work in printing quality, design,
infographics, photography, editorial
content, newspaper marketing and
community service among media
houses in Asia Pacific, South Asia
and Middle East, were presented to
nearly 50 companies, publications
and individuals. The ceremony was
held at Publish Asia 2012, WANIFRA’s annual convention.
55
Journalism education
needs a revamp
(The writer is associate professor
and head, Department of Mass
Communication & Journalism,
Tezpur University, Assam.)
56
head hunters. Although journalism is
all about learning on-the-job, media
organisations do insist on applicants
having at least some basic formal
training. Then again, the question of
curriculum merits serious discussion.
Courses offered vary widely in content
and scope. The result is a problem
for those in media organisations who
recruit, not really knowing what the
candidate has been taught. There is the
need for a set of general guidelines for
various courses and content.
That many in the media industry
feel that journalism graduates have
along way to go on the practical side
is another story. Another drawback is
that there are few teachers who have
a good mix of theoretical as well as
practical knowledge. Quite a few
students who graduate from journalism
schools end up taking teaching jobs,
which means we now have faculty
who have never worked in a media
organisation, and that is not good for
students.
It may be mentioned here that the
Indian Council of Social Sciences
Research based in New Delhi is
entrusted with the task of supporting
research projects every year in
social sciences. When a student of
Mass Communication or Journalism
applies for assistance, there is always
confusion whether the discipline will be
considered as falling under Humanities
and Social Sciences or not.
<
Abhijit Bora
It may be said that formal journalism
education in India started in 1941
when Panjab University launched
a one-year diploma course under
the stewardship of Prof P.P. Singh.
Within a short time, five other
universities – Calcutta, Madras,
Mysore, Agra and Osmania –
began similar programmes with
yet others proposing to follow suit.
However, there is evidence that
the need for formal training in the
discipline was felt as early as in
the 1950s. The editor-in-chief of
Lucknow-based National Herald
noted that such a need was felt
because of the aspirations of a
growing number of youngsters
wanting to join journalism as also the
increasing numbers of newspapers
in the country. A look back at the
history of Indian journalism makes
it clear that the profession in the
early days was oriented towards a
few specific causes – creating mass
awareness against negative social
customs, making people aware of
the need for standing up against
British rule, etc. Ironically, the first
Indian newspaper was launched by
a British national, James Augustus
Hicky, with the name The Calcutta
General Advertiser, better known
as Hicky’s Gazette.
Today, many universities in
India offer a two-year master’s
degree in mass communication,
with specialisations. With so may
newspapers, TV channels and online
media, and the number growing all
the time, there is a perennial need
for qualified journalists. However,
of all the media jobs available in
the private sector, hardly five to ten
per cent properly advertised, with
most people getting jobs through
personal contacts or through
VIDURA
April-June 2012
The 7 Rs of sub-editing
A
Nirmaldasan
well-edited report has no factual, grammatical and stylistic errors.
Accuracy, brevity and clarity help readers or listeners to quickly get
the news and remember the key points. Unlike Rudyard Kipling’s
elephant, people may not have insatiable curiosity unless they are told
who-what-when-where-why (5Ws) and how (1H) in a language that obeys
the principles of clear writing. An understanding of the news values of
timeliness, prominence, proximity, conflict and human interest is essential
for sub-editors to choose news stories and suitably edit them for different
media.
The single act of processing news copy may be divided into what may be
called the seven Rs of sub-editing: 1. Read 2. Remove 3. Rectify 4. Replace
5. Reorder 6. Rewrite 7. Revise. But this division is arbitrary and is not
without overlaps. Sub-editors usually skip some of the Rs when they sprint
against the clock to meet deadlines. This perhaps explains why there are
more mistakes in the first editions of newspapers. Later, the night editors
and their team settle down to tackle the errors with the help of the seven
Rs. Consequently, the later editions are more reader-friendly.
Read
Any raw report must be read twice. A casual first reading would tell us
the sense of the story. This should be followed by a second critical reading,
which would reveal the copy’s merits and faults. Some reporters turn in
such fine self-edited reports that the other six Rs become unnecessary; and
the sub-editors have nothing more to do than write some effective headlines
for such stories.
Remove
Philip A. Yaffe, in his book titled The Gettysburg Approach To Writing &
Speaking Like A Professional, says: “Nothing in a text is neutral. Whatever
doesn’t add to the text, subtracts from it.” It is, therefore, the sub-editor’s
job to remove from a report anything that does not enrich it. This could be a
superfluous word or phrase, a libelous sentence or an optional paragraph.
The reporter may not like it, but it is a job that must be done in the interest
of the readers. Some examples may help clarify this point:
(Nirmaldasan is the pen name of N.
Watson Solomon, an independent
communication consultant. He is
the creator of a readability formula
called the Strain Index. He blogs
at Readability Monitor, is foundereditor of the Journalism Online
newsletter and secretary, Indian
Online Media Forum, Chennai.)
April-June 2012
VIDURA
The panda eats, shoots and leaves
(The comma changes the meaning)
Major crisis
(Major is a superfluous word. But water crisis makes sense)
The ship will arrive in the month of May
(The phrase the month of is superfluous)
The secretary and the treasurer
(One must be careful here. If the phrase refers to two persons, then it is
correct. But if one person holds both these posts, then the correct phrase is
the secretary and treasurer)
Rectify
Spot and correct all spelling and capitalisation errors. Insert appropriate
honorifics such as Mr or Ms or Dr before names of persons. Wrong dates
and figures must also be rectified. Yaffe says that long sentences should
be checked for logical coherence and short ones for logical linkage. A
57
Replace
The fourth R replaces unfamiliar
words with the familiar; the long
with the short; and the ambiguous
with the precise. Malapropisms,
as in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s
Rivals, must be spotted and
replaced with the right words.
Here are some fourth R examples:
Wend one’s way to the market
(Go to the market)
Dismount from a bus
(Get down from a bus)
Released from hospital
(Discharged from hospital)
To illiterate him
(To obliterate him)
Reorder
A news report must have the
inverted pyramid structure. This
means that events are arranged
in the order of diminishing
significance. So there is a need
to reorder the paragraphs of
news stories written in the
chronological order.
The order of words may alter
the meaning of a sentence. In
some cases it can improve the
rhythm. Thomas Elliott Berry,
in his book titled The Most
Common Mistakes In English
Usage, says: “Whenever possible,
modifiers should be arranged
according to length, with the
shortest preceding the others.”
He suggests that the sentence He
was disheveled, dirty, and untidy
should be reordered as He was
dirty, untidy and disheveled.
Berry also says that modifiers
should always be arranged in
a logical sequence. The same is
true of verbs too. Here are some
fifth R examples:
to go boldly
(to boldly go is rhythmic
though the infinitive is split)
A policeman misbehaved with a
woman in a drunken state
(A policeman in a drunken state
misbehaved with a woman)
She ate, dressed and bathed
(She bathed, dressed and ate)
Rewrite
Inexperienced sub-editors with
remarkable linguistic skills have
the irresistible urge to rewrite every
report. This urge must be resisted
for it is the job of the reporters to
rewrite their stories. However, subeditors may rewrite for the following
reasons: 1. Merging different stories
on the same topic; 2. Summarising
a story for want of space; 3.
Highlighting the news point; and
4. Simplifying the copy for average
readers. But a rewriter should as far
as possible use the original words of
the reporter.
Revise
Revise the edited report to check
whether the changes are justified.
The revision may help either fix
hitherto unspotted errors or finetune the report so that the readers
get a newsy copy that is easy to read
and easy to remember.
