A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF ISSN 0042-5303 April-June 2015 Volume 7 Issue 2 Rs 50 Democracy on trial, so is freedom of expression

Though the largest democracy in the world, the attitude of the authorities in India remains feudal and authoritarian, says New Delhi-based veteran journalist M.B. Lal. Fortunately, CONTENTS in what will certainly go down as a historic judgement, the • The death of Section 66A / Indian Supreme Court has just struck down Section 66A of J.V. Vil’anilam the Information Technology Act as being "unconstitutional", • How the media fared, and which stated that anyone who wrote anything repugnant the larger picture / Sakuntala to authority or any important person faced three years in Narasimhan jail, he adds. Lal wonders whether we are entering an age M.B. Lal • Would an Indian filmmaker where everyone is free to upload any information he wants have gained similar access? on his mobile, or whether we are entering an Orwellian Era where Big Brother is / Shoma A. Chatterjee breathing down our necks • Secure public spaces: a rally for change / Shwetha George n December 1955, we visited Jaipur as tourists and stayed in Hind Hotel, opposite the City Palace in the heart of the city, where I saw an unforgettable • Can legal rights change sex Ispectacle. From the window of my room I could see the cavalcade of Soviet workers’ lives? / Taru Bahl leaders Nikita Khurschev and Nicholai Bulganin sitting in an open car and • What price for a housewife’s waving to a throng of thousands of people lined on both sides of the streets work? / Shoma A. Chatterji up to house tops. I witnessed a similar show in Delhi when in 1959 President • How effective are helplines? Eisenhower of America came on a visit to India. Jawaharlal Nehru was sitting / Pamela Philipose by the side of the US President who was standing in an open car to greet lakhs • What it is to be an expatriate of people lined up on both sides of the road from the airport to Rashtrapati journalist in China / Shastri Bhavan through a circuitous route via Connaught Place so that the pageant Ramachandaran could be witnessed by more people, many of whom had come from places • So, does the reader as far away as Jaipur, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Similar scenes were seen in really matter? / Sakuntala Delhi during the visit of Marshal Tito in 1955. Khrushchev and Bulganin even Narasimhan visited rural areas and freely mixed with the people there. One village in Tamil • Nadu is still called Bulganin Thottam. Print and electronic media: Who has the winning edge? Contrast this with the visit of Barack Obama, President of America to India in / Som Nath Sapru January 2015. For the world’s media, the security arrangement in Delhi made the main news of his visit. Reuters said Delhi had been turned into a fortress. • Wanted: A law to safeguard The Daily Mail of London did some research on the subject and said that journalists on duty / Nava Thakuria the US President was preceded by six aircrafts carrying his security staff, a • Remembering R.K. Laxman / Rajinder Puri / Vinod Mehta (Continued on page 3)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR You needn’t show yourself to be too bold to grab attention

So, tweeting can land you V.K. Singh’s recent “presstitute” backing from her staff (she won in trouble. That is, if you are tweet was disgusting to say the least. their majority support in a ballot), not careful. Writer Shobhaa De It put in the shade all the good work 44-year-old Viner has her task cut learned it the hard way after she, he had apparently done in bringing out. Peter Preston writing for The in a series of tweets, poked fun at back stranded Indians from Yemen. Guardian, says: There’s a popular the Maharashtra Government’s Twitter may well be a private will to make this new page of decision to make multiplexes com- platform but what you put out there history work. And The Guardian she pulsorily screen Marathi films is what you want the world to know. inherits, like the one Rusbridger during prime time. One of her So, balance, restraint and dignity inherited, is hugely changed and tweets equated the chief minister helps enormously. And, of course, hugely challenging…” and his administration with humility. We all talk about freedom dadagiri or hooliganism. Now, De of expression and there’s nothing Viner joins a club populated may be a proud Maharashtrian wrong defending it with all your by not many. Ariana Huffington, love Marathi films but the might, but we must understand that co-founder and editor-in-chief moral of the story is you have there is a responsibility attached to of the Huffington Post is a name to be sensitive when castigating such freedom. Amitabh Bachchan, that instantly comes to mind. anybody in public. De had crowds India’s tallest celebrity who has Malini Parthasarathy has the outside her residence protesting. millions following his blogs and rare distinction of becoming the It was not a first. Her tweets (over his tweets, has shown how freedom first woman editor of . Gopinath Munde’s death and of expression can be exercised When Shobhana Bhartia joined the formation of Telangana) have responsibly. Times in 1986, she evoked strong sentiments before. became the first woman chief She, on her part, has often said ************************** executive of a national . she is the recipient of unnecessary In Chennai, Lakshmi Natarajan is and misdirected ire. She may have Katherine Viner taking over from managing director at Bharathan had a court case slapped against Alan Rusbridger as the first editor- Publications, publishers of Kalki, her in this instance if it wasn’t in-chief of The Guardian was news. Mangayar Malar and . for the Supreme Court repealing Viner has said she would pursue An article in Scroll.in says some Section 66A of the Information “ambitious journalism, ideas and of India’s top book publishers/ Technology Act. Whatever it is, do events, setting the agenda and editors are women – Urvashi you need to perform deeds (even reaching out to readers all around the Butalia of Zubaan, Ritu Menon if it be tweeting) of derring-do to world” and that two of the essentials of Women Unlimited, Chiki grab attention? De certainly doesn’t that would guide her priorities Sarkar of Penguin Random need to. She is a celebrity writer would include the two basics of House India, Diya Kar Hazra of and commentator. modern-day journalism The Guardian Bloomsbury India, Karthika VK of has followed with considerable HarperCollins India, Sayoni Basu We all know how Shashi Tharoor success: “Be instinctively digital,” of Duckbill Books, and Poulomi skirted controversy time and and “Cherish print, but don't let it Chatterjee of Hachette India. Any again with his tweets. It became hold us back.” It appears that there particular reason? Kar Hazra quite serious and ballooned out of was considerable head-hunting and sums it pretty well in the article, control after tweets flowed from advertising for the top post but, saying, “Publishing involves a lot his account during the unsavoury eventually, the choice came from of nurturing. Women make good Sunanda Pushkar-Mehr Tarar within. Her selection is an inspiration midwives.” episode, although it was reported for all young women working in that his Twitter account was news publishing houses across the Sashi Nair allegedly hacked. Union minister world. For all her experience and [email protected]

2 VIDURA April-June 2015 (Continued from page 1) were installed to look for terrorists or gathered to hear him. He also visited suspicious movements. Indian and Village Daulatpur-Naseerabad near cavalcade of 30 cars including American police and paramilitary Gurgaon, freely mixed with the The Beast, the President’s heavily forces deployed to guard the residents and informally walked armoured personal car and one president numbered 45000. It was into many homes. The village has marine helicopter. The President also reported in the world press that since been renamed Carterpuri to was to travel in Air Force One, all 438 rooms in Maurya Sheratan commemorate Carter’s visit. which is safe even from nuclear Hotel where Obama stayed had Socially, too, the world is attacks. also reported been booked in advance. The list of changing. India being a hot tropical that about 80 sharp-shooters were precautions taken to keep Obama country, all main entry doors posted on top of towers adjoining safe from terrorists is unending. of houses, right from sprawling the hotel and other places which Right up to 1978 when then US bungalows in Lutyen’s Delhi to the Obama was to visit. Air space President Jimmy Carter visited humblest hamlet in a small village, around 400 kilometres of Delhi India and stayed in Rashtrapati were kept open from morning till was sealed during the hours the Bhavan, American presidents were evening. During British Rule, from US President was to fly in and treated like any other head of state the road you could peep into the out of Delhi and also during his and needed no special security. goings-on in the drawing rooms two-hour presence at the Republic Carter addressed a public meeting of British ICS officers, across large Day function. at Ramlila Grounds where an verandahs even as you could reported that 15000 CCTV cameras audience of 200000 people had witness what was happening in Illustration: Arun Ramkumar

