A Journal of the press Institute of India ISSN 0042-5303 January-March 2014 Volume 6 Issue 1 Rs 50 ‘Ethics and social responsibility’ must be the watchword

Media ethics and social responsibility have always been important but never so much as today. Information like knowledge is power. Hence, intelligence gathering CONTENTS was from early times basic to statecraft. The liberal • Sexual harassment: a revolution that followed the Reformation and Renaissance metaphor for absue of democratised information. But none of this compares with power / Shoma Chatterji the communications revolution ushered in our own lifetime by the satellite and the chip, the computer and Internet • Tarun Tejpal case has B.G. Verghese lessons for the media / he commications revolution has created an instant Ranjona Banerji world – shrinking space and time. Convergence and miniaturisation have • Tejpal: fall of an icon / Tgiven us the cell phone and the iPod and we now can hold the world A.J. Philip in the palm of one hand. This has in turn created an entirely new medium called social media, manifested in the Web, YouTube Facebook and Twitter. • A gotcha trial by media / Information is now popular power and not just state power. B.G. Verghese The press has been transformed from select opinion sheets to news-papers • Does the legal system per se, providing the public, in theory, with all the news that is fit to print. measure up to fight sexual But apart from constraints of space, there have been compulsions of ideology, harassment? / Vrinda ownership interests, political preferences and pressures and such other Grover speaks to Pamela considerations. Likewise in the broadcast media. Philipose If the body demands a healthy and varied diet, so does the mind. Bias, misinformation and disinformation can be as insidious and dangerous as food • Muzaffarnagar: When or drug adulteration. Standards and ethics are therefore vitally important in women were cowed by the media world which has graduated from being the Fourth Estate, alongside sexual assaults / Anjali Singh the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, virtually to becoming the First Estate, sought and feared by all. • How television reinforces Governance, as much as life, revolves around communication, which gender stereotypes / triggers responses and actions. Given the technology now available, the global Bharat Dogra 24x7 media is most often the first to get and disseminate news, way ahead of intelligence agencies, the government, the military, corporates or anybody • Gandhian Journalism and else. It sets the agenda, tone and parameters of discussion and relays back the Salzburg Declaration / J. V. Vil’anilam responses. This position of immense information-power obviously entails a • History of Malayalam corresponding individual and social responsibility of the media, from the Journalism / Mrinal Chatterjee (Continued on page 3)

January-March 2014 VIDURA 1 From the Editor

An editor’s spectacular fall from grace also spotlights media frenzy

oa police writing to Hollywood star Rober De Niro seeking answers to a set of questions related to the alleged sexual assault against Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal would have seemed like some obscene fantasy not too long ago. But life as they say is stranger than fiction. Whoever would have thought that the founder-editor of a magazine that has blazed a trail in Indian journalism would be accused of sexual Gmisconduct by a colleague almost his daughter’s age! Making the story all the more bizarre was the young lady accusing him of having molested her twice – on two separate days – and, that too, in a hotel lift in Goa (where Thinkfest, advertised by Tehleka as an event for the world’s best brains to meet, was being conducted).

Two years ago, Tejpal at the same event is said to have made the remark: “Now you are in Goa, drink as much as you want. Eat and sleep well with anyone you can think of, but get ready to arrive early because we have a packed house.” In a rather cruel irony of fate, those very words seemed to have returned to hound Tejpal in the third week of November 2013. Even though some credit must be given to him for owning up, Tehelka, the institution, received a body blow from which it may well take months to recover. The public outrage and media playing it up 24/7 ensured that the man who had achieved cult status with his searing investigative brand of journalism now had nowhere to hide and hardly anybody on his side, at least in the open.

I do not wish to dwell on the case because a lot has been written about it, and there is quite a bit in this issue as well. But there is absolutely no doubt that the matter is one of credibility and trust. When you lose credibility as a leader, the fall from grace can be spectacular. For journalists and editors, there can be no greater prize than goodwill and credibility because they occupy positions of trust and have a social responsibility. Like good doctors and lawyers they must practise what they preach. The Tejpal fall will thus have repercussions for the whole industry.

The other worrisome aspect is trial by media, which is not a welcome sign at all. Often, even before the law has taken its course, judges have examined all sides of the case and held somebody guilty or innocent, media (television especially) has made its pronouncement. Is such a development good for society? I wouldn’t think so. Even judges, who are human, can be influenced by what they see and hear on television.

As far as Tehelka is concerned, I find it difficult to believe what one of our writers has mentioned in her piece in this issue – that Tejpal will be back at the helm at Tehelka some time soon. The institution may well survive and grow stronger so long as it is led by a competent core team that can take forward the founding mission of fearless and honest journalism. Sadly, a journalist of the high calibre of Shoma Chaudhury had to leave, unable to cope with all the media frenzy. However, it is good to know that an empowerment committee has been formed within the organisation with its members stressing that they will make the workplace free of any form of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

As we head to the general elections in the midst of an increasing mood of despondency, it is a testing time for the country and for the media as well. Let’s hope we will have the courage to overcome the odds and emerge stronger. Here’s wishing all of you a Very Happy New Year!

Sashi Nair [email protected]

2 VIDURA January-March 2014 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

(Continued from page 1) pressures, ambitions, competition, vantage points and ‘edited’ by ego, cupidity, human frailty their states of mind. So do we have reporter, photographer, copy and folly. Costs have soared. No one truth and three stories, or are editor, news editor and up the surprise then that for some, much there many sides of the truth? The line to the analysts and editor. or most of the media ‘mission’ has media has therefore to report all How and what they sift makes been corrupted into ‘commerce’ sides of a story and provide the them gatekeepers. The media combined with the arrogance of background and perspective for its in this sense holds a position of power. News and images can be better understanding. This may not trust and social responsibility that created to suit given needs to create be possible at one go, but through makes newspapers and broadcast a new virtual reality. careful investigation and follow- channels public trustees of news, The Japanese play Rashomon up. informed comment and good taste. tells of the murder of a prince at But then we find owner and This is as much an ethical and a crossroads in the forest at dusk advertiser interests and angles social responsibility as a legal one. that is witnessed by a woodcutter, coming into play. Sources can be By law, the editor is the one finally a merchant and a robber. The event subjective and leaks motivated responsible, though publishers as is first portrayed as it happened. and selective to give colour to owners and managers obviously The rest of the play consists of events in line with the demands of matter. the subjective versions of what interested parties. Information may This is the theory, the ideal happened as told by the three be carelessly collected, fed from a situation. But we live in a world of others as observed from their poisoned chalice, or poorly collated

January-March 2014 VIDURA 3 or trivialised to create sensation. Self-regulation clearly has not autonomous public broadcasting It may even be fabricated or worked and regulation by the service. Unfortunately Prasar distorted to create misinformation state, now under consideration, Bharati has been emasculated by or disinformation. Haste to beat the has aroused a good deal of alarm. the Government, Parliament, the competition, make ‘breaking news’, Attempts at controls and censorship advertisers, entertainment world win dubious TRP ratings or self- must and will be resisted. But just and the commercial media all of glory can result in error, invasion as powerful, high-speed cars are whom would prefer to see and of privacy, failure to double check, only safe given good brakes and label it as an official trumpet. trial by the media and other ills. traffic controls, today’s immensely The private commercial channels With rising costs, economic powerful media needs some must earn their keep and therefore slowdown and falling advertising, measure of regulation to ensure cater to the up-market advertiser. owners look to make more money matching responsibility. A public service broadcaster like to recoup past investments and RTI has played a great role in Prasar Bharati is on the contrary amortise debt. Some lust for more. bringing sunshine, transparency charged with catering to the Hence, the abolition of editors as and accountability in the conduct of extraordinarily diverse publics an unnecessary nuisance, and the public affairs. But the demand widely of India, that is, to the common phenomenon of paid news and aired for free access to government citizen. With so many living below private treaties whereby newspaper and institutional processes of or scarcely above the poverty line, magnates get shares in companies decision-making is dangerous and while all consumers are citizens, in lieu of advertising and then play if acceded to can lead to anarchy, or not all citizens are advertisement- the market – a phenomenon that compel decisions to be taken orally relevant consumers. The tragedy is has alarmed SEBI. or recorded in doubly secret files. that difference has simply not been Cross-media holdings and Tax-dodgers keep double accounts. understood in this information corporate investments in the media We should not compel decision- age when access to information are changing ownership and makers to maintain double-entry empowers and enlarges democratic editorial relationships. Political files. participation and accountability. parties, advertisers, entertainment Complex and delicate issues of I have spoken of the troughs people, event managers and the governance cannot be thrashed out but not the peaks of the Indian underworld all seek media power. in the market place by the demos media. These are there too and we Information is power, yes - and or the multitude in the name of must draw inspiration from them. profit and patronage too. Media Participative Democracy. That Overall, however, ethics and social credibility has been eroded. These would be mobocracy. Social media responsibility must remain the

trends are not entirely peculiar is ubiquitous and can play a vital watchword of the Indian media. to India. They represent a global role in on-the-spot, I-was-there < phenomenon. The News of the World reporting. Citizen journalism is scandal in the UK is illustrative of likewise narrow-focussed, subjective (The writer is a veteran columnist and what goes on. and unmediated. The worm’s eye fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Somehow in India there is a myth view is limited. New Delhi. Starting his career with that democratic societies do not have Disinformation is in constant The Times of India, he became editor media regulation. This is incorrect. competition with information and of the Hindustan Times and the Article 19(1a)(2) allows imposition is the mainstay of psychological Indian Express. He was information of “reasonable restrictions” on warfare. Social media, in wrong advisor to the prime minister (1966- freedom of speech and expression hands, can play havoc as it did 69) and a recipient of the Magsaysay on specified grounds. We have during and after the Kokrajhar riots Award in 1975. This article is based several laws that impinge on the in Assam in 2012, causing thousands on his recent lecture at St Joseph’s media, but the courts have been of North-easterners to flee Bangalore, College, Bangalore.) a shield and have helped expand Hyderabad and Mumbai for fear freedom of expression. of revenge killings. Likewise, the The Press Council is a weak more recent Muzaffarnagar riots instrument. There is no statutory were sparked by the uploading on complaints commission for the the Internet of a two-year old clip of electronic media though some some killings in Pakistan that was informal broadcast tribunals have mischievously morphed to generate been set up with a limited reach of communal passions here. some 40 members against over 800 One antidote to such negative news channels. trends could be a genuinely

4 VIDURA January-March 2014 It’s not our democracy’s fault

Have political incapacity and corruption reached a point of no return in India? Can we never salvage lost pride and trust in the political class? Or is an entire class of people and a whole system of governance being crucified for the wrongs of a few?

“…… The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike The devil will come and Faustus must be damned….”

his feeling of inevitability that Christopher Marlow portrayed in his masterpiece, Mukesh Rawat Dr Faustus, some 400 years ago seems to be engulfing India now. Dr Faustus knew Tthat Lucifer and Mephistopheles would claim his soul shortly; so do we today expect corruption and political incapacity to shortly dilute the very fundamentals of Indian democracy and consign it to oblivion. How far is this fear justified? Have we really reached such a point of no return that we see ourselves no more in a position to salvage lost pride and trust in the political class? Kautilya in Arthashashtra commented on society then as follows: “Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey or poison that finds itself on the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat at least a bit of the king’s revenue.” The line gives us an idea that the devil of corruption is not a characteristic only of modern society. It was very much prevalent through history. There is no denying the fact that the events involving corruption that we have witnessed in recent times are leaping ahead (in terms of both the money involved and the content) of those that we hitherto saw in our entire independent history. In a situation like this, wherein the image of the nation and the society at large is being coloured by a seemingly never-ending train of scams on the one hand, and the enthusiastic and exuberant anti- graft crusade by Anna Hazare and others on the other, the question whether democracy is alive in India inevitably arises. In recent times, many of us have been denouncing the government, the system and the politicians in particular, for their apparent incapacity. But is it fair to crucify the entire class for the wrongs of a few? I do not wish to be a political propagandist nor am I interested in blunting these catastrophic scams and scandals. What I intend to highlight is that only a handful members of our ruling class wears tainted apparel. It is not that every politician and every public servant is corrupt and an enemy of the people. The irony is that in the present scenario the malicious acts done by a handful are tantamount to the ones, God forbid, that the entire class in unison could have perhaps committed. In such a political scenario, let us restrain ourselves from denouncing Indian democracy itself. I am not a stonehearted zombie who is unmoved by the pinch and punch that the recent developments across the national spectrum has dealt us. Yes, some demagogues have definitely entered our political system. Yes, a trace of muscle power has percolated and is perforating our system. But should these be reasons enough for us to believe that we are somewhat a failed state? That our political system and our society are incapable of solving these issues? That the very form of government, which happened to be the inspiring and motivating factor for many revolutions the world over, now appears a cacophony? The bitter and well-accepted fact is that the elements of negativity surge faster than positive forces in society. This portrays a picture wherein every single wrong appears magnified and gigantic to us. We get the illusion that everything is wrong, when actually it is not. The need of the hour is not to be swamped by hysterical commotion, but to ponder and retrospect on where we have gone wrong. Where are we heading? This is not something that our founding fathers intended for us. This is not what our culture and religions teach us. Then why, and more importantly, how, have we landed ourselves in this apparently inescapable quagmire? The Indian democracy definitely is alive. And kicking…? I am not sure. While any criticism, or idea for that matter, which helps in nation-building should be welcomed with open arms for debate and discussion, itis simultaneously imperative that in this process we do not create an environment where people start loving to hate Indian democracy and its principles. Indian democracy definitely has many loopholes; it definitely is fallible; but by no stretch of imagination can it be considered an outcast. It may appear dormant at present, but it is definitely not a carcass.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 5 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

A friend of mine eloquently democratic government.” And that

sums up the position in this fashion: we must unquestionably continue “Democracy is like an old mother to do. < who takes all her children together; who loves to give all her children (The writer is a Delhi-based freelance Read stories from the equally with no inconsistency. But writer and a student of Political Real India, in Grassroots, children sometime get corrupt, Science at the Delhi College of Arts by logging on to the ineffi cient and unruly too. Can and Commerce, University of Delhi. the mother be blamed completely His articles have been published in The Press Institute of India for it? Similarly, the fundamental Hindu, Hindustan Times, Tehelka website structure of democracy cannot be and Governance Now.) (www.pressinstitute.in). questioned entirely. But yes, being And share these stories in a democratic country we can with your friends. question the people running the

6 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT A metaphor for abuse of power by men

The hype and the noise on our television screens, the screaming headlines in the print media and the slots on webzines will die down one day, say, in a month’s time. Tarun Tejpal will walk ramrod straight out of the court and step right back into his august post and the intern will be left with wounds that will never go away. Therefore, as a fellow-journalist, this writer deems it her responsibility to set some records straight for better awareness about such crimes

hould one consider it an embarrassment for a media person to write about the wrong done by one journalist to another in a public place? Or should one consider it one’s Shoma A. Chatterji Sresponsibility as a fellow journalist to present one more picture of power-abuse in the journalistic world? Perhaps one might consider looking the other way when the offender is a towering media personality like Tarun Tejpal and the victim a much, much younger intern in his paper. Safe- playing, fence-sitting, deciding to keep away from commenting on a delicate issue knowing fully well which way the court’s decision will go is the name of the game. One is afraid to ruffle feathers that better be left unruffled. Molestation and rape of female subordinates by male bosses is perhaps the most serious of crimes in urban India. Women subordinates are felt up, groped and patted inside the private chambers of their male superiors, made vulgar passes at in corridors and elevators wherever the man can discover a one-to-one ground. Sexual harassment is a criminal offence less because it violates the physical integrity of a woman and more because it is a timeless affront to her dignity. The physical scars may heal over time. But the scars on the psyche and the trauma caused by the assault may well alter the personality of the woman forever. “It puts a question mark on what has been long established – that the Right to Life under Article 21 is not a right to a mere vegetative existence, but to a life with dignity and a decent standard of living.” (Sethy Minakshi and Prabira Sethy, Mainstream, March 8, 2008 issue.) “Anything that makes it impossible for the woman to work without compromising her dignity and self-respect would amount to sexual harassment," says Brinda Karat, secretary, All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA). Problems arise because women shy away from voicing their complaints in public. Broadly stated, sexual harassment is defined as any attention of a sexual nature in the context of the work situation which has the effect of making a woman uncomfortable on the job. It can manifest itself in looks, jokes, gestures, bawdy remarks or plain propositions. A large number of women employees face sexual harassment in varied degrees. Some are presented with the unpleasant alternative of putting up with it, possibly giving in to it, or looking for another job or a less attractive posting with no guarantee that the same thing would not recur at the new place. There is the other hidden threat of the woman being considered a ‘trouble-maker’ that might narrow down her access to new employment avenues. The biggest drawback of sexual harassment is that its threat keeps many women out of certain occupations and places where such behaviour is implicit in the very nature of the job. Nirmala Bhatt, who works in a nationalised bank in Mumbai, endorses this view. “We, as girls, are conditioned by our families that if someone pinches us on the street, it is better to keep quiet. The same thing extends itself in our lives when we grow up and face similar or worse situations at the workplace.” A work place that treats women as sexual commodities, forcing them to respond as such, clearly violates this provision, even if legal experts may not agree. Women who are seen to have slept their way to promotions are blamed and stigmatised for taking advantage of the clichéd weakness of men, absolving men of all responsibilities. What is overlooked is that even if the woman initiates it, the onus of accepting the offer should lie with the man, who is, more often than not, in a superior position in the work hierarchy. But the fact is that the actual number of women who initiate such behaviour in men is miniscule, while popular wisdom clubs all working women in this category.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 7 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

The fall-out is that any woman insult of women. What all this a formal complaint against the who advances rapidly in her career boils down to is the fact that the misconduct of her IAS officer boss. on her own merit is seen as reaping pressure, like in any rape case, is She took the case to court. After the benefits of the casting couch. on the victim and not on the culprit. eight long years, the Gujarat high Most women who are victims of Is it perhaps, because strong and court ordered her department to sexual harassment do not have successful women occupying high reinstate her with full back-wages. either the means, or the support administrative posts are considered Her boss was transferred following that Rupan Deol had, since she a threat in a man’s world? an inquiry. However, upon her was an IAS officer. Yet, it is now There are several other examples. return, she discovered that the IAS common knowledge that Deol A school teacher was allegedly fraternity continued to harass her was under constant pressure to molested by the Goa Speaker in his for her crusade against one of their drop the case because the man cabin at the secretariat. A college own people. who misbehaved, K.P.S. Gill, was lecturer in Mumbai lodged a criminal During an earlier DMK rule in known to be a super cop, almost a complaint against the head of her Tamil Nadu, a joint director in the national figure, whose image could department for “misbehaviour”. Agriculture Ministry, married and hardly be tarnished. Juxtaposed A public relations officer at the in his 50s, often misbehaved with against this is patriarchy's tendency Gujarat Tourism Development his female colleagues. He would to trivialise any issue that involves Corporation was dismissed about force them to share details of their the humiliation, oppression and ten years ago for having lodged private lives and their intimate

8 VIDURA January-March 2014 secrets. AIDWA raised the issue is cast under a shroud of suspicion brave the social stigma that attaches with the minister for Agriculture and dismissed as unreliable and to the bad publicity especially in through a Marxist MLA. She motivated.” This letter was in view of the unknown fate of the was told that “a man of 55 is response to a news item discussing case in court; (c) often, the victim’s harmless” and was urged to drop the sexual harassment case in family – parents, siblings, husband, the complaint. When AIDWA took Gandhi Bhawan against its then- children – stop the victim from the matter to then Chief Minister director who was also heading the filing a proper complaint for fear of Karunanidhi, he promptly got the Department of Political Science social reprisals and its direct impact officer transferred. and was dean, Social Sciences, on the family. On 12th February 2000, University of Delhi. In October, Laws, therefore, are important Neelalohithadasan Nadar, Kerala the university debarred him from only to a limited degree. Social minister for Transport, was forced holding any administrative post for attitudes and the social environment to resign from office because of a period of three years. But in July have greater influence than the a sexual harassment complaint 2009, the Delhi High Court struck law. Women will continue to be filed against him by Nalini Netto, down the Delhi University order. harassed until more individuals senior IAS officer and secretary, The court ruled that the inquiry and groups come forward to work Department of Transport. The into the allegations was conducted towards building an environment incident happened place on without giving an opportunity to the where women can work inside December 21, 1999. The resignation man to produce and cross-examine and outside their homes - without came in the wake of mounting witnesses in his defence which the fear of domestic violence at pressure on the minister from the was against the basic principles of home and sexual harassment at media. Netto got moral support natural justice. work. There has to be an attitude

from the IAS Officers' Association, Law alone cannot solve the of respect towards women. Till that the Bharatiya Mahila Morcha - the problem. The impediments against happens, no law can stop any kind< women's wing of the BJP, and the the victim filing a complaint of of violence against women. Janata Dal (S). sexual harassment are based on In a strongly worded letter, the basic premise that the success (The writer is a freelance journalist, leaders of several leading women’s of any case, especially when a author and film scholar based in organisations to the Economic & woman brings the charge, mainly Kolkata. She writes widely on cinema, Political Weekly (August 04, 2007) depends on the evidence that can gender issues, media and human wrote: “There appears to be a be produced. In a case of sexual rights for print and online media. She closing of ranks among those in harassment at the workplace, the has won the national award for Best authority, so that the perpetrator impediments are – (a) eyewitnesses Writing on Cinema twice, the Bengal is shielded and empathised with who can corroborate the aggrieved Film Journalists Association Award, while the complainant’s case, who woman's charge often balk at and a lifetime achievement award from is almost always working under the making a public statement to the Laadly-UNFPA in 2010.) direct authority of the perpetrator effect; (b) few women are willing to

Infographics training in January The first WAN-IFRA training for 2014 will focus on visual presentation of news which is an integral part of storytelling. The training, Infographics, is scheduled on 9-10 January 2014 at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi. From figurative representations to data driven visualisations, infographics fit into different editorial models and reader targets. The main objective of the training is to help the editors and artists to think visually to conceptualise and execute graphics in their publications. The hands-on exercise will help them to go through the full cycle – from gathering information, research, analysing the data, planning the graphic, sketching and to the actual execution. Simon Scarr, deputy head of Graphics for Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news

provider, will lead the two day workshop. Simon has won numerous awards for his own infographic work, including a prestigious gold medal from Malofiej International Infographics. <