<
long sentence with unrelated
ideas must be split up into shorter
sentences; and short sentences
comprising related ideas must
be fused into a longer sentence.
Former Press Trust of India chairman passes away
P.K. Roy, former chairman of the Press Trust of India, died on March 24th. He was 91. Roy was president
of the Indian Newspaper Society and the Audit Bureau of Circulation for several terms. He began his career
in journalism with The Times of India in 1953. He started the Bombay edition of Sakaal in the 1970s,
returned to Kolkata in 1974 and joined the Amrita Bazar Patrika and Jugantar Group. He started the Bengali
daily Aajkaal in the 1980s and retired as its editor-in-chief in 2004.
Roy did his MSc in Physics from the Benaras Hindu University and a course in printing technology from
the United Kingdom. He was instrumental in starting 12 editions of The Times of India and was one of the
youngest general managers of TOI at the age of 40. Roy wrote several books including Shukhadya Shubochon,
Mahabhoj Raajbhoj, Deshe Bideshe and Podyopotre Jolobindu. He was responsible for introducing modern
printing technology in Eastern India. He wrote articles on various topics and issues, and in particular, food and
travel, in various newspapers and magazines.
The INS expressed deep shock and sorrow at the demise of Roy. A statement by INS said he would be
remembered for his stellar contributions to the newspaper industry, his unflappable and personable temperament
and his sagacity in resolving knotty issues that confronted the industry in an era of regulations and controls. Roy
was a source of inspiration to an entire generation of newspaper professionals.
58
VIDURA
April-June 2012
REMEMBERING MAITREYEE CHATTERJEE
She lives on through
her writings
M
aitreyee
Chatterjee
was one of the most
outstanding journalistactivists India has ever produced.
She is also the least recognised
one outside her home state, West
Bengal, though she wrote with
equal command in, Bengali, her
mother tongue, and English, her
basis in academics. She is one of
those gifted writers who resisted
growing that invisible halo
around her head that would have
distanced her not only from her
peers and journalist colleagues,
but also from the women she
worked with and for – the
marginalised, the depressed, the
displaced and the violated.
Born with a hole in her heart,
the challenge to confront the pains
and ailments of her body was
perpetual. But Maitreyee never
spoke about it or discussed it. She
moved along without caring for
the tremendous hurdles she faced
on her rocky journey to expose
indignities, violations of human
rights specially related to women
and children and larger issues like
the personal laws that dictate our
lives in different ways. An edited
compilation of her last published
work in Bengali is Meyeder Padaye
Padaye (In the Neighborhoods of
Girls) published last year where
she perhaps made her first public
appearance before becoming very
sick.
In the beginning of the 1980s,
some women’s organisations
beyond the framework of state
politics of any party were
formed. This was also the time
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Maitreyee Chatterjee - a woman of substance.
when Debjani Banik, Rekha Rani
Sadhukhan and Gouri Ghosh
were burnt to death due to unfair
dowry demands. In 1983, these
organisations clubbed together
to resist violence against women
and police atrocities on women
to form Nari Nirjaton Protirodh
Mancha (Forum of Protest for
Violence against Women) of which
Maitreyee was a founder-member.
Her flat at Old Ballygunge Road
became the unofficial platform for
its meetings. Once her home became
the office of the Mancha, Maitryeedi had to put up with the complete
blurring of her personal life, her
professional life as a journalist and
59
60
Devi, Shanta Behen and Bhanwari
Devi in one of her articles. But her
fascination for activism began at a
much early age. Born in Hzaribagh,
at a young age she began a school
for Muslim girls in her village,
Elaichi, in the compound of her
home and another one in the
farming fields.
One of Maitreyee’s most
important contributions as an
active member of the Manch was
her active participation in the
campaign against police officer
Runu Guha Niyogi, in support
against the wrongful and illegal
imprisonment, torture and case
of Archana Guha. This came
out in a series of articles one
of which was Torowal Thekey
Archana (From the Sword to
Archana) published in Aaj
Kaal September 14, 1996. She
equally blamed the Left Front-ruled
Government of West Bengal for the
unconstitutional
imprisonment
and torture of Archana. She was a
member of the investigative team
formed by the Manch to probe the
Bantola rape and murder case. She
was also a member of the People’s
Commission presided over by
former High Court Judge Rajendra
Sachar to look into the civil rights
of the large number of citizens
uprooted from their homes at the
Tally Nullah in Kolkata and were
rendered homeless overnight. She
wrote about it indicting the state
police and government in The
Statesman at the time.
Maitreyee was also critical in her
writings about the marginalisation
of women’s participation in any
and every political struggle be it
the right, the left, the extreme left
or any other. One of these was
titled Mothers and Sisters Could
Never Become Comrades, They
Remained Mothers and Sisters
(Anandbazar Patrika, December
30, 1998.) Her articles about
women being sexually harassed
at the workplace were many,
a few of which pointed out that
even unlettered women would not
permit being slapped on the behind,
responding to a statement made
by Roopan Bajaj. That she spared
neither the Central government
nor the state government or any
other establishment comes out
clearly in her range of articles on the
discrimination against women at
every stage of life, the discrimination
between women belonging to
different strata of society and
economy, violation of their rights as
equal citizens and so on. She was one
of the most fearless women in West
Bengal. She covered several areas
from politics to administration to
cultural, economic, legal and social
matters in her writingsm defending,
supporting, complementing and
strengthening the voices of women
that, she insisted, tended to be
silenced or drowned under the noisy
loudness of patriarchy.
A woman like Maitreyee
Chatterjee can never die because she
will live on through her writings,
through the innumerable girls and
women she helped with her personal
touch, her excellent cooking, her
activism and her persistent rebellion
against the powers-that-be.
<
her committed life as a social activist
determined to bring some solutions
to the lives of marginalised and
oppressed girls and women. Her
late husband Kishore Chatterjee
who passed away six months ago,
remained a solid pillar of support.
She was all ears to the tragic tales
oppressed young women brought
to her door. During the infamous
Archana Guha case, her house
was constantly monitored by the
police.
Maitreyee multi-tasked at a
time when the term did not exist
in our vocabulary. Her journalistic
career began as a music critic in
some leading newspapers of the
city. Alongside, she began writing
detailed analytical and researchbased articles that marked a long
journey towards raising awareness
in the society of what was
happening in the state and in the
country. She travelled extensively
to gather first-hand information
for in-depth exposes on littleknown harassments women faced
and could do nothing about. She
travelled to Purbasthali to gather
material for a piece on women
prisoners. To get first-hand
information, she visited Maya
Barui who was in prison for a long
time without having committed
any crime, to learn directly from
her why she was imprisoned, what
her prison experience was like and
how she got released.
Maitreyee attended meetings,
seminars and conferences across
the country to find out what was
happening and how she could
contribute to them. This included
everything from human rights to
democratic rights and the rights
of women. To attend the Womens’
Movement and Womens’ Study
Conference she journeyed to Patna
and Jaipur. She went to Jaipur to
participate in a women’s conference
and wrote about the contributions
of semi-literate and literate women
of the villages like Hami Bai, Ratan
Shoma A. Chatterji
(The writer is a senior journalist based
in Kolkata.)
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Book Review
Media, PR and history
MEDIA, GENDER AND POPULAR CULTURE
IN INDIA
Tracking change and continuity
Authors: Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dipankar
Sinha, Sudeshna Chakravarti
Publisher: Sage Publications India, Delhi
Pages: 217
Price: Rs 595
The book is an intensely researched work backed by
supporting data and factual details. It is divided into
seven chapters distributed among the three wellknown academic scholars of Calcutta University,
also authors in their own right. Each chapter is
further divided into sections marked out for the subdivisions of the media, explained and elaborated
through the chapter.