April-June 2015 VIDURA 3 the homes and shops of ordinary are today 40 million guns in India, good things of life. Marriages are people in the cities and villages of the second highest number next only becoming costlier and gaudier. In India. to the United States. But 85 per cent one recent marriage of an Indian This scenario remained in of them are 'unregistered'. Illegal politician it was reported in the varying degrees up to 1970 when arms factories have sprung up in newspapers that 125000 guests things slowly started changing. towns and villages. Yet, I remember were invited. The prime minister Entries to houses and flats began that in the worst days of communal of India attended two functions to be bolted from inside. Security riots in the 1940s and 50s no guns of the wedding. Every one wants guards were posted at the gates of were used. Brickbats and daggers to celebrate his or her honeymoon bungalows and houses of the rich. were freely used and at many places on the moon or in some distant My cooperative group housing there were hand-to-hand fights. country in five-star luxury. There colony of 175 middle-class flats has Some organised groups of hardcore is no limit to human aspirations for a posse of about a dozen trained communalists in both communities riches while there are millions of guards hired through an expensive kept burning cauldrons ready to others who are literally starving. security agency who keep round- throw into them a member of the In response to the rising crime the-clock vigil for intruders and other community. Even the police rate, the police in almost all record the entry of each visitor. had only wooden lathis (sticks) and countries of the world is becoming Besides, the residents stay behind no guns during British rule. A few equally blatant and brutal in locked doors which they open guns were kept in the armoury at dealing with innocent people. In only after ascertaining the bona district headquarters. America, where democracy and fides of the caller through a side Today, any member of the rash- freedom of expression is still alive, window. Maids and drivers hired and-brash class throughout the thanks to the First Amendment to by the inmates of the colony have country can take out a gun at the the American Constitution passed to go through the irksome process slightest provocation and he does in 1791, a prisoner in the notorious of police verification and till three not hesitate to shoot. The number of Guantanamo Jail in America, Moha- years ago, for a short period, were such people is growing. Often after medou Ould Slahi, has written a also made to give their finger prints a rape the victim is killed. The so- diary of which The New York Times till this practice was found to be called ‘terrorists’ are armed with the got possession after a six-year illegal by the police. latest weapons as the Charlie Hebdo legal battle. It shows how horribly Until about 50 years ago, killings in Paris and the massacre of America treats its prisoners of war burglars used to run away when 132 children in Peshawar shows. In to extract information from them. you raised an alarm. Today they are India, besides bombs and landmines, Commenting on such happenings, well armed and hit you back and Maoists seem to be armed with anti- Nissim Mannathukkeren, a even kill you if you resist. A bank aircraft guns which can shoot down professor in Dalhousie University cashier was shot dead by robbers low-flying planes. of Canada wrote in The Hindu: “the even though he did not resist them Psychologists will specify diffe- tragedy of modernity is that state- at all and offered them all the rent causes to this new and growing sponsored violence sanctioned cash he had in his chest. Shooting phenomenon. Some will say that under the guise of democracy is incidents are becoming common this is the direct outcome of stresses not classified as terror”. the world over. The Charlie Hebdo and competition of modern life. In more civilized Western shooting of almost the entire staff The Freudian School will perhaps democracies, every act of shooting of the cartoon weekly in Paris the attribute it to the rapid urbanisation a civilian by the police is reported other day as also the senseless in all backward countries leading to in the media and there are protest killing of 132 school children in break up of families, alienation in a marches against it. However, Peshawar and numerous other completely different environment in India, custodial deaths are incidents globally have stirred the and sexual deprivation to earn what common and go unreported. The conscience of all humanity but not is just enough for the bare food discovery of hundreds of skele- of the killers who feel convinced needs of the individual worker and tons of dead people kept in gunny that they had done the right for sending some money home to bags in locked rooms of the police thing. The Charlie Hebdo incident feed the family. in district headquarters in UP has collected a crowd of 3.7 million Economists will perhaps attribute been reported in newspapers. The protestors in Paris, including some this new rising guns culture in police say that these are bodies of of the top leaders and heads of state the world to increasing inequality people found on the roadside and of the Western world. between the rich and poor classes kept in mortuaries after autopsy. According to a study of the in every country. Everybody’s Similar proverbial skeletons in the present spreading gun culture in aspirations have grown and every cupboard will no doubt be found India by the Los Angeles Times, there person wants more and more of the with the police in other states of

4 VIDURA April-June 2015 India. and the Library of Congress. are we eventually entering an age This is not a question of ideology Cyber crime has become where everyone is free to upload but of style of governance. I think one of the main battlefields in any information he wants on his the turning point in humanity’s the world today. India has made mobile, which is reported to be the psyche came on September 11, the highest number of requests case in Sweden, or are we entering 2001 when the twin towers of to block Facebook sites; that is an Orwellian Era where Big Brother the World Trade Centre in New nearly 11000 in 2014 against zero is breathing down our necks, armed York were destroyed by agents of requests by America, thanks to with Big Data which can even read organised terrorism, killing 3000 the First Amendment to the US people's thoughts and emotions

people and causing a loss of at least Constitution which guarantees from moment to moment? Only ten billion dollars, when America unlimited freedom of expression the future will help us answer this< decided to wage a no-holds-barred to every citizen. Though the largest question. war on the origins of terrorism, democracy in the world, the which it thought was Iraq and attitude of the authorities in India (The writer, after an M.A in English later Afghanistan. Unfortunately, remains feudal and authoritarian. from Allahabad University in 1951, it took a communal turn and made Fortunately, in what will certainly joined the Nagpur Times as staff all peace loving Muslims look as go down as a historic judgement, reporter the following year. In 1955, suspects in this war of terrorism. the Indian Supreme Court has he moved to as special I am writing all this because I am just struck down Section 66A of staff reporter. In 1957, he joined The conscious that media played a big the Information Technology Act Statesman where he would spend role in this transformation of world as being "unconstitutional" under 31 years, serving the paper as staff public opinion. Had the media which anyone who wrote anything reporter, special correspondent, chief played up equally the casualties on repugnant to authority or any of bureau, development correspondent both sides of the war and reported important person faced three years and assistant editor. His studies of the events faithfully, the kind of in jail. various aspects of the Indian economy gun culture that has enveloped the The main question that arises first appeared in the paper. He now globe would not have emerged. from these developments is that lives in New Delhi.) It is also no secret that nearly half of America’s population did not want the Iraq war which was the main issue in the re-election of Malini Parthasarathy is editor, The Hindu President Bush. There were loud demonstrations against the war in The Board of Directors of Kasturi and Sons, publishers of The Hindu and all NATO countries. Group publications, at its meeting on January 20, unanimously appointed I believe that the movement Malini Parthasarathy as the editor of The Hindu effective February 1, 2015. known as Islamic State of Iraq and Malini Parthasarathy will be in charge of all editorial operations, and be Syria (ISIS) is a direct result of the the editor responsible for selection of news under the Press and Registration wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. of Books (PRB) Act. N. Ravi, Wholetime Director, stepped down from his

One thing leads to another. role as editor-in-chief of The Hindu on January 31. The Board noted that Islamic fundamentalism has been Malini Parthasarathy had the rare distinction of being The Hindu’s first< nurtured by the so-called war on woman editor. terrorism. And this, in turn, has fed all fundamentalism – Christian, (Courtesy: The Hindu) Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist. Simultaneously with the development has come the Information Technology revolution. And today we see other type of C.P. Surendran quits DNA ‘criminals’ who steal government C.P. Surendran, editor-in-chief at DNA, has put in his papers. He secrets and reveal it to the public. tweeted: "Just put in my papers at the DNA. Feel pretty good with what I They include men like Edward have done here." Surendran has worked with , Times Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Sunday Review and Bombay Times, among other publications. He was Manning, and Aaron Swartz who

resident editor of The Times of India, Pune for three years. According to committed suicide at the age of < media reports, Uday Nirgudkar has taken charge as editor of DNA. 26. He did this to avoid a prison sentence of 35 years for making (Courtesy: exchange4media) public the library records of MIT

April-June 2015 VIDURA 5 The death of Section 66A The Supreme Court’s striking down of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act makes Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution more meaningful, says J.V. Vil’anilam rticle 19 of the Constitution A businessman blogger in Luckily, of India guarantees free- Puducherry was harassed by the son the Supreme Adoms such as the Freedom of a Union minister for expressing Court has of speech and expression, Freedom his views against the minister. taken a very to assemble peaceably and without However, it was in Maharashtra that realistic stand arms, Freedom to form associations matters came to a head. When the about the IT and unions, Freedom to move freely Shiva Sena supreme Bal Thackeray Section and J.V. Vil’anilam throughout the country, Freedom passed away, normal life was not abrogated to reside and settle in any part of just dislocated in Mumbai, the whole it. This move paves the way for the country, and the Freedom to city was paralysed. Transportation, more open, realistic and peaceable practice any profession or carry on supplies and essential services were expression of grief hereafter. It has any occupation or business. Article affected. The question that arose in opened the eyes of our politicians 13 mandates that “The State shall the mind of the man in the street and their administrative and legal not make any law which takes was whether this kind of forced collaborators who go to any extent away or abridges the rights… and observation of grief can do justice to to please the powers that be. A word any law made in contravention of the memory of leaders. One young of caution: Freedom-lovers and this clause shall, to the extent of the girl, who happened to be a Muslim, free speech-promoters have to be contravention, be void.” voiced the views of many against eternally vigilant, for who knows, Yet, Section 66A of the such practices on her blog and her some “five-star judicial activist”

Information Technology (IT) Act friend, a Hindu, expressed agree- may unearth some clause in the of 2005 enabled legal and political ment with the sentiment. Section Constitution that goes against the < leaders, and police administrators 66A of the IT Act was invoked to spirit of Article 19 (1) (a). to curb the freedom of speech and drag the two and their parents to expression through IT-enabled the police station and the court on new modes of communication charges of being anti-national. (The writer is a former vice- such as blogs, e-mails, mobile Political leaders die every week chancellor and head, Department phone text messages, etc. The or month in many parts of our of Communication and Journalism, authorities interpreted the section vast country. Perhaps all of them University of . He received his as denying the provisions of Article do not get the attention that Bal MA English degree from the Banaras 19 to users of new communication Thackeray got. But that is no Hindu University in 1958; he has a devices, and controversies were excuse to penalize citizens who master’s degree in Communication frequently created when Section utilise the freedom of expression from Temple University, Philadelphia, 66A was invoked to teach bloggers granted by the Indian Constitution, and a PhD in Mass Communication and Internet users a lesson. Many to say that millions should not from the University of Amsterdam.) communicators and scholars suffer, and a big city should not be have challenged this reading of paralyzed when a leader dies. Some constitutional provisions during vested interests are always there to the past several years. take advantage of celebrity deaths; That the IT Act Section 66A shops are forcibly closed and Watch out for violated the fundamental freedom essential services halted, forgetting of speech and expression was that there are millions in every city Technical Seminars clear to many, but governments who depend on public service from of all hues have vested interests establishments for transportation, to protect, and the draconian food and water. If someone RIND measures supposedly sanctioned expresses unfavourable views on by the section were indiscriminately the subject boldly and someone at applied in several cases. The else agrees with those views, that www.pressinstitute.in most recent cases happened in is no reason to subject them to Puducherry and Maharashtra. harassment.