January-March 2014 VIDURA 9 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Tejpal case has lessons for everyone in the media Tarun Tejpal’s descent from poster boy of ‘frank, free and fearless’ journalism through Tehelka to a byword for inappropriate sexual behaviour in the work place has several lessons not just for the media but also for how men and women must conduct themselves in the future. The media has for far too long ignored the whole question of sexual harassment in the work place, even if the Indian media is reasonably gender-sensitive as far as hiring goes

he Tarun Tejpal case though is more horrific than sexual harassment and this is why he was denied bail and has spent weeks in custody. With the new laws that came into Teffect after the Delhi gang-rape of 2012, Tejpal has been accused of rape. Hestands Ranjona Banerji accused of having violated the dignity and person of a young woman who worked for his magazine. The young woman has claimed that she protested and tried to stop him but he was persistent. He assaulted her the next day as well. Should one mention that Tehelka had said this new law was not strict enough? Or should one mention that Tejpal’s lawyers now call this law “draconian”? Tehelka, however, did not have a sexual harassment committee set up according to the Vishakha Guidelines, as it turned out. This is the problem when you take the moral high ground at all times and expect very high standards from those around you. When something goes wrong, people are really happy to attack you and point out all your earlier moral or ethical pronouncements. What compounded Tehelka’s public image was the magazine’s response to the victim’s complaint. Both Tejpal and managing editor Shoma Chaudhury appeared to prefer the normal human response of saving their collective skins rather than stand on that deeply uncomfortable moral mountain. Tejpal wrote a cringingly embarrassing letter of apology but it was also marked by arrogance – he gave himself his own punishment which was six months out of the office. Chaudhury agreed with Tejpal’s self-sentencing, called the victim’s allegations an “untoward incident” and was belligerent with journalists who questioned her: “are you the aggrieved party” she asked. Chaudhury’s attitude after that, of self-conscious hurt, was somewhat disingenuous. As social media revealed all the nasty details of the case, it became evident that Tejpal, Chaudhury and Tehelka were in over their heads. The victim made it clear that she was dissatisfied with the company’s response and she rejected Tejpal’s apology. The Goa police took suo moto notice of her complaint and the end game for Tehelka and Tejpal had begun. What had Tejpal done that was so wrong and what is common practice in the media? Tejpal went further than sexual harassment and under the new law, what he is accused of amounts to rape. He also, which is even more ironic given Tehelka’s ground-breaking work in exposing corruption and humbuggery, used the traditional defence of a man in his position: blamed the victim. Why was she out at a party, why did she seem to be normal and so on. The defence made a mockery of his apology letters which spoke of atonement and the “penance that lacerates”. What need for this overwrought language, if everything that happened was the victim’s fault anyway? The word “consensual” was used by both Tejpal and Chaudhury after the apology did not work. That the victim had actually agreed to Tejpal’s overtures. The victim denied this vehemently. And she had also recounted what happened to colleagues immediately after the events. Tejpal’s own letters of apology suggested that the consensual argument popped up later. The Tejpal case has many lessons for media houses and for senior editorial staff. This was not the first case of an editor – here he was also the owner – imagining that his position allowed him to prey upon junior staff and that he also had some sort of ancient feudal rights. But there is no droit du seigneur (a French expression that translates to ‘rights of the lord’ and refers to the right of a feudal lord to spend a night and have sexual relations with a subordinate woman) any more, although you would not know it from the behaviour of some senior editors. The biggest game changer in the Tejpal case was the social media. Twitter and Facebook put all the information available out in the public domain. Mainstream media was bound to follow. Besides, the gender conversation in this country has become louder with more people taking part. Tejpal’s behaviour became much more than one

10 VIDURA January-March 2014 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

more assault on a woman. The lift distracters don’t get it – there have course cannot possibly complain in the Goa hotel was not big enough been some odd viewpoints as about sexual harassment under to contain the incident. Nor could a well. Some are inadvertent, some such circumstances. Everyone cover-up work – as it has happened unthinking perhaps. The story of understands that there is a massive so successfully in other media Phaneesh Murthy, sacked from difference between a bit of flirtation companies in the past. Tehelka is like top positions in two IT companies or a slightly unsavoury joke and a test case for all media houses. for sexual harassment, got enough a targeted campaign against a But the test is tough. Cynical as playtime when he was removed from particular person that affects his most media professionals maybe, iGate recently. But while the Tejpal or her own work and the work they also make a living exposing case was getting top headlines, a environment in general. Everyone other people’s faults. They cannot business paper carried a laudatory also understands why it is wrong to then abdicate all responsibility article on Murthy, as if his past had peg promotions on sexual favours. when it comes to matters like never happened. There appeared And if we are that clever, it’s sexual harassment in their own to be no irony in the choice; just a time we acknowledged that there is work places. Everyone in the media complete lack of knowledge about a problem and do something about has their own stories to tell and what was happening in the world it. Tarun Tejpal, Shoma Chaudhury all of us are guilty of having kept around or had happened recently and Tehelka have emphasised

quiet or not done enough at some to Murthy. Or, more worryingly for us how much can go wrong point or the other. And this is also for the media, that some within it otherwise. < why Tejpal has been the focus of so do not see sexual harassment as a much anger. He became the symbol serious issue. (The Mumbai-based writer is a of every transgressor in the past. The Vishakha guidelines are consulting editor Since the media is not actually for others to follow, women who with mxmindia.com. She was earlier one coherent organism but a complain are just prissy goody- senior editor, DNA, and deputy conglomerate of rivals with goodies who do not understand resident editor, The Times of India.) similar purposes – much as media the media dynamic and men of

January-March 2014 VIDURA 11 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Fall of an icon was really puzzled when I received a message from a friend, “I blame Gandhi — he it was who brought words like ‘penance’, ‘atonement’, etc into the lexicon. Let somebody Iinvestigate his experiments with girls young enough to be his daughters and grand- daughters”. Busy as I was travelling and unused as I am to accessing ‘breaking news’, I was clueless why my learned friend attacked poor Gandhi all of a sudden. A few hours later when I read Tehelka editor Tarun J. Tejpal’s convoluted letter “recusing” himself from the editorship of the magazine for six months to atone for what he did to the daughter of a journalist friend I know and respect, I understood the context in which my friend had sent that message. It’s true that there were many women in Gandhi’s life, some of them foreign, some Indian. A.J. Philip His hand was on the shoulder of a nubile young girl when Nathuram Godse pumped bullets into him and silenced the man about whom Albert Einstein said, "Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.” She alone knew whether Gandhi uttered “Hey Ram” before collapsing that day. It’s also true that Gandhi slept “naked” with girls young enough to be his grand-daughters, as part of his experiment with Brahmacharya but he did it with the door of his bedroom open, not closed. As all men in authority attract women, Gandhiji also attracted several women, some with romantic ideas like Mirabehn. He wanted her to focus on his ideals, rather than on him. As Girja Kumar, who studied Gandhi’s Brahmacharya points out, “He was wrong because she had fallen at his feet not for his ideals but for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in flesh and bone.” There were other women who wanted to shine in Gandhiji’s reflected glory. As editor, Gandhi wrote about his “experiments” with women but his subordinates in the weekly refused to publish it. Perhaps, it was the first case of an editor being censored by his own deputies! His experiments evoked controversies and scandals which he faced squarely and boldly. He never recused himself from work. Once, Gandhiji wrote to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, “With one solitary exception, I have never looked up on a woman with lustful eyes.” His moral sense of guilt bothered him and he tried to elaborate upon the colourful episode in his life: “Even the one solitary instance referred to by me was never with the intention of despoiling her.” Gandhiji had some weird ideas and his idea of ‘marital brahmacharya’ was one such. One great thing about him was that whatever he did, he did it in the open. One cannot but agree with Mirabehn when she concluded that Gandhiji did not love any woman because he loved himself more than anyone. The very mention of Mahatma Gandhi in the context of what Tejpal allegedly did to his subordinate is sacrilegious, for they have little in common like chalk and cheese. I have never met Tejpal but have read the versions of my friends Binoo K. John and Parsa Venkateshwara Rao Jr, who worked with him at India Today. They suggest that he was no longer his former self — a journalist ready to battle with all vested interests, be it in politics or administration. I have in this column expressed my reservations on the defence scam that Tehelka exposed. My objection was to the manner in which Tehelka conducted its probe into the goings-on in the defence ministry. Take the case of the then BJP chief Bangaru Laxman, who was caught on camera accepting bundles of currency notes from the Tehelka team. I do not defend Laxman but I have reason to believe that he was more sinned against than sinning. The BJP chief was like sage Vishwamitra, who fell for the charms of Menaka, when she disturbed him in his meditation on the orders of Indra, who feared that if he successfully completed his tapas, he would even be able to control heaven. The sage did not go after any girl but in one weak moment he lost control of himself. That did not make Vishwamitra a debauch, though he had to pay a heavy price for his indiscretion by having to bring up a daughter himself, with Menaka returning to her heavenly abode. There were many aspects of Tehelka’s conduct that called for critical questioning like, for instance, the supply of prostitutes to some defence officials to have its way. Gandhiji advocated all his life that means should justify the ends but by adopting such questionable means, Tehelka shocked many a reader. At the same time, my sympathies were for Tejpal and his team when the BJP government went after Tehelka by instituting case after case against its staff and financial supporters. The Government succeeded in virtually

12 VIDURA January-March 2014 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

finishing the news portal. anything other than making love in and found out that he was a liquor After Tehelka was relaunched as the kitchen, on the couch and on the addict, who was happy doing a weekly, I had occasion to read floor. What I liked about his writing nothing but drinking. it only once when I wanted to is that even when he wrote about I have also met writers like read a particular story done by an sex, it did not titillate the reader. Thakazhy who led a virtuous investigative journalist I knew. Some I remember one of my friends life, though people have several of Tejpal’s colleagues, including a Ashish Alexander finding fault anecdotes that reveal his miserliness. photojournalist, have told me that with the treatment accorded to a It may be a little curious that when he gave enough freedom to his Christian character in the novel, the Press should have been reporting colleagues. Somehow I developed whose single achievement in life the details of the snooping incident a liking for him so much so that was the large number of liquor in which Gujarat Chief Minister when his maiden novel The Alchemy bottles that had accumulated Narendra Modi is supposed to have of Desire was published, I bought it in his backyard. It amounted to used all his intelligence-gathering the day it was made available in stereotyping of Christians as ones machinery to know the movements Chandigarh. who are easy on the bottle as in of a lady, it has been discussing I could easily relate to the places films like Bobby. Tejpal’s misadventures. like City Beautiful, Sukhna Lake It may not be proper to draw When it has become the and Shimla that figured in the conclusions about an author’s done thing for newspapers like novel. The novel was about a couple character from the portrayal of the Hindustan Times to bring some who loved each other so much his characters. P. Keshav Dev was superannuated politicians, who that I wondered whether they did a novelist I admired till I met him should be live specimens in the

January-March 2014 VIDURA 13 Smithsonian Institution, for their police can suo motu take action and judges enjoy. When persons known annual debating events, it was not they need not wait for a complaint. personally to them figure in a case surprising that Tehelka thought of The editor has been changing his or their own interests are involved organising a think festival in distant stance with each passing day. After in it, they can excuse themselves Goa. his “unconditional apology” to the from hearing a case. How can a I do not know how such girl, Tejpal has been playing with proprietor-editor recuse himself programmes promote good words to suggest that whatever he for six months as Tejpal did? In journalism. Instead of investing did to the girl was consensual. Unfort- doing so, he tried to question the money on journalists who can bring unately, character assassination has intelligence of ordinary people good stories, newspapers nowadays become part of his defence strategy. who, he thought, would hail him spend money on organising such The poor girl had to quit Tehelka. as setting a righteous precedent. programmes which bring them Now she will face great difficulty What he does not realise is that greater political mileage, if not in getting a job because of the bad his conduct amounted to a criminal advertisement revenue. publicity she got. I can imagine the act for which the law stipulates I am hardly in a position to kind of trauma she had undergone certain punishment. Of course, it comment on this business model before penning everything in detail is for the court to decide whether but I do not find any logic in to Tejpal’s deputy in the hope that he tried to molest the girl in the bringing together Hollywood she would set up an inquiry under lift on two consecutive days. If the and Bollywood actors, who are the Visakha Judgement of the answer is yes, he will have to face past their prime, at such festivals Supreme Court. the severest punishment the law at considerable cost. By the way, When I was with The Tribune, provides for. Tehelka had defaulted on making one of my lady colleagues gave us In no case does he merit mercy provident fund contributions to a written complaint about sexual for he was not merciful in his their employees’ PF accounts. harassment by a male colleague. dealing with the girl in question. The victim journalist was flown Knowing the two people, I had He being rich and powerful has the to Goa to chaperon one of the doubts about the genuineness of resources to obtain the best legal guests. I could have understood the complaint. That did not prevent services to defend himself in the Tejpal deploying her to report the the management from referring the court. His lawyers are expected to event for the magazine. There are complaint to a committee headed by unleash all the crude strategies the event management companies a lady, who did not belong to the defence employs in such cases. whose job is to organise conferences newspaper group. In the end, the That, alas, will be sad for Indian and events. Every year when the committee dismissed the complaint journalism, which has lost an icon Kolkata Group, led by Amartya Sen, as of no consequence. in the fall of Tarun Tejpal. The meets in the eastern metropolis, Unfortunately, in the case more he tries to defend himself by the services of such a company are under discussion, the attempt all pointing the accusing finger at the hired and it organises the meetings through was to save the editor’s hapless girl, the more he will lose

with great professionalism. It takes skin. His deputy, who has now the respect of fellow journalists care of the guests from their arrival quit Tehelka, has explained that his and readers. < at the Kolkata airport to their “unconditional apology” was made departure from the airport. at the instance of a lawyer friend (Courtesy: Indian Currents; I do not want to go into what who changed sides. The point is, The writer is a senior journalist exactly happened in the lift on did Tejpal not have a mind of his based in New Delhi, a member of two consecutive days because the own to take a stance on an issue that the Assessment and Monitoring versions of the girl and Tejpal are affected his life and career, except at Authority of the Planning out there in the public domain. the prompting of a paid lawyer? Commission, and president of non- Since the subject is a matter of That does not speak highly of a profit organisation Deepalaya.) police investigation, it may not be person, who was at one time touted proper to judge the issue. as one of the most influential persons Attempt to rape is a criminal in India. What he allegedly did to charge that needs to be investigated the girl comes within the purview of and proved in a court of law, if the the rape law. Nobody will buy his accused is to be punished. While argument that he did it in a drunken the Goa police is expected to do stupor. the job, some comments on Tejpal’s The fact is that he tried to misuse conduct would be appropriate. his authority because he found the Incidentally, in criminal cases the girl vulnerable. Recusal is a facility

14 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT A gotcha trial by media

Any misdemeanour merits punishment that fits the crime as adjudicated by due process, which is central to a democratic society. However, what we have seen over the past few weeks in the Tehelka matter has been a gotcha trial by the media that has been judgemental, sanctimonious and taunting about Tarun Tejpal, the owner-editor, and Shoma Choudhury, former managing editor of the journal, says B.G. Verghese. The one has been arrested and faces investigation before trial in Goa, the scene of his alleged rape of a junior colleague, while the other was savagely hounded until she resigned

ape cannot be condoned. The young journalist, who complained of an ordeal at the hands of her employer at Tehelka’s annual Thinkfest on November 7-8 at a hotel in Goa, deserves every support and sympathy for the Rsearing indignity and violation of her body that she suffered. So much is admitted and is common ground. Beyond that, the story that has captured the headlines and commentaries has become something of a witch- hunt against Tejpal served up minute by minute, hour by hour, as a heady breaking news cocktail of conjecture, insinuation and self-righteousness garnished with a pinch of malice served by competing media bartenders. There are two relevant aspects of the episode – moral and legal. What Tarun Tejpal did was morally absolutely wrong. The traumatised woman immediately confided in three of her colleagues who were also in Goa but otherwise went about her occasions normally. She only wrote a detailed complaint to Shoma Chaudhury ten days later, around November 18. She cannot be faulted for this delay as she was still getting over the shock and needed to get home to her family and think things through before proceeding further. An outraged and understandably traumatised Shoma immediately confronted Tarun with the complainant’s letter and sought an explanation. He was contrite and, in recognition of the fact that even “drunken banter” and a “misreading of signals” was shameful and condemnable, tendered an unconditional apology to the young lady for the two encounters in the hotel elevator on consecutive evenings. The Thinkfest continued and concluded without a whisper of anything untoward having happened, though both episodes were at least partly captured on closed-circuit TV cameras. Shoma Chaudhury was faulted on four counts. The first was Tehelka’s failure to set up a standing sexual harassment committee headed by a credible woman from outside the organisation as recommended (not mandated, it would appear) by the Supreme Court’s guidelines issued after the Vishakha Judgement in 1997. The second was in not immediately filing a criminal complaint with the police on hearing from the complainant. The third was in seeking internal closure to the episode after the young lady received Tejpal’s unconditional apology and self- imposed “lacerating punishment”. And, finally, for subsequently talking about “two versions” after Tejpal’s mea culpa (admitting that it is your fault) leaked to the press. Shoma admitted to a lapse in not setting up a harassment committee until after the event bywhen,with Uruvashi Butalia named as chair, the purpose was nullified by the Goa Government’s police investigation and the intervention of the National Women’s Council. How many media houses or others have set up harassment committees in the workplace? Even the Supreme Court does not have such a body, as seemingly testified by the complaint by a former law intern against a retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly. A police complaint was not immediately filed by Tehelka pending an office investigation that entailed hearing the other side, and on account of what appeared to be a mutually acceptable internal settlement as described, without either party or the journal being further mortified and publicly scandalised. Now the poor girl has inevitably been made to suffer great and continuing public ignominy with her name becoming known even before being otherwise revealed, wrongly, by Tejpal’s counsel and the BJP spokesperson and lawyer, Meenakshi Lekhi. Tejpal, has likewise been pilloried as a monster, an egotistical power-seeker, a poor paymaster though a secret tycoon-in-the-making, and a political and social climber. His journalism has been questioned by some as immoral, magisterial and politically motivated muck-raking by entrapment rather than investigation. The assumption of mutually accepted closure by Shoma, proved mistaken as the girl felt fobbed off by a token apology and self-penance. With leakage of the girl’s letter, the scornful media cry went up that justice demanded “punishment” (for rape, under law), and not a self-selected “penance” of six months. It was only after the ruckus following the leakage of Tarun’s apology and the young lady’s complaint that a harassed Shoma, responding to persistent questions, referred to there being “two versions”. This immediately got

January-March 2014 VIDURA 15 the media and political busybodies and political efforts to arraign him the term “rape” has been widened to unfairly accuse her of “cover up” is understandable. The demise of to include forms of sexual and double talk. Her credibility Tehelka too would be a real media molestation short of forcible sexual questioned and alleged complicity loss. intercourse without consent with with Tarun, Shoma Chaudhury The Goa police and BJP chief the punishment ranging from a few resigned, leaving Tehelka rudderless minister, Manohar Parrikar, both years to life imprisonment. and without editorial leadership, exhibited a rare zeal not noticed The law must now take its course facing possible closure with five before. BJP spokesmen, long and the victim will face cross- other senior staff having also quit. chafing over Tehelka’s exposure examination regarding the alleged Shoma Chaudhury, a highly of the Westland arms scam, “two versions”. But the same law talented, honoured and honourable Gujarat 2002 and other matters, also provides for conciliation at journalist, has sadly been sacrificed gleefully grabbed the opportunity the request of the woman. This is through the process of media trial. for revenge. Meenakshi Lekhi’s probably what Shoma had intended She followed a moral compass retraction of her original tweet in order to avoid further trauma. and knowingly did no wrong. with the Tehelka victim’s last name, As the case proceeds, maximalists Hopefully, she will be not lost contradicts her statement to the will be pitted against those who to Indian journalism. Nor did Indian Express an hour earlier would uphold the moral as much Tarun Tejpal hide or run away. He admitting her “mistake”. Another as the legal compass. Meanwhile,

admitted his guilt in unequivocal BJP leader, Vijay Jolly with a gang the media and political leaders terms, offered the girl an of BJP rowdies, vandalised Shoma would do well to spend time in < unqualified apology and awarded Choudhury’s nameplate outside her honest introspection. himself no small punishment home, blanketing it with black paint that would have in any case have and scrawling “accused” against her (The article had earlier appeared in brought his “indiscretion” into the name. The BJP later issued a bland The Indian Express and is being glare of publicity. He erred, but statement disassociating the party reproduced here with the writer’s stood up to face the consequences from this “individual” initiative. permission.) of his actions. It took moral courage Feminists and criminologists are to do so. His subsequent defence opposed to any effort to soften the in the face of the media onslaught rape law. By a recent amendment,

Mammen Mathew awarded coveted Lokamanya Tilak prize Chief editor and managing Director of Malayala Manorama publications, Mammen Mathew, was conferred with the coveted Lokamanya Tilak national award for excellence in journalism. The award, instituted by the Kesari-Mahratta Trust, carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. It recognises lasting contribution to the field of journalism. The award was presented to Mathew by Deepak Tilak, chairman of the trust, at a function to mark the 133rd anniversary of Kesari. Responding to the honour, Mathew drew parallels between Malayala Manorama and Kesari, saying that both newspapers shared a similar cause of inculcating the spirit of patriotism during the fight against British rule. Hailing the role played by Lokmanya Tilak in the "great cultural renaissance" in the country, Mathew said the media Mammen was "duty bound" to safeguard the swarajya. Tilak had famously said that swarajya was his Mathew. "birthright", in 1907. Mathew said he felt deeply honoured by the award, which he dedicated to the readers and colleagues at Malayala Manorama. Saying that Lokmanya Tilak was a national icon, Mathew spoke of the "grit and guts" of the leader in taking on the British by launching Kesari, which inspired the pre- Independence generation to participate in the freedom struggle. Mathew said that as had been aptly described by Mahatma Gandhi, the

Lokamanya's personality was like that of an "ocean". He noted that the Malayala Manorama Group was committed to the journalistic values of "fairness, justice and < morality". He added that they believed in "journalism with a human touch".

(Courtesy: The Week)

16 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Growing rage of women shatters the silence The workplace – from the classroom to the court to the newsroom, every single workplace in short – is utterly sexualised. It is sexualised in a masculinist and misogynistic power-laden way. The continuous invocation of the possibility of sex and of women as sexual objects is the very air of the workplace, says Nivedita Menon

isten. Can you hear it? That low growl on the horizon, coming closer, growing louder? It’s the dam bursting its bounds. It’s the quiet shriek of convivial silence being ripped apart. The silence around the normalising Lof a range of behaviour from the apparently casual to the outrightly violent. The laughing sexual innuendo; the misogynist jokes; the well-known ‘displaced squeeze’ of the upper arm, the shoulders; the repeated, relentless expression of romantic or sexual interest despite clear Nos; the grabbing of the breast, the unwanted kiss, the out-of-town work trip ending in physical assault, presented as flattering interest; and through it all, the clear invocation of the power relationship. You look great, Sir, retirement suits you, says a younger female colleague to a professor visiting his former institution. Really, he smirks. Two other people told me this, and they are both women. What do you think it means? She smiles uncomfortably and hurries out of the office of the male head of the institution in whose presence this comment is made. A professor in his 60s writes romantic poems to his MA student, one after the other, until she leaves the institution, never to be heard of again in academics. Photo: Saadia Azim/WFS Photo: Saadia A mid-level woman academic is greeted at a formal committee There is a growing rage among women against the harassment and violence they meeting by a former male teacher face at the hands of men. of hers, ignoring her outstretched hand, with a close hug and a kiss on her forehead. Having never been on any terms of intimacy with him, she can only smile uncomfortably while the rest of the people at the meeting look on impassively. A young woman journalist is told to ‘seduce’ someone to come to a high profile event by her female boss. When she protests at this terminology, the boss tells her not to be so sensitive. To have a sense of humour. The male teacher says to a woman student entering late – please be on time. It distracts me when you enter late. You shouldn’t be so beautiful. A woman IAS officer gets her bottom pinched by a senior police officer. Years of courtroom wrangling and his indictment later, he retires, full of years and honours. The workplace - from the classroom to the court to the newsroom, every single workplace in short – is utterly sexualised. It is sexualised in a masculinist and misogynistic power-laden way. The continuous invocation of the

January-March 2014 VIDURA 17 are “getting wary about employing women juniors because they don’t want to run the risk of being accused in the future.” That’s a nice clear signal to send out to women – put up with it if you want a job. Especially in the judiciary that can invoke confidentiality with grave seriousness. The need to enforce the implementation of the Vishaka Guidelines has never been more starkly evident. Men in the workplace need to know this now and with certainty – their sexualised behaviour is not charming or harmless, but a criminal offence. Oh these feminazis, they sigh

Photo: Suchismita Pai/WFS over their single malts, do they want to end all spontaneous interaction The workplace now seems to be sexualised in a masculinist and misogynistic among men and women? Not a power-laden way. bad thing, says this feminazi, if the workplace is not characterised by possibility of sex and of women as every other kind of working class spontaneity but by well considered sexual objects is the very air of the location is of course, even more and utterly professional behaviour. workplace. Women learn to take normalised. Why should spontaneity of most of it with that uncomfortable But that charming convivial all qualities, be the hall mark smile, or join in so as not to appear silence is being shattered by the of a workplace? Especially if strait laced, or of course, to protest, growing rage of women. And it’s spontaneous behaviour for men is knowing full well the price they happening everywhere. The gutsy simply to grab and squeeze? Or to will pay. young Tehelka journalist who has joke about breast size and oral sex? There are consensual affairs too, blown the cover on the sexual assault Above all, we say – respect of course, but there is never any she faced from Tarun Tejpal, and the victim’s views on how she clear delineation of conflicts of the principled and unambiguous wants to deal with the situation. interest – the boss sleeps with his support she has received from fellow Let her decide whether to take employees, the professor sleeps staffers in the face of the editor’s the legal route, go to the police, with his students, or with younger attempts to ‘manage’ the crisis. The invoke Vishaka, call for a public colleagues dependent on him for legal student who blogged about the acknowledgement and apology. jobs and promotions, and since this retired Supreme Court judge who All we need to do is back her. So

can never be publicly talked about, physically molested her. The other that she is no longer the victim, but the ways in which these liaisons young lawyers who are speaking the agent and the survivor. The < vitiate the professionalism of the up. The student at a university in time has come. It is now. workplace can never be addressed. Delhi who demanded and got the These men assume that every public humiliation of her supervisor (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service. woman will say yes given the right who molested her – he had to The writer is professor of Political amount of pressure, it’s just a matter tender a written and oral apology Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, of upping the ante. Many women to her before the entire gathered New Delhi. This piece was written say yes because the rewards are department. The Dalit schoolgirls in shortly after the Tehelka incident great. The women who say no pay Haryana raped by upper caste men became public and it first appeared in another kind of price. in connivance with the police, who kafila.org.) And these are just the upper have lodged formal complaints and class professionals. The routine named their rapists. And yes, they sexual violence faced by women continue to go to school. on construction sites and inside The male establishment is middle-class homes where they all aflutter with anxiety. Senior work as domestic servants, and in advocates, The Times of India reports,

18 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Does the legal system really measure up?