The lengthy introduction: Media and Mediations
– Representing Change and Continuity in Indian
Popular Culture and Gender traces the history
and evolution of the media beginning with a quote
from Edward Thompson’s letter to Rabindranath
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Tagore in 1935 to arrive at “the spectacular sociocultural definition of India from the beginning of
the 1990s” to move into the 21st century where
corporate investments by MNCs have, through heavy
sponsorships and funding, influenced the changing
culture of India represented through “audiovisual
narratives, news and advertisements.”
Indian Media in Transition: Recent Past and
Present, the second chapter, focusses on the dynamic
entity called India. After a brief introduction marking
1947 as the stage of first transition followed by a
glossing over the main, second phase of transition
“brought forth by the twin forces of globalisation
and liberalisation”, links between media and popular
culture are established. The author generously draws
from mainstream Hindi, some Hollywood and many
Bengali films to illustrate an argument or explain a
point. An outstanding section elaborates on Cricket
as Mediated Popular Culture that shows how cricket,
“an introverted game played in Britain and few of her
colonies, …has been commodified and marketed to
the maximum possible extent – aided by other factors
by the state-of-the-art technology, and epitomized by
its latest incarnation Twenty20”.
Filming Change, Securing a Tradition: A Hobson’s
Choice of a Dynamic Duality maps the rapid evolution
in Indian cinema in the way it has transcended its
‘Indian’ identity in terms of geography, history,
language, subject and technology, especially between
2004 and 2009. The Gender and Popular Cinema
section in the chapter traces how “overt architectural
differences” in narrative cinema inspired by
Hollywood or “its inspirational semantic surrogates…
share similar responses to gender representations
and the female body.” However, while agreeing
largely with the theory, this reviewer would like to
point out that over the past five years or a little more,
some films have created a disjuncture where “the
female body” is rendered secondary and subservient
to the principal female character in films that could
define genre unto themselves. Examples are Astitva,
Dhoom II, Black, Paa, Kurbaani, Ishquiyan, Hum Aur
Tum, Parineeta, Aja Nachle, Aitbaar, Cheeni Kum
and more recently, after this book was written, films
like No One Killed Jessica, and Kahani.
Television: Images and the Imaginary traverses the
many areas that encompass the audiovisual medium.
Advertising: Encoding Seduction is perhaps the
first original and unique research-based history of
advertising in Bengal not earlier witnessed in such
61
depth in an English essay. It points out how “Bengali
literature has responded to the impact created by
advertising in the print media”. Print Media and
Popular Culture sheds light on ‘little magazines’,
a unique literary concept in the print media few
Indians who live and work beyond West Bengal are
aware of. Little magazines formed a distinct cultural
and literary idiom within the Bengali print media
on either side of the Bengali border – India and
Bangladesh. The chapter introduces the reader to
Ekkhon (Now) jointly edited by Soumitra Chatterjee
and Nirmalya Acharya for 35 years, which folded shop
after Acharya passed away. Readers will also learn
about Sandesh, the children’s magazine originally
published by Sukumar Ray and resurrected by his
famously talented son Satyajit Ray, which gained
massive popularity among children. The chapter
concludes with a case study of Sananda, the women’s
fortnightly from the ABP Group originally edited
by actor-director Aparna Sen that was planned as
a Bengali version and a counterpoint to the English
Femina and met with unprecedented success.
Media Responsibility – The Winding Road Ahead
is a summing up of all that has gone before, but not
done very well because it seems to have missed out
on proper proof-reading, redrafting and editing and
was done in a hurry. It is dotted with grammatical
errors and not very fluidly written English. The
authors, academic scholars in their own right, have
very appropriately veered away from theory and
academic jargon to make the language more userfriendly for the common reader. But they have often,
perhaps out of long-standing habit or reflex, resorted
to long-winded sentences that should have been
broken up into small sentences for the lay reader’s
benefit. The role of the radio is missing except for
a single reference in the introduction. This is a big
omission because we all know the part radio has
played in our lives, prior to television. The book must
find a place in libraries in universities and colleges
where media is offered as an academic discipline.
Shoma A. Chatterji
(The reviewer is a senior journalist based in Kolkata.)
62
PUBLIC RELATIONS IN INDIA
Author: J. V. Vilanilam
Publisher: Sage Publications, Delhi
Pages: 292
Price: Not mentioned
In the very first chapter of his book, Prof Vilanilam
quotes Drucker to say that a healthy business and
sick society are hardly compatible, and mentions
that PR, like charity, must begin at home. He then
lists management thinkers from Robert Owen (1771)
and Hammurabi, the 18th century King of Babylon
to Ian Hamilton (1853-1947), before launching on the
poverty line in India. The Mahatma Gandhi Rural
Employment Guarantee Act and Minimum Wages
comes before he mentions Bill Gates visit to India and
then Warren Buffet. Even the analysis of Coco-Cola
and Plachimada is sociological with no attempt to
outline what good PR could have done in the sordid
episode. The rest of the Chapter is a 10-page analysis
of higher education and research in India.
In Chapter 2 titled Growth and Development of
Modern PR, PR is merely defined as the “relations an
organisation has with its publics”, while “publics”
is defined more extensively. PR and press agencies
are mentioned in passing. Rockefeller, Ivy Lee and
Edward Bernays are listed in the history of PR during
World War II. Before reverting to the development of
PR in India there is brief mention of Media Relations
and, of all things, Public Health and Hygiene. Public
Opinion Research is followed by “The Persuasive
Arts” that barely mentions Advertising. While
mentioning the Public Relations Society of India
and the Public Relations Council of India in the
same breath, there is no attempt to list the all-India
conferences of the former that helped shape PR in
India.
Lobbying gets short shrift. Ratan Tata’s name is
inappropriately linked with Nira Radia, without
mentioning that the first thing he did was to rightly
move the Supreme Court on the grounds of the Right
to Privacy. The Chapter ends with extensive mention
VIDURA
April-June 2012
of the plight of the aam aadmi (common man) and
what workers earn in India.
Hill and Knowlton’s work as PR consultants
of industries manufacturing hazardous products
such as cigarettes, liquor and chemicals is covered
commendably. But Public Opinion, PR and Publicity
are scattered over several chapters making one
wonder why it is not integrated into one chapter to
give it greater meaning and focus. While Vilanilam
attempts to define a press release, mentioning PR
writing alongside copy-writing and ghost-writing
is misleading. They are entirely different forms
of writing for entirely different purposes. Those
who have practiced PR are well aware that speechwriting is an accepted PR skill, and there is no need
to mention ghost-writing in this connection.
Public speaking is covered comprehensively, but
there is no need to separately mention slides and
videos that are regularly used in most speeches. There
is no mention of PowerPoint presentations, which
are all too frequently employed to communicate
effectively with an audience. The writer mentions
the marketing of the corporate image. All consultants
agree that corporate image is the sum total of all that
a company does and does not do, and any attempt
to marketing it without performance will be an
exercise in futility. The author has chosen the Bhopal
gas tragedy to highlight crisis management, how to
prevent and manage PR when a crisis occurs.