6 VIDURA April-June 2015 THE NIRBHAYA RAPE AND THEREAFTER How the media fared, and the larger picture

During March, the documentary film, India’s Daughter, based on the infamous Nirbhaya rape case of December 2012, hogged the news globally with public opinion divided between condemnation of the Indian Government’s ban on the film on the one hand and approval for the film for showing up the reality of gender vulnerability on the other. In , the print media did a fair job, highlighting the issues. But were there some dimensions that did not get sufficient attention? Sakuntala Narasimhan examines the issue ne of the defence lawyers, and condemning such mindsets. lawyers are, M.L. Sharma, said girls Especially in lawyers trained to as at the time Sakuntala Owere “like sweets, if found uphold justice and paid for helping of this writing, Narasimhan on the road dogs will come to citizens. The media failed on this seeking eat”. Mukesh Singh, the accused, front. appropriate action against these declaring that the girl was as much BBC justified its decision to go lawyers). responsible for the rape as the men ahead with showing the film on The Editors Guild opposed the because she was “out with a male the grounds that this was to “gain Indian Government’s ban and friend at 9 pm (and therefore a bad insight into the mindset of the said that the villainy needs to be female deserving to be raped) and criminal”. I found the mindset of told. Yes. But supposing an Indian that she “should not have protested so-called educated lawyers working made a documentary about racial (and should have silently allowed in court to “uphold justice” more attacks in the US (which hit the rape)”, is shocking, but far more sickening than those of the accused. headlines regularly), would their shocking and disturbing were The parents of the victim who government praise it as a move Sharma’s comments comparing are not well-to-do and reportedly to “sensitise” viewers on racism? females to “sweets, meant to be sold their property to fund the Or summon our ambassador and eaten”. girl’s training as physiotherapist, register a “strong protest” ? None Another argument was: “Why boldly speak about the incident, of the discussions in the print media did the girl’s parents send her without bringing in issues of raised this point. with anyone late at night?” Many “family honour” or “shame”. So The incidence of rape is higher thousands of girls work at call what is “education” or professional in the US than in India. If Udwin’s centres and IT offices till much qualifications, especially as a aim was to showcase gender later than 9 pm; what about nurses lawyer, all about? Another lawyer vulnerability, why did she not call and female doctors doing night defending the accused has said that it Daughters of the World? I have shifts? For that matter, what about if his daughter or sister indulged in it on good authority that Udwin did rapes that occur during the day, as premarital activities, he would set indeed play foul, and broke rules in newspapers report with sickening them ablaze. This was not a khap her dealings with her co-producer regularity? Lawyer Sharma also panchayat member speaking but a (who presumably came in useful added that in Indian culture “there man trained to ensure justice, a man initially, for gaining access). The is no place for a woman”. This expected to argue for punishment media has not explored this angle. is supposed to be an educated, to any man who threatens to burn If you have money, power, qualified lawyer spouting such a woman. clout, you get away with double offensive nonsense? Those lawyers The Bar Council has passed standards, whether you are an did not get denounced the way they strictures against these lawyers, individual or a nation. Powerful deserved to be, by the media. After but I have it on authority that this nations twist the arms of the less all, the press is described as the fifth will not really make a difference powerful, and resort to countless pillar and entrusted with exposing to their practice (although women forms of ‘threats’ ranging from

April-June 2015 VIDURA 7 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar

economic sanctions to outright war. Mumbai, to write her columns, acquire For oil. Markets. Economic profit . two PhDs and become an activist for A nation that topples governments consumer rights. She is a recipient in other countries in the name of of the Media Foundation’s Chameli Visit the establishing ‘democracy’ has its Devi Award for Outstanding Woman own Guantanamo. Journalist (1983), the PUCL National If the Nirbhaya rape, and the Award for Human Rights Journalism, redesigned comments made in the film by the and other awards. Her fortnightly rapist and his lawyers show up columns on gender issues and website of the the ugliness of patriarchy, what consumer rights ran in the Deccan

‘powerful’ nations do to lesser Herald for 27 years.) Press Institute countries is equally patriarchal and cruel, unfair, unethical. Rape, in a< sense. That is the larger picture. of India www.pressinstitute.in (The writer, based in Bengaluru, gave up a job with The Times of India,

8 VIDURA April-June 2015 A DOCUMENTARY CALLED INDIA’S DAUGHTER Would an Indian filmmaker have gained similar access?

The biggest controversy raised by Leslee Udwin’s India’s Daughter telecast by BBC revolves around using Mukesh Singh, one of the rape convicts sentenced to death, as a kind of narrator in the film. What do other documentary filmmakers have to say about Mukesh Singh being allowed to talk into the camera, his voice and face free of either emotion or remorse? Would they have allowed him to express his ‘judgemental’ views on Indian girls, their conduct, mobility, dress sense and so on? Shoma A. Chatterjee finds some responses hile those surveyed were his views without any underlined hypothetically unanimously opposed to comment by me. I would leave it and docu- Shoma A. Wthe Indian Government to the audience because I believe mentary Chatterjee ban on screening Leslee Udwin’s that moral will is autonomous and means dealing India’s Daughter in India, they should not be imposed.” with raw facts. expressed reservations about the Subha Das Mullick, who has So, gaining access to a deathrow manner in which Mukesh Singh’s made more than 50 documentaries convict charged with rape is the views have been presented on on different issues and subjects, moot point. A British journalist screen. says, “We cannot deny that who represented the BBC was Jagannath Chatterjee, a film- documentary films are as much a allowed access. Would we Indian maker who has made several commodity to be sold as any other filmmakers have received the same outstanding biographical docu- media artifact. Foreign television treatment? I do not know.” mentaries on artists, says, “Social channels provide a platform to Media and communications responsibility is the key to all mass- documentaries, which our TV expert Meghnath is one of the media operations. If our culture, channels do not; but foreign founder-directors of Akhra, Ranchi, values, are to have basic standards, channels are always looking out for Jharkhand. Akhra has made those who shape the culture through sensational visuals. In most cases around a dozen documentary films mass media must be extremely they work on the stereotypes and on issues linked to adivasis in careful to stick to the highest reinforce them - particularly tele- differ-ent pockets of Jharkhand. ethical practices; otherwise, it will vision documentaries. Of course, Says Meghnath, “If I were to make be a mockery of our justice system. as a documentary filmmaker, she this kind of film, I would certainly Every responsible documentary is supposed to go to the root of the have interviewed an accused on filmmaker must approach his/ her problem, but in the presentation camera but that would be minus subject/ issue/ problem upfront and the filmmaker has to strike a the 'white, colonial' gaze India’s not from the back door. balance. Daughter presents. It is necessary India’s Daughter demonstrates Whether I, as a documentary to show the 'other voice' which a backdoor app-roach to the film-maker making a film on rape, is the voice of Mukesh Singh. In Nirbhaya tragedy. The filmmaker would have interviewed the rapist a democracy, the ‘other’ voice is got confused between and on camera would entirely depend important and often we miss out among logical, factual and moral on gaining access to the rapist on this in serious, issue-based questions. This has wittingly or first. I would have definitely inter- documentaries. The facts that led unwittingly led to some dis-torted viewed the rapist. But after having to the interview – money paid images of reality. If I were to make done that, how I would have to Mukesh’s parents for their a documentary on rape or similar edited it and positioned it within authorisation, cleared by the Home assaults on women, I might have my film or whether I would use his Ministry and the administrator interviewed the accused, but I comments in the final film at all is a of Tihar Jail, underscores that would have used the material question that cannot be answered though we claim to have become indirectly or off-screen to convey at this point as we are arguing independent nearly 70 years ago,