Unless the biases in the criminal justice system and the absence of enabling mechanisms are urgently and rigorously addressed, impunity for routine and systemic sexual violence will persist, says Vrinda Grover in a conversation with Pamela Philipose

he gang-rape of a young paramedic student in Delhi on December 16, 2012 led to powerful protests that demanded an end to the culture of rape and sexual violence Tagainst women. Compelled by the unprecedented mobilisation, the Indian Parliament amended the laws relating to sexual violence. For more than three decades the women’s movement in India had sought changes in law and the codification of hitherto unaddressed Vrinda Grover crimes like voyeurism, stalking, disrobing, stripping and parading a woman, and acid attacks. The new law, Criminal Law Amendment 2013 (CLA 2013), recognised the structural and graded nature of sexual crimes against women and redefined rape to include all forms of non-consensual, penetrative sexual acts that violated a woman’s bodily integrity. This was a departure from the earlier patriarchal framing that had restricted rape to peno-vaginal penetration. Statistics show an increase in the number of women seeking justice. They are challenging the culture of denial, silence and stigma that shrouds sexual crimes. The legal system, however, continues to remain to a great extent unresponsive, insensitive and biased against them. For impunity to be broken across the legal system, we will have to address these biases. From the police station to the courtroom, an attitude of suspicion and contempt stalks the victim-survivor of sexual violence and continues to permeate the legal system. We readily castigate the police for their prejudiced investigation, but there is very little comment on how lawyers and the judiciary engage with this issue. Perhaps this is also because not many understand the workings of the legal system. At a training of legal aid lawyers – largely male – I asked participants how they analysed the growing number of rape trials. Prompt came the reply that 90 per cent of the cases were false, that women were lying, that these were, in fact, largely consensual sexual relations. This was the near unanimous answer at a time when there was a high decibel discussion on the widespread and routine nature of sexual violence. I asked, “But all these reports about women saying they feel unsafe, is there no truth to them?” The lawyers replied, “False cases are a way of making money and harassing men.” When shown official figures about minor girls being victims of sexual assault, the convenient answer was, “Yes, yes, those children were not lying, but such crimes are committed by psychopaths, a separate category.” These were views held by practising lawyers, professionals who know the law and are conversant with the intricacies and manipulations of the legal system. I slowly shifted the conversation to a related aspect and asked them how easy was it for a woman to walk into a police station and have an FIR registered. The lawyers agreed that the police were corrupt and often refused to register complaints. I then queried how come all these women were managing to get false cases registered. Grudgingly, a few conceded not all allegations of rape were concocted. The majority, however, continued to maintain that most cases involved women who had wanted/agreed to/invited/asked for ‘sex’, and later filed false complaints of rape. This is the mindset that survivors of sexual violence seeking justice have to face. Trial court judges continue to look for injuries on the victim’s body as signs of non-consensual intercourse, despite the Supreme Court’s stricture against this approach that has now been reinforced by a clarification in Section 375 the Indian Penal Code that specifies that absence of physical resistance cannot be construed as consent. Yet, it remains extremely difficult, for instance, to get a conviction in a case of a date rape or if the survivor’s conduct is seen as non-conformist. The test the survivor of sexual assault has to pass is not that of being a ‘reasonable woman’ but of being the ‘good Indian woman’.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 19 In October 2013, a Delhi fast track court while delivering the verdict in a rape trial made a sweeping indictment about ‘false cases’, “…This is a very disturbing trend…They voluntarily elope with their lovers to explore the greener pastures of bodily pleasure and on return to their homes, they conveniently fabricate the story of kidnap and rape in order to escape scolds and harsh treatment from the parents. It is these false cases which tend to trivialise the offences of rape and undermine its gravity.” Photo: Nandini Rao/WFS With the Criminal Law Protests against increasing crimes against women. Amendment Act (CLA) 2013 and POCSO 2012 raising the legally valid age of consent for sexual acts and non-discrimination. That is – that encourages the impunity to 18 years, many more such cases why we see trial courts setting the with which sexual assaults are will come before the courts. Far rapist free after a “compromise” has committed and leads to acquittals from being a fallout of promiscuous been arrived at in an offence that is of the accused. activity by wicked girls, they non-compoundable in law. One of To counter such biases, the reflect the stranglehold of caste, the circumstances usually cited as legal system needs to provide class, clan and religion that denies a justification for such compromise, enabling mechanisms. This would young people any sexual agency or is that the woman is now married mean instituting a cadre of para- autonomy. The judge then proceeds and settled. Then there have been legal personnel who would help to sermonise, “…The girls are cases where upon offer of marriage her navigate the criminal justice morally and socially bound not to by the accused, the trial judge has system; public prosecutors trained indulge in sexual intercourse before asked the rape survivor to ‘forgive’ in understanding sexual violence a proper marriage and if they do so, and marry him. Clearly, a court and gender justice; and judges it would be to their peril and they that passes such an unlawful order oriented to comprehending sexual cannot be heard to cry later on that does not view rape as a crime and violence as rooted in structural it was rape.” No such observations certainly not one that violates the inequality. Survivors need to be are handed out to men. woman’s bodily integrity and provided with reparative justice, Judicial verdicts delivered over dignity. Of course, the CLA 2013 which would include compensation the years reveal that judges frame has deleted the proviso that allowed and other restitutional measures. them in the language of protection the judiciary to exercise discretion By only making amendments rather than rooting them in the to reduce the sentence for rape, but in the criminal law the State constitutional rights of equality the judicial responses to rape are has abdicated its constitutional still overwhelmed by concerns of obligation. Women’s enjoyment of

chastity and marriageability of the the right to life remains constrained survivor rather than punishing a by violence and the fear of < violent exercise of power. violence. Let us also not forget that even as Delhi witnessed unprecedented (Courtesy: Women's Feature Service. protests against the December 16, Vrinda Grover is a prominent Delhi- 2012 gang-rape, the high rate of based lawyer working on issues of sexual assaults on Dalit women in human rights and impunity. She is neighbouring Haryana or the gross also a research fellow at the Nehru

Photo: Saadia Azim/WFS Photo: Saadia failure of the state to even probe Memorial Museum and Library.) grave allegations of mass rape in The gang-rape of a young paramedic 1991 by the Indian army in Kunan (Pamela Philipose is director and student in Delhi on December 16, and Poshpara Villages of Kashmir, editor-in-chief, WFS.) 2012 led to powerful protests that demanded an end to the culture of did not spark off any public outrage. rape and sexual violence against It is this silence, this lack of scrutiny women. – both from the public and the media

20 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT A rape survivor who got justice after 17 years

Violence perpetrated against women in rural India tends to get very little coverage in the press, although they too go through the same traumas and pain. Rakhi Ghosh highlights the travails of a survivor who had to make a new life for herself in order to cope

he sees herself as a lone crusader, not a survivor. Today, whenever she hears or sees a woman or girl being harassed, she rushes to help. She has even filed FIRs against those who harass women. “As long as I am alive, SI don’t want others to go through what I have gone through. Only rape survivors know what rape really is,” she says. The incident that changed her life forever occurred 17 years ago. It was July 2, 1996. She had just taken up a job as a social worker, fighting for the rights of destitute women. On that particular day, she happened to be returning with her older brother and his friend to her village in Delanga Sub-division in Khurda District after attending a seminar in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s state capital. They took a bus to cover the distance of 32 kilometres between Khurda and Delanga and got down at Delanga square. Unfortunately that day, they missed the connecting mini bus to their village so they decided to walk it back. “I was in hurry. We had missed the bus and I had to attend an interview for a government job the next morning. It was only 6 pm and I was very familiar with the area, so I had no reason to be worried over my safety. We were just a few kilometres away from our village when two persons came up to us and attacked my brother and his friend.” Fearing that something was wrong, the young woman fled from the spot. She later noticed two other persons following her. They caught up with her and took her to a secluded place where the other two also joined them. From their conversation she gathered that they had severely attacked her brother and she knew that something terrible will now be perpetrated against her. “I tried to resist them but they were young and powerful. All four of them raped me. I was screaming, shouting, but no one came to my rescue. Whenever I recall that incident even now, I feel that sense of outrage and start shouting to myself, ‘Why me? Why me?’” recalls the 38-year- old Khurdha rape survivor. Her real trauma began after this. She had to literally fight not just the system but the society with its cultural stigmas and taboos. In those days, it was not easy for a woman who came from a small village

to file an FIR. Her family supported her Photo: WFS but everyone else, including the police, lawyers, and the medical community, proved most unhelpful. Her father was Women survivors of rape have to struggle against the system as well as the clear – he told her that they had to fight society’s cultural stigmas and taboos.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 21 for justice. “When we have done Khurdha Chief Judicial Magistrate village to a neighbourhood that nothing wrong, why should we be Court asking it to take up the case did not know of the incident. She blamed?” he had asked. She filed speedily. After 17 years of waiting, sometimes gets anxiety pangs over the case and all the four accused the survivor finally got a chance to whether the rapists would seek were arrested and sent to jail. demand justice. Remarks Sabitri revenge and attack her family, “My The case came up in the trial Mishra, public prosecutor of the daughter is now 12, I want to keep court. Obviously bribes had been Khurdha Chief Judicial Magistrate her safe at all costs.” paid and there was pressure on Court, “The entire court – even the A teacher in a government her to withdraw her case. “During defence lawyer – looked stunned school, today she helps educate her those days we were under great when she narrated her side of the students about life and security. pressure. The accused happened to story. I even noticed tears in the eyes As she puts it in conclusion, “Life be the sons or relatives of some very of some lawyers as she spoke. The has taught me a lot. Whenever I powerful people and they may have judge ruled in her favour and the see anyone harassing a woman I got away with such crimes before. rapists were sentenced to 10 years immediately rush to her aid. I have Local politicians turned up to force of imprisonment. Finally, after 17 even had FIRs filed against such me to withdraw my charges. Even years, she got some justice.” criminals. Whenever I hear or read as late as 2011 they came in search It was not just the survivor, about a gang-rape case, I just pray

of a mutual settlement. But what Mishra herself, even as a senior that such incidents come to an end was there to settle? How could I lawyer, came under pressure. The some day.” < forget that dark day in my life?” accused happened to be very well she asks. connected and a lot of well-known (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service) She fought the case until her and powerful persons in the area marriage in 1999. It became more came out in their support. Observes difficult after that. “Being an Mishra, “I must say the woman is Odia bahu (bride), it was tough very brave and her husband, very for me to fight as a rape survivor. supportive. This is really a victory My husband was supportive and for everybody fighting violence Dainik Bhaskar had agreed to marry me despite against women.” knowing everything. But we live Looking back on the days just set to enter in an unsympathetic society. after the incident, the rape survivor Sometimes I feel I should not have pointed out how women like her are Bihar married. That way I could have often accused of inviting the crime fought them. I was burning with upon themselves. “People would ask With Dainik Bhaskar set to the memory of that attack on me me why was I outside at that time in foray into Bihar soon, competition every day and every night of my the first place. It is as if they were in the Bihar print media market life,” recalls the survivor, now a accusing me of the crime. During has further escalated. According mother of two children. the early days, I just shut myself to an Assocham report launched The case remained in cold storage away in a dark room. Relatives, in June 2013, “Bihar logged in a for several years until a young friends, acquaintances, they all compounded average growth rate human rights lawyer of Odisha stopped coming to our home. I was (CAGR) of 20 per cent in public High Court, Prabir Das, filed a generally liked by people who had investment between March 2003 public interest litigation (PIL) for known me, but once this happened, and March 2013”. The report the speedy trial of the long standing everyone turned their backs on me. further stated that Bihar was gang-rape case. Says Das, “After As a social worker I was fighting growing at a faster pace. With the Delhi gang-rape incident, the for the rights of women, but during Dainik Bhaskar’s impending foray, Supreme Court had sent letters to that time I had lost the confidence to Patna city has been witnessing a all state high courts for the speedy raise my own voice.” cover price war, besides a slew of trial of pending gang-rape cases The fact that the incident did not promotional offers being offered in fast-track courts. When I heard receive the attention of the national to the readers, along with outdoor about this from a local journalist, I media indicates how violence advertising. decided to file a PIL with the prayer perpetrated against women in rural In a bid to fortify their market that this woman should not be India tends to get very little coverage shares, three existing players – denied justice because rape violates in the press, although they too go Hindustan, Dainik Jagran, and a woman’s human rights and her through the same traumas and pain. Prabhat Khabar – have cut down security in society.” This survivor had to make a new their cover prices to Rs 2.5 from

Rs 4 and Rs 3 In February 2013, the Odisha life for herself in order to cope. She (Dainik Jagran) < High Court sent a letter to the and her husband moved out of their (Prabhat Khabar).

22 VIDURA January-March 2014 MUZAFFARNAGAR RIOTS When women were cowed by sexual assaults The Joint Citizens Initiative Report on the Muzaffarnagar riots reveal that while many of the affected women bravely talked about the general pattern of violence, destruction of property and loss of loved ones, they fell silent on the issue of sexual violence. Young adolescent girls were particularly reluctant to talk. Gradually, however, their confidence has increased and now women are not only speaking out, they are also seeking justice, says Anjali Singh

esum, 16, a widow, kept herself covered from head to toe in a thick black sheet. She was on a three-month-13 day iddat (mourning) ever since her husband was hacked Mto death by rioters in Muzaffarnagar District of Western Uttar Pradesh. She lives in a Anjali Singh relief camp with her in-laws today and is not allowed to speak, be seen or even grieve without the permission of the ulemas (Arabic scholars), who have laid down the code of conduct a widow must observe during the mourning period. Like Mesum, there are scores of women who are languishing in various relief camps across the district. They are struggling to regain control of their lives in the aftermath of the bloody riots of August 2013, which have been termed as the worst incidence of communal violence in the country since Gujarat 2002 and Assam in 2012. As many as 10000 people have been affected in the month-long violence that rocked the region although, predictably, it is the women and children who have borne the brunt of the destruction and displacement. Says Meena Soni, member of the Joint Citizens Initiative (JCI) that recently visited Muzaffarnagar on a fact-finding trip to assess the effects of the violence on the vulnerable group, “Weeks on and the fear psychosis is more than evident, especially among women and children. Even a false rumour of a riot breaking out again sends spasms of terror through the camps and they instantly they break out into collective mourning and shouting in fear.” Adds Azra Khatoon, another JCI member, who is part of a women’s rights group, “Women survivors remember the screaming mobs. They live in mortal fear of their threats becoming real. Even now they can hear the chants of ‘Musalman ki do jagah Pakistan ya kabaristan’ (there are only two places for a Muslim, either Pakistan or a graveyard) in hushed tones in the camps, which creates a very tense situation. As if that is not enough, in some camps groups like the Jamait-Ulema-e-Hind are issuing religious diktats. In one camp, Jamait members had decreed that everyone entering the area, whether a Muslim or a Hindu, will have to wear a burka. Even we were not spared!” Making matters worse is the fact that these internally displaced persons are refusing to go back home out of fear and so large-scale migrations continue to other districts and cities leaving village after village empty of people. To address these issues as well as matters of safety, health, education and rehabilitation of the displaced women and children, the JCI – comprising women’s rights activists and health and medical professionals from New Delhi, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh – visited different camps and later presented a summary of observation along with a charter of demands related to the immediate needs of riot survivors. Informs Madhavi Kukereja, state coordinator of Lucknow-based Sanatkhada Samajik Pahel, “The JCI team visited camps in Bassikalan Madarsa, Kamalpur, Tavli, ShahpurMadarsa, Jogi Khera Shahpur Madarsa at Haji Ala Saheb’s Residence, Husainpur Camp, Loi camp, Kadla Eidgah in Kandla Village (Shamli District) in addition to the villages of Phugana, Lisarh, Kutba-Kutbi in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli Districts. We met survivors, members of management committees of relief camps and local residents from both Muslim and Jat Communities and have been able to come out with a comprehensive report of our findings.” Entitled ‘30 Days and Counting… The aftermath of violence in Muzaffarnagar & Shamli, Uttar Pradesh’, the document clearly brings out women’s security concerns, including the unprecedented sexual violence they have experienced. Pushpa from Vanagana, a prominent Chitrakoot-based women’s group, who also met with survivors, remarks, “The entire nation today is concerned about the safety of women, but it is strange how we are not talking about the brutal assaults they have undergone during this episode of violence. In our initial meetings with women survivors, while many of them bravely talked about the general pattern of violence, destruction of property and loss of loved

January-March 2014 VIDURA 23 ones, they fell silent on the issue of sexual violence. Young adolescent girls were particularly reluctant to talk. Gradually, however, their confidence has increased and now women are not only speaking out, they are also seeking justice. At least five FIRs on sexual assault have been filed and many more women have spoken to our team about sexual assault of varying degrees

and expressed a desire to file FIRs Askari Naqvi/WFS Photos: against the accused. It remains to be seen whether the state will aid Children take care of their newborn siblings in the rehabilitation camps as their them in seeking justice.” mothers recuperate in the absence of any medical support. Group nurseries Of course, whether or not the (right) with makeshift cradles tied to trees in the camps in Muzaffarnagar. government expedites justice, the JCI team has recorded testimonies auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), compensation package has been of sexual assault victims from no gynaecologist nor any women approved in addition to the Village Lisarh (in Shahpur Camp) doctor from the government health setting up of a working Special and Village Phugana (in Jogikara units to examine them there. We Investigation Cell as well as the Camp) in Muzaffarnagar. These observed a complete lack of antenatal assurance that statements recorded women and their family members and postnatal care in the camps under Section 161 of the Indian are being pressurised to withdraw despite the fact that women were Penal Code for tracking missing their complaints but nevertheless suffering from various problems persons will be followed up women activists are readying to such as leucorrhoea, micturition, diligently. All of these were part move the courts on their behalf. fever, urinary tract infection (UTI) of the charter of citizens’ demands. While sexual violence is a big and anaemia.” Moreover, Deepa Additionally, the JCI team has also focus of the report, it has also reveals, while there was no separate called for provision of health care painstakingly documented the space for deliveries, “we also in camps and the immediate tabling deplorable health conditions noticed that the newborn babies and passage of the Communal prevalent in the camps. Children were mostly of low birth weight and Violence Bill 2011. suffering from scabies and that no immunisation services were When and how Mesum and dermatitis have been observed, made available to them.” thousands of other women trapped clearly pointing to the fact that the Children have been faring no in their nightmarish existence health of women and children is not better. As per Askari Naqvi, a social will resume their normal lives a priority for the camp management justice lawyer from Sanatkada is anybody’s guess right now, committees. Samajik Pahal, who plans to but it is imperative that the state Says Deepa, from New Delhi- represent cases of sexual assault government understand the human based SAMA, which works on and neglect of women and children tragedy that is unfolding in these

health issues and took a team of in court, “The worst affected by camps and act without any further < doctors to Muzaffarnagar, “There the lack of proper medical care are delay. is a public health emergency children. At the Loi camp we saw developing in these camps. There eight deaths within a week due (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service) have been several deaths in Loi to poor medical aid. It was heart camp and over 67 pregnant women rending to see a four-day-old child in one camp alone are facing a grave die in the absence of any care, five future, with virtually no access to children succumb to diarrhoea and medical care. Most pregnant women fever and a 14-year-old girl bleed we met were already anaemic and out during menarche. These are the underweight and the conditions in worst human rights violations we the camps would only aggravate have ever seen.” their vulnerable state. Even those The JCI report, presented to who had delivered in the camps Javed Usmani, chief secretary, lacked proper food to meet their UP Government, triggered an nutritional needs. There were no immediate response. An enhanced

24 VIDURA January-March 2014 SEXUAL HARASSMENT A brave film that mirrors an Assamese reality

Even though the voices demanding stricter laws to deal with violence against women have grown louder across the country, the crime graph, unfortunately, continues to reflect a very grim reality, says Abdul Gani

or years, Arun Manna had wanted to register his protest against the inhuman way in which women are treated, either in the name of tradition and societal norms or simply as a means of subjugating them. Having Fgrown up in Assam, a state that has faced sectarian clashes and large-scale displacement for decades together, Manna, a national award-winning filmmaker, has seen for himself how violence affects local women in the worst possible ways. Even today, custodial rape, assault, kidnappings and other attacks are part of everyday reality in the region. Manna finally got the opportunity to express his angst through his latest film Adhyay, A Chapter, which captures in a hard-hitting manner the social realities of Assamese women. The protagonists are a poor couple living in a remote village. It is their trials and tribulations that make up Manna’s story. Explains Manna, an alumnus of Mumbai's St Xavier College, "Horrific incidents of violence against women have been part of public discourse for some time now. All of us hear about it but are unable to do anything in concrete terms. As a filmmaker, I kept asking myself, 'what can I do?' That’s when I decided to tell a story. I strongly believe that cinema, as a popular medium of storytelling, Adhyay Photos: needs to do more than just entertain A still from Adhyay, A Chapter by national award-winning director, Arun audiences. It has the ability to force Manna. It captures in a hard-hitting manner the social realities of Assamese viewers to think and then bring about women. a transformation." Viewers are introduced to Taru and her husband, Bhola, portrayed on screen by popular Assamese theatre actors, Tarulata Kutum and Pabitra Rabha, respectively. The couple work as daily wagers, struggling to make ends meet by slogging in a stone quarry near their village. Insurgency in the area makes matters worse for them as they deal with the highhanded attitude of the security personnel deployed in the region. When Taru catches the eye of the owner of the quarry, he starts making uninvited advances. Desperate to keep her job, she is unable to take any concrete action against him although she tries to handle the situation by turning him down quietly. He, however, takes offence at being rebuffed and starts making trouble for the couple at work. Then, as if that was not already enough to cope with, tragedy strikes the couple once again, when Taru is cornered by some security personnel and raped. The pain and trauma that Kutum has portrayed on screen is something that scores of women in the Northeast have undergone. And, as is the case in real life, Taru also becomes a pawn for local leaders who use her misfortune to gain political mileage. In Manna's movie, reality really bites when the quarry owner, too, gets his revenge. He organises villagers to declare Taru a 'witch', which leads to her social boycott and eventual death. "This is the harsh reality that unfolds every now and then in our state. I always wanted to bring this injustice to light in the hope