While discussing the qualities of a PR person,
Vilanilam has covered in detail the theory of
management,
leadership,
communication,
motivation and group dynamics. In discussing the
power of media he cites his personal experience of
how a false story in the media sparked a students’
agitation, their efforts in preventing him from
entering his office, and how finally he managed
to solve the problem. He fails to highlight its PR
implications though. He describes how the MRF
brand was established but fails to separate the
role of PR and Advertising, though he dwells on
exhibitions in detail. Internal and external PR tools
are discussed effectively, but there was no need
to spell out the basics of letter-writing at such
length. While Time Management is important it
could have been covered in passing. Cross-cultural
Communication is taken up in the last chapter.
The writer is undoubtedly a well informed
administrator well-versed in management. But even
a cursory reading will reveal that he has not worked
as a PR person. While the book is an addition to
management literature in India it cannot claim to
be a treatise in Public Relations in the context of
prevailing conditions in India.
R.K. Baratan
(The reviewer is a senior PR practitioner and
founding member of the Public Relations
Society of India, Chennai Chapter.)
April-June 2012
VIDURA
URDU SAHAFAT KA
The Journey of Urdu Newspapers
Author: Gurbachan Dass Chandan
Publisher: Educational Publishing House,
Delhi
Pages: 388
Price: 350
Exactly 190 years ago, in March 1822, the first
Urdu newspaper saw the light of day, in Calcutta,
thanks to an enterprising gentleman, Hari Har Dutt.
It was first published in Persian; its Urdu edition
came later. The book traces quite comprehensively
the birth pangs, halting growth and struggle of the
Urdu press in India from 1857 till date. Divided into
19 chapters and two parts, comprising the historical
background and present status of the Urdu press,
the author has made an interesting narration of the
story of Urdu newspapers in India. In a way, it knits
together the progress of India’s Freedom Movement
complete with the political leaders of those trying
times with the trials and tribulations of the Urdu
press in its early days. There are also interesting
tidbits about papers like the al-Hilal.
According to the Information & Broadcasting
Ministry’s Registrar of Newspapers of India, there are
more than 60000 publications being brought out in
the country at regular intervals. These include dailies,
weeklies, fortnightlies, monthlies, etc, in about 120
Indian languages, including Urdu. Currently, Hindi
leads the list with largest number of publications,
immediately followed by Urdu, English, Bengali
and Tamil, in that order. While Urdu is not exactly a
language in any specific region of India; it’s mostly
spoken and read in north India though there are
Urdu newspapers and periodicals published from
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as well. While Urdu
does not command a mass following as such, the
circulation of Urdu newspapers is confined mainly
63
to only a few towns that predominantly have a
Muslim population.
In the India before Partition, the Urdu press
built public opinion around the country’s struggle
against colonial rule. Gurbachan Chandan’s book
records that in 1857 an Urdu daily newspaper, Delhi
Urdu Akhbaar, published a report of the Meerut
Cantonment soldiers’ freedom march. When the
report was published, the editor-reporter of the
paper, Maulavi Mohammed Baqaar, was arrested,
jailed and later shot in incarceration. His newspaper
was later shut down and its records seized. Chandan
calls Baqaar India’s first “media martyr”.
The book also records that the progress of the
Urdu press thereafter slowed somewhat. In 1940, the
Muslim League’s Lahore session expressed concern
about the pitiable plight of Urdu newspapers.
The author has dug into facts hitherto unknown
or unexplored. For example, he says that in 1937
the Bureau of Public Information (predecessor of
the Press Information Bureau) was created under
the charge of Jessleyn Hennessy, who gave special
attention to the Urdu press since World War II was
in progress and the British Government wanted
India to play a significant role in fighting the war.
A Muslim news service was established to feed
the pro-Muslim League press, which was also
materially supported by the BBC and BPI. Overall,
the Urdu media supported the British Government
in all war-related activities in India. The author has
reproduced poems and excerpts from several Urdu
newspapers, including editorial news items and
main articles, to reflect this. He lists the most popular
Urdu dailies of the time and how their content was
regularly scrutinised: Tej, Delhi; Pratap, Inqualab,
Lahore; Watan, Wahdat, Delhi; Khilaf, Bombay;
Hayat, Karachi; Assar Jadid, Calcutta; Nadeem,
Bhopal; Haqq, Lucknow; Alkalam, Bangalore;
Ithad, Patna; Payam, Hyderabadd; Albran, Akola;
Mujahid, Dera Ismail Khan; Nazam, Rampur. Other
publications under watch were Partap, Zamindar,
Ehsaan, and Shahbaaz, Lahore.
Although the Urdu press flourished in the first
two or three decades post-1950, as a result of the
Urdu-speaking population migrating from Pakistan
to India, with a combined circulation more than
19 lakh copies daily, the success was short-lived.
Today, the Urdu press is not in good health, pushed
against the wall by tough economic conditions and
rising costs of production. It continues to be strong
in Jammu and Kashmir though, where Urdu is a
compulsory school subject from Class 1.
Prof M. R. Dua
(The reviewer is a former professor of journalism, Indian
Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.)
64
Shaping the Future of the Newspaper
2–5 September 2012, Kiev, Ukraine
64th World Newspaper Congress
19th World Editors Forum
Info Services Expo 2012
Kiev is preparing to welcome the delegates in early September
2012 with proverbial Slavonic hospitality. Both UAPP and AIRPU,
the two Ukrainian newspaper associations, are joining forces to
host the event.
5 reasons to join:
W
Get strategic input and creative inspiration to shape
the industry’s future
W
Network with peers on a global level and discuss
pressing issues
W
Keep track of latest developments in the industry and
outside the industry
W
Meet the elite of the worldwide newspaper industry
W
ƁNESGDO@QSHBHO@MSR@SSGD"NMFQDRR%NQTL
in Vienna said they would recommend the event
We look forward to welcoming you to Kiev!
WAN-IFRA GmbH & Co. KG
Phone: +49.6151.733-6, e-mail: ioana.straeter@wan-ifra.org
www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012
VIDURA
April-June 2012
Press freedom concerns
in Ukraine
An international delegation of press freedom
organisations, led by the World Association of
Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)
and the World Editors Forum, met on 3rd April
with Serhii Liovochkin, head of the Presidential
Administration of Ukraine, to discuss freedom of
expression issues facing the country. WAN-IFRA
and representatives from Article 19, Freedom
House, Open Society Foundations (OSF) and
the Ukraine Association of Press Publishers, met
with Liovochkin following two-days of meetings
with newspapers, broadcasters and civil society
organisations and conveyed their press freedom
concerns. While welcoming a law guaranteeing
access to information and the establishment of a
presidential interagency working group on media
freedom, with hope that the mechanisms would
become increasingly effective and transparent,
the delegation expressed concerns on a number of
outstanding issues, including:
- An environment of corruption and lack of
transparency that impacts the press, the judiciary
and society as a whole;
- The need for a free market for a truly independent
press to flourish;
- Lack of independence and pluralism of
broadcasters and the politicisation of news
coverage;
- Frequent cases of impunity and lack of
prosecution for those who attack the media.