April-June 2015 VIDURA 9 our willingness to bend back to of life, media personalities, etc, to please colonial organisations like give perspective and dimension the BBC is as bad as the BBC casting to the statements (of the accused), Raj Chengappa their colonial gaze on us. That is instead of focussing on the views what I take strong objection to.” of a single accused person for a may return to Jyotsna Khatry, who has made single crime. India Today a very interesting documentary Why were neither of the other called Sons and Daughters on the two accused, Akshyay Thakur The Tribune’s editor-in- trafficking of children to work as and Pawan Gupta, not asked to chief Raj Chengappa is likely slave labour in elite Delhi houses, talk about and comment on the to join India Today as group says, “I am shocked at this whole incident? Why pick Mukesh Singh editorial director, effective 15th noise about the outrageous com- alone? Why was no rape survivor June, industry sources confirm. ments made by Mukesh. What interviewed? Never mind that the Chengappa joined The Tribune as has he said that is new, to offend film is focussed on Jyoti Singh, editor-in-chief in 2010. A veteran the public? He raped that girl and the December 12 incident and in journalism with over 30 years killed her; so what else were we the public uprising that happened of experience, Chengappa was expecting of him? He is a product afterwards. The film purports to be managing editor of India Today of sick patriarchy. We will find throwing light on the single question before he joined The Tribune. similar attitudes in our own – ‘why do men rape?’ But does this He has won prestigious Indian homes. According to the articles come across in the film? If it does, journalism awards, including that I read, the Home Ministry then I am sorry, I did not see it.” the Prem Bhatia Award for itself granted permission to the Editor’s note: The Union Home Ministry Political Analysis and Reporting filmmaker to interview him inside has just decided to dele-gate its powers to clear prison visits by foreign journalists/ in 1998 and the jail, which means they were researchers to the state and union territories. Award for Rural Reporting aware of it. So what is the detailed According to a Times of India report, the in 1987. Chengappa is the report that Mr Rajnath Singh Centre will revise its December 2012 advisory author of a best-selling book on (Union Home Minister) is seeking to all state Home secretaries and DG, Prisons, India’s nuclear weapons, titled laying down tighter norms for approving and from the Tihar Jail authorities? regulating visits by foreigners to cover Indian Weapons of Peace: The Secret

I do not think I would have jails and inmates. This includes running Story of India’s Quest to be a interviewed the rapist. The most a background check on applicants other Nuclear Power. < shocking fact for me is that than those accredited with their respective Mukesh’s parents were paid by the governments. The clearance would be conditional to the foreign applicant sharing (Courtesy: exchange4media)

BBC for their authorisation. I find unedited foot-age of the prison shoot before that extremely unethical and BBC releasing it for public viewing. < should answer for that. Besides, the electronic media (NDTV had planned to telecast the documentary (The writer is a freelance journalist, Senior editor for before the Indian Government author and film scholar based in banned it) ought to be ashamed of Kolkata. She writes widely on cinema, DD News buying this footage from BBC and gender issues, media and human Veteran journalist K.G. Suresh using it for TRPs while pretending rights. She has won the national award has been appointed senior to be the conscience keepers of for Best Writing on Cinema twice, the consulting editor at DD News. society.” Bengal Film Journalists Association Suresh is a New Delhi-based Mitali Biswas, whose first film Award, and a Lifetime Achievement senior journalist, columnist, Naam Poribortito (Name Changed) Award from Laadly-UNFPA in 2010.) blogger, political commentator is a comment on the veiling of and media educator and had the identity of the victim in cases worked as director and chief of sexual assault in general and editor with Global Foundation rape in particular, says, “I would for Civilizational Harmony most certainly have interviewed (India). He had served as adjunct the accused, as I would not want professor at the Makhanlal to lose the opportunity to know Chaturvedi National University of what the accused has to say. But Journalism and Communication, having made a film on similar Bhopal, and chief political < lines, I would also choose to talk correspondent with PTI. to people from different streams

10 VIDURA April-June 2015 ‘Am part of a confused generation’

like the sari, as much as I like my faded jeans. I like a burger, as much as I love idli. I belong to an in-between generation. I am a part of the confused generation. My media, Iculture and society classes this semester have been an eye-opener; how much culture shapes mankind and how media is a catalyst for the same. There is no such thing as a good culture or bad, but it is just how we perceive them. Globalisation has helped fuse the world as one, irrespective of the regions. And media has accelerated it. Globalisation has helped evade physical national borders. We merge as one and watch as one. Contemporary media technologies have enabled us to access different cultures easily and adapt to them too. It is said that people around the world have greatly been influenced by the Western, more specifically, the American culture. And Harshini Raji V.P. the generations that are yet to come will hugely be shaped upon this culture that is now gradually taking over. My grandparents still enjoy listening to Tamil Carnatic music; my brother, on the other hand enjoys Green Day as much. Before the 1990s, the media was more national and there weren’t so many international influences. As the Indian media market opened up to international media collaborations, plenty of TV programmes and media material have been inspired by Western media which indirectly brings in Western culture into the Indian media sphere. And I am here appreciating the best of both the worlds. Cultural imperialism theory highlights how media in developing countries is importing foreign news and television genre formats. This indirectly brings with it the values of individualism and Western ideals. The basic loophole being: developing countries have established themselves as subordinate nations to the developed ones, and hence copying media material from them and influencing these nations which in turn assumes this is of national interest. During the process, it goes unnoticed how people consume media. Various age groups of people are part of the audience and the media affects each group in various ways, the most vulnerable being young adults. During adolescence and beyond, what is sown into people with the help of media is what grows within and develops them into complete personalities. The extent to which the Westernised culture is taking over Indian media is outsized. From clothing to food and ideals, the roots of Eastern culture are bit by bit being viciously uprooted. The merging of culture through the media is not a process of complete homogenization; it is where cohesion and fragmentation coexist. In culture studies, there is no such thought as good or bad culture. But there is a form of culture that belongs to certain sections of the world and have to be preserved for the generations to come. The current phase of

globalisation is alarmingly changing people and their lifestyles. As for me, I would always choose my sari over a pair of jeans. <

(The writer is a fourth-year student of Anna University, studying Electronic Media. A blogger for many years, she is also a freelance graphic designer and content writer.)

Mail Today appoints Amit Gupta as CEO Amit Gupta has joined Mail Today as CEO. He will be reporting to the CEO of the India Today Group, Ashish Bagga. Gupta joins Mail Today from HT Media where he was chief operating officer of . He has also held the position of head, Media Marketing (West & South) for the print products of HT Media. Gupta has extensive experience in delivering revenue, business and brand development, building client and agency relationships,

marketing, events and managing operations. He has also worked as director, Marketing and Communications at ING Vysya Life Insurance and Product Manager at Britannia. <

(Courtesy: exchange4media)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 11 GENDER VIOLENCE There is a lot of ground yet to be covered Ever since 2012, when there was a public uprising against violence against women following the brutal rape of a young woman in Delhi, the issue of gender crimes has taken centre stage in the national discourse on women’s rights and safety. There is heightened awareness among people, we have a new law that promises harsher punishment to perpetrators and there is a slew of help-lines and other protection services to deal with complaints. Yet, one look at the crime data clearly reveals that not much has changed on the ground, Ranjita Biswas points out ccording to recent media over land by upper-caste groups in of sexual Ranjita Biswas reports, in the last three Haryana, the extra-judicial killings violence Ayears the number of cases and disappearances in the ‘conflict among the marginalised sections related to sexual harassment, zones’ of the country, and the of society. “We seem to be moving kidnapping, abduction and rape devastating role of the Armed Forces in cycles, from the Mathura rape has gone up from 2.28 lakh to 3.09 Special Powers Act in Kashmir and case [that happened in 1972 in lakh. Moreover, around 31000 the North-East. We are also seeing Maharashtra] to the incident in rape cases are pending in various the macabre commandeering of the Badaun, Uttar Pradesh (UP), in high courts. Issues around gender lumpen-proletariat in West Bengal May 2014 [two girl cousins were violence were discussed during a politics and the attempts by the state alleged raped and found hanging national symposium, Political and to smother protests and ‘takeover’ from a tree in their village].” In Sexual Violence in Contemporary people’s movements. Women’s both cases, the victims were from India: Socio-legal Perspectives, in bodies have become the most poor, marginalised families – the Kolkata recently. City-based, non- common sites of revenge against former was a tribal girl while the government organisation Ebong the ‘other’ in all of these instances,” latter were Dalit. Alap and Aman Trust from Delhi, stated the conveners of the seminar. Looking at sexual violence in who work on gender issues, joined They further observed that, today, the historical concept, Kannabiran hands with the National University there is a tendency to de-politicise said that abduction as an extension of Juridical Science (NUJS) to violence against women as if the of gender violence during times organise the event where activists, incidents are largely a result of “a of conflict, like in the case of the academics and practitioners got clash of tradition and modernity” Partition in 1947, is not even spoken together to share their experiences or a by-product of conflict between about. “If at all, the reference can and observations on how structures disillusioned people and insurgent be gleaned from literature,” she of patriarchy intersect with that of forces. In fact, most panelists, added. Well-known writer Saadat economy, region and religion to including independent scholar and Hasan Manto’s story Khol Do, for increase women’s vulnerability to activist Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, instance, is a devastating comment violence. NUJS faculty Ruchira Goswami, on the issue. In the story, when In the recent past, the differential and human rights lawyer Vrinda Sirajuddin of Amritsar finds his effects of urbanisation and Grover, also felt that these days, in daughter, Sakina, alive in a hospital development policies leading to general, there is an attempt to write in Lahore in the aftermath of the ‘hate’ crimes against different off sexual violence as symptomatic Partition riots he is ecstatic; but groups as well as sexual assaults on of a society in transition. when the doctor attending to her women all over the country have In her keynote address, Prof asks him to open the window (“khol become increasingly visible. “We Kalpana Kannabiran, regional do”), Sakina’s reaction to the words have witnessed competitive elect- director of the Hyderabad-based is disturbing. The young woman oral politics leading to communal Centre for Social Development automatically unfastens the violence in Muzaffarnagar, caste (CSD), remarked that there has drawstring of her salwar and pulls politics largely to retain control been an alarming rise in incidents it down. Meanwhile, the doctor