January-March 2014 VIDURA 25 that one day it will change. Even if a few people can be inspired to react differently after watching my film, I will consider it a victory," says the filmmaker. Known for his serious, issue- based cinema, it was tough for Manna to put together the capital needed – about Rs 12 lakh – for the project. It took him five years to complete the 90-minute movie. "I would have been able to make a better film had I some more money in hand. But I'm really glad that people around me came forward to help," adds Manna, whose earlier film Aideu, too, had received rave reviews from viewers as well as critics across the globe. Adhyay, which was screened at the Kerala International Film Festival in Thrissur in February and the Habitat Film Festival in Delhi in May, was an unusual experience for the actors as well. Kutum had to draw on varied experiences and observations to honestly portray the female lead with absolute honesty. She says, "Living in Assam The life of the female protagonist of Adhyay mirrors that of scores of women in one gets to read about practices like the Northeast who are struggling for survival in the shadow of pain, trauma and witch-hunting in the newspapers extreme violence. very often. But it is altogether different having to visualise it as a mean anything. What is required is a women. It is only then can change scene. By doing so, however, I truly complete transformation in popular come about," she adds. understood how traumatic it can attitudes. Today, even those who These are disturbing times for be." are highly educated are sometimes Assam. The official records reveal The actress is hoping that the involved in such crimes. I also that 38825 cases of atrocities against film will be screened in rural areas think spreading awareness among women were registered from 2002 where such practices are still being women in rural areas is important if to January 31, 2013. In fact, 2012 followed. "In rural India, witch- we want to end such practices. We alone accounted for 6673 of such hunting still goes on. So we want have to make women feel stronger." cases. Besides, 1229 cases of dowry people to see the film and realise for Besides stricter law enforcement deaths occurred during this period themselves what a terrible crime it and good governance, Mahanta and cases of kidnapping of women is," Katum explains. believes that an active civil society stood at 22050. Assam notched According to official figures, in can swing the balance in favour of the largest number of such crimes Assam alone, a total of 80 people women. "Films that highlight such in the Northeast, according to the were killed due to witch-hunting horrifying truths, or prominent 2012 report of the National Crime between January 2006 and February personalities who raise their voice Records Bureau (NCRB). Given 2011. This despite the fact that, in support of such causes, can this, films like Manna's Adhyay,

according to the 2011 Census, there play a significant role in changing A Chapter are precisely the reality has been a rapid increase in literacy the manner women are treated in check that the state requires. < levels. Author and activist Maini society today. Simply condemning Mahanta, based in Guwahati, sees such acts will not do, we need to (Courtesy: Women's Feature Service) this as a worrying trend, "It's clear go into these areas and meet with that simply going to school and people to help them understand the becoming formally literate does not unacceptability of crimes against

26 VIDURA January-March 2014 DISCRIMINATION OF ANOTHER KIND How television reinforces gender stereotypes

Popular soaps and reality shows have an impact on the perception of viewers and they help reinforce and spread socially detrimental concepts such as gender stereotyping and male domination, as well as unreasonably aggressive competition and unfair practices. Bharat Dogra explains

opular TV serials and reality shows are often assessed mainly for their entertainment value, but what is no less significance is the wider social impact they have onthe Pperceptions and views of millions of people who form their audience. This aspect of the impact of TV is emphasised in two recent studies published in the latest (April-June) issue of Bharat Dogra media quarterly Communication Today. In the first study, titled Women Centric Soap Operas: An Analysis of the Undercurrent of Patriarchy in India, the researcher, Punita Harne of Gujarat Vidyapaith, has presented a content analysis of 10 family serials telecast on India's TV channels. Her analysis concludes that "Although all the soaps taken in this study have different social, political, industrial, market, textual and cultural backgrounds, yet they show hard gender stereotype and male domination in more or less overt or subtle ways. These soaps in a subtle way seem to be reinforcing patriarchy, both in the explicit intended and implicit unintended forms, through different kinds of representations." More specifically on the stereotyped images of women presented in TV serials, the paper points out that the concept of ‘a good woman’ is linked to a modestly worn sari, complete with head covered, while a ‘bad woman’ is portrayed wearing a spaghetti-strapped blouse and a transparent chiffon sari. The 'good woman' tries to caters to everyone's needs, takes the lead in solving family problems and sacrifices herself, while the 'bad woman' doesn’t bother about anyone else, creates tensions and enjoys doing so. Further, Harne says such role stereotypes reflect the typical patriarchal mindset, where the simple housewife is favoured over women who wield power outside the home. “At [the] representational level, the vamp is the antithesis of the protagonist; portrayed as ultra-modern, mostly working (the boardroom woman), with a plunging neckline, short hair, bold, conniving, heartless, ruthless, and perfect in the art of seduction. One might see here how the term ‘modernity’, or ‘Westernisation’ as it is commonly called, is co-related and confused with debasement of morals and ideals," she adds. Careless use of language, intended or unintended, can adversely affect public perception on important gender issues. Harne points out that as far as language is concerned, even a quick look at popular Indian TV serials shows how the patriarchal joint family system makes it difficult for parents to want to have daughters. Further, frequent portrayals of the son as budhape ka sahara (support in old age) in all so-called family serials is an expression of the patriarchal [sentiment] and makes a hidden impact on women regarding patriarchal values.” In another paper titled Reality Shows on Television - An Appraisal, Bhumika Mehta and Niti Desai Chopra categorise different types of reality shows. They say there are two common categories. One provides a platform to talented people and comprises mostly music, dance, game reality shows and talent-hunt shows. The second category is made up of reality shows which test the endurance and patience of participants. These are mainly centred on celebrity-marriages or adventure. In the first category, use of abusive language fights and melodrama was found to be minimal. The second category has more inappropriate content. Thus, reality shows have both positive and negative connotations. The authors say reality shows provide a platform for talented performers and the audience can relate their own aspirations and dreams to such shows. Despite gaining popularity in a very short time, the reality shows genre has been lambasted for inappropriate content, skin show, materialistic attitude, loss of morals and value, abusive language, humiliation of contestants, improper voting system, gender bias, etc.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 27 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:

The study cites Kolkata’s 16- parents sent her to the show. This A survey conducted by the year-old SS as a specific example incident shows how eager parents authors revealed that the majority of the negative impact of a reality are to make their children celebrities of respondents felt reality shows show. After a very harsh comment through such shows. In some are 'fake' and 50 per cent wanted a

from the judges of the show, she shows, participants have to perform more transparent voting system. went into deep depression. A few potentially harmful stunts. The < days later she lost her speech and voting system in most such shows the use of her limbs, necessitating is also not transparent, and there are (The writer is a veteran freelance costly treatment. But the fact is that many instances where audience and journalist who has been associated even though they knew she had a participants have protested against with several social initiatives and problem with her spinal cord, her manipulations in the voting system. movements.)

28 VIDURA January-March 2014 Gandhian Journalism and the Salzburg Declaration

Mahatma Gandhi’s Journalism, with its emphasis on serving society and uplifting the moral, social, political and cultural values of life, is of relevance in the 21st Century too. J. V. Vil’anilam explains how

ahatma Gandhi’s Journalism was essentially the journalism of humanism, human rights, communitarianism and humanitarianism. It gave special emphasis to the Mneeds of the poorest of the poor and their uplift. ‘Service to society’ was the basic motto of Gandhian Journalism. Those who want to work as journalists in India today will have to go through Gandhi’s life and works in order to gain a clear picture of what is expected J. V. Vil’anilam of them. Those who tend to consider Gandhian Journalism impractical, irrelevant, insipid and even uninspiring in the modern, sophisticated, cyber world will have to revisit the fundamental goal of journalism in any clime and time. They will come to the conclusion that all media have to serve society and uplift the moral, social, political and cultural values of life. The most recent document dealing with the aims of journalism, ethics of communicators and media organisations, concerns about journalists’ safety, freedom of the press and social responsibility is the Salzburg Declaration, released at a meeting of journalists from 32 countries, held from March 20 to March 27, 2002. All communicators should familiarise themselves with the basic tenets of the Declaration which ought to guide all media organisations and media workers. In the Salzburg Document, entitled Defence of Journalism as a Public Trust, there are three major divisions: Preamble, Concerns about Journalism and Proposals for Consideration. The Declaration clearly establishes that journalism is a public service and not a means to amass wealth, although the current trend is to look upon media work or organisations as primary instruments for succeeding in the market. Market pressures are undermining the quality of journalism, and news organisations preserve high profit levels by reducing newsgathering resources. Neglecting public interest, journalism of the new variety is ignoring the fundamental role of the press to inform and empower citizens. The new role of the media seems to be entertaining the citizens, particularly the masses, to death, as Neil Postman (American author, media theorist and cultural critic) observed. The Declaration emphasises the service aspect of journalism. Gandhiji had emphasised the same. He has said in his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth: “The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper is a great power, but just as an unchallenged torrent of water submerges the whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control….” Gandhiji also believed that a newspaper is a social institution and that its success depended on the extent to which it could educate the readers. His ideas about journalism are quite fresh and relevant even today. Truth was given special importance by Gandhiji. Theoretically, modern journalists are exhorted by senior editors and scholars to give the utmost importance to facts and to eschew fiction (untruth, imaginary treatment of facts or distortion of facts for entertaining readers). But on the practical plane, plenty of time is devoted in modern journalism training institutes in India and in richer and more developed countries such as the UK and the USA, to write in a manner that will help sell what they write. Writing that fires the imagination of readers is given great importance. Such writing, though entertaining, can sometimes lead the readers to the realm of pure fiction. Facts lose their sacredness and inviolability. Fiction takes over. The writing style gets all the importance and accuracy takes a back seat. “Historically, threats to press freedoms have been political in nature,” says the preamble to the Salzburg Declaration. ”At the start of the 21st Century, however, a new kind of threat emerges that, if continued, will endanger the freedoms. The nature of the press as a commercial enterprise has changed significantly. The emergence of media conglomerates and intense market competition are creating new organisational priorities in which profit growth is replacing public service as the principal mission. Sustaining profit growth often requires reducing the resources for newsgathering, thereby diminishing the role of the news media as a public trust.”

January-March 2014 VIDURA 29 that financial health is essential for all media organisations, the journalists who met at Salzburg underlined the significance of the basic principle that an unbalanced attention to financial growth and profit will weaken the foundation of journalism as a public trust. Market pressures should not determine citizens’ capacity to secure true information and act upon it to strengthen democracy, they said. The document cites certain problems that require attention. They include: 1. A gradual decrease in independent access for citizens/ media users to diverse sources of information, sometimes leading to repetition of the same material in all media. 2. A decline in public understanding of the full meaning and importance of many public affairs. 3. A decline and discouragement of citizens’ participation in community life. 4. Collusion between media owners and political power Photo: Internet centres. 5. Compromising of editorial Mahatma Gandhi believed that a newspaper was a social institution and that its success depended on the extent to which it could educate the readers. Gandhian integrity for commercial newspapers such as Young India and Harijan followed high moral values and purposes. obligations of social service. 6. A steady increase of media matter relating to, and aimed “Business priorities are achievements. He who can sell to the at, entertainment. Entertaining encouraging the blending of news people what they (media owners) the media users is becoming a and entertainment as a strategy want to sell is more important in the pronounced goal of all media, to build audiences and ratings.” owners’ calculations than qualified with the result that even This trend, of course, is most hands with training in the ethics of newspapers and TV channels noticeable on television. The art journalism and editing experience. of note refuse to take up serious and craft of television production “A shrinking commitment to both issues confronting society. is given priority and reporters in domestic and international news 7. New ownership patterns and the field are not selected with care. means that news organisations are media practices that fulfil Television newsreaders tend to be missing opportunities to connect objectives of monopolisation selected for their looks and speedy people and ideas globally at the and consolidation of cross- reading - speed for saving time for very time technology has made such media, chain and vertical commercials which the producers connections increasingly possible,” integration patterns. claim to be essential for giving the preamble ends. It exhorts all 8. Vulnerability to the imperatives people the news and entertainment media owners and professionals of the stock markets and other free of cost. Television news worldwide to recognise the need for financial interests, including the anchors are built up by station a wiser balance between business temptation to indulge in ‘paid owners and channel managers as goals and public service - the sole or news’ and ‘private treaties’. ‘stars’. Even editors in newspapers major responsibility of the media. 9. Neglect of audiences that are and TV/radio channels are selected Recognising that media functions too weak and mute to attract for their business and commercial in a competitive environment and financial interests.

30 VIDURA January-March 2014 Statement about ownership and other particulars about“VIDURA” the English Quarterly Newspaper, Chennai, as required to be published under Section 19-D Sub-Section (b) of the Press and Registration of 10. Reduction in the number of well-researched Books Act read with the Rule 8 of the Registration of and original reports and presentations owing to Newspapers (Central Rules) 1956 financial pressures to be fulfilled through selling space and time to ads and commercials, and Form IV even resorting to less expensive newsgathering efforts and heavier dependence on PR handouts, VIDURA - Quarterly company news and notes, etc. To address these problems and solve them in the 1. Place of publication : Chennai interest of the public, the following suggestions are 2. Periodicity of Publication : Quarterly made in the Declaration: 3. Printer’s Name : V.B.S. Mony 1. Encourage diverse news media ownership and Nationality : Indian urge media companies to commit to providing quality journalism to all communities they Address serve. No. 10/2 Second Loop Street 2. Airwaves belong to the public and those who Kottur Gardens use them must serve the public interest. Chennai 600 085 3. The public views must be heard through all the 4. Publisher’s Name : Sashi Nair media — print, electronic, audio/video channels – and citizens must be helped to evaluate media Nationality : Indian performance through periodic analysis. Address 4. Use the channels of communication to get Flat 3C, GRN Akshara citizens’ participation in community life. D112, Sangeetha Colony Media companies should declare their vision Ashok Pillar Road and mission statements and re-affirm periodically K.K.Nagar, Chennai 600 078 their determination to use media channels for enhancing the quality of their journalism, taking 5. Editor’s Name : Sashi Nair into consideration suggestions from the public. Nationality : Indian They should also make sure that entertainment Address programmes do not violate ethical and professional Flat 3C, GRN Akshara standards and these should not encroach upon the D112, Sangeetha Colony time and space devoted to serious presentation of news and features of public value. Similarly, Ashok Pillar Road advertisement and news should never be mixed. K.K.Nagar, Chennai 600 078 Journalists have to be adequately compensated, 6. Names and addresses of individuals who own not on the basis of their company’s profit the newspaper/magazine and partners or enhancement but on the basis of their excellence as shareholders holding more than one per cent reporters and editors. Values of accuracy, fairness, of the total capital: decency, observing citizens’ human rights, and giving voice to the voiceless should be upheld by The Press Institute of India - Research Institute all media workers and media owners. for Newspaper Development Finally, media education should be strengthened RIND Premises, Taramani, CPT Campus even from the school level so that people are Chennai 600 113 made aware of citizens’ and media’s duties and Shareholding of more than one per cent of the capital responsibilities. Gandhian newspapers such as Young India and Harijan followed certain high does not arise as the The Press Institute of India - moral values and obligations of social service. They Research Institute for Newspaper Development is seem to have anticipated the tenets of the Salzburg a non-profit society registered under the Societies

Declaration. During this 134th Gandhi Jayanti Year, Act No. XXI of 1860. let us recall that his views about journalism are< relevant to the 21st century. I, Sashi Nair, hereby declare that the particulars given (The writer is a former vice-chancellor and head, above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Kerala. He received his MA English degree from the Banaras Hindu University in 1958 Sashi Nair and has a master’s degree in Communication from Publisher Temple University, Philadelphia, and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Amsterdam. 20.01.2014

January-March 2014 VIDURA 31 Journalism – Science or Art? The basics of writing are upheld by all media workers irrespective of their medium. There are certain conventions and practices followed universally and journalists and communicators have to respect them instead of following their idiosyncrasies and predilections

oth Science (natural, physical and social), and non-science (arts, humanities) contribute to, enrich and advance the frontiers of knowledge. But some say that Science and Technology gallop like a racehorse, but BSocial Science is still limping along like a wounded donkey. Is there then an unbridgeable gap between the two cultures? All knowledge is the province of Science. This is particularly true of Communication/ Journalism, the practitioner of which has to know several things and several aspects of many things. He or she has to be a jack of all trades, but master of none. She must be an all-rounder, willing to step into unfamiliar territories and dig out chips of new knowledge. She can do so only when she is willing to consider the entire universe of knowledge as her province. She should not claim to be a specialist in one area and on that basis reject assignments coming her way every day. Journalism curricula should provide the opportunity to pick courses immediately related to the basics in several disciplines. This is possible only when the university system is made flexible for students to pick and choose different courses in science and non-science areas. Let us consider what subjects will be relevant to a student of Communication/Journalism, assuming that the student is working towards a two-year postgraduate degree, a Master of Communication & Journalism. All C & J majors should register for certain core courses: 1. Mass media and society: The nomenclature may differ but certain dominant characteristics of the media and society in the country should be known to all students. Students should be able to familiarise themselves with citizen groups, and also the functions of the media, the main types of media ownership, and media users. 2. Media history: This is another basic course for all. The historical background of different branches of the media – traditional, print, audio-visual – and the new social media should be known. History is certainly intertwined with the political, economic and sociological aspects of society and therefore the course has to touch upon these aspects, especially the political aspects, the type of government and its influence on media freedom, etc. 3. Communication and Mass Communication: The distinction between communication and mass communication should be made clear in the course so that students become aware of what literacy and education can do or not do in strengthening communication in a multi-lingual country. 4. Media laws and ethics: People who want to work in the media world or specialise in media matters have to be aware of the ethical and legal aspects of media work. There are fundamental questions about the freedom of the press, which incidentally covers freedom of all branches of the media, not the print media alone. Media freedom is not simply the media’s freedom but the citizens’ freedom of speech and expression. There are constitutional provisions that enable the media owner, the media worker and the ordinary citizen to voice their opinions without fear or favour, and to get the information they need; there are constitutional freedoms and there are also limits to exercising that freedom. There are ethical considerations that limit a journalist’s freedom. What are those ethical dimensions of media work? A full discussion of the practices followed or not followed by journalists/communicators should be part of the core course because all subsequent courses will assume that the student knows the basic media laws and principles of ethics. Similarly, personal freedom of the journalist to ask unethical leading questions and trap an unsuspecting respondent is never to receive priority over the respondent’s privacy or his right to remain silent. All journalists have to respect citizens’ privacy. Unless it is for a public cause, privacy should not be violated. The second year of the two-year degree programme should concentrate on individual media such as Radio, Television, Film, the Internet and the Social Media. 5. Reporting, feature writing and editing: These courses should be taught together by the same teacher, if possible, or by a team of teachers who direct the students to cover certain assignments on campus or outside. After a few simple assignments in reporting, the students have to write features and learn the principles of editing in the presence of the experienced teachers. Reporting, writing and editing styles and principles are better learnt as one unit. This basic combination of learning/writing is essential for all students, irrespective of their medium.

32 VIDURA January-March 2014 Certain conventions in writing and editing have to be followed by all communicators whether in TV, Radio, Print or Film. The basics of writing are upheld by all media workers irrespective of their medium. There are certain conventions and practices followed universally and journalists/ communicators have to respect them instead of following their idiosyncrasies and predilections. This will ensure uniformity and avoid confusion. We don’t want a Tower of Babel in the print or electronic media.

ELECTIVES The university system has to be inter-disciplinary. Every student must be free to register for the courses he/ she likes, in consultation with course guidance counsellors. The university/ department/ institute has to accommodate Arun Ramkumar Illustration: legitimate requests of students. It is hoped that all students take up Journalism/ Communication with or development journalism for a special lectures by prominent the willingness to expand their career. The whole idea of modern politicians, sociologists and others. knowledge by acquiring knowledge education is to make it inter- The study of the various media— in related areas. disciplinary, with opportunity to traditional, print, electronic, For example, the study of media major in a particular discipline including social media – must history will be strengthened if the without forgetting the essential be promoted with an awareness student gets an opportunity to take links of that ‘major’ to related about social responsibility. The a basic course of special interest disciplines offered as ‘electives’. scientific study of Communication from the History Department on and Journalism must serve the the same campus - say a course PRACTICE JOURNAL all-round interests of the nation dealing with the 18th Century Theory and practice have to while planning it. Journalism is origin of English Journalism or the go together, and the university/ not literature; there is no place for 19th Century origin of Bengali and institute must provide the fiction in it. True media education other Indian language journalism. opportunity for both. As many deals with the world of truth and Since journalism is connected of us know, the first job most harsh realities. It is a social science; with literature, politics, economic journalists get is that of a cub it should be eternally vigilant about development and sociology, one or reporter in a regular newspaper, democracy and human rights; it two electives will be quite useful. and therefore all journalists have can never ignore society and its

Students should be given the to get an opportunity to learn the problems. Ideally, it should never opportunity to opt for basic courses basics through a practice journal. manipulate truth. < in political movements, literary and Every one of the basic sociological developments offered courses must be supplemented J. V. Vil’anilam by other departments. by weekly seminars where a Some science departments may prominent journalist/communi- offer a course in science writing cator/journalism educator / media or the history of science—space director / legal expert gives an and atomic sciences, contributions extension lecture followed by of famous scientists, etc., which discussion. Certain issues that will benefit those students who become crucial at different periods wish to take up science journalism in society/must be dealt with in

January-March 2014 VIDURA 33 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION OF MUSLIMS IN MAHARASHTRA Communal riots main cause, says study

A socio-economic Profile of Muslims in Maharashtra, prepared for the Maharashtra State Minority Commission, Government of Maharashtra, by the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy, notes various areas where the government needs to step in to ensure a level-playing field for this community, which is the biggest religious minority in the state and has, moreover, made significant contributions to the State’s culture and progress. Vibhuti Patel has the details

aharashtra’s multicultural milieu is marked by crucial contributions made by Muslims. Yet, the Sachar Committee Report of 2006 notes that the condition of Vibhuti Patel MMuslims in Maharashtra, where they are the biggest religious minority, demands the special attention of the state. Seven surveys commissioned by the Maharashtra State Minority Commission and carried out by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Nirmala Niketan’s College of Social Work of Mumbai University, and the Research Centre for Women’s Studies of SNDT Women’s University have discovered that a very large proportion of Muslims live in dismal economic conditions. The reports were submitted in 2011. A socio-economic profile of Muslims in Maharashtra, prepared for the Maharashtra State Minority Commission, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai by the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy notes that according to the 2011 Census, Maharashtra's Parbhani and Nanded Districts have 30 per cent Muslim population and Malegaon and Bhiwandi are Muslim majority cities. Mumbra and Kashimira in Thane District are emerging as new hubs for economic activities, technical education institutions and community work among Muslims, the profiling exercise has found. Malegaon Block of Nashik District was found to have the highest percentage of Muslims (42.5) as a proportion of the total population, followed by Bhiwandi in Thane (35.8), Nanded (26.5), Aurangabad (25.5) and Parbhani (25.1).