“One of the roles of a government is to foster
an environment where a free press can flourish by
being independent of governmental, political or
economic control,” said Erik Bjerager, president
of the World Editors Forum, who called on the
administration to ensure that Ukraine respects
its international obligations on freedom of
expression and freedom of the press. The meeting
with Liovochkin, and the mission itself, comes in
advance of WAN-IFRA’s annual World Newspaper
Congress and World Editors Forum, the global
summit meetings of the world’s press to be held in
Kiev from the 2 to 5 September next. The delegation
expressed disappointment that President Viktor
Yanukovych’s busy schedule did not allow him to
meet personally with the participants. Liovochkin
also said the president was committed to fulfilling his
promise on establishing public service broadcasting
in Ukraine and moving the legislative process
forward.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
Violence against Pakistani
press condemned
The World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers has called on Pakistani President Asif Ali
Zardari to end violence and intimidation against
media professionals and take strong measures to end
impunity in Pakistan, the world’s most dangerous
country for journalists. “Twenty-nine journalists
have been killed in Pakistan in the past five years,
many of them for carrying out their professional
duties. Very few, if any, of the perpetrators have been
brought to justice,” the WAN-IFRA Board said in a
resolution issued during its meeting on March 1st
in Dubai. The resolution called for the government
to ensure that state agencies carry out their duty to
protect, not intimidate, journalists. It also called on
President Ali Zardari to ensure media professionals
can conduct their work without fear of violence or
retribution.
World press calls for reform
in Ecuador
The World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers and the World Editors Forum have
welcomed Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s decision
to pardon the executives and former opinion editor
of the El Universo newspaper, but said the charges
and conviction should never have occurred in the
first place. “We are delighted that President Correa
has decided to issue a pardon, but the charges
should never have been issued and the Ecuadorean
courts should never have levied jail sentences and a
US$40 million fine,” the global organisations said in
a statement. “We are also pleased that the president
has decided to withdraw a separate suit against
Juan Carlos Calderón and Christian Zurita, two
journalists who were ordered to pay US$2 million,”
the statement said. “Jail sentences and excessive
fines have a chilling effect on the press and violate
all standards of freedom of expression. We call on
the president to ensure that Ecuador reforms its libel
laws to conform with international standards.”
Ecuador’s National Court of Justice earlier this
month upheld a libel judgment, a 40 million dollar
fine and 3-year prison sentences against El Universo
and its directors Carlos, César and Nicolas Pérez.
Two of them fled the country, while a third took
refuge in the Panamanian Embassy in Quito. The
origin of the claim was an article critical of the
president entitled ‘Stop the lies’ of 6 February 2011
written by the newspaper’s former opinion editor,
Emilio Palacio, who is currently exiled in the
United States following his sentence of three years
65
in prison in December 2011. In the separate case, a
regional civil court sentenced journalists Juan Carlos
Calderón and Christian Zurita on 6 February 2012 to
pay 1 million dollars each in moral damages to the
President, following the publication of an article on
cases of official corruption and alleged knowledge of
it by the president.
WAN-IFRA conducted a five-day mission to
Ecuador in November and found “an increasing
polarization and climate of hostility amongst media
professionals and society as a whole”. A report on the
mission issued in January said the government was
carrying out “a sophisticated strategy of marginalizing
all voices independent of state power.”
Christoph Riess leaves
WAN-IFRA
Christoph Riess, the CEO who steered the World
Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
(WAN-IFRA) since February 2010, has moved on
from the organisation from March 31. Riess, who
was appointed CEO following the merger of the
World Association of Newspapers with the research
and technology organisation IFRA, was responsible
for the successful re-organisation and strategy of the
global organisation of the world’s news publishing
industry. “Christoph has done well in the best
interest of WAN-IFRA during his tenure and we
are grateful to him for his services and wish him all
success in the future”, said Jacob Mathew, President
of WAN-IFRA. Mathew said the Board would soon
begin the recruitment process for a new CEO. In the
interim, the three Deputy CEOs – Manfred Werfel in
Darmstadt, Larry Kilman in Paris and Thomas
Jacob in Singapore – supported by chief financial
officer Andreas Musielak, would function as the
executive management of WAN-IFRA. During the
interim period, Werfel, the senior most deputy CEO,
will be the interim CEO to coordinate the routine.
Bagga, India Today Group CEO
In a move that will make it one of the strongest
media companies in India, the India Today Group has
redefined its flagship brand name to be a holding
group that will act as an umbrella to each of the
companies that it has control over or has a stake in. The
group has made important changes in its leadership to
support the vision of synergy and integration. Ashish
Bagga has been named the CEO of the fortified brand
and Kalli Purie will be the chief synergy officer in
addition to her existing responsibilities at the group.
Aroon Purie will continue as chairman and editorin-chief. The group has business interests across
various sectors including newspapers, magazines,
books, directories, television, radio, music, internet,
mobile, e-commerce, direct to consumer, custom
66
publishing, syndication, events, database marketing,
direct-to-consumer, distribution and retail. Says
Aroon Purie, “The world of media with the onset
of the digital revolution is changing rapidly and it
is imperative that we change the way we work to
realise the full potential of the new opportunities.
We are fortunate to be in virtually every part of the
media business and it is, therefore, necessary that we
integrate and synergise the sum of all these parts to
make ourselves into a completely unique and iconic
media company.”
CEOs of all the group companies, including TV
Today Network that comprises Radio Today, and all
other group corporate service heads will report to
Bagga, who will continue to report to Aroon Purie.
Bagga has spearheaded the group’s foray into a
diversified multimedia play with e-commerce, transit
retail and education besides direct to consumer and
the digital business. He has forged strong relationships
for ITG with leading international media groups such
as US based Hearst Corp, Germany’s Axel Springer
and Daily Mail of UK. Says Bagga, “Over the years,
ITG has created a diverse footprint and is perhaps
the only media company that is present in such a
varied range of businesses. The new ITG weaves
all the companies into one and this new role is to
ensure that we can now deliver incremental value to
consumers and other affiliates like advertisers and
business partners.”
BCCL restructures Response
Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd has
implemented a key change in its Response Division,
which is tasked with the sales function for the media
major. The new structure reflects ground reality
of buying becoming ‘national’ in nature, explains
Arunabh Das Sharma, president, BCCL. As part
of BCCL's endeavours to further strengthen sales,
the company has created a new role of director –
Customer Engagement. And donning the role will
be Anita Nayyar. Prior to the restructuring, Response
was divided regionally with specific heads for North,
South, East and West regions. Adds Sharma, “The
only reason why clients will want to speak us is if we
add value. The day of the generalist, as we knew it, is
over and the new age seller has evolved to someone
who understands the client’s business and can
give them that confidence.” The new structure will
attempt to focus on creating category heads that are
specialists in the particular space, and are focussed on
the category dynamics, business and other specifics.
The BCCL client roster includes around 150000
companies, divided into 22 verticals, which are now
serviced at a national level. The verticals are created
on the basis of industries that have similar buying
patterns.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
WAN-IFRA to set up
Newsplex Asia
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and
the World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers (WAN-IFRA) have unveiled plans for a
new centre dedicated to creative innovation, training
and research for newsrooms of the future. Newsplex
Asia, which will be operationally ready in September
2012, will be located in NTU's Wee Kim Wee School
of Communication and Information (WKWSCI),
the only full-fledged communication school in
Singapore which has trained students in journalism
for the past 20 years. The centre, which is WANIFRA’s first Newsplex in Asia, spans over 160 square
metres of space within the WKWSCI building at
NTU’s Yunnan Garden campus. Newsplex Asia will
have a prototype newsroom of the future, where
new techniques and technologies can be tested and
news organisations can come to train. It aims to
mirror editorial operations in some of the leading
news organisations in the world, where the rapidly
changing media landscape is inspiring innovative
multimedia newsroom development.
According to the agreement, NTU will provide
the resources and space needed to create a new,
cutting-edge learning environment that will enable
students and media professionals to develop
digital media and journalism skills in fresh and
exciting ways. The collaboration will also provide
WKWSCI professors and researchers access to
WAN-IFRA's wide array of newspaper and news
publishing conferences, training, seminars and
research reports, as well as WAN-IFRA's global
network of publications, online sites and companies.