12 VIDURA April-June 2015 sweats because he could be an- supposed to talk about it,” she other perpetrator like her so-called said. rescuers and others. Manto never Activist Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, names who ‘they’ are, whether who is associated with Ebong from this side of the border or Alap, echoed Malik. She said, “In the other, but Sakina’s situation is West Bengal, rape is being used nevertheless telling. And, of course, by political parties as if it’s a foot- is not merely a fictional character; ball match of male camaraderie.” there would have been thousands According to the 2012 report of the of Sakinas at the time. National Crime Records Bureau, From one post riots scenario to Bengal accounts for 12.67 per cent of another, Fehmida Malik, a clinical the total crimes committed against The Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 were psychologist, who runs Sambodh, women in the country while an example to how competitive electoral a non-government organisation Kolkata is ranked the third among politics can lead to communal violence from Dholka, a small town near the unsafe metropolis for women, and how women’s bodies in such riots Ahmedabad, Gujarat, spoke on behind Delhi and Bengaluru. remain the most common sites of the connection between communal One of the key reasons behind revenge. politics and sexual violence. After this unabated spree of gender the devastating riots that hit the crimes is poor reporting of As the founder of an NGO that region in 2002, she started working incidents, which is the direct directly intervenes in cases of rights among traumatised child victims consequence of an undependable violations she is more than aware in the refugee camp at Vatva. judicial system. Many cases across of the truth prevailing on the Later, the effort developed into the country go unreported. Besides, ground. an empowerment project with 47 the fear of a social backlash, the “We are often stonewalled by the women volunteers. As someone victim also finds it tough to app- police if we try to intervene even who has been working diligently roach the local police station to though there’s legitimate reason at the grassroots, she rued the fact register her complaint. “Despite to protest,” she added, reeling that even now, over a decade later, all the strictures and the new off figures to illustrate her point. rehabilitation is still a problem. amendments in the law that seek to According to her, UP has the highest Many women have had to take empower women, this [the stigma rate of child rape in the country to prostitution to sustain families associated with sexual crimes] is a and, in 2013, 85 honour killings although the reality is seldom hard reality that those especially happened in the state. “So when mentioned. “People talk about in the rural heartland have to senior political party leaders pass borders. But every village in our contend with,” said Renu Mishra off sexual abuse as ‘mistakes’ that area has a border; everything of Association of Advocacy and boys sometimes make, it not only is politicised. Yet, we are not Legal Initiatives (AALI), Lucknow. endorses a negative mindset but also encourages further atrocities with impunity,” Renu says. Though significant interventions are being made by human rights and women’s rights groups to challenge the impunity of the per- petrators and seeking justice for victims of violence, clearly, there

is a lot of ground to be covered before any effective change < can take place.

(Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service) Photos: Nandini Rao/WFS

There is heightened awareness against gender violence among people and a new law that promises harsher punishment to perpetrators. Yet, one look at the crime data clearly reveals that not much has changed on the ground.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 13 GENDER VIOLENCE Secure public spaces: a rally for change

The words ‘public transport’ have taken on a new seriousness, ever since the gang rape of a student on a private bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. But it is not just Delhi that has witnessed sexual assaults on women in public transport. Take, for instance, Kerala. For decades no woman or girl here has ever considered a trip by bus or train safe. In fact, ‘groping’ is so commonplace that the stereotype of the ‘groper-in-the-bus’ is part of the comedian’s stock-in-trade in the state, says Shwetha E. George ccording to the Kerala State feeling extremely humiliated and and far between. Crime Records Bureau, vulnerable. Disturbing testimonies of this A3756 molestation cases Even the crew on the bus cannot kind led Sakhi to focus on impro- were registered in 2011. In terms of be expected to conduct themselves ving the helplines instituted by the ‘eve teasing’, there were 573 such in a decent manner. It is very com- state in all its 14 districts. Helplines incidents that year. Around 98 per mon to find conductors brushing were seen as useful in getting help cent of women respondents in the against women while selling tickets. to the spot. The number 1091, the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, Female students, especially those designated women’s helpline run and 99 per cent in Kozhikode, who travel at concessional rates, are by the Kerala Police, has emerged saw sexual harassment as the treated badly. Not only do buses not as a very important resource in main safety issue, according to stop to pick them up, once inside they many cities. a recent study conducted by are subjected to rude comments and The problem was that very few Sakhi Women Resource Centre, a are often not allowed to use a seat, women knew about the existence Thiruvananthapuram-based orga- or told that they can sit on the lap of such a facility. Sakhi, therefore, nisation. It also found that 100 of a male passenger. Such treatment decided to find out how many cases per cent women and young girls is routine, no matter what they wear came to the helpline, the nature of the contacted had experienced sexual or how they conduct themselves. cases, the response towards them, harassment, whether in a train or a Many have been forced to adopt as well as the follow-up procedures bus in . strategies like growing their nails and actions taken. The goal was to Reveals Rejitha, a resource or carrying pins and umbrellas, to arrive at an analysis of the efficacy person with Sakhi, “While stave off assaults. Their best option, of this approach, which would in travelling by bus, women report of course, is to travel in buses meant turn help the administration to pinching, fingering and fiddling.” only for women, but these are few understand the pros and cons of In private buses, which outnumber public buses in Kochi, the seats in front of the bus are reserved for women. But as the bus gets crowded men also stand near these spaces. Sexual harassers have a free run in precisely such situations, with some women even reporting blatant assaults like male hands making their way deep inside their garments. There was also a lot of verbal harassment, especially after Photos: Rejitha/WFS dark. Men pass lewd comments or take part in conversations A recent study conducted by Sakhi Women Resource Centre, a conducted in ‘obscene coded Thiruvananthapuram-based organisation, revealed that 100 per cent of the language’, leaving the few women women contacted had experienced some form of sexual harassment on public passengers present on the bus transport.

14 VIDURA April-June 2015 Sakhi members believe that the Kerala Protection of Privacy and Rights of Women Act 2012 that was recently enacted is a step in the right direction although they know well that laws are inadequate to curtail such incidents. As Rosakutty, Chairperson, Kerala State Women’s Commission, observes, “These incidents are born out of a deep-rooted contempt and disrespect for women. No law can change this.” Seeing the critical situation of women's safety in Kerala, Sakhi Women Resource Clearly, awareness campaigns Centre conducted a safety audit and study. These students of Marian College were and educational programmes have involved in the safety audit at Kumily town in Idukki district. to be part of any intervention that seeks to transform public attitudes such an intervention and to address the calls were recorded. The efficacy and end public apathy. Rosakutty the gaps. of the system was thus judged to be puts it this way, “Society, in general, The drive was conducted in nil. The other three cities fared no needs to be more pro-active. We Thrissur, where the state’s helpline better. need to bolster the retaliatory spirit was first introduced in 2005, and, But since this study was in our girls, so that they can defend thereafter, in Thiruvananthapuram, conducted under the aegis of themselves and their rights.” For Kozhikode and Kasargode. The the state Home Department, that, she adds, they need to have primary feedback itself was that the police personnel at the very high a sound knowledge of their legal helplines were hardly effective. In echelons of the force suggested rights and be ensured of public Thrissur, the 1091 toll free number many improvements. For one, they support wherever they are. works from BSNL mobile phones stressed the need to publicise the Today, however, that is certainly but it is impossible to connect from helpline number a great deal more. not the case. Women are forced other phones. Also, the helpline Second, they recommended that to bear all the humiliation and has no outgoing facility. One jeep funds be made available to increase attack that come their way without allotted to the helpline service is the use of computers and the speaking out for fear that assaulters in a very bad state and all the four internet for better communication. will retaliate even more violently. Kinetic Hondas initially allotted to They also argued for more staff, Similarly, bystanders are mute the helpline service were later taken with additional women sub- because they know well that in back by the department. inspectors appointed in all police the current climate of impunity, Six women police constables and stations to handle such issues. violence could be directed at them, a male driver work in shifts, from There was a need for new, if they interfere. 8 am to 6 pm and 6 pm to 8 am. closed vehicles - Sumo or Qualis It is to end this culture of impu- No extra funds have been allotted – that would provide comfort and nity that the campaign against for out-of-pocket expense and privacy to the women seeking sexual harassment in public currently the officers themselves help, they observed. Another transport is so important. Sakhi is pool in money to meet their out- imperative highlighted was the one of the organisations that have of-pocket expenses such as buying need for intensively training police taken up the challenge. Through food or train/bus tickets for poor personnel on handling these calls, posters, stickers, street theatre and women who approach the helpline a process that would necessarily television talk shows, it aims to with their cases. include sessions on counselling. build the confidence of women Although the Thrissur helpline Almost everyone consulted subjected to sexual harassment so gets an average of 30 calls per agreed that the helpline number that they can defend themselves month - with the maximum number should be toll free and have access and seek justice, even while of them taking place after 10 pm - to connections from all BSNL/VSNL effective and timely messages