Work and employment profile A state-level survey by the Minority Commission in 2011 has found that a little over 32 per cent of Muslims say they are ‘workers’ as compared to 42.5 per cent of the state’s total population. As much as 70.7 per cent of Muslims in Maharashtra are semi-skilled and skilled informal sector workers, such as carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, manual labourers, coolies, butchers, wavers, hawkers, cycle-rickshaw pullers, drivers of heavy vehicles, tailors and embroiderers. Nearly 8 per cent are cultivators, mainly small and marginal farmers, while 17.6 per cent are agricultural labourers and 3.6 per cent are engaged in household industry.

Unemployment About 39.9 per cent marginal workers among Muslims in rural areas were identified by the national census as ‘seeking/available for work’. Among Muslim non-workers, nearly 6 per cent come under the category of ‘job seekers’ in rural areas.

Housing In Greater Mumbai and Nagpur, data was collected from slum and non-slum areas. Both surveys clearly show that Muslims in these districts are living in much higher concentration in slum areas as compared to Hindus and Christians. The large majority of Muslims in Bhivandi, Mumbai, Malegaon and over 40 towns live in ghettos without basic amenities such as safe drinking water, electricity, toilets, proper roads and closed gutters, the surveys found. Ghettoisation is detrimental to the long-term well-being of the community as well as for national integration. Mumbai has Muslim ghettoes spread around all three railway lines - Central (Kurla, Byculla, Mazgaon), Western (Behrampada, Dharavi, Jogeshwari) and Harbour (Madanpura, Govandi, Mankurd), the surveys note. This points

34 VIDURA January-March 2014 to a need to establish a strong The culture of Maharashtra centre-link programme that will is marked by a high degree co-ordinate policies, programmes of syncretism and pluralism. and ground realities. Such a unit However, the political economy of is best established either in the communal conflicts is proving to Department of Minorities Affairs or be a major threat to the glorious the Minorities State Commission, legacy. Maharashtra had 1192 the socio-economic study suggests. communal clashes during the It must: decade starting 1998, the highest in • Monitor the socio-economic and the country. During that time, the

financial sector programmes Photo: VP state witnessed 10-23 per cent of the within the access parameters A shot of Muslim girls in a classroom total incidence of communal riots of the minorities such as in Maharashtra. in India. Its share was particularly budget allocation in proportion high during 2005-06, when 20 per to population and levels of capita expenditure, and lowest cent of all such incidents took place development representation in public sector in the state. In this context, massive • See that top priority is given employment. development intervention among in the budget to housing, In response to the persistent poor Muslims with special focus on roadwork, drainage, water exclusion of Muslims from inclusive growth is the need of the supply and electricity development efforts, the Ranganath hour, the writer feels. • Call for a mid-term review Mishra Commission Report The major reason for the socio- of programmes and ensure (2007) had asked for 10 per cent economic deprivation of Muslims that allocations made for the reservation for Muslims in Central is the high incidence of communal minorities/women and other and state government jobs and 6 riots, the study says. Absence vulnerable groups are not re- per cent within OBC quotas for of civic ties due to ghettoisation allocated, but will be spent for Muslim OBCs, as well as for the creates an insular feeling. The the purpose intended inclusion of Muslim Dalits in the number of communal incidents is • Facilitate the dissemination of Scheduled Castes list. It wanted an high in the state due to a highly information about the various equal opportunities commission polarised society that is sharply state welfare programmes to be set up expeditiously. But the divided along caste and religious especially targeting minorities recommendations are yet to be lines. Mumbai, which has 15-18 per implemented, the study observes. cent Muslim population, according Socio-economic infrastructure Muslim communities throughout to various estimates, is the worst Muslims in Maharashtra are a the state have complained that to affected. highly deprived community in terms avail of any government scheme, The inquiry into causes of socio- of several socio-economic indices, agents charge Rs 1000 for completing economic deprivation of Muslims the study notes. Their employment formalities and paperwork. And if is a crucial exercise to arrive at pattern is highly skewed towards the amount is granted by the state, remedial measures and a doable lower-level activities in the tertiary many of the agents disappear with agenda for inclusive development sector, with hardly any occupational the money. Hence, it is important of Muslims through the government mobility. The access of Muslims to to monitor the implementation of initiative of the Multi-sectorial bank credit is low and inadequate. the schemes through voluntary Development Programme. The In all studies commissioned by organisations/ NGOs/ potential main purpose of the MsDP is to the Minority Commission, the beneficiaries, the study stresses. remove disparities faced by areas respondents state that in most cases, The Muslim community lags with sizable minority populations. banks are biased, and there are no behind severely in political well-defined and objective criteria representation, according to the Food security for rejecting loan applications by study. There are only five Muslim The National Sample Survey Muslims, resulting in arbitrariness, MLAs in Maharashtra, and 11 MLCs. Organisation reports for 1993-94, bureaucratic bungling, corruption The representation of Muslims in 1999-2000 and 2004-05 on Calorie and leakage. The average amount the Indian Administrative Services Deprivation in Maharashtra of loans banks disbursed to has been less than 1 per cent for the revealed that religion-wise Muslims is found to be lower last three decades. The number of distribution indicates Muslims are than the figure relating to other Muslims in the Maharashtra cadre the most vulnerable in urban areas, minorities, especially Buddhists of the IAS in 2011-12 was just one with a calorie deficiency of 55 per and Sikhs. The community also among a total of 288. A similar trend cent. They account for only 17 per has one of the lowest monthly per is seen in the IPS. cent of the population, yet their

January-March 2014 VIDURA 35 share in the calorie-deficient group is nearly one-fourth. The shortcomings in the existing RECOMMENDATIONS TPDS (targeted public distribution system) system noted by the study 1. A district minority welfare officer at par with the district social include: welfare officer must be appointed at each district headquarter by the state • The procedure for the government. acquisition of ration cards 2. For empowerment of minorities, a state-level Minorities Welfare places the most vulnerable Action Committee must be constituted. people (the homeless, migrants, 3. For mass awareness of welfare schemes up to root level, programmes single women and tenants) must be organised at each taluka (a smaller division of a district)/ minority- outside the eligibility criteria populated area. • The rules governing proof of 4. In-depth studies of implementation of every scheme, noting practical residence, income, etc make it difficulties, number of deserving applicants and other such aspects must be difficult for vulnerable groups, carried out to help in the review of existing schemes. such as deserted women to 5. Property - homes, shops etc - of the Muslims must be insured keeping acquire these documents in mind fear of riots. • Poverty Line Index is not For the creation of a skilled labour force among Muslims, the study based on the current inflations. recommended that at least 20 new industrial technical institutes in the Urdu The high costs of health, medium be recognised on a grant-in-aid basis and at least 20 second education, home repairs and shift ITIs in Urdu/ Marathi medium be started in Government/Aided ITIs basic amenities of water and exclusively for minorities. electricity are not factored in It also wanted at least 10 new polytechnics in the Urdu medium (affiliated • The existence of TVs or other to the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad) and 10 new major durable commodities polytechnics in English medium to be started by the state government. are taken into consideration for measurement of poverty, but these commodities may ensured on a priority basis • To stop discrimination against be discards or pre-owned • Government officers should be Muslims in housing sector, products and do not indicate sensitised to issue BPL cards stern action must be taken the economic well-being of a and judiciously implement against housing societies and household anti-poverty programmes builders who discriminate • The TPDS is supply-based, and schemes for deserving against citizens on the basis while it should be need-based Muslims. Community-based of religion/caste in selling or • There are errors of inclusion and organisations and NGOs should renting out flats/houses exclusion in the TPDS system be empowered to monitor • To promote higher and This study calls for legislative procurement of BPL cards. vocational education among changes in policies and streamlining • Wide publicity should be given to Muslims girls and women, and monitoring of food storage and the Maulana Azad Employment colleges and vocational distribution network among other Loan Scheme, educational loans training institutions must be

things. and scholarships started in the areas inhabited • Quarterly audit of budgetary by Muslims. < The overall recommendations allocation for social sector include: human development initiatives (The writer is professor and head of • Block-wise disaggregated for Muslims must be done so the Department of Economics, SNDT databases on socio-economic that the funds can be utilised on Women’s University, Mumbai, and indicators for Muslims in the time a member of the advisory board of the state must be provided and • Reservation policy should be Department of Women’s Studies of regularly updated for proper made applicable to Dalit and OBC the National Council of Education, targeting of development Muslims as per Justice Rangnath Research and Training, Delhi.) schemes and programmes Mishra’s recommendation • In 49 Muslim inhabited blocks • The state must take the lead in in Maharashtra, basic civil instituting an Empowered Equal amenities such as water, street Opportunities Commission as lights, sanitation, roads and per the recommendations of healthcare, educational and Sachar Commission and Justice banking facilities must be Ranganath Mishra Commission

36 VIDURA January-March 2014 Retirement: a reality check

V.S. Maniam talks about retirement. About the long evening of life that seems to keep stretching, and particularly about how well one is prepared for it

etirement age for most journalists is 60, although some are retained five years longer. Life expectancy, according to the United Nations Development Organisation, is 65.8 Ryears for Indians. A second authoritative agency, however, sets it at 67.48. The World Health Organisation's figure is 63.8 for Indian males and 67.3 for women. The reality, though, is that people are living longer and longer, and 80-plus seems more like the norm. The consequent long stretch, between the day of retirement and the final goodbye, is what many, V.S. Maniam indeed most, in the journalist community are required to prepare for. It is a sad fact that, unlike in the case of government employees, college faculty and school teachers and such other fortunate groups, journalists receive no pension to see them through retirement. What these other groups receive, thanks to recent awards, is a generous pension and health benefits that cannot even be dreamt of by the rest. This is possibly an envious thought but the government seems to bend over backwards to make sure that its retiring personnel live in comfort for the rest of their life. For a measure of that concern you have only to look at the government pension website Pensioners' Portal. This is completely out of the question for ordinary mortals not in public service, including journalists. A retired life free from want is all they can aspire for. Do they have it? Even the best of them seem to find it difficult and seem compelled to look for alternative jobs, sinecures if possible, on retirement just to keep sailing along. But these cannot last forever, given the reality of creeping old age and failing health and, even more, failing name recognition. Take, for instance, seemingly established columnists and see how soon they get to be regarded as stale, and often windy and without substance because of want of active field experience, and are unceremoniously dropped. A very few do get into areas like politics and Parliament. Nothing, in fact, can beat a nomination to the Upper House of Parliament for the benefits package, besides an assured pension for life that it confers. But it is only the exceptionally fortunate who get nominated. What most journalists - non-high profile and with no political connections whatever - can look forward to is their accumulated contributory provident fund and their company's gratuity. The PF amount is often depleted through withdrawals for a variety of expenditure from house construction to performing children's marriage, the latter under carefully disguised grounds, and sometimes family medical emergencies. What is left is often a pitifully small amount. The company's gratuity, usually half the last drawn pay multiplied by the number of years served is - or at least was - subject to income-tax deduction. And what one collects is never the fat purse one had dreamt of. If that gratuity is even today subject to income tax deduction, it is time such deduction is eliminated. How, then, do retiring journalists survive? By and large, they don't. It is depressing to see how once-respected men are overwhelmed by the struggle to make ends meet in their old age and often succumb prematurely. Those who survive are the ones who are supported by their children and, in a surprising number of instances, by their spouse who had had the wisdom to enter pension-able service. Would you call that a satisfactory situation for a self-respecting man? The only satisfactory remedy can be an assured pension for life which, if it cannot be offered by news organisations, has to be provided by the government - out of the selfsame taxpayers' payments that are now drawn upon to maintain in comfort retired government employees and such other groups. From time to time, one reads about how some state government or other talks of offering a pension for journalists. The Odisha Government is possibly the first to implement that resolve: two years ago it started a scheme in this respect. The Assam Government has since announced that it would implement a similar scheme, too. Odisha has, in addition, promised medical insurance to all accredited journalists. This is the model to adopt India-wide and this is what journalists should campaign for. They are entitled to it after having given the best years of their life to public service of the highest level, as they do in their career. The National Pension Scheme which has been on offer since 2004 seems subject to the vagaries of the stock market since its funds are mainly to be invested in shares. Perhaps for that reason the scheme seems to have found so far only a tepid response. If it is found unsatisfactory by the general public it is even more so for working journalists. Saving and investment by journalists themselves seem also out of the question, primarily since this would require an impossible amount of savings. A study published in Business Today two years ago concluded that a

January-March 2014 VIDURA 37 one class of public servants receive the benefit, why not the journalist class also? Or, as Odisha seems to have done, the government should arrange for medical insurance for them. The news industry, struggling for survival in this digital age, cannot be, ought not to be, expected to take on these additional responsibilities. The government, which has ample experience in all these areas and the funds, alone can. And should. The journalist himself, or herself, can do very little to ensure a trouble-free old age. They cannot even begin to save the staggering amount of money that is called for. All they can do is to eschew expensive habits, simplify life to the extent possible and start applying a sharp eye to income and outgo. Leading a sedentary life as they do, they could also get into the habit of some exercise, mainly to ward off age-related maladies and avoid having to turn to the Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: increasingly exploitative medical establishment. And, if it becomes necessary, willingly forego a part working man of about 30 who needs pensions, without a corresponding of their emoluments by way of a minimum monthly pension of Rs volume of contributions, are additional social security taxes. 30000 on retirement would require regarded as for services rendered, To be sure, they must also keep to save Rs 1.8 lakh each month - cannot the journalist class also claim campaigning for an infinitely better

deal on retirement than seems to be assuming, the journal noted, that the same reward since the service it < the annual inflation rate would renders to the state and society is no on offer now. remain at 6 per cent. If the worker less in value? aimed at a lower target, say Rs 24000 In the matter of housing for (The writer was with The Statesman month, he would need to save Rs journalists, which is also a crying between 1964 and 1993. He started 1.44 lakh each month. The journal need, the government has, again, to his career in The Indian Express, offered yet another calculation: if take the initiative. The experience so Madras, in 1947 as an apprentice, the worker lived till 85, the value of far - in some places, not all - has been then had moved into periodicals and the nest egg he would need to build that the government was content returned to mainstream journalism. would be between Rs 4.5 crore and to make available large pieces of He has taught journalism at the Rs 5 crore. This again assumes a urban land for development and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, 6 per cent inflation rate and a 12 construction of houses by journalists' and now lives in Princeton, New per cent return on investment. If cooperatives. Given the state of the Jersey, USA.) inflation rises to 8 per cent, the construction industry today, the amount of saving required would government needs itself to plan and be a mind-blowing Rs 12 crore. Is build press enclaves. Not luxury this within the realm of possibility houses but modest condominiums for a working journalist? And, one of around 1000 sq ft each. cannot resist asking, is this the In health care also, the government volume of contributions made to the has to step forward to extend its government kitty by its employees Central Government Health Scheme awarded sizable pensions? If those to cover every single journalist. If

38 VIDURA January-March 2014 Where is justice for our senior citizens? Social security for senior citizens is a long-neglected issue. There is a clear need to bring tens of millions of more elderly persons under the cover of pension benefits, and also increase the pension amount. The Pension Parishad has been campaigning for the justice-based right of the elderly to social security and pension. Reforms should not be delayed any longer, feels Bharat Dogra

ocial security for senior citizens has been one of the most neglected aspects of policy and budgeting in India. The dismal situation today is that about 80 per cent of India's elderly citizens either do not get any pension Sat all, or else get a very inadequate amount, well below Rs 1000 per month, which is not even indexed to inflation. This denial of social security greatly increases the vulnerability of elderly people, most of them with no income of their own, or else with very low incomes and, hence, dependent on younger family members. The situation is particularly bad in the case of women. As many poor families have less than subsistence-level earnings, they cannot look after their elderly members despite wanting to do so. The situation is perhaps most critical in the case of migrant workers from villages, who are often without any assured support at all. Old age sets in early among poor and malnourished people. Photo: BD Even though the government generally insists that pensions will A scene at the Pension Parishad dharna. be available only after the age of 60 (even 65 in some states), it is increasingly felt that fixing the eligibility age at a high level can altogether deny pension to some of the poorest people with low life spans. These and other issues have been raised in a comprehensive way during the past two years by the Pension Parishad. Several leading social activists (such as Aruna Roy and Baba Adhav) as well as social organisations have taken the initiative to form the Pension Parishad to campaign for the justice-based right of the elderly to social security and pension. Keeping in view the early ageing of weaker sections, the Pension Parishad has argued for an age level of 50 (women) to 55 (men), beyond which all needy citizens should get pensions. There are about 140 million Indians who are more than 54 years old. Some of them already get good pensions as government employees, legislators, etc, while some others clearly belong to rich families and, hence, do not need pension. Keeping aside these categories, over 85 per cent of India's elderly people need a justice-based system of pension. Pension Parishad members have argued that a sum which is half of the legal minimum wage is acceptable as a reasonable, justice-based pension. At currently applicable rates, this works out to about Rs 2000 a month. Such a sum, suitably indexed to inflation, should be available to all elderly citizens beyond the artificial divide created by BPL-APL (below poverty line and above poverty line) lists. As Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh stated recently in a note on pension reforms, the existing BPL lists are “notoriously unreliable”. Hence, the BPL-based pension system followed by the Union Government (under its National Social Assistance Programme or NSAP) should be replaced by a system of universal pensions with just a few categories excluded (for example clearly identified rich households and those already receiving much better pensions). Hence, compared to the existing system, there is a clear need to bring additional tens of millions of elderly persons under the cover of pension benefits, while also increasing the pension amount itself. In addition, there should be clear provision for regular payment of pensions on a fixed date each month, and an effective system for redress of all pension-related grievances. While the need for pension reforms is widely accepted, the government has been reluctant to introduce them,

citing resource constraints. However, as has been indicated time and again, resources can be found once there is a clear and strong political will to bring in the reforms. Clearly, the long-neglected issue of justice-based reform of < the old age pension system should not be delayed any longer.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 39 A need for news agencies in the vernacular If the source of news is Hindi, we should not have to depend on agency copy in English. There is an urgent need for Hindi and regional language news agencies if the flow of free, fair and frank communication is to be established in the burgeoning vernacular media, says Om Gupta and Kiran Bala

n the 21st Century, India is witnessing the ‘McDonaldisation’ of everything. So how can our languages escape this phenomenon? Here is one example of a conversation: “Yaar II can’t come sham ko. You know, mamma ne kaha hai come back by 7. Kyan karoon exams are so near.” (The mixture of English and Hindi words conveys the speaker’s inability to go Om Gupta somewhere in the evening as his uncle has asked for him to be hack home by 7, as exams are nearing.) This is the lingua franca of today’s Indians in the age group 5 to 30. Then, there is the second kind of Hindi that purists use – the chaste Sanskritised form of the language. “Yadi bharitiya arthvyavastha ko vashvikaran ke yug men viksit rashtron ki pankti men agrasar hona hai to bahurashtriya audyogik sansthano ke liye bharat ke dwar kholne honge aur poonji nivesh ko aur aakarshak tatha saral banana hoga. Yeh ek anivarya aavashyakta hai.” (Roughly translated, the sentence speaks about the need to woo multinational companies to set up shop in India, if the country is to take its place among the developed nations in this age of globalisation). This is the language that is receiving government’s patronage but the present generation finds English easier than this kalisht (difficult) mother tongue. The purist form of the language has created a situation which has a bearing on Hindi and other vernacular newspapers being dependent on English news agencies and foreign agencies Kiran Bala for news. In India, there are more than 5000 daily newspapers published in 138 languages and over 300 TV news channels claim to transmit news bulletins round the clock. There are also thousands of news websites in a variety of languages. The question then arises, if the end product is provided in the national or regional language, why is the news not gathered in the same language?

Why news agencies It is necessary to discuss why we need a news agency in the first place. A newsworthy incident may happen anywhere in the world. A tsunami can occur on any coast, a volcano can erupt on any continent, a coup can take place in any country and a World Cup sports event can be hosted by any nation. No newspaper, however big, can afford to have a reporter in every Indian state, not to mention the vast number of countries across the globe. Not all newspapers can afford to make arrangements to gather first-hand information from the original source. Thus, the job is done by news agencies. It is a commercial activity and agencies charge a monthly subscription in exchange for the service they provide to the newspapers. News agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press (AP), Agence France Press (AFP), and our own Press Trust of India (PTI), United News of India (UNI) and Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) are well known. It is estimated that one lakh news items are created in the newsrooms of the four major agencies and sent to various newspapers, TV channels and news websites. Not all news stories are transmitted to all media outfits. On average, 300 to 400 news items are sent to a media organisation in a day, and a newspaper of 24 broadsheet pages publishes 150 news items. The next question: what happens to the one lakh news items from across the globe including the thousand or so stories that are gathered in India alone? The answer is linked to the interest of consumers (readers). Not all stories are of interest to the readers of all newspapers. Generally, people are interested in what they can relate to. In India, a reader might not be interested in what is happening in an African country, for example. Readers are more interested in their immediate neighbourhood. At the most, they might be interested in the US President’s views on a particular global issue, or in finding out who the winner of a World Cup event is.