WAN-IFRA deputy CEO Thomas Jacob says, “News
consumers are changing. Not only do they want to
choose how and when they will access news and
information, they also want to decide for themselves
what is relevant to their world. Newsplex Asia
will help newspapers and media companies to
understand and manage these changes through
training, coaching and research services. It will
draw on many sources, both global and regional,
to provide the latest tools and techniques to Asia’s
media professionals. Newsplex Asia will be a centre
for innovation for the region’s news publishers,
aided by the professional experience of WANIFRA’s worldwide network of media companies.
We’re delighted to be partnering with NTU in this
initiative.”
The Newsplex Asia at NTU will be the fourth centre
of its kind in the world. WAN-IFRA set up its first
Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, USA in
November 2002. This was soon followed by Newsplex
Europe, which opened in September 2005 at WANIFRA headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, and the
International Media Centre in Saint-Etienne, France.
April-June 2012
VIDURA
IPI, WAN-IFRA to increase
cooperation
•
The two leading international organisations
for the world’s press – the International Press Institute
(IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers
and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) – have agreed
to further their cooperation on projects to benefit
press freedom and the development of independent
media worldwide. The agreement between IPI and
WAN-IFRA calls for exploring the possibilities for
increased cooperation in areas including:
• Joint statements and letters in response to press
freedom violations and concerns;
• Joint monitoring, information sharing and action
on a ‘hotlist’ of top concern countries;
• More frequent joint press freedom missions, with
concomitant sharing of planning and reportdrafting burdens;
• Sharing resources in the hosting of media training
workshops, specifically in the domain of publisher
training, given the expertise of WAN-IFRA in this
area;
• Joint fundraising.
IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie
says: “We are very happy to be embarking on
this path of closer cooperation with WANIFRA, a renowned organisation with which we
share a long, respected history of defending
and promoting press freedom. This agreement
immeasurably strengthens both our organisations
in their quest to continue helping journalists
around the world report freely.” Larry Kilman,
deputy CEO of WAN-IFRA, says: This agreement
recognises that WAN-IFRA and IPI share many
of the same members and goals. Cooperation
between global organisations to further press
freedom and develop sustainable independent
media is in everybody’s best interest. We’ve long
worked together with IPI on common projects,
and are delighted to be working even more
closely with such an effective and respected
organisation.”
IPI, based in Vienna, Austria, is a global
network of editors, media executives and leading
journalists dedicated to the furtherance and
safeguarding of press freedom, the protection
of freedom of opinion and expression, the
promotion of the free flow of news and
information, and the improvement of the
practices of journalism.
67
Strong growth for TOI,
Hindu, HT
IRS 2011 Q4 results have brought much cheer to the
top 10 English dailies camp with seven dailies seeing
growth in their average issue readership. However,
The Economic Times and The Tribune have slid in the
rankings. The Times of India leads the list with an AIR
of 7616000, up 2 per cent from the AIR of 7467000 in
IRS 2011 Q3. The paper added 149000 readers during
the quarter. Hindustan Times follows with an AIR of
3791000 in the quarter, up from an AIR of 3733000
in the previous quarter. The paper added 58000
readers, seeing a growth of 1.5 per cent. The Hindu,
placed third, has seen 3.27 per cent growth in its AIR
at 2240,000 in Q4. The paper added 71,000 readers
during the quarter. The Telegraph has seen a marginal
growth in AIR from 1266000 in IRS 2011 Q3 to 1273000
in the quarter. Deccan Chronicle lost 60000 readers
during the quarter. The paper’s Q4 AIR stands at
1034000, down from 1094000 in the previous quarter,
down 5.48 per cent. DNA and Mumbai Mirror have
seen growth in AIR numbers. DNA’s Q4 AIR stands at
897000, while Mumbai Mirror has recorded an AIR of
803000, a growth of 5.65 per cent, the highest among
the top English dailies. Mumbai Mirror moves up a
step to be ranked seventh amongst the top English
dailies, in the process surpassing The Economic Times,
which has seen a decline in its AIR. The only business
daily in the list recorded an AIR of 790000 in IRS Q4,
losing 22000 readers in the quarter, a decline of 2.7
per cent. The New Indian Express, which was ranked
tenth in IRS 2011 Q3, has moved up a notch to No. 9
with an AIR of 637000, adding 44000 readers in the
process. The Tribune has seen a marginal dip in its
AIR at 585000 and has lost 14000 readers during the
quarter. The paper has slid one notch to be ranked
tenth in this quarter.
Dainik Jagran is leading
Hindi daily
Six of the top 10 Hindi dailies saw growth in IRS
2011 Q4. Rajasthan Patrika grew the fastest at 24.9
per cent; Dainik Bhaskar lost 274000 readers during
the quarter. Dainik Jagran leads the list with an
average issue readership of 16410000 in IRS 2011
Q4, down 0.29 per cent from previous quarter’s AIR
of 16458000. The paper lost 48000 readers during
the quarter. Dainik Bhaskar saw a decline of 1.84 per
cent in its AIR, which stood at 14602000 in IRS 2011
Q4, as against 14876000 in the previous quarter.
Hindustan saw a marginal rise in its AIR at 12045000
from 12033000 in Q3, adding 12000 readers. It was a
marginal rise for Amar Ujala too, which added 6000
readers during the quarter, taking its AIR to 8842000
in Q4 as against 8836000 in IRS 2011 Q3. Rajasthan
Patrika lost 71000 readers during the quarter taking
68
its AIR down to 6847000 in IRS 2011 Q4. Punjab
Kesari saw a marginal hike in AIR at 3330000 from
3326000 in Q3. Navbharat Times lost 8000 readers
during the quarter and its AIR stood at 2573000 in
IRS 2011 Q4. Prabhat Khabar saw a healthy growth
of 6.01 per cent, registering an AIR of 2187000 in
Q4 from 2063000 in the previous quarter. The paper
added 124000 readers during the quarter. But the
most impressive growth was recorded by Rajasthan
Patrika, which added 357000 readers during the
quarter taking its AIR to 1787,000 in IRS 2011 Q4
from 1,430,000 in the previous quarter. Nai Dunia,
which slid to the tenth position, saw a slight growth
in its AIR at 1649000 in Q4, as against 1630000 the
previous quarter.
Growth for six top-10
language dailies
Six of the top 10 language dailies have seen
growth as per the IRS 2011 Q4 results. Marathi
dailies Lokmat and Daily Sakal have seen good
growth, while Telugu daily Eenadu lost the most
number of readers during the quarter. Malayala
Manorama leads the language dailies’ list with an
average issue readership of 9937000 in IRS 2011 Q4,
up from an AIR of 9912000 in the previous quarter.
The Malayalam daily added 25000 readers during
the quarter. Lokmat registered a strong growth
in IRS 2011 Q4, taking its AIR to 7562000 from
7438000 in Q3. Tamil daily Daily Thanthi, too, saw
a hike in its Q4 AIR at 7503000 from 7447000 in the
previous quarter. The paper added 56,000 readers
during the quarter. Mathrubhumi, ranked fourth
among language dailies has added 36000 readers
during the quarter, registering an AIR of 6666000
from 6630000 in IRS 2011 Q3.At No. 5 is Ananda
Bazar Patrika. The Bengali daily has seen a decline
in its AIR at 6049000 from 6098000 in the previous
quarter. The paper lost 49000 readers during the
quarter. The steepest decline has been recorded by
Eenadu. The Telugu daily lost 110 readers during the
quarter taking its AIR down from 6101000 in Q3 to
5991000 in IRS 2011 Q4. However, it was growth for
another Telugu daily, Sakshi, which recorded an AIR
of 5303000 in Q3, as against 5219000 in the previous
quarter. Both Dinakaran and Gujarat Samachar have
seen decline in their Q4 AIR at 5227000 and 5169000,
respectively. Marathi daily, placed tenth, Daily Sakal
added the highest number of readers; it registered
an AIR of 4,400,000 in the quarter, up from 4273000
in Q3.