there have hardly been any women and private land/mobile services, are conveyed to the public on the< callers over the past one year. Most with another connection catering critical importance of this issue. calls came in from other helplines to follow up work. There was also like police patrol vehicles, or the a strong advocacy for in camera child helpline or police aid posts, proceedings in courts and fast track (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service) especially at bus stands. None of courts to deal with these cases.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 15 GENDER EXPLOITATION Can legal rights change sex workers’ lives? Every time a girl and her brothel owner are summoned to the police station for the flimsiest reason, they are made to shell out exorbitant amounts as fine. If they protest, they are threatened with all kinds of menacing consequences. The key to changing their lives for the better lies in creating a more open dialogue on trafficking and sex work, making the law and order of the land fair and accountable and sensitising communities towards what is the world’s oldest profession, says Taru Bahl ilting notes of a popular economic ability leaves them with Volunteers and supporters of Kat film song gently waft very little choice but to go back to Katha and Knowledge Steez, a non- Lthrough the air. Then the the flesh trade either through force, profit online legal resource, joined stillness of the night is broken with coercion or surrender.” hands to bring together lawyers the music grinding to a screeching Adds Reena Suri, a Delhi representing civil society, NGOs, halt, as a bunch of men and women University Law student, who is corporates, government agencies run helter-skelter. Within minutes, gearing to fight for the rights of and law schools in Delhi to present half a dozen girls are queued up those who are trafficked, “The girls papers that highlighted issues and paraded to the nearby police who are seemingly rescued are faced by those who are trafficked station. Crowds gather on the street back in the brothel, sometimes in and ways in which their legal and sneer at the girls who trail the less than a week. Either they are rights could be protected. Drawing men in uniform, submissively… re-trafficked or they come back on from stories of those betrayed by This scene is one that is repeated their own, unable to rehabilitate their own families or sold into the with an eerie frequency in almost themselves, comfortable doing trade, the technical papers brought all of India’s busy red light something they know and are out different aspects of the problem areas. familiar with.” In such a scenario, using historical perspectives, Sometimes such ‘rescue acts’ Babbar and other anti-trafficking anecdotal evidence collated from find their way to an obscure activists believe what can perhaps news reports, research studies and column of a newspaper. However, enable them to deal with their personal interactions. rarely does the reporter or those vulnerable situation better is They cited various reasons for who have witnessed the ‘spectacle’ awareness of their legal rights. the black hole of ignorance and fear bother to find out what happens to that dogged these girls at every step, the girls thereafter. Where do they including lack of education and go? Do they live happily ever after, awareness, absence of employable freed from the clutches of their skills, society’s intolerance and tormentors? bias towards the profession of States Gitanjali Babbar, founder prostitution and increasing acts of Kat Katha, a Delhi-based non of violence and inhuman cruelty government organisation that justified by perpetrators who label works with sex workers and their the girls as “bad, immoral and a children to help them normalise curse on humanity”. their lives, “Let there be no According to Manoj Sinha, illusions. These girls and their lives Photo: Hardik Gaurav director, Indian Law Institute, “Our are of absolutely no consequence to entire social and moral fabric has to anyone, except their families back Gitanjali Babbar, founder of Kat be overhauled. Without education, home, who are dependent on the Katha, an NGO that works with sex sensitisation, empowerment and workers and their children in Delhi, money they send. The absence of believes better channels need to be proper implementation of laws, any rehabilitation plan or a system carved to integrate sex workers into including the Immoral Traffic that allows them to be integrated society with dignity and economic Prevention Act (ITPA), we cannot into society with dignity and ability. progress an inch on this subject.”

16 VIDURA April-June 2015 usually plays one against the other area to get this going is going to be and is unlikely to present a true easier because some trust building picture. has already taken place. It is still a As a result, every time a girl and risky proposition because legally her brothel owner are summoned aware girls spell bad news for their to the police station for the flimsiest ‘keepers’ who then construe them reason, they are made to shell out as trouble. exorbitant amounts as fine. If they Rashi’s story (name changed), protest, they are threatened with all however, is an exception. The 29- kinds of menacing consequences. year-old sex worker, who has From pouring acid and disfiguring been in Kamathipura, Mumbai, the faces of the girls to making for over a decade, has her own the brothel owners shut shop, to ‘practice’ today with four girls and

Photo: Indian Law Institute putting them in prison on fabricated a male attendant who protects them charges, they are made to feel as from untoward incidents. She is not Manoj Sinha, the director of if they have absolutely no way of your typical ‘madam’ who fleeces the Indian Law Institute in getting away. This fear psychosis her girls and ill-treats them. She Delhi, believes that education, sensitisation, empowerment and is built up in their lives through makes sure they are not harassed proper implementation of laws practically every encounter they or exploited, either by customers is important for progress of sex have, be it their clients, pimps or or by law enforcers, something that workers in India. fellow inmates, mostly because it the other pimps and brothel owners suits everyone to have the girls in actually resent. She went through a He feels that young legal minds a state where they cannot stand up nightmarish ordeal herself when she need to devote time and attention for themselves. was forcibly taken away by armed to the issue and empower not just So what is the solution? Would extremists in the Chhattisgarh trafficked girls but boys, too, so that legalisation of prostitution help? region and compelled to serve as they can exercise their rights when According to Babbar, the only ray of a sex slave till she managed to run the need arises. With nearly 10-30 hope in a dark and grim world is to away. million sex slaves in the world and create a more sensitive society. But Rashi’s first few years in more than 50 per cent of trafficked since that is not going to happen in a Kamathipura were a terrifying victims being less than 15 years hurry, the next best course of action experience where she was often of age (ILO data), the task seems is to try and make legal education hauled up at the local police station onerous but surely a beginning can a possibility for the girls who are for the most trivial of reasons. The be made. trafficked. Using the route of civil worst, most sleazy customer did Reena, who has spent time in society and NGOs working in the not send a shiver down her spine, red-light areas, such as GB Road as did the summons to the local in Delhi, Kamathipura in Mumbai thana (police station). The very fear and Sonagachi in Kolkata, has in of the ‘encounter’, even if there was her gentle and unobtrusive way no sexual contact, was a most de- tried to grasp the legal awareness humanising experience. For her, the of sex workers, brothel owners and biggest anguish was not knowing pimps. The findings of her informal she had rights or that there were interactions are revealing. She laws that could protect her from admits, “I was aware of the level this torture. of exploitation that the girls are “To be treated like a thing and subjected to, but I was not prepared not a person is something that dis- to find them so naïve, gullible and solves all sense of feeling, emotion, ignorant. They are literally like desire and even pain. I don’t want lambs being led to slaughter, when my girls to experience that feeling,” they are summoned to the police she says. Women like Rashi can station.” make a real difference to the

Photo: Kat Katha What she finds even more hundreds who are in the sex trade,< shocking is that the brothel owners, either by force or by choice. too, are equally ignorant and In the absence of a rehabilitation terrified of the men in khaki. Itis plan, many ‘rescued’ sex workers the pimp or the middleman who are left with very little choice but to (Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service) is a lot more “worldly wise” but he go back to the flesh trade.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 17 GENDER INEQUALITY What price for a housewife’s work? By tradition and by law, the housewife is not considered to be a productive worker in the economic sense of the term. Her work is ‘non-productive’ because she does not get wages in exchange for her labour and her work does not have value-in-exchange. She is expected to seek her own reward in psychological and economic terms that comes of her work providing satisfaction to the other members of the family. She does not draw any salary, is not entitled to retirement benefits such as pension, does not qualify for superannuation and gets no leave from the daily responsibilities of housework. Housework is not included in computing the gross national product. But this in no way means that housework is an uneconomic activity, points out Shoma A. Chatterji housewife works round down heavily on the Census of to seek her own reward in the clock. So she must be India, observing that the contri- psychological and economic terms Acompensated for her ‘work’ bution of a woman who looks after that comes of her work providing in monetary terms if she dies her family and does housework satisfaction to the other members suddenly in an accident, depriving should not be deemed any less of the family. Some economists her family of her services. That’s significant than that of a man who would point out that she gets ‘paid’ what the Supreme Court ruled earns money by working outside. for her services in real terms, in recently. Jaywantiben Jitendra The Census of India, 2001 had listed terms of food, clothing and shelter, Trivedi of Gujarat died in a road homemakers as “non-workers” in terms of goods and services. This accident. A quarter of a century on par with beggars, prostitutes ‘payment’ in return for housework down the line, her family has been and prisoners, and the apex court is said to determine her status awarded a compensation of around called for laws to quantify their within the family. But in pure Rs 6.47 lakh in a motor accident contribution to the economy. quantitative terms, isn’t the work claims case, upgrading the Gujarat Economic Activity in the 2001 she does greater than the goods High Court’s ruling that had fixed Census states that “an adult woman and services she consumes? the amount at Rs 2.09 lakh. engaged in household duties but Is she then not creating surplus The Bench said: “Courts have not doing any productive work to value for others to benefit from? recognised that the contribution augment the family resources was She does not draw any salary, is made by the wife to the house is considered a non-worker. Persons not entitled to retirement benefits invaluable and that it cannot be like beggars, pensioners, etc, who such as pension, does not qualify computed in terms of money.” received income without doing for superannuation and gets no The state Motor Accident Claims any work were regarded as non- leave from the daily responsibilities Tribunal had granted Rs 2.24 workers, too. A public or social of housework. Housework is not lakh compensation, which the service worker who was actively included in computing the gross High Court had reduced to Rs engaged in public service activity or national product. But this in no 2.09 lakh, upholding the vehicle a political worker who was actively way means that housework is an insurer’s contention that, as engaged in furthering the political uneconomic activity. homemaker, Jaywantiben would activity of his party was regarded as Jeanne Boydston, in her not have earned much during her a 'worker'.” essay ‘To earn her daily bread: lifetime. The petitioners appealed By tradition and by law, the Housework and antebellum to the apex court, which raised the homemaker/ housewife is not working-class subsistence’ (Radical amount by more than three times, considered to be a productive History Review 35, May 1986), thus acknowledging the worth of worker in the economic sense of the critiques Karl Marx and writes: a homemaker’s contribution to term. Her work is ‘non-productive’ “As a feme covert, a wife’s legal her family. because she does not get wages identity was subsumed under In a similar case of a home- in exchange for her labour and, that of her husband, who was maker’s death in an accident, the therefore, her work does not have recognised as the owner of her Supreme Court in 2010 had come value-in-exchange. She is expected labour-time, the products of that