40 VIDURA January-March 2014 Monopoly of English news chunk in its own favour. Secondly, the vernacular arms are heavily agencies the large battery of translators from dependent on their parent bodies. All three Indian news agencies English to other languages sitting Though Univarta has a larger provide news in English, though in every vernacular newspaper number of subscribers than its all have Hindi units. But there is and TV network, called the ‘desk’ parent organisation UNI, PTI no separate Hindi news agency. or sub-editors, will lose jobs if the Bhasha doesn’t enjoy even that English copy is translated into Hindi original copy is well written in a reputation. The third player, IANS, but not in other regional languages. regional language. however, is doing well both in Not all languages have computer The issue goes back to the time English and Hindi. But Hindi is still networks to transmit stories. Thus, when there were two vernacular a translation agency. even technology conspires against news agencies in the 1950s and 60s. There is an urgent need for a news transmission in the vernacular The quality of Hindi journalists in Hindi and regional language news languages. Regional newspapers the agencies was dismal, though agencies if the flow of free, fair translate from English. Therefore, there were exceptions like Ashok and frank communication is to if the source of news is Hindi, we Tondon, Harish Gupta and Alok be established in the burgeoning should not have to depend on Mehta. It was the time when sources vernacular media. We have a well- agency copy in English. gave information in English. The educated pool of Hindi journalists The problem becomes more vernacular agencies couldn’t who can do a better job than their complicated when information is compete with UNI and PTI. The English counterparts. By not using gathered in a regional language. It vernacular newspapers didn’t trust Hindi and regional languages in is written up in English and also their authenticity. They preferred news media as original sources of translated into Hindi and sent to to translate the English copy. Since information, we are depriving our

newspapers. However, sub-editors the sub-editors refused to pick up future generation of the richness of at the newspapers often ignore vernacular agency copy, the media our languages that showcase our < the Hindi versions, and instead owners didn’t pay subscriptions to cultural heritage to the world. directly translate from the English the Hindi news agencies. copy as they have to justify their For some years, the agencies (Prof Om Gupta has been teaching jobs with the paper. Thus, what the survived on the heavy government Journalism for 40 years. He is reader gets in end is a fourth-hand subsidy paid through the the author of 17 books and has version of the news. By the time, subscription from Aakashvani, worked as dean, Centre for Media the originality and authenticity is Doordarshan and other government Studies Academy; dean, Jagannath usually lost. offices such as the Press Information International Management School, Bureau, the PMO, ministries, New Delhi; and dean, Rai University Why no vernacular news agencies airports, etc. But it didn’t meet even Media Programme.) The main reason there are no their daily expenses. The working news agencies in Hindi or other staff lost its morale. Their sources (Kiran Bala is an associate professor vernacular languages is that the didn’t take them seriously. The in the Department of Communication English media wants to control subscribers didn’t wait for their Studies at JIMS. She has anchored the flow of information so as to stories. And the agencies died a programmes on All India Radio and keep the maximum chunk of the slow death. Doordarshan for many years.) advertising pie, as the source of The irony is that even now, information will be able to use the as adjuncts of English agencies, Safety of journalists an issue in Ukraine WAN-IFRA and the World Editors Forum have protested to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych against the attacks by security services on at least 47 journalists who are covering pro-European Union protests around Kiev. “Given the horrific images and detailed accounts WAN-IFRA has received from independent, verified sources in Ukraine over the last 48 hours, your public commitment to free speech and an independent media appear to have been entirely undermined by the actions of your own security services,” the organisations said a letter to the president, which called for immediate independent investigations of the attacks, adding, “We call on you in the strongest possible terms to order immediate, independent investigations into every case of violence and intimidation reported against journalists and media employees, whose job it is to cover the news regardless of whether it is of

help or hindrance to your government’s political aspirations.” “It is imperative the media be permitted to carry out their essential role of informing the public at this crucial time for democracy in Ukraine,” said the letter <

January-March 2014 VIDURA 41 Filmmakers focus on the Indian one-horned rhino Sesh Asha and The Jaws of Death are two documentaries that leave an indelible impression on the minds of viewers about threats facing the rare and endangered species of animals that the Kaziranga National Park in Assam is mandated to protect. More from Bharati Bharali

he recent incidents of killing of the one-horned Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) by poachers in the Kaziranga National Park, a world heritage site, in India, has raised Tthe question of the security of the animal, which is also the state animal of Assam. Assam is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Indian rhino, an animal that is dependent on conservation because of threats from poaching and destruction of habitat. According to Bharati Bharali recent reports, the poaching incidents in and around Kaziranga touched a peak in September and October 2012 with a loss of 39 rhinos in ten months. Since then, 20 more rhinos have met the same tragic fate. The spike in recent poaching has been attributed to the increased demand for the rhino horn, which according to some communities in South East Asian countries, has medicinal value, and is, therefore, in demand in the international market. Although the rhinoceros has been facing a threat from poaching in the Kaziranga National Park, the recent wave of brutal attacks began in September last year when poachers shot at a rhino and cut off her horn and ear while she was still alive. Another rhino was killed deep inside the Karbi Anglong Forest on the southern side of the park the same day. A series of similar incidents was extensively reported in the print and electronic media of Assam. The incidents raised an alarm among conservation enthusiasts as well as common people in the state and led to a spate of mass protests aimed at the state government for its failure to take immediate and effective measures to tackle the issue. Even the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea, held from September 6 to 15 last year took note of the disturbing reports and asked the Government of India to take concerted action to conserve the rhinos. Kaziranga National Park, spread over an area of 429.93 sq km, is home to the one-horned rhinoceros and many other rare and endangered species. It was first declared a protected area on January 3, 1905. It was designated a national park on February 11, 1974 and was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. The park falls under the jurisdictions of two districts of Assam, namely Nagaon and Golaghat, with the mighty river Brahmaputra in the north and the lush green hills of Karbi Anglong in the south. There are 2329 rhinos in the park according to the last census held in March this year. In addition to governmental and non-governmental organisations that have been involved in the conservation of the endangered animal, many noted documentary filmmakers of Assam, in their own distinctive ways, have been contributing to the conservation effort. Through their documentaries they have narrated stories of the plight of these animals. Dip Bhuyan’s Sesh Asha – The Last Hope (duration: 22:25 minutes), which received the Indian Documentary Film Producers Association’s Best Documentary Film Award in the Nature Film Category in 2009, focuses on the symbiotic relationship that developed between the employees of Kaziranga National Park and the animals. The film narrates the struggle of the rhino and other animals in the Kaziranga National Park as well as in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary – another major habitat of the rhino, and the limited support provided to the park employees and their sufferings during times of flood. Bhuyan recently received the Best Director Award in the Non-fiction Category (2010) for the film at the Assam State Film Festival, 2013. The film starts with a wide-angle shot of animals roaming the serene park against a backdrop of magnificent lush green wetlands. Behind the serenity lies an ugly truth, as the narrator of the film emphasises. With the start of the rainy season, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries swell up into almost ocean-like proportions. . The combined mid-shots of deer, rhino and a number of insects, combined with the supportive natural sound of thunder give the audience a premonition of the impending calamity that the animals must face. Perennial flooding of the grazing grounds of the animals during the rainy season forces the animals to move up to higher grounds. Several hundreds of animals succumb to the rising flood waters every year. As reported in The Hindu on July 15, 2012, animals that perished in the floods included 512 hog deer, 17 rhinos (including two killed by poachers), 10 swamp deer, 15 sambar, 28 wild boar, five porcupines, two hog badgers, two

42 VIDURA January-March 2014 elephants and two pythons. In order the forest guards to help the animals to save the animals from drowning, cross NH 37, and the fact that many authorities have constructed several a time they fail to protect their artificial highlands within the park charges from the speeding vehicles, boundaries. However, due to the also leave an indelible imprint on lack of adequate foliage cover and the viewers’ minds. Do we, as part also because of overcrowding in of the living planet, respect nature’s these artificial highlands, many ordinance? animals prefer to move to the The miserable condition is also nearby Burapahar hill range or to the central theme of The Jaws of Karbi Anglong hill range, making Death: A True Story of Kaziranga themselves more vulnerable to by Gautam Saikia (duration: 18:03 poachers. Bhuyan nicely captures minutes). The award-winning the predicament of the animals in film also depicts how the innocent his shots. The shots of forest guards animals of the park very often fall patrolling barefoot during the flood, victim and get crushed by speeding with decrepit boats and without any vehicles on NH 37, considered the modern gadgets of surveillance, lifeline of Assam and which also provide a compelling sense of the connects it with the adjoining states dedication of these men. of Nagaland and Manipur. Bhuyan’s film also draws the The film discusses how the Photo:Gautam Saikia viewer’s attention to another national park has turned into a quandary faced by the animals. The curse for its inhabitants. Saikia speeding vehicles plying on the busy describes how the plight of the concern on the protection of the NH 37 that runs through the park animals remains pathetic. Is there whale shark globally. has taken the lives of thousands of any solution to the problem? Can Pandey’s documentary Vanishing animals. This is well presented by we save the denizens of Kaziranga Giants (2004) also led to the ban of the remarkable editing of the film. from the onslaught of NH 37? The cruel and out-dated techniques of The horrified eyes of the innocent director leaves it to the audience to elephant capture in India. Sesh deer and rhinos caught in the answer. Asha – The Last Hope and The Jaws glare of oncoming vehicles leave a Noted film critic J. C. Horak once of Death are effective tools of the disturbing impression in the mind said that sometimes, the truth told in same genre, in terms of protecting

of the viewer. The sincere efforts of documentaries seems stranger than one more wild animal that needs< fiction. Dip Bhuyan and Gautam our support for its survival. Saikia have presented audiences with a series of happenings inside (The writer is an assistant professor the park while carefully avoiding in the Department of Communication the politically sensitive issues and Journalism, Gauhati University. related to the it and the adjoining Her research focuses on eco-criticism, areas. documentary films and science The world has witnessed the communication. She is news reader on power of documentary films in All India Radio, and a news editor for awareness generation in several Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati.) environmental and social issues. India, too, has seen the influence of documentary films on conservation issues in recent times. Mike Pandey, the three-time Green Oscar winning documentary filmmaker, is an icon. It was his masterpiece Shores of Silence - Whale Sharks in India (2009) that brought major legislative changes in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in terms of banning fishing of whale sharks Photo: Dip Bhuyan in India. The film generated much

January-March 2014 VIDURA 43 GROWTH OF RADIO IN ODISHA It’s been an eventful journey from Cuttack Ambika Sankar Mishra takes a brief look at radio services in Odisha, which have improved and progressed over the years

alcutta had a big contingent of people from Odisha in the late 1930s and early 1940s.. They were mostly from the working class. Like people from similar backgrounds Chailing from other parts of India, they were also fascinated by the radio. However, the programmes broadcast in those days were in Bengali and hence difficult for them to understand. This spurred a demand for special programmes in the Odiya language. On New Year’s Day, 1943, for the first time in its history, Radio Calcutta started broadcasting an Odiya programme. Odiya music was played for five minutes. Due to persistent demand Ambika Sankar from the listeners, the duration was increased to 15 minutes from January 1, 1944 and the Mishra following year, it went up to 30 minutes. The items included short plays and interviews, apart from music. However, even this length of time wasn’t satisfactory, and the number of programmes produced was insufficient. It was also proving expensive to take Odiya artistes to Calcutta for recordings. Women artistes found it particularly difficult to travel in those tradition-bound days. Added to this were practical problems such as sourcing of traditional musical instruments in Calcutta. The demand for a separate radio centre in Odisha was a natural fallout. Eminent personalities like Harekrishna Mahatab, Umacharan Patnaik, Arttaballav Mohanty and Bhubanananda Sahoo lent their voice to the demand. On September 1, 1947, the government decided to establish a radio station in Cuttack. It came into existence on January 28, 1948. The first transmission from Cuttack Radio Station was made at 6:30 pm that day. Initially, the transmitter was of 1 kilowatt strength but it was hiked to 20 kilowatt in 1958 and again, in 1974, to 100 Kilowatt. To provide listeners better fare, the Cuttack Radio Station introduced the Vividh Bharti Service. The Sambalpur and Jayapur Stations were set up in 1963 and 1964. Since then, the number of stations has increased and Odisha now has radio centres in Baripada, Berhampur, Bhawanipattna, Bolangir, Joranda, Keonjhar, Puri and Rourkela. Cuttack Radio Station has produced programmes for people of all sections and won awards atnational levels at various times. Among its most discussed programs are Shishu Sansar for Children, Nari Mahal for women, regional and national news, Yuva Vani for youth, programmes of Pala, Dashkathia, and others relating to folk culture of Odisha, live commentaries of various events, music programmes, programmes for farmers and educational programmes for students. Capitalising on the popularity of the FM service, All India Radio Cuttack has started broadcasting its own FM service called FM Rainbow (101.3). It broadcasts mainly music along with hourly updates of news. It is on air from 4.55 pm to 11 pm. Private FM players such as Big FM (92.7) and Red FM (93.5) are transmitting programmes on the FM frequency in Odisha. Radio Choklate (104) is Odisha’s own private FM radio channel, owned by Eastern Media. Radio services in Odisha have improved and

progressed over the years. However, old timers still find it good to begin the day listening to a pleasing< voice from the radio, announcing Akashvani….

Photo: Internet (The writer is assistant professor, St Joseph's Degree and A private radio channel in Odisha tries to woo listeners. PG College, Hyderabad.)

44 VIDURA January-March 2014 HISTORY OF MALAYALAM JOURNALISM In the land of Manorama and Mathrubhumi ike in many states of India, in Kerala too, the credit for starting the first newspaper goes to Christian missionary groups. Basel Mission Society (BMS), a missionary group from LGermany started the first newspaper in Kerala. Rajya Samacharam, published as eight cyclostyled sheets in June 1847 by Dr Herman Gundert of the BMS from Talassery in North Kerala marked the dawn of Malyalee Journalism in India. It ceased publication in 1850. In October 1847, Gundart stated another publication called Paschimodayam. Like its predecessor, the Paschimodayam, too, was cyclostyled, but it carried articles on geography, history, natural science and even astrology. The first printed magazine in the Malayalam language– the Jnananikshepam – was published from Central Travancore in 1848. Arch Deacon Koshy and the Reverend George Mathen were Mrinal Chatterjee behind the eight-page magazine which served alike the cause of propagation of religion and the dissemination of knowledge. Another periodical Vidyasamgraham had been launched in 1864 and went on publishing till 1867. Attempts were underway in the meantime to start a ‘newspaper’. The first of this genre to be published from Kerala was in the English language. A pioneering foursome embarked upon a publication titled the Western Star from Cochin in 1860. Charles Lawson, who had left England after completing his studies, took over as the paper's editor. Four years later, in 1864, a Malayalam edition of the Western Star started publication from Cochin under the banner Paschimataraka. The new paper was edited initially by T.J. Paily and later by Kalloor Oommen Philippose Asan. Yet another paper, the Keralapataka, made its appearance from Cochin in 1870. In course of time the two publications merged to form the Paschimataraka-Keralapataka. Under the stewardship of Ommen Phillipose Asan, the merged publication mounted attacks on the peccadilloes of the bureaucracy of the day and is seen to have survived right up to 1886. In 1867, two papers were started from Kottayam. One was in Malayalam and was titledSantishtavadi ; the other, the Travancore Herald, was in English; both were printed from the CMS Press. The Santishtavadi was outspoken in its criticism of the powers that be, and soon fell foul of the Travancore Government, which ordered its closure. Thus, the Santishtavadi created history in Malayalam Journalism by becoming the first martyr to the cause of freedom of the press. The next Malayalam paper to be published was the Satyanadakahalam, which started publication modestly as a fortnightly from Kunammavu in October 1876. It was published under the auspices of the Italian Carmelite Mission, with Reverend Father Candidus as its first editor. It was later renamed Satyanadam. Interestingly, it was a Gujarati who launched the first real newspaper in Malayalam. Devji Bhimji estabolished a printing press in Cochin in 1865 under the name of the Keralamitram Press and started a newspaper titled Keralamitram. It is regarded as the firstnewspaper in the Malayalam language1. In the initial stages the paper was issued thrice a month; later on it was published as a weekly. Besides news, the paper provided a wide range of reading fare, which by contemporary accounts maintained an exceptionally high standard. A significant development was the publication in 1884 ofthe Keralapatrika weekly from Kozhikode by Chengulathu Kunhirama Menon. It was printed from the Vidyavilasom Press and had the active backing of a number of prominent personalities of the day. It featured news on international affairs, politics and other public occurrences. Literature and literacy criticism also found a prominent place in its columns. The management of the Keralapatrika changed hands in 1938 after the death of Kunhirama Menon. Among the editors of the period were Sanjayan and Koyippalli Parameswara Kurup. After Independence, the paper was shifted to Ernakulam. However, it closed after a few years. The Spectator Press of Kozhikode came out in 1886 with a Malayalam periodical titled the Kerala Sanchari. It was edited by Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, otherwise well-known by his pen-name Kesari. 1886 saw the birth of the Malayali from Thiruvananthapuram. It was the official organ of the Malayalee Social Reforms League. The

1. http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/historyofpress.htm

January-March 2014 VIDURA 45 Photos: Mrinal Chatterjee

From left: Front pages of Deepika, Deshabhimani and Madhyamam. new magazine found an able editor publication for nine long years. Movement, the agitation for in Pettayil Raman Pillai Asan. In “The story of Manorama is not Responsible Government and social due course his mantle fell on C.V. just a story.... It is a saga, a saga reform. The paper antagonised Raman Pillai, yet another literary running through four generations, the state administration when it giant. Though the prime objective a saga of nativity, exile, martyrdom actively supported the ‘abstention of the paper was social reform, it and resurrection. And more. A movement’ for the redistribution joined the movement for political record of significant achievements.” of legislature constituencies to and civil rights with equal zest. Malayala Manorama was started at a ensure equitable representation The Deepika was launched from time when the majority of the people for all sections of the people. Its Kottayam in 1887. Its initial title of the state were illiterate and there offence was aggravated when was Nasrani Deepika. Its periodicity were hardly any newspapers. It it wholeheartedly backed the underwent a number of changes became the mission of Malayala state Congress’ movement for over the years to emerge finally in Manorama to campaign for the Responsible Government. The 1938 as a full-fledged daily. The uplift of the depressed classes, Malayala Manorama was banned by change in periodicity also coincided spread of education, eradication of the state administration in 1938 and with an abbreviation of its name to superstitious beliefs and practices, its press was confiscated. It came the present: Deepika. and political justice for all. The first out from Cochin for a few days but The Malayala Manorama started editorial was a plea for the education it could not be sustained and had publication from Kottayam in 1890, of the Pulayas, a downtrodden to close down. It did not reappear initially as a weekly. The paper was community of Kerala. until November, 1947. floated by a joint stock company, K. C. Mammen Mappilai took In the meantime, its editor perhaps for the first time in India. Its over as editor after the death of his Mammen Mappilai had been first editor was Kandathil Varghese father in 1904 and he wrote a new prosecuted and imprisoned in Mappilai who brought with him chapter in the history of Malayalam connection with the liquidation the rich experience of his previous Journalism with his courageous of the Travancore National Bank association with the Keralamitram. advocacy of the rights of the people with which he was connected. He The paper was converted into a in the face of autocratic rule. He resumed his editorship in 1947 daily from July 2, 1928. Malayala has been described as a “fearless and was succeeded on his death Manorama was not only involved in patriot, a wise teacher, a crusading by his son, K. M. Cherian, in 1954. the freedom struggle but also fought editor and a zealous reformer.” Mammen Mathew is the editor- against autocracy in a princely state He agitated for great causes and in-chief now. Malayala Manorama, and paid for it with suspension of they included the Civil Rights which is being published from

46 VIDURA January-March 2014 The Malayala Manorama is the largest circulated Maylayam daily in Kerala and among the Top-5-read newspapers in India..

Kottayam, Kochi, Kozhikode and was the editor and he made the Trivandrum. It was founded in several other centres, is today paper a spokesman of the forces 1910 by K. Sukumaran as a daily. the largest circulated Malayalam fighting for freedom. From its It supported the then government daily in Kerala and the third inception it became popular but it and was patronised by officials biggest language daily in India. had to pass through many ups and and pro-government sections of It has adopted the most modern downs during its stormy career. the public. In the 1920s, there were technology in the production of the When Kesava Menon courted many Malayalam dailies besides newspaper and its allied journals. imprisonment in the Vaikom the ones we have mentioned which The Malayala Manorama weekly Satyagraha, his place was taken by were popular. Among them were is one of the largest circulated P. Ramunni Menon, who dedicated Malayalam (Quilon), Deenabandhu language weeklies in India. his life to the paper. Unfortunately, (Ernakulam), Janayugam (Quilon), A near namesake, the Manorama, his premature death in 1930 brought Kerala Janatha (Trivandrum) was floated in 1891 from Kozhikode to an end the services of a stalwart. and Deshabhimani (Calicut). The under the auspices of the Kerala It was also the year when the Deenabandu was yet another paper Mahajana Sabha. This fortnightly Mathrubhumi, which had until then which owed its origin to the national was a self-styled vehicle of reforms been a weekly, became a daily. Very struggle. It commenced publication in the socio-political field and soon an illustrated weekly came out as a weekly in 1941 from Trichur. had the backing of members of from its press and its progress was The weekly was edited by V.R. the Zamorin’s family and other rapid. It was one of the earliest to Krishnan Ezhuthachan. prominent personalities. After introduce the teleprinter service Malayalam Journalism pro- undergoing many tribulations, and buy a rotary press and in duced a galaxy of writers from including change of ownership and 1962 it started its Cochin edition. the very beginning. Some of the editors, the Manorama finally folded Mathrubhumi under the dynamic distinguished writers who gained up in 1940. leadership of Kesava Menon played literary reputation through their Mathrubhumi was launched from an impressive role in the freedom contribution to Malayala Manorama Calicut in 1923 as an organ of the struggle and did much to spread the included Kerala Varma, Valia Indian National Congress, which ideals of Gandhiji and the Congress. Koyil Thampuran, Kunhittan by the time had launched the Non- Today, it ranks as the second Thampuran, Vallathokl Menon, cooperation Movement under largest circulated Malayalam daily Ulloor Achutha Menon and M. Gandhiji’s leadership. Its mentors in Kerala. Kumaran. K. M. Panikkar made a included K. Madhavan Nair, Kurur Another newspaper which also great contribution to the growth of Neelakantan Nambudripad and K. has a good circulation in Kerala is Malayalam journalism as a writer, P. Kesava Menon. Kesava Menon the Kerala Kaumidi published from critic and historian.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 47 Malayalam TV channels are generally Radio Mango sparked off the FM quite popular. revolution in the state.

Andhra Pradesh(2), Within Kerala Kudappanakunnu, eight km from itself, the publishing centres include the city. Today, it covers the entire Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, state, with DD Channel 4 available Kottayam, Quilon, Allepey, and across Southeast Asia, Africa, Kozhikode. According to the RNI Europe, Australia and the America. figure of 2007-08, there were 1883 The DD studios were also set up in publications, including 265 dailies Thrissur and Kozhikode. and 211 weeklies. Asianet was the first and is According to IRS 2011 Q-2 biggest private television channel figures, the top five largest read in the state. It started functioning A March 1923 edition of Malayalam newspapers were from Thiruvananthapuram in 1993. Mathrubhumi. Malayala Manorama (readership: Today, it has two more channels – 98.69 lakh), Mathrubhumi (66.69 Asianet News and Asianet Plus; it Kerala has had the largest lakh), Deshabhimani (21.05 lakh), has an uplinking facility in the city. newspaper readership in India Madhyamam (9.54 lakh) and Mangalam Other leading private channels are from a very long time. The Second (5.62 lakh). Among the largest read Surya TV, Kairali TV, Amrita TV, Press Communication reported that English daily newspapers papers in JaiHind TV, Mathrubumi Television in the circulation of dailies per 1000 Kerala were The Hindu (3.1 lakh) and and FunTV. of literate population, Kerala with The New Indian Express (2.18 lakh). New media: Kerala being a 63.80 copies was at the top. The Radio: Currently, AIR has highly literate and technology commission also found that among four AM radio stations in Kerala. savvy state, the Malayalam media the Indian languages, Malayalam The stations are located in has made spectacular advances had the maximum circulation Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, in the new media domain. There of weeklies as well as of other Allepey and Kozhikode. The are presently over 200 Kerala- periodicals per 1000 of the linguistic southern state has seven AIR FM centric news sites in the Malayalam population. In 1979, Malayalam radio stations. Radio Alakal, the language. Several agencies, had 51.4 copies of weeklies and an first community radio station in including some established media

the state, started narrowcasting houses, disseminate news on the equal number of copies of other < periodicals circulating per 1000 of from Thiruvananthapuram on 1st mobile platform in real time. the linguistic population. May 2006. Kerala's first private According to statistics published FM station, Radio Mango 91.9, was (The writer, a journalist-turned-media by the Registrar of Newspaper in launched on November 29, 2007 academician, presently heads the India (RNI), there were at the end in Kozhikode, sparking off the FM Eastern India campus of the Indian of 1984, 118 dailies, 125 weeklies, revolution in the state. Today, Kerala Institute of Mass Communication and 107 fortnightlies in Malayalam. has a host of private FM channels. located in Dhenkanal, Odisha. This There were altogether 876 Television: Thiruvananthapuram article is the eighth in a series on newspapers in 1984, and of these Doordarshan (DD) Kendra started the history of regional language 845 were published from Kerala. functioning from the Tagore journalism in India. The ones on Many were published from outside Theatre with a small transmission Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Kerala from centres in Maharashtra unit in the latter half of 1982. Later, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu (9), Tamil Nadu (6) Karnataka a full-fledged centre with a high- journalism have appeared in previous (5), Delhi (4), West Bengal (2) and power transmitter was installed at issues.)