HT Media shows growth
According to IRS Q4 2011, Hindustan Times
continues to grow its readership adding nearly two
lakh readers daily across the country. In Mumbai,
HT consolidated its position as the No. 2 broadsheet
VIDURA
April-June 2012
English daily for the sixth time in a row, and is the
only one to have grown in 13 out of the last 14
IRS surveys. HT grew by 27 per cent to gain daily
readership of 7.81 lakh during the past year. In Delhi,
HT continues to strengthen further, remaining the
most-read newspaper for the eighth time in a row.
HT also continues to be the most read newspaper of
Delhi NCR with 22.25 lakh daily readers (average
issue readership].
Hindustan, the group's Hindi daily, strengthened
its No. 2 position among all newspapers in India
with 3.81 crore total readership, which represents an
addition of nearly 30 lakh readers in the past year.
The gains are a result of an aggressive expansion
spree which has seen Hindustan add nine new
editions in UP and Uttarakhand in the past your
years. Hindustan continues to dominate the markets
of Bihar (83 per cent market share) and Jharkhand
(68 per cent). It continues to be the second largest
Hindi daily in the markets of Delhi-NCR, with a
23.99 lakh readership base.
Mint consolidates
No. 2 position
Mint, HT Media’s business newspaper, has
further consolidated its No. 2 position with 2.58
lakh daily readers. It has done so by growing its
readership in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR. It continues
to have the best reader profile among all business
dailies, both in terms of metro skew (95 per cent
from top metros) and SEC A proportion (71 per
cent SEC A). Commenting on the results of all HT
Media publications, Rajiv Verma, CEO of HT Media
says, “While Hindustan Times has for long been No.
1 in Delhi and No. 2 in Mumbai, and Hindustan and
Mint have consolidated its positions in respective
markets, as a group we are disappointed that these
IRS numbers don’t reflect the full picture of our
growth, and the reality of our investments and our
efforts in the various markets of UP and Mumbai
and for Mint, across the country.” “However, we
will continue to invest in our various markets, to
meet the needs of our readers and our advertisers,
and hope that the readership growth will be fully
captured going forward,” he adds.
English magazines boom
The IRS report of the current quarter highlights
that the English magazine industry is seeing good
growth. Eight of the top 10 magazines have seen
growth in average issue readership, according to
the IRS 2011 Q4 results. India Today leads the English
magazine domain. However it has seen a decline of
1.53 per cent in AIR at 1611000 in Q4 as compared to
1636000 in the previous quarter. General Knowledge
Today and Reader’s Digest are in the second and
third place. General Knowledge Today has seen a
April-June 2012
VIDURA
slight growth of 0.46 per cent in AIR at 1092000 in
Q4 as compared to 1087000 in the previous quarter.
Reader’s Digest has seen an increase in readership by
6.1 per cent in AIR at 1058000 inQ4 as against 998000
in the previous quarter.
Monthly Competition Success Review at fourth
position, has seen a growth in AIR of 6.09 per cent.
Its readership stood at 697000 in Q4 as against 657000
in previous quarter. Outlook has clinched the fifth
spot but in AIR it has shown tremendous growth of
9.68 per cent – 487000 in Q4 as against 444000 in the
previous quarter. The Week is at the sixth position but
has gained the top position for AIR with a growth of
13.18 per cent. It showed a jump from 387000 in Q3
to 438000 in Q4. Stardust has gained AIR of 4.68 per
cent from previous quarter’s readership of 385000. It
secured eighth position. Fortnightly Business Today
and monthly Wisdom have got the ninth and tenth
positions. Business Today saw an increase in AIR
with 3.48 per cent from 345000 in previous quarter.
Wisdom has increased AIR with 2.83 per cent at
327000 in Q4.
Hindi magazines show decline
Eight of the top 10 magazines have declined in
average issue readership (AIR), according to IRS
2011 Q4 results. The new entrant, Samanya Gyan
Darpan, has clinched the third position. Pratiyogita
Darpan tops the Hindi magazines list, but has seen
a decline of 1.19 per cent in AIR at 2001000 in Q4 as
compared to 2025000 in the previous quarter. Saras
Salil and Meri Saheli secure the second and fourth
place. Saras Salil has seen a steep decline of 8.91 per
cent in AIR at 1768000 in Q4 as against 1941000 in
the previous quarter. In the fourth slot is Meri Saheli
Cricket Samrat, a monthly magazine, has seen decline
in AIR of 0.43 per cent from 1159000 in the previous
quarter. India Today is in the sixth spot but its AIR
has declined by 3.94 per cent from figure of 1116000
in Q4. Grahlakshmi is at the seventh position. Its AIR
has decreased by 3.15 per cent with 952000 in Q4 as
compared to 983000 in the previous quarter. Grih
Shobha, in the eight position, has also declined by 3.94
per cent with AIR of 951000 in Q4. The fortnightly,
Champak and quarterly Nirogdham were placed in
the ninth and tenth positions. Champak has slightly
declined in AIR with 0.70 per cent from Q3 figure
of 859000. Nirogdham has decreased in AIR with 2.72
per cent with figure of 752000 in Q4 as against 773000
in the previous quarter.
Slide continues for
language magazines
Seven of the top 10 language magazines have seen a
decline, based on IRS 2011 Q4. The three publications
that have seen growth are Bengali magazines. Five
69
publications in the list are Malayalam magazines,
while two are Tamil publications. Vanitha leads among
language publications, but has witnessed decline in
its average issue readership at 2516000 in Q4, down
2.85 per cent from 2590000 in the previous quarter.
Malayala Manorama too has seen a decline in its AIR,
down 7.72 per cent from 1307000 in IRS 2011 Q3 to
1206000 in the quarter. Bengali weekly Karmakshetra
has seen a 4.10 per cent increase in its AIR at 1090000
in Q4. Tamil weekly Kumudam has seen a decline in
its AIR – down 5.24 per cent from 1030000 in Q3 to
976000 in Q4. Weeklies Karmasangsthaan (ranked
fifth) and Saptahik Bartaman (ranked tenth) are the
two other Bengali publications to witness growth
in Q4. While Karmasangsthaan has seen a growth of
6.08 per cent in its AIR at 907000, Saptahik Bartaman
has grown the fastest at 7.94 per cent, registering an
AIR of 720000 in the quarter. In contrast, Malayalam
publications Mathrubhumi Arogya Masika, Balarama
and Mathrubhumi Thozhil Vartha have seen decline the
quarter. Mathrubhumi Arogya Masika has seen a 6.98
per cent decline in its AIR at 892000, while Balarama’s
AIR is down 5.52 per cent at 804000. Mathrubhumi
Thozhil Vartha has seen the steepest decline of 8.56 per
cent in its AIR, which stands at 758000 in IRS 2011 Q4.
It is decline for Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan as well;
its Q4 AIR stands at 728000, down 6.78 per cent from
781000 in the previous quarter.