18 VIDURA April-June 2015 labour-time, and any cash realised from the sale of either the labour or its products. However much individual males acknowledged their wives’ economic worth, the tradition of law identified that worth with the husband. Thus, Marx’s assumption, throughout Capital, that the “possessor” of labor-power and “the person whose labour- power it is” were one and the same person was historically inaccurate for housework in America from the beginning of English settlement.” Does not the same argument hold good in the rest of the world and specially in LDC and South Asian economies? “The countless chores collectively known as ‘housework’ – cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, making beds, sweeping, shopping – apparently consume some three to Illustration: Arun Ramkumar four thousand hours of the average housewife’s year,” writes Ann Oakley in The Sociology of Housework (1974). Startling as this statistic may 14 million housewives in the US education and training, lower their be, it does not even account for are injured inside their homes employment aspirations, reduce the constant and unquantifiable every year, apart from being the time and energy available for attention mothers must give to injured in marital violence extra-domestic work, and restrict their children. Just as a woman’s • The basic sex-role definition of women’s access to technology and maternal duties are always taken the woman’s role as homemaker credit. Thus, within the labour for granted, her never-ending toil restricts the occupational market, women participate in an as a homemaker rarely occasions choices of women unequal competition for men for expressions of appreciation within The disparity between the male jobs. her family. and female condition in capitalist Therefore, though the Some factors common to society is the real problem. If our relationship among the members housework for homemakers across realisation as individuals having of a family is essentially non- the world may be enumerated as 'value' in a bourgeois society is capitalist, the housework done by follows: only through our roles as buyers the homemaker and the labour • Housework is essential to the and sellers of commodities (or provided by the male members socio-economic structure of specifically as sellers of labour are the basic preconditions to the which the family is the basic power and earners of a wage), existence and sustenance of the unit bearing and rearing children is capitalist system of production, • Housework is petty, isolated an obstacle to this realisation. which has itself created and and monotonous, involving Although part of the toll of being nourished this non-capitalist façade unending hours of hard and parents can be shared, bearing the for its own benefit and survival. unrewarding labour child cannot – and, whatever her The Supreme Court judgement, • Housework is highly labour- class, the woman is discriminated therefore, might spread itself into a intensive but is not paid for against in a man-woman capitalism positive legal, economic and social • Housework is geographically world. movement towards recognising

and occupationally immobile, Patriarchal norms attribute most the contribution of a homemaker unlike the work by nurses, responsibility for child-care and towards her family by placing it in< teachers, carpenters or home management to homemakers, the right and fair context. economists while they hold men accountable • Housework is hazardous and for the financial support of the risky. It is estimated that about family. These norms limit women’s

April-June 2015 VIDURA 19 GENDER VIOLENCE How effective are helplines?

Today, the significance of an effective helpline is widely recognised in India but it is still a work in progress. Several aspects require a resolution. Should there be a multiplicity of helplines or should there be just one? Is it better that the helpline is located within the police system, or outside it? What are the elements that make for effective follow-up action? More clarity will emerge as the concept of helplines catches on and larger numbers of people are encouraged to use them. But this will only happen if there is trust, stresses Pamela Philipose onu Das was frantic. She had helpline services. Uttar Pradesh and have done just stabbed someone. Recalls Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav set case work for Pamela Philipose SSuresh Grover, director, The up one in his state late last year. In a minimum of Monitoring Group (TMG), a lead- Delhi, when public anger spilled on eight years. ing anti-racist UK-based charity to the streets after the December 16, Apart from 181, and some help- that promotes civil rights and runs 2012 gang rape of a student, Chief lines run by civil society organi- a phone-in helpline for those under Minister Sheila Dikshit installed sations, women facing sexual attack, “For us as a helpline service a dedicated helpline – 181 – for harassment in Delhi can dial 100 in the Das case, our emergency women facing sexual assault two and 1091 – numbers operated by service role ended when the police weeks later. It presently functions the control room of the Delhi arrived. But in the long term this from her office. Police. According to T.N. Mohan, woman needed support.” Das had Making such efforts work, special commissioner, Operations, come to the UK as a domestic help however, is another story. Recalls Delhi Police, the role of these and had been treated appallingly. Khadijah Faruqui, a lawyer and helplines have been “pivotal”. Says She escaped her employers’ home activist, who is a consultant for Mohan, “We run the country's big- with the help of a cab driver who the 181 service, “What struck me gest response service of this kind. locked her up, kept her passport first was the fact that Delhi, despite Of the hundred incoming lines and raped her. After three days, its high levels of crimes against of Dial 100, we have 10 dedicated she managed to leave the room, got women, did not have a state- to crimes against women and two hold of a kitchen knife and stabbed run intervention of this kind that more for stalking. This includes her assailant. She thought she had understood women’s problems the Dial 1091 service. Before the killed him when she had phoned from a woman’s perspective.” Delhi gang rape of December, TMG (he survived). Fortunately, Faruqui, having worked with there were only two lines for such TMG was able to get legal help and the helpline intervention of the crimes. These helplines have gone she was acquitted of manslaughter women’s resource centre, Jagori, a long way in shoring confidence charges after six months. then began training the 181 helpline in women. For instance, in January Emphasises Grover, “This case team and establishing a supporting we had about 50 calls relating to illustrates some key aspects of network. “Experience tells us that domestic violence per fortnight, a professionally run helpline. It a woman under attack often has today it is around 1,000 per has to be visible and its existence multiple issues – ranging from fortnight." widely known. It has to be sensitive access to a hospital to education for The Delhi-based Multiple to the needs of the caller – it can- a child. This meant that we had to Research Action Group (MARG) not pass value judgments and connect with a whole spectrum of undertook a study of the 100 and confidentiality is critical. It has to be service providers – from hospitals to 1091 helplines in late 2012, covering credible, and credibility demands shelter homes. Because we had the nine districts of Delhi, to under- sustainability. In our experience, backing of the chief minister, the stand better women’s experiences 40 per cent of callers are in urgent response from these institutions of police helplines and how they need of protection from harm.” was generally good,” says can be made more effective. The Grover’s words assume impor- Faruqui. study was part of the Safe City free tance given the rising tide of Today, the 181 helpline has a From Violence against Women and sexual violence in India, which has 17-member team, with four floor Girls Initiative, supported by UN prompted the setting up of more supervisors who are all graduates Women and anchored by Jagori in