48 VIDURA January-March 2014 REMEMBERING NELSON MANDELA Meeting Madiba, South Africa’s Gandhi ne aspect of the South African experience of struggling for freedom, and of building a post-apartheid order, not Owidely known is that there were many other significant heroes and heroines who took that long walk to freedom, with and before Nelson Mandela. Oliver Tambo, who was perhaps the most important of them all, proved to be a guide for many. Walter Sisulu, whose family still participates in governance, was another. Govan Mbeki, the father of former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, is a less visible character but a great mentor nevertheless. There were others, too – Ahmed Kathrada, who shared a prison cell at Robben Island with Mandela, and was almost a brother to him; Durban-based Ismail Meer and his wife Fatima; Mac Maharaj, who secreted Mandela’s manuscript out of Robben Island; Helen Suzman, a white woman who played a critical role in conveying messages from the prison and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, anchor of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose sermons provided courage even as they brought peace during a difficult period of struggle. So it can be argued that Nelson Mandela was one of many but was accepted across the spectrum of leaders as the person most suited to be the first president of post-apartheid South Africa. Many of the men and women who helped in that transition to democracy were still around when my late husband, Lakshmi Jain, was appointed as the Indian high commissioner to South Africa in 1997, the last year of Mandela’s presidency. We had the joy and privilege of striking friendships, not only with Nelson Mandela but almost all of the veterans. The conversations Photo: Archives de la Ville de Montréal on Flickr under Creative Commons. de Montréal on Flickr under Creative de la Ville Archives Photo: we had with them revealed not only the extraordinary viciousness Nelson Mandela’s big smile was typical of the of the earlier regime, but also the amazing stamina, brilliance and man and was commented upon internationally. variety of the freedom fighters themselves. Their accounts of It exuded warmth and empathy and brought a torture and resistance only added to our respect for the people of twinkle to his eyes. this beautiful nation. Our first exposure to the South African political process and its leaders was at a 50th national conference of the African National Congress (ANC), held at Mafikeng Stadium on December 20, 1997. Thabo Mbeki was elected on that occasion as the next president of the country, even as Mandela demitted office. In a historic speech made on the occasion, Mandela described the situation in South Africa as well as outlined what the ANC should really aspire to achieve in the immediate future. Every sentence he uttered was greeted with a hugely enthusiastic response from the stadium, which was bustling with ANC cadres from all over South Africa, each province with its own colour reflected in the garments people wore. The word ‘Amandla!’ (power) constantly rent the air and each time it was pronounced, the crowd responded with a hearty “Awethu!” (to us). Nelson Mandela, as we know, had a stentorian voice and spoke more like an army commander than a politician. When he finished and officially handed over charge to Mbeki, there was a tense, unforgettable moment. Mbeki – who was different in every way from Mandela, short of stature, severe looking and with a clipped accent – came to the mike and alarmed the participants by saying, “You can be sure I will not step into the shoes of Madiba.”

January-March 2014 VIDURA 49 years in punishing conditions on Robben Island, what is important to note is that those years proved to be the incubator for thought and action that that translated eventually into one of greatest freedom struggles the world has ever known. Gandhiji, too, had incubated his ideas with fasts and then came out with strategies like collecting a fistful of salt on the beaches of Gujarat, an act that electrified the nation. Mandela, like Gandhiji was, is an extremely informal man, totally Photo: Devaki Jain Photo: Devaki at ease with ‘common folk’. They both shared an ability to love the Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel with Devaki and Lakshmi Jain. people and transmit that love to them. Both men had clarity of mind Madiba, or teacher, was the name us warmly but could not resist and the ability to arrive at answers popularly used for Mandela. At observing, right to our face, how to very complex challenges by this, an ominous silence descended much he missed Gopal Gandhi, using their reason, even as they on the audience. After a minute’s who was the earlier Indian high carried their constituents along. pause during which the suspense commissioner to South Africa. We Intuition complemented by only grew, Mbeki added, “Have took this remark in our stride because intellectual strength marks the you seen his shoes? They are the we could well understand what it work of both men, who excelled in ugliest, dirtiest old shoes that I have meant to him to have somebody evolving innovative ideas and road ever seen!” representing India in South Africa maps. Also, the stamina needed Laughter and a big round of who was not only as gentle and to withstand assault and pain was applause greeted his words, with thoughtful as Gopal Gandhi, but also evident. Gandhi put up with a Mandela himself wearing a very also who happened to be Mahatma great deal of personal pain – conflict big smile. In fact, that big smile Gandhi’s grandson. with his son, the loss of close was typical of the man and was But after the formal ceremony, friends, extraordinary differences commented upon internationally. It during which my husband delivered with colleagues in the movement exuded warmth and empathy and a speech entitled ‘Africa, the – but his grit to march on for a brought a twinkle to his eyes. Every Continent Of Hope’, Mandela smiled larger political agenda remained leader claims to love his or her and said to me, “You are Graca’s undiminished. Similarly, Mandela people. But to translate this connect only friend in South Africa!” Indeed had to reckon with the pain of into reality needs an extraordinary Graca Machel – whom Mandela later conflict with Winnie Mandela, warmth – what is called the desire married – and I had worked together who was a real comrade. Such to include – and Mandela had that in an Eminent Persons Group at tension may have crushed a lesser quality in abundant measure. His the United Nations that dealt with person, but Mandela continued to unique attribute, one that makes children in armed conflict. When the stride across South Africa with his him stand tall amongst the world’s couple got married, we were invited mission to rebuild the country after leaders, is the genuineness of his to their wedding and into an inner decades of repression. love for his people. They in turn room where the special guests and India and South Africa are respond in equal measure, as we family were present. Later, when certainly destiny’s favoured saw in the messages that poured the time came for us to leave South countries for having given birth to

in during the weeks during which Africa, we were invited to have tea two of the most outstanding figures he lay critically ill at a Pretoria with Mandela and Graca in their in modern history. < hospital. home. Having seen him at the African Mandela is often compared with Devaki Jain National Congress convention Gandhiji, as an ‘apostle of peace’. As (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service. from a distance, our next encounter leaders of freedom struggles, there The writer is a Delhi-based well- with him was when my husband are indeed some striking similarities known economist and feminist presented his credentials as high between them. While Mandela is activist.) commissioner. Mandela welcomed remembered for surviving his 18

50 VIDURA January-March 2014 REMEMBERING THE EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Magnificently brave, yet sadly forgotten

India’s freedom struggle saw mass participation on an unprecedented scale and many of the participants were women. Unfortunately, several of them have remained invisible to this day, unknown and unsung. There were innumerable ordinary women, with no formal education or very little schooling, coming from poverty-stricken, conservative homes, who got involved in the struggle with undaunted spirit and great commitment. It is time now for post-Independent India to acknowledge the role played by them against British colonialism, says Bula Devi as she brings alive some of the sacrifices of those heroic times

ndia’s freedom struggle saw mass participation on an Iunprecedented scale and many of the participants were women. Unfortunately, several of them have remained invisible to this day, unknown and unsung. The few women freedom fighters who made it into history books invariably came from elite or middle-class backgrounds and their male relatives had often encouraged them to join the movement. In contrast,

there were innumerable ordinary Photo: Gandhi Smriti women, with no formal education or very little schooling, coming While Indian women played a key role in the struggle for India’s Independence, from poverty-stricken, conservative several of them have remained invisible to this day. The permanent exhibit in Delhi's Gandhi Smriti, Great Indian Women Freedom Fighters, includes homes, who got involved in the several of the unsung and unseen crusaders. struggle with undaunted spirit and great commitment. Raj Kumari Gupta was one of them. Born about a century ago in the little known Banda Zilla of Kanpur, she and her husband worked closely with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, and Chandra Shekhar Azad, a revolutionary and leader of the Hindustan Socialist Republic Association. Her crucial contribution to the Kakori dacoity case barely figures in the narratives of freedom. Raj Kumari, who was given the charge of supplying revolvers to those involved in the Kakori operation, apparently hid the guns in her “underwear” and set out in khadi clothes to deliver them, with her three-year-old son in tow. On being arrested, she was disowned by her husband’s family and thrown out of her marital home. There is also the case of Tara Rani Srivastava. She was born in Saran, near Patna, Bihar, and participated actively with her husband, Phulendu Babu, in the 1942 Quit India movement. On Gandhi’s call, Phulendu assembled a massive crowd of men and women in front of the Siwan Police Station to hoist the national flag on its roof. Although they had just got married, Tara and Phulendu stood in the front of the crowd and raised slogans. As Phulendu cried, “Inquilab (Revolution)”, Tara Rani repeated the word in a higher register. Phulendu soon fell to police bullets. Tara Rani was not deterred. Demonstrating exemplary courage, she bandaged his wounds and marched with the national flag straight towards the police station. By the time she returned, her husband had died. Whether these women can be considered as revolutionaries or not, there can be no denying that they fought against great personal odds for the freedom of the country. They displayed great resolve despite seeing their children ascend the gallows. It is said that the night before activist Ram Prasad Bismil, a member of the Hindustan

January-March 2014 VIDURA 51 Socialist Republic Association, what she did. She saved money from than officials records.” was to be hanged on December the household expenses and cooked It is time now for post- 18, 1927, in Gorakhpur Jail, his food for men in hiding while her Independent India to acknowledge mother came to see him. On seeing husband was asleep, washing the the role played by innumerable, her, Bismil’s eyes became moist, utensils herself to keep the matter a ordinary, often very poor women but his visitor remained calm. She secret even from family retainers. in the struggle against British had never actively participated The stories of these women don’t colonialism. There is a need, for in politics but she understood the generally surface in contemporary instance, to recall the rural women underlying importance of her son’s India save for efforts like those of Bardoli, Gujarat, whose lands passionate espousal of revolution. undertaken by the Gandhi Smriti, – which they owned and were Bismil’s mother did not beg for in Delhi recently, when it launched cultivating – were confiscated. mercy to be shown towards her a permanent exhibition on Great These simple women came out in son. Instead, she is believed to have Indian Women Freedom Fighters. huge numbers in support of their told Bismil not to shed tears like a According to Charu Gupta, an men and remained steadfast. They kayar (coward). Bismil is then said associate professor, Department of refused to pay taxes. Women like to have answered saying that he History, Delhi University, history Abadi Bano Begam, a strong willed was crying, not because he was a writing in the 1960s did not register widow and a freedom fighter from coward, but because he would not the role of ordinary women in the Lucknow, known by her honorific have a mother like her. Steeled by freedom movement. She observes, Bi Amman, need acknowledgement. her son’s death, she is believed to “Implicitly the history of that time She observed strict purdah all her have said in a speech subsequently projected only a select group and this life and when the time came to that she was ready to give another gave rise to a distorted vision.” She speak on behalf of her jailed son, son to the nation. Saying this, she points out how the entire portrayal she did so from behind her burqa raised the hand of Bismil’s brother. of the freedom struggle tended to (veil) in 1917. This was, perhaps, Given domestic constraints, be male-centric, bourgeois, and the first time a Muslim woman in many women found it difficult upper caste, with the participation purdah had addressed a political to get directly involved in public of women in the freedom struggle gathering of men and women. action, but they contributed in their being seen as an extension of their Her action helped to bring many own ways. Many took to spinning domestic roles of serving their purdah-observing women to the charkha (spinning wheel) as a families. political meetings. mark of support for the Swadeshi The lack of the presence of ordinary Not just women from the movement. Others acted as secret women in historical work, according minority communities, among envoys and messengers - passing to Gupta, was due to several factors those who struggled unrelentingly on proscribed material, helping – but the biggest constraint was that for Independence were Dalit and fugitives from the law shift from history writing was generally based tribal women as well. Abhinaya one place to another, and ensuring on official records. She, however, Gaikwad, a Mumbai-based that they were fed and looked does believe that the approach has academic, in a paper published after. been undergoing a change, with in a book on Dalit women’s There is the case of Ganga historians now more inclined to base participation in India's freedom Devi from Uttar Pradesh. She their work on ‘creative sources’ like struggle, mentions women like had no formal education and personal diaries, family histories, Champutai Ganapatrao Bansod’s had been married at the age of 13 newspaper reports, magazine participation in the 1930 Civil into a home which had over 60 articles and oral narratives. Disobedience Movement. Gaikwad family members. Her husband, a As Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert notes that despite the remarkable government employee, enforced observes in her book, Women in the contribution of Dalit women to strict restrictions on her movement Indian National Movement Unseen India’s freedom movement, the so as to keep her away from the Faces and Unheard Voices, 1930-42, country has not taken adequate raging political ferment of those “Reinterpreting Indian nationalist note of their presence. Gandhi had times. But that did not stop Ganga history required going beyond long recognised this when he said, from encouraging her children to be archival, official and unofficial “The women of India should have sympathetic to the rebels. Once she sources.” On oral narratives, she as much share in winning swaraj witnessed her son getting thrashed says, “As a methodological tool, these (freedom) as men. Probably in by his father for his nationalist narratives revealed the individual this peaceful struggle, woman can

activities, she realised that whatever subjectivities of participants in the outdistance man by many a mile.” she did for the movement had to be nationalist movement. Documenting < done in great secrecy, behind her these life histories opened a new husband’s back. And that’s exactly world before me: a world more real (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service.)

52 VIDURA January-March 2014 REMEMBERING A SATYAJIT RAY CREATION 50 years of a film called Mahanagar

Mahanagar, a path-breaking milestone in the celluloid representation of the emerging class of working women among urban middle-class metros in India, is also “a discreetly feminist hymn to Calcutta”. The film’s protagonist Arati proves that a woman has vast resources of inner strength she is unaware of. She draws upon these resources when the time is right. She realises that patriarchy has failed to solve emerging socio-economic problems that have a bearing on the family. Shoma A.Chatterji takes readers on a flashback

ay’s Mahanagar completes 50 years this year. Charulata’s (another Ray film released a year later) fame continues to draw accolades from across the world, somewhat marginalising the historical significance Rof Mahanagar, a path-breaking milestone in the celluloid representation of the emerging class of working women among urban middle-class metros in India. Mahanagar is set in 1955. Ray’s own move away from his joint family in 1948 was a forerunner of major shifts in Bengali society following Independence. The film is based on a short story named Abataranika by Narendranath Mitra. Large numbers of middle-class women are now working, and the joint family, as depicted in Mahanagar, has become the exception rather than the rule. The original story placed the husband at the centre. Ray shifted the emphasis to the wife, Arati. The change traced the beginnings of the working wife in a lower middle-class family of Calcutta, her gradual autonomy in the face of economic pressures, and her changing status within the family. Going beyond the realms of the original, Ray changed the perspective of the story. Mahanagar is a microcosm of changes in urban, social and economic values. It is a strong, positive and

Photos: Arindam Saha Sardar Photos: realistic statement on the socio-economic changes in urban Bengali life. Arati stands as both the sign and Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee) with her first salary in the signified of the slow but steady socio-economic Mahanagar. evolution. It changed the perspective of the story, opening it to feminist and Marxist readings. Before Mahanagar, Ray’s films were confined either to literary classics, (The Apu Trilogy, Devi, Parash Pathar, Jalsaghar, Teen Kanya) or, to a film based on his own script (Kanchenjungha) With Mahanagar, Ray took his first step inside a lower middle-class Bengali family home. The interiors of the Majumdar household reflect Ray’s genius for detail. The clutter within the small flat shows large pieces of furniture, prints on the walls; the sister-in- law drawing the tape that hangs the mosquito net; a slightly disturbed Subrata smoking inside the mosquito net; the sister-in-law proudly scribbling Dada-Boudi in chalk on the kitchen floor as they have lunch before stepping out; the sister-in-law standing shyly to show off the new sari Arati has bought for her with her salary. These are small glimpses that enrich the context of the story. Through close-ups, Ray turns claustrophobia into intimacy as the camera captures, at close range, the subtle interactions of the typical Bengali family. Like the great artiste that he was, he takes constraints and, working within them, turns them to his advantage. Arati’s looks and appearance change when she begins to work. Her body language changes from the shaky, head-covered, coyly smiling daughter-in-law to a confident young woman whose smile, gait, body language spell out her rising self-esteem. When she goes to the cashier to get her first salary, he requests her to knit a

January-March 2014 VIDURA 53 Captivating scenes from Satyajit Ray’s classic, Mahanagar. jumper for his grandson. “I will,” Arati’s husband stops her from reversals suggesting plurality and she says, takes the envelope, signs handing in the letter of resignation continuity. When Arati clambers in the log book and departs. The because he has suddenly become down the stairs of the office and way she drapes the sari changes jobless, Arati is just a puppet in the informs Subrata of her decision to from the traditional Bengali style, hands of a seemingly democratic quit her job, he praises her decision pulling the end twice over the and ‘understanding’ husband who and accepts that he would perhaps shoulder at home, to wearing it in is actually as tradition-bound as the not have had the guts to take the smart pleats when she sets out for father he is ideologically distanced same decision. From a close-up work. She begins to clandestinely from. But with time, and with the of the couple, the camera tilts up wear lipstick at work gifted her by vested responsibility of being the towards the city to rest on the street her Anglo-Indian colleague, Edith sole breadwinner, Arati unwittingly lamp as the couple walk under it to Simmons. comes into her own, and ceases to be mingle with the crowds below. The film sheds light on the dual a puppet with the choice she makes Is it a light of hope? One cannot reproductive responsibilities of following Edith’s unfair dismissal. be sure, because, of the two holders the woman who produces labour Subrata changes too, as he of the street lamp, one does not for the next generation (the little discovers the happy expression on have a bulb inside. This also offers son who, in future will become an his wife’s face when she comes home a tiny hint at the way Calcutta economically productive human from work while he is forced to stay works, stolen street bulbs not being) and (through housework) back at home. He sits smoking on replaced. The film closes on a note for the current generation as his bed, reeling in the frustration of of courage – they are sure Calcutta well. Though her housework is having to watch his wife take on the will soon find them jobs, and hope comparatively marginalised, Arati breadwinning role with contentment – as long as they are together, fear still has some duties to perform. The writ large on her face. Where does and uncertainty are superfluous third dimension that defines her, the money for his cigarettes come emotions. she is the only financial contributor from? The answer is implicit in the Author Yves Thoraval defines to the household expenses soon change in the economic status of Mahanagar as “a discreetly feminist after she takes up the job. Arati’s husband and wife within the family. hymn to Calcutta.” Arati proves schism with Subrata smoothens From being a happily married man that a woman has vast resources out only when the two are at par openly in love with his pretty wife, of inner strength she is unaware – she too is jobless. Should one Subrata turns into an unhappy man of. She draws upon these resources read between the lines to raise the who stoops to eavesdropping into when the time is right, when she question – would the chasm in a conversation between his wife discovers that patriarchy, which the marriage have widened had and the husband of a friend of hers, defines a society dominated by Arati gone on with the job and had in a roadside tea-shop. Instead of men, has failed to solve emerging Subrata remained jobless? approaching her up front, he hides socio-economic problems that have Though the job brings out behind the newspaper he is reading, a bearing on the family to begin

qualities within Arati that peeping out to see them walk out, with, then on the economy, and remained untapped when she was talking cheerfully. finally, on the culture. < house-bound, it does not offer Many scenes bring out ambiguity, her the freedom of choice. It is contradiction and harmony along (The writer is a freelance journalist, the husband who accepts the fact the narrative. Images transform one author and film scholar based in that the wife must take up a job to meaning into another through light, Kolkata.) supplement the meagre finances mirror reflections, windows offering of the family. Till the point when a glimpse of the cityscape, visual

54 VIDURA January-March 2014 TRAVELOGUE Being here is like taking a walk in the clouds Bhutan is a country that has a distinct national identity, says Seetha Ratnakar, who had recently visited the country. The haven of peace, as she calls it, offers a kaleidoscope of timeless images from the past that exude a feeling of tranquility. This is the country that measures progress not by GDP, but by Gross National Happiness

icture-perfect is the only way to describe Bhutan. With a majestic backdrop of mountain peaks silhouetted against a blue sky canvas and waterfalls cascading through verdant Pvalleys, it is a haven of peace tucked away in the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is regarded as one of the last Shangri-Las in the Himalayan Region because of its remoteness and Seetha Ratnakar spectacular terrain. Every which way you look, you see a breathtakingly beautiful panorama that stretches to eternity. A flight into Bhutan’s national airport at Paro is considered a flight into fantasy. Bhutan offers a kaleidoscope of timeless images from the past that exude a feeling of tranquility. The serenity of the Paro Valley is in striking contrast to the frenetic pace of modern city life. Accentuating the natural beauty are the traditional wooden houses that dot the hills. Everything moves at an unhurried pace including the Paro Chu and Wang Chu Rivers that meander through the valley. Even tourist attractions like the Drugyel and Kichu Monasteries, Paro Dzong and the National Museum have a laidback feeling about them. About an hour's drive along a thickly-forested road, is the botanical paradise, Chele La (pass), at an elevation of 3988 meters. It is considered to be one of the highest motorable passes in Bhutan and provides a stunning view of its highest peak, the sacred Jhomolhari. It is an exhilarating experience that literally makes you feel on top of the world. Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, is a larger city and the hub of commerce and governance. Surprisingly, there are no traffic signals and the policemen direct traffic like conducting an orchestra. Thimpu offers a variety of sight seeing attractions like the Memorial Chorten built in memory of the third king of Bhutan, Jigme Wangchuk, the Thimpu Dzong, the Folk and Textile museum, the Takin Reserve (Bhutan’s national animal) and a massive bronze Buddha Dordenma statue gilded in gold, measuring 51.5 meters height, making it one of the largest statues of Buddha in the world. Photos: SR

Punakha Dzong, the second oldest and second largest fortress in Bhutan. (Right) A panoramic view of the Paro Valley.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 55 From left: Memorial Chorten built in memory of Bhutan’s third King. A view of the Himalayan mountain range from Do Chula Pass, and the Jholomolhori Peak.