Condè Nast launches
Architectural Digest India
Condè Nast India launched Architectural Digest
India in March. The Indian edition of the bi-monthly
magazine is the ninth edition in the world and the
second English language one. Architectural Digest
will showcase beautiful homes through its still-life
photo shoots, trend stories, profiles of architects and
designers, and tips from experts.
“Condè Nast entered the Indian market only five
years ago. In that time we have brought Vogue, GQ
Conde Nast Traveller and our digital platform to the
Indian consumer. Architectural Digest is our fourth
title,” says Alex Kuruvilla, managing director, Condè
Nast India, while speaking to exchange4media. Priced
at Rs 150, Architectural Digest is targeted at affluent
Indian men and women belonging to the age group
of 25 to 50 years. It is for people looking to create lush
living spaces and willing to invest significant amount
of money on their homes.
Oona Dhabhar, marketing director, Condè Nast
India says, “Our aim is to capture the attention of
new home owners and renovators, architects and
designers as well as design enthusiasts.” “Most of the
stories will be produced specifically for the Indian
audience. But Architectural Digest India is part of a
network of nine editions around the world, which
means we will use material on international homes,
70
so that the magazine is rooted in India but has a
global perspective,” says Manju Sara Rajan, editor.
Architectural Digest is present in the United States,
Italy, Germany, France, Mexico, Russia, Spain and
China.
Awards for journalists
in Assam
In presence of Bertil Lintner, eminent journalist
from Bangkok, and Assam Chief Minister Traun
Gogoi, more than 25 television journalists and
media persons were felicitated on March 18 with
the Electronic Media Forum Assam Media Awards
at a glittering function held at the Ravindra Bhawan.
Each of the award winners received a citation, a
trophy and a cheque for Rs 10000.
The award winners were Frontier TV (Best
Graphics), Khoj of Prime News (Best Programme),
Bandhabi of Rang (Best Programme on Women’s
Issues), News Time Assam (Best Sports Reporting),
News Network (Best Upcoming Channel
2011) where the joint awards went to Anupam
Bordoloi (NETV) and Atraye Dey (DY365) for
Best Video Editors, Manoj Kumar Deka (Prag
News) and Ranjit Rajak (News Live) for Best
Reporting on Environment Issues, Pankaj Pratim
Dutta with camera person Ainul Haque (DY365)
and Mujibur Rahman (DY 365) for Reporting on
Human Interest Stories, Nabajit Barthakur with
camera person Gautam Talukder (DY365) for
Reporting on Development Issues, Prasanta Mena
with camera persons Sanjib and Sunit (NETV) for
Reporting on Insurgency issues, Debajit Talukder
with camera person Albert Brendo (News Live) for
Reporting on Economic Issues and Agnib Gogoi
with camera person Ramu Basfor (NETV) for
Investigative Reporting.Individual awards were
received by Mousumi Bora (News Live) for Best
Voiceover, Nabanita Kalita (Prime News) for Best
Anchor (Female), Nituamani Saikia (News Live)
for Best Anchor (Male), Gautam Hazarika (DY365)
for Best Story/ Reporting and Mukut Medhi (CNNIBN) as Best Camera Person of the year 2011.
The souvenir Taranga was released by journalistauthor Bertil Lintner. Gogoi appealed to media
persons to play a positive role in the growth of the
society. In his welcome address, Nava Thakuria,
president of EMFA, stressed that persons attached
to the electronic media needed special security
and care from both managements and civil society.
Thakuria received the award as the editor of News
Network.
VIDURA
April-June 2012
A CLUTCH OF SANITATION ISSUES
he
Government
has
introduced legislation to
bar manual scavenging,
cleaning septic tanks or handling
shit. This ignominious and
degrading caste calling has been
a blot on India’s civic life and
an assault on the constitutional
right to a life with dignity. The
draft Manual Scavengers and
Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, however,
calls for the conversion of all
manually-handled (insanitary)
latrines into sanitary ones within
nine months of notification, or
their demolition. Implementation
is to be monitored by the National
Commission of Safai Karmacharis
and sanitary workers are to be
trained in new skills and assisted
to start alternative occupations.
It has taken unconscionably long
to do something that Gandhiji
and national pride would have
had us do within the first decade
of Independence. Bindeshwar
Pathak of Shaulabh Shauchalaya
stands out among the very few
who tried to do something to
remedy the situation through
his sanitary pour-flush latrines.
Will the proposed official Bill
work, even if it is allowed to go
forward?
The enormity of the task has
been spelt out by the Centre for
Science and Environment in its
latest State of India’s Environment
Report, No.7, Excreta Matters.
This focuses on the parlous state
of water and sanitation in urban
India, based on a 71-city survey.
The findings are grim. India’s
urban population, currently 340
million, will rise to 600 m or 40
per cent of the population by
2030, with 68 million-plus cities.
Though the Government claims
that 90 per cent of urban India has
April-June 2012
VIDURA
access to safe drinking water and 64
per cent to sanitation facilities, water
quality is cause for increasing worry
with untreated sullage and open
defecation spreading contamination.
Quantitatively, agriculture still
consumes over 70 per cent of
available water while industry,
municipalities and ecological uses
demand more. City supplies are
coming from ever more distant and
tenuous sources as a supply-side
solution while untreated waste and
return flows, leaking pipes and taps,
unregulated groundwater pumping
and inadequate toilet facilities are
spreading pollution. Low flows are
converting rivers into drains.
Water allocation, pricing and
treatment norms vary across and
within states with water having
long been considered a free social
good, rather than an economic good.
The State is prone to outsource its
municipal water and sanitation
functions and the well-to-do often
make do with better facilities and
allocations or have the option to
buy water at higher rates or depend
on the Rs 2000-crore plus bottled
water industry. Slum colonies and
shanty towns are worst off in terms
of water availability, sanitation
and pollution. Sewage treatment is
disconnected from water supply
In 2008, the Government resolved
that that by 2015 it would correct
the shame of one in six urban
dwellers and overall 60 per cent
Indians defecating in the open,
26-50 per cent urban households
being denied adequate sanitation,
with only 30 per cent having access
to sewerage and 37 per cent of all
wastewater being left untreated.
In many areas flushed toilets
empty out into nullahs/rivers while
decreasing flows have decreased the
assimilative capacity of streams. A
B.G. Verghese
lot more money has been allocated
for sewage treatment, drains
and river clean-up under urban
renewal programmes. But merely
upgrading infrastructure in the city
does not mean that good, treated
water is returned to rivers and
aquifers. The example of Chennai is
cited. Here the Cooum and Adyar
rivers and Buckingham Canal are
cesspools despite considerable
investment in sewerage. Yet the
State Pollution Control Board
counts 423 industrial effluent and
excreta outfalls emptying into the
city’s waterways. The cost of total
water supply in the city is Rs 13
per kilo-litre but gets inflated to Rs
17 per kl if leakage losses are taken
into account.
More economic flush toilets have
been designed. Better still would
be to design eco-toilet systems
where transportation and distant
discharge are avoided and valuable
chemicals contained in excreta
and urine residues are recycled as
organic manures.
Scavenging must go but watersewage-excreta disposal must be
built into a viable and partly selfsustaining system on the basis of
equitable user charges. It must also
mesh with the draft National Water
Policy that is poised for adoption.
This clutch of issues is as urgent as
any from an economic, health and
right-to-dignity point of view.
<
It’s all about
getting it right
T
(The writer has been with the NewDelhi-based Centre for Policy
Research since 1986. Starting his
career with The Times of India, he
became editor of the Hindustan Times
and the Indian Express. A longer
version of this article has appeared in
The New Indian Express and is being
reproduced here with the writer’s
permission.)
71
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