The Do-Chula Pass en route to souvenirs like Buddhas and Taras, (The writer was associated with Punakha provides a spectacular resonating prayer bowls, good luck Doordarshan for over 37 years. She 360-degree panoramic view of wooden dragons and traditional recently retired as assistant station the Himalayan mountain range Bhutanese outfits, is a reflection of its director of the Chennai Kendra. and forms a majestic backdrop for intrinsic culture. It is rightly called Her area of specialisation has been the 108 Chorten memorials. The the Land of Happiness as progress directing programmes on dance and Punakha Dzong situated at the is measured not by the popular GDP music, and documentaries on subjects confluence of the Pho Chu and Mo but by Gross National Happiness. related to Indian culture. She lives in Chu Rivers in Punakha, is the second Almost sounds like Utopia. Chennai and works as a freelance film oldest and second largest Dzong in Here the silence is enchanting. director and artistic director for major Bhutan. Its majestic structure is one And that speaks volumes about this dance productions.) of the finest examples of Bhutanese quiet little retreat which has become architecture and culture. a popular holiday and honeymoon Bhutan is a unique country that destination in recent times. Perhaps Our October-December 2013 issue had has retained its distinct national it is for this very reason that people an article by Seetha Ratnakar titled 'My avant-garde ammamma'. Although we identity. The soft-spoken people come here, to commune with nature, had introduced the writer, we had missed with smiling faces proudly speak to enjoy the harmony within and mentioning her name.

the national language and wear without, with each other, or simply - Editor traditional costumes. Even the to take a walk in the clouds. < marketplace that sells ethnic

Bhaskar Champs Club bags WAN-IFRA Award Dainik Bhaskar Group and Bhaskar Champs Club have been awarded the WAN-IFRA World Young Reader Country of the Year 2013 award, which was conferred by WAN-IFRA at the Youth Engagement Summit in Europe. As part of the award, India has been designated the 2013 World Young Reader Country of the Year in the annual Young Reader Prize competition by WAN-IFRA. This acknowledgment recognises Bhaskar Group’s efforts to develop innovative ways to attract young people to news in India. As a combined group from India, the entries included eight Indian publications, including the Dainik Bhaskar Group, which exhibited phenomenal creativity, great enthusiasm and deep commitment to draw Indian youth towards consuming news through interesting means and unique reader engagement techniques for the young-reader category. This is only the second time such a move has been made in the 15-year history of the Young Reader Prize, where a single winner award has been changed into a country award. Brazil was the first such honoree in 2005. Several Bhaskar Group-branded flagship events were also acknowledged for the award. The noted endeavours were: Junior Editor II, a competition that ended with more than 300000 children creating 12-page newspapers based on a template in four languages. In addition, Divya Bhaskar carried out a two-month Funtoosh activity, which encouraged students to do something besides study, specifically extra-curricular activities, to learn about their latent

talents and then showcase those talents in a series of local shows. A total of 2165 children had taken part in this activity. <

56 VIDURA January-March 2014 Book Review

Why communicating to India’s rural masses is an art

is convinced, then everything will fall in place. The salesman becomes a successful man. Years ago, I remember to have seen a documentary on rural marketing by Hindustan Lever. It revealed the idea of penetrating the rural households with their products of day-to-day use. It showed how they carried their products on the camel’s back in rural Rajasthan. Now with television in almost all the huts and houses, it is the other way around: the buyer comes to the market! The famous words of Sistas, ‘Tell the peasant; the pundit will understand’, convey the concept of advertising in the context of introducing products to the rural masses. In his book, Don’t Flirt with Rural Marketing, Rajan, however, goes one step further and suggests steps one to 14 for a successful operation. All the steps seem to be very important and even one faulty step would indeed upset the plan. But among the 14, I would consider Step 4 (understanding the mindset of rural consumers), Step 7 (choosing an agency with specifi c skills in rural marketing) and Step 12 (developing a foolproof implementation plan), as well as one section among the four in Step 14 (technology in rural marketing) as being important for a successful rural market reach. In Chapter 4, Rajan provides minute details that distinguish the diff erence between a western UP village and an eastern UP village – the language, DON’T FLIRT WITH RURAL MARKETING the lifestyle and the economy. The data given in the Author: R.V. Rajan appendix is useful. In Chapter 7, he stresses the fact Publisher: Productivity & Quality Publishing, that rural marketing is a regional subject and that Chennai regional teams are the best equipped to decide on strategy. Step 14 contains a detailed analysis about Price: Rs 395 the technology associated with rural marketing, and talks about how private projects have made an impact As one who has served a multinational and the infrastructure required in public-private sector pharmaceutical fi rm for nearly 40 years, including partnerships. Finally, it deals with the future, based on fi ve years of solid promotional work in the western various possibilities contributing to enhanced income part of India, I can understand what challenges a and prosperity. rural marketing team would encounter. We called An interesting case study of the successful Shriram it a “jeep tour” in which the representative would Transport Finance Company reveals the secret of their carry with him a limited stocks of medicines to sell success. In Step 12, the author cautions about the vendors to the rural medical practitioners of the allopathic you may plan to use to implement your campaign. He system. Sometimes, the wholesale dealer in the advises not to fall a prey to the hundreds of ‘so called’ district would send his salesman to canvass along rural experts. It is amazing to know that there are so with the representative. If the travails of a salesman many books on rural marketing and the way Rajan has of consumer products are of one kind, the medical listed them with their core content goes to show how salesman’s experiences are quite another. The much he has been involved in the research and study goal, however, is the four lett er word – SALE. In of the subject. Another interesting data compiled by the competitive bazaar, only the cleverest survive. the author is the number of melas (fairs) in diff erent The buyer has to be totally convinced. Once he regions of the country; it is truly mind-boggling.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 57 In a documentary by V.R. Devika on the presentation to help in planning and executing rural marketing of the Mahabharata in a village near Vandavasi, a vast initiatives. Rajan’s narrative is reader-friendly and aadu kalam or performance area is created. The rural he has given importance to clarity. The attachment of masses that throng the place of activity are in large a CD that contains the video presentation of the case numbers. I am, therefore, in full agreement with the studies is a bonus. The price of the book cannot be

author when he talks on the issue of below-the-line considered high. After all, rich practical experience activities being an integral part of rural marketing, is priceless. < which includes folk media such as Therukoothu and sports contests. Rajan, however, is not carried away Charukesi by the crowd. He says “go for the quality audience” (The reviewer is a freelance journalist based in because even if the number is small, you have the Chennai. He has translated books of Sudha Murthy, core targeted audience attending and the efforts are Kiran Bedi, Gurcharan Das, Devdutt Pattanaik, R. worthwhile. Kannan, R. Gopalakrishnan, Peter Gonsalves and other The volume is slim but contains lessons, messages, writers from English to Tamil. He has written over and tips specifically targeted at the select band of rural 100 short stories and a number of articles in Tamil for marketers, including students of rural marketing. The various magazines. He now writes and reviews music book serves as an indisputable guide for successful shows for The Hindu (Friday Review), Dinamani and operation. The author in his preface says that the Amudasurabhi.) contact details of organisations which provide a variety of support services would serve as a ready reckoner

Reading Rituparno launched in Kolkata Reading Rituparno, a book by Shoma A. Chatterji that analyses the cinema of Rituparno Ghosh, was recently released in Kolkata. It was launched in a city hotel by Prosenjit, a leading star of Bengali cinema, and Bratya Basu, minister of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal. An initiative of www.Tollywoodhamaka. com a website committed to the promotion of Bengali culture in general and Bengali cinema in particular, the book has been published by Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, an established name in the world of art and travel books. Reading Rituparno is illustrated with 36 colour images of the filmmaker and stills from his films. The book traces filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh’s celluloid journey through several phases – women-centric films, relationship films, literary classics removed from Rabindranath Tagore; celluloid interpretations of Tagore’s works and the actor-director exploring his alternative sexual identity. Within a brief span of two decades, the Photo: Dipanjan Ghosh. multi-talented genius had tracked diverse layers From left: Syed, Shoma, Prosenjit, Bratya Basu and Arindam of human life. The book is the first study of the at the book launch. filmmaker’s feature films after his sudden and untimely demise on May 30 2013. Shoma A. Chatterji is a journalist, author and film scholar based in Kolkata. She has authored 18 books, nine of

them on cinema. She is also a regular contributor to Press Institute of India’s publications, Vidura and Grassroots. <

Reading Rituparno is priced at Rs 399.

58 VIDURA January-March 2014 MATHRUBHUMI BEGINS 90TH-YEAR CELEBRATIONS Print has special relevance, can be more credible: PM bserving that the social media is playing an ever-increasing role in our lives, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the “relatively static” print medium retains a special relevance as it could be “more credible” Oand “better informed”. Inaugurating the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Mathrubhumi newspaper, he said the Malayalam daily was an example of such journalism in the country that the people have trusted it for so long. “We live in times of great turmoil, which is continuously reported to us in great detail by the media. Unlike in the past, the media too sometimes contributes to making news. This is particularly true of social media, which is playing an ever-increasing role in our lives. The Internet has telescoped events to a degree unheard of in human history. However, the relatively static medium of print retains a special relevance because it can be more credible and better informed,” Singh said. Lauding the newspaper, the prime minister said the media house has served Malayalee society, including the Malayalee Diaspora with great distinction for 90 years now. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lights the kuthuvilakku as other VIPs and The newspaper, which started as Mathrubhumi Group chairman and managing director M.P. Veerendra Kumar a tri-weekly in 1923, changed into (third from left) look on. a daily in 1930, and in the last nine decades, it has combined tradition with technology, maintaining a distinct identity even while adopting many changes in transitioning from the age of the letter press to the digital area, he said. “Mathrubhumi has a legacy to be proud of. Its founders were illustrious patriots inspired by the Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi. They included K.P. Kesava Menon, K. Madhavan Nair, Kurur Neelakantan Nambudiripad and K. Kelappan, later known as Kerala Gandhi, all of whom were in the forefront of our freedom struggle. These great men helped shape historic events such as the Vaikom Satyagraha, the Guruvayur Satyagraha and the Aikya Kerala movement,” he said. “The founder editor of Mathrubhumi K.P. Kesava Menon and many other editors were imprisoned for their role in our Independence movement, including K.A. Damodara Menon, who was arrested while writing an editorial. Great men of letters like N.V. Krishna Varier, M.T. Vasudevan Nair and Balamani Amma were part of Mathrubhumi,” he said. Singh also made a special mention of the able leadership provided to the Mathrubhumi Group by its chairman and managing director for the past 34 years, M.P. Veerendra Kumar. The prime minister recalled that Mahatma Gandhi had visited the Mathrubhumi office in January 1934 and the event was commemorated through a year-long tribute called Mahatmaji and Mathrubhumi in 2010. Similarly, Jawaharlal Nehru had a “special relationship” with the institution. Pointing out that Mathrubhumi continues to be a widely respected brand in the world of media ever since its inception, Singh said as a newspaper, it was recognised to be “fair, accurate and objective. Its adherence to the core values that mark good journalism has made it as successful as it is”.

January-March 2014 VIDURA 59 The newspaper has 10 local Empowerment for Environmental Vasudevan Nair, actors Mammootty editions, besides editions from Development was a “commendable” and Mohanlal, former judge of the Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, New initiative seeking to impart Supreme Court Justice Krishna Delhi and Dubai in UAE and also environmental consciousness to Iyer, and judges of the Kerala High has several periodical publications. the next generation by sensitising Court were also present. The Mathrubhumi weekly has made students in 6000 schools. He said Chandy lauded the newspaper an “enormous contribution” to the newspaper group has served for being fair, accurate and objective enriching Malayalam literature the people of Kerala very well in the and for its contribution in the by discovering new talent and last 90 years. “But the best is yet to freedom struggle and for a unified nurturing generations of creative come and it will be more creative Kerala state. writers, he said, adding, it would and more purposeful in serving the Veerendra Kumar said the not be an exaggeration to say that people of the state in the years to group now looked forward with most of the towering figures of come.” “redoubled hope towards serving Malayalam literature debuted on The prime minister's wife, the community which has nurtured the pages of Mathrubhumi weekly. Gurusharan Kaur; Kerala Governor and nourished us. We believe that The group has also seen success Nikhil Kumar; Chief Minister although times might change, in its Radio Broadcast Service Club Oommen Chandy; Union Ministers values are abiding”. FM 94.3 and its news channel will K.V. Thomas, K.C. Venugopal; and Mathrubhumi managing editor

be completing a year of its existence state ministers Ramesh Chennithala, P.V. Chandran also spoke on the on January 23. The group's specialty Thiruvanchoor Balakrishnan, K.C. occasion. < channel Kappa too has become Joseph, K. Babu, V.K. Ibrahim Kunju very popular among the young. were among those present. Cardinal (Courtesy: PTI/ Mathrubhumi) Praising the group for its various George Mar Alencherry, Malayala corporate social responsibility Manorama managing editor Philip initiatives, Singh said the Student Mathew, novelist and writer M.T.

Southeast Asian media professionals benefit The WAN-IFRA Media Professionals Programme Southeast Asia has concluded its 2013 edition with a three-day meeting that brought media professionals from Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar to Kuala Lumpur for a conference on digital media and a workshop on revenue generating strategies. “The Media Professionals Programme (MPP) is an absolute success story for me,” said Borom Chea, a sales director of The Phnom Penh Post and one of the participants. “I have implemented what I have learnt from MPP at my workplace and my superiors are very happy with my ideas. In my opinion, this has been the best programme that I have ever attended.” The WAN-IFRA Media Professionals Programme equips news media professionals in developing countries with sustainable strategies, skills and support networks to advance their careers and contribute to the growth of financially viable, and editorially strong, media enterprises. The Southeast Asia programme, conducted by WAN-IFRA with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was begun in 2012, joining similar WAN-IFRA programmes in Africa, the Middle East and Eurasia. The 2013 Southeast Asian group, representing a dozen media companies, met at three events in Phnom Penh, Bangkok and finally in Kuala Lumpur, where they attended the Digital Media Asia conference and completed a leadership development programme that included individual career coaching, mentoring, leadership development training, networking opportunities and media skills training. MPP’s mission is to support the professional development of the new generation of media leaders that contribute to the evolution of strong, independent media in emerging

and developing markets. The programme is rooted in a unique combination of skills transfer, local and international knowledge sharing, as well as the creation of long-term, self-sustaining networks among media professionals. <

60 VIDURA January-March 2014 OTHER NEWS

Turkey told to stop jailing the traditional “politics only” subject that dominate government controlled media. “We surveyed public journalists opinion, both in the newspaper and online, and this The World Association of Newspapers and News survey showed our reader needs are evolving, and Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has called on the Turkish this obliges us to reconsider our working methods,” Government to stop jailing journalists and to guarantee he said. “We see a rising desire among readers to freedom of the press in Turkey, which imprisons more read more about things they’re not use to reading journalists than any country in the world. “WAN-IFRA – issues concerning the environment, public health, is deeply disturbed by recent court decisions that have issues like the role of women in society. “Quality seen news coverage and commentary conflated with journalism is not exclusive for American or European terrorism,” said a resolution issued by the executive media,” he said. “Arab readers have the right to committee of WAN-IFRA during its meeting in see in their daily newspapers quality journalism. Istanbul, Turkey, on 2 December. “Heavy jail sentences And if Arab newspapers want to become more meted out to journalists appear designed to discourage autonomous from government authorities, traditional investigative reporting and are promoting a culture of media needs to develop quality journalism.” self-censorship.” The executive committee of WAN-IFRA notes that Hong Kong to host the jailing of journalists has seriously undermined Turkey’s international commitments to freedom of Publish Asia 2014 expression, as outlined in Article 10 of the European Publish Asia 2014, the annual Asian newspaper Human Rights Convention, Article 19 of the Universal conference from WAN-IFRA, is set to take place in Declaration of Human Rights and the International Hong Kong on 23-25 of April 2014. For its 14th edition, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Turkey Publish Asia will take the theme, Riding the Waves of imprisons more journalists than any other country in News Media Disruption, and focus on case studies the world. showing how media companies across the globe are The resolution calls for the immediate release of defining and implementing innovative strategies all journalists held in Turkish jails and calls on Prime to secure their future. More than 400 newspaper Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to guarantee freedom executives from Asia Pacific and the Middle East are of the press in Turkey and to ensure the necessary expected to attend the three-day event. WAN-IFRA’s conditions for journalists to be able to carry out their Asia Pacific Committee chose Hong Kong as a venue work without hindrance, intimidation, or interference as it is one of Asia's most exciting and competitive from the state. newspaper markets. It will be the first time that Publish Asia takes place in Hong Kong in its 14 years Arab world needs access to history. "The newspaper industry is undergoing free media tremendous changes," said Keith Kam, the chairman Despite the popular uprisings and their promise of the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong and a of more freedom, the Arab world is not getting the member of WAN-IFRA's Asia Pacific Committee. independent media information it needs and deserves, “Publish Asia is a unique annual networking and media professionals from across the region said at learning platform that helps news publishers the 6th Arab Free Press Forum in Tunisia on recently. understand the crucial challenges the industry faces Continued government intervention, inadequate and provides them with insights on turning these professional training and support for independent challenges into opportunities. We are very pleased media, and a poor understanding of audience were that this prestigious event will be held in Hong Kong cited as reasons for the lack of independent news and in 2014." information by participants at the Forum, organised "The biggest challenge for the publishing industry by WAN-IFRA, in partnership with UNESCO. is really how to navigate a media economy that is “There is a threat at the moment in all Arab countries. being re-priced,” said Robin Hu, the CEO of South The media are being divided into two parts, one loyal China Morning Post Publishers and a member of to the government, the other to the opposition,” WAN-IFRA's Asia Pacific Committee. “Those who said Kamel Labidi, director of the Association for have chosen to innovate, preserve their resources, Democracy and the Civil State (Vigilance) in Tunisia. and build on their people and their products will be “The answer to this is the independent media that is able to benefit from growth when the new balance not beholden to one part or the other.” of power in the media economy is reached. We are Omar Bellouchet, publisher of the independent looking forward to listening to case studies from Algerian newspaper El Watan, said readers expect such looking-forward media pioneers at Publish independent media to be pluralistic, credible and fair. Asia 2014." But they also expect media to report on issues beyond

January-March 2014 VIDURA 61 OTHER NEWS

"Hong Kong has seen several new free and paid Lavazza, Martini & Rossi, Ferrero and many other for print titles launches in recent years and traditional international companies. The city, surrounded by the newspapers are now aggressively developing the Alps, is known for its museums, churches, palaces, digital side of their businesses," said Gilles Demptos, theaters and other cultural offerings. It was the host of director of Events & Publications at WAN-IFRA Asia the 2006 Winter Olympics. The Congress and Forums Pacific. will be held in the Renzo Piano-designed Lingotto Conference Centre, a former industrial factory transformed into a modern, multifunctional centre. First speakers confirmed for Partners in the events include the City of Torino, World Newspaper Congress Turismo Torino e Provincia Convention Bureau, La USA Today, The Asahi Shimbun, the Guardian, The Stampa and RCS Quotidiani. Official sponsors include Associated Press and RCS MediaGroup are among Fiat Chrysler and La Stampa. the leading news media companies to be featured at the 2014 World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Manu Joseph quits Open Forum and World Advertising Forum, the global The year has started with the news of another senior meetings of the world’s press to be held in Torino, editorial hand putting in his papers. Social media has Italy, from 9 to 11 June next. been rife with the news of Manu Joseph quittingOpen The Congress, Editors Forum and Advertising magazine as its editor-in-chief. This news has been Forum, which take the theme, New Voices, New confirmed by Joseph on his Facebook page, where Reality, New Energy, are expected to draw more than he has written: “I have quit Open. Will continue as 1200 publishers, chief editors, CEOs and other senior interim editor until a new editor is appointed or the newspaper and news publishing executives to Torino end of March, whichever is sooner.” to hear how pioneering companies are confronting Open magazine is yet to announce Joseph’s the transformation of the news business today. First replacement. Joseph’s exit follows Hartosh Singh confirmed speakers include: Bal’s departure from the magazine as its political Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated editor. Joseph took charge as editor-in-chief in 2010 Press; Guy Black, executive director of Telegraph following Sandipan Deb’s exit from the magazine. He Media Group in the United Kingdom; David Callaway, has earlier worked with Outlook, The Economic Times editor-in-chief, USA Today; and Janine Gibson, and The Times of India. editor-in-chief of Guardian US. The most relevant personalities of the Italian economy and newspaper landscape will also be present, including John Elkann, Dinakaran has new chairman of Fiat, Carlo De Benedetti, cairman of Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, Pietro Scott Jovane, CGM-Marketing CEO of RCS MediaGroup and Mario Calabresi, Editor Dinakaran, the Tamil daily from Sun Group, has of La Stampa. promoted B. Rajesh Kannan as chief general manager Other confirmed speakers include: John Paton, - Marketing. Kannan had joined Dinakaran in late 2007 CEO of Digital First Media in the United States; as chief manager - Marketing. In his new role, Kannan Andrew Betts, director of FT Labs of the Financial will be reporting to R.M.R. Ramesh, MD, Dinakaran. Times, UK; Eugen Russ, CEO of RussMedia Group, Previously, Kannan was handling some of the Austria; Yoichi Nishimura, board director and Digital verticals at Dinakaran. In his new role, he has been Business director of The Asahi Shimbun and Corporate given the responsibility of spearheading the market Representative Director of The Huffington Post and handling the all India market for Dinakaran, Tamil Japan; Jean-Baptiste Morin, chairman and CEO, LS Murasu, the magazine division of Kal Publications Distribution of Lagardere Services, France; Giannina and online. Kannan takes over from Vijay Bobby, who Segnini, Investigative Unit editor at La Nacion in had recently quit the daily as chief general manager – Costa Rica; Gabriel Kahn, director of Future of Marketing. Journalism at the Annenberg Innovation Lab, USA; Amy Webb, founder and CEO, WebbMedia Group, USA; George Nimeh, chief digital officer, Kurier, Austria; Robyn Tomlin, editor, Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome, USA; and Jason Seiken, content director, The Telegraph, UK. Torino is a major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, the capital of the Piedmont region and home to Fiat, Lancia, Pininfarina, Alfa Romeo,

62 VIDURA January-March 2014 Annual Subscription Advertisement Tariff

Inland: Full Page: B&W: Rs. 5,000 A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA 4 Issues Rs. 200 Colour Rs. 10,000 12 Issues Rs. 500 T.C. No. TN/ENG05025/22/1/2008-TC R. Dis No. 1593/08 Half Page: B&W: Rs. 3,000 the press Institute of India - Overseas : USD 30 Colour Rs. 5,000 research Institute for newspaper development Second Main Road, Taramani CPT Campus, Chennai 600 113 Tele: 044-2254 2344 Telefax: 044-2254 2323

Director & Editor Sashi Nair Mechanical Details Page : 185 mm x 255 mm [email protected] Material (images / pictures Bleed : 210 mm x 280 mm in 300 dpi and text in 600 Assistant Editor Vertical half page : dpi) as a PDF fi le (created in Susan Philip 93 mm x 255 mm CMYK), can be sent to [email protected] Horizontal half page : Editorial Assistant or by CD to our address R. Suseela 185 mm x128 mm [email protected]

Design & Layout V.Anandha Kumar

Manager Read every month N. Subramanian [email protected] by logging on to www.pressinstitute.in

Assistant Manager / Librarian A journal that looks at social R. Geetha development issues in India, [email protected] human interest stories and Offi ce Staff B. Rajendran people who defy the odds

The Press Institute of India does not take responsibility Published by the Press Institute of India for returning unsolicited material. It may not always be possible to reply to senders of unsolicited material. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily refl ect the views of the editor or publisher. Annual Subscription Advertisement Tariff for Grassroots Every effort has been taken to assure that the accuracy Full Page: B&W: Rs. 5,000 of information contained in this publication is based on 12 Issues Rs. 180 Colour Rs. 10,000 reliable sources. All trademark and trade names mentioned 36 Issues Rs. 500 in this magazine belong to their respective owners. In case Please note that the cheque Half Page: B&W: Rs. 3,000 of error editor / publisher shall not be liable for any loss or demand draft or at par Colour Rs. 5,000 or prejudice caused to the reader. The publisher reserves cheque payable in Chennai, the copyright of the materials published in the magazine. for the subscription amount No part of the articles or photographs can be reproduced should be drawn in the without the prior permission of the publisher. All disputes name of Press Institute of will be subjected to the jurisdiction of Chennai only. India ONLY and NOT in the name of the magazine. Material can be sent to Printed by V.B.s. Moni and published by sashi nair on behalf of the press Institute Mechanical Details [email protected] of India - research Institute for newspaper development, from RIND premises, Second Main Road, Taramani CPT Campus, Chennai 600 113 and printed at print Bleed: 275 mm x 350 mm or by CD to our address shop private limited, 4 / 3 1 0 G a n d h i S t r e e t , K o t t i v a k k a m , O l d M a h a b a l i p u r a m R o a d , Chennai 600 096. Editor: sashi nair

January-March 2014 VIDURA 63