20 VIDURA April-June 2015 partnership with UN Habitat and the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Delhi. One of the major issues that emerged from the study was the need for better understanding. States Anju Talukdar, executive director, MARG, “The training we found was largely focused on technical aspects rather than on developing empathetic Photos: Khadijah Faruqui communication skills. There was The 181 helpline in Delhi has a 17-member team, with four floor supervisors also no system of monitoring. For who are all graduates and have done case work for a minimum of eight years. instance, we found many women who were unhappy with the res- we believe that it is fundamentally It is also, however, true that ponse they received, but there was the state’s duty to protect women, many women are not comfortable no way that those who ran it could then collaborating with the police about contacting the police. Shah have learnt of this and corrected assumes importance.” While agrees that this could be a problem procedures. Monitoring and running helplines through central- and it means that the police will evaluation, even if done randomly, ised call centres may have emerged have to work harder at being is important.” The other aspect that as the popular model, Shah more gender-friendly. But she was missing was the laying down believes they cannot guarantee the also points out instances where of standard operating procedures immediacy of response that a police women actually wish the police for all helpline operators. helpline can. “Within a few minutes come and talk to abusive families Talukdar believes that a of a woman calling 103, a police or husbands. “They don’t want it multiplicity of helplines is not patrol can be expected to arrive at to be a police case but welcome the helpful and that it would be far her doorstep. This is an immense police acting as a source of support. better if there was just one help- source of comfort, whether these This preventive dimension is line that works and is seen to work. women live in high-rises or slums,” useful because it allows abused Kalpana Viswanath, advisor, Jagori, she explains. woman to work things out for agrees, “In the US, an effective Akshara, therefore, concentrates themselves,” says Shah. helpline like 911 is a huge asset. on strengthening 103, by organi- Says Grover, “Normally, trust is Everyone knows it exists, and its sing trainings and creating better built through face-to-face contact. very existence provides a sense of data systems and directories of Here we have to ensure trust security to those who are isolated supporting agencies in a ward-wise through a telephone conversation and vulnerable.” and theme-wise manner. The 103 that lasts a few minutes. That initial Akshara, an organisation helpline is now linked to protection call is very important because working on gender justice issues officers, medical institutions, rescue it is for the first time that a per- in Mumbai, has been assisting the homes, and other institutions. son under assault has actually running of the police helpline, 103, Akshara has also developed short summoned the courage to talk. for about five years now. Nandita films to be shown in movie theatres The manner in which it is handled

Shah, its co-director, elaborates, and about 4000 Mumbai buses will tell you whether the helpline “Positioning a helpline is crucial. If carry its helpline stickers. service is working or not.” <

(Courtesy: Women’s Feature Service. The New Delhi-based writer was director, Women’s Feature Service, a features agency mandated to make visible gender in media, and senior associate editor with . She has been awarded the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist and the Zee-Asthiva Award for her In Delhi, after the December 16, 2012 gang rape of a student, then Chief Minister journalism.) Sheila Dikshit installed a dedicated helpline service – 181 – for women facing sexual assaults.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 21 What it is to be an expatriate journalist in China

Working as journalist in China’s newspapers can be an eye-opening and engaging experience, revealing unsuspected potential and unforeseen possibilities. Such work, more often than not, is with the state media. To make the most of the situation, it is necessary to leave behind a lifetime’s preconceptions and prejudices, says Shastri Ramachandaran. For all the media restrictions in China, there remain unexplored possibilities and spaces. The boundaries can be pushed a bit further, and tested. You never know how far you can go unless you try, he adds y life as an expatriate from ‘straying’; or, falling prey to are a trusty Shastri journalist in Beijing began journalistic practices for which CD doormat. The Ramachandaran Mwith China Daily – the has little use. Doubtless, among the fault lies not country’s first and oldest English assistants, are good and bad guys. in those at the daily. It is the official, government The assistants keep track of helm of CD – who are preoccupied newspaper brought out by a everything – including what you with so much else — but those department of the Information have written, edited, done on your lower down: the expats at the Ministry. The editor-in-chief (EiC) computer during the working bottom, who rank low and stoop is said to enjoy the rank of vice day or night. They don’t miss a lower though they draw a higher premier, with all the powers of that trick. Rare is the expat who can pay than the Chinese at the top. office barring the one that allows give them the slip. They have at Inevitably, the journalist who issue of visas. their command loyalist expats who values independence, integrity and In his first circle of power are do their every bidding, against self-esteem moves out of CD. S/ he deputy editors-in-chief, though their own countrymen. Servitude heads to Xinhua, the Chinese news the designation could be anything. to these assistants is the surest agency, which is a state within the Title, authority, power, functions, way to survive and succeed – as state. In today’s global conditions, responsibility are not necessarily ‘successful’ expats, including from Xinhua — the most powerful, matched as we know them to be India, learned early on. These expats successful and profitable news in India, in the world of Anglo- jealously guard their position by agency – is home to ‘economic American journalism or in the keeping out other countrymen of refugees’ from the West, who Continent. Beneath this layer are theirs, unless these newcomers are lost their jobs in leading media a large number of assistants to the willing to become as, if not more, organisations particularly in the EiC, and the day and night editors. abject as them in their ‘performance’. US and the UK. A notch above, but below the first The expat’s journalistic competence The expat journalist barely rung, are editors who keep an eye does not decide his or her place/ stands out in Xinhua because this on the day/ night editors and the role in CD. agency’s universe is huge and it assistants. Yet this paper pays the best pays less than CD. Yet, Xinhua These ubiquitous assistants are package and looks after its staff is the acme for the Chinese, and the eyes and ears of the EiC and, very well. If you are free of notions the expat here is a contented soul perhaps, of the government, the of journalism acquired elsewhere, with the job not straining his party and the state, too. Some view carry out every wish of the Chinese self-respect. Xinhua’s brand of them as competent editors and bosses (assistants to the EiC) as your journalism may be alien, but s/ he tested journalists who should not command and feel pleased and gladly does a job (editing text/ copy, be trifled with merely because of privileged to perform like a flea – which does not call for his kind of their unflattering designation and then you can collect a tidy sum and journalistic values or judgment) to unassuming disposition. Others see live it up. Nobody will tell you to the institution’s satisfaction. these assistants, at best, as factotums; your face that you suck; that you The expat has no complaint and, at worst, as sheepdogs, who are a sly and sleazy lowlife; and against Xinhua’s culture (as an keep the flock, including expats that your ‘success’ (as a survivor) is organisation, not as a media/ (also called ‘foreign experts’), because you, as the factotum’s pup, journalism entity). The hours are

22 VIDURA April-June 2015 shorter, there’s more leave, a paid They write about how they use abroad, was senior editor and annual holiday, good cafeterias and, chopsticks, make hand-pulled writer with Global Times and as a US journalist said, no pressure noodles, bargain over baubles and China Daily in Beijing. He is an to “perform like a flea”. There’s buy foodstuff, fruits and vegetables independent political and foreign enough time for other pursuits – as if these are adventures are affairs commentator based in New research, writing books, learning unknown to humans. Delhi. This article had appeared in the Chinese, exploring China and all The few who venture beyond now-defunct Sunday Indian’s Media things Chinese, etc – and a great such pathetic pieces are respected Watch.) personal and family life. Xinhua in GT. For instance, I wrote on the may be an institution of state, but Bhopal gas leak judgment — after unlike other media biggies, it is a 26 years — not doing justice to the rule-maker. It lays down the line, victims in contrast to how the US not just abides by it. made BP pay billions for the oil spill The other magnet for expats in the Gulf of Mexico. The comment New COO for is the English daily Global Times, questioned India’s claim to be a from Party-run People’s Daily stable, global power when it could not Patrika which has for long been publishing protect the interests of its people or the Chinese language Global Times. raise their concerns at the world’s Television The pay is a shade lower than in CD, high tables such as the G-8. Narendra Tripathi has joined from where many expats moved to I had bracketed China in the Television as GT. They feel the pay cut is well same league for letting down chief operating officer. He is a worth the shift. Often praised as the developing countries and, at times, media veteran with an experience Fox News of China, Global Times is its own people on the world stage. of more than 25 years. He has young, and has a robust journalistic When the piece did not come back been in senior management roles air about it. The editors are visible, immediately with the editor’s in various media houses such as accessible, hands-on and in close okay, I went in to ask whether the NDTV, and Sahara. daily working contact with the reference to China was holding it He has worked in different sectors staff. It may be subject to the same up. On the contrary, he said, you of media like print, television, limitations as CD and other Chinese have not hit China hard enough digital and radio. He was the media outlets, but it does not let for its failure to speak up for the COO of Radio Mantra for three the restrictions and opacity kill the Bhopal victims and against US years when he set up eight FM buzz about the place. multinationals. Therefore, he was stations. Tripathi started his I had a terrific time in GT. Most wondering whether my piece career with The Times of India in expats tend to assume censorship would “suffice in itself” or he 1989 as senior Response officer.

and restrictions even where they should write another side piece on He is an alumnus of Lucknow< don’t exist. Expats told me that the China’s lapses in this regard. University. signed editorial comment space was GT is the new kid on the block. strictly for the Chinese to articulate Launched in April 2009, it has cau- (Courtesy: exchange4media) what the bosses order. That may be sed a stir and nudged a stodgy CD to true nine out of 10 times, but there’s re-invent itself. When GT announced the one-tenth chance at which you a metro pull-out, CD came out with can take a shot. I did and was one a few days earlier. Now there surprised that they welcomed my are journalists moving from GT to piece – on a topic at the centre of CD. This change in the air can only Chinese politics. I had pulled no bring good — more vibrancy to punches, but the editors who keep the state media. For all the media an eagle eye against transgressions, restrictions in China, there remain said I was not critical enough – the unexplored possibilities and spaces. Subscribe to subject called for sharper criticism. The boundaries can be pushed a bit Expats are so keen on their further, and tested. You never know

byline and, at the same time, how far you can go unless you try. VIDURA wanting to please that most of < them end up writing superficial, Only Rs 200 for touristy and ‘lifestyle’ pieces. Rare is the expat who has not written (The author, who has worked with 4 issues about negotiating his way in China. leading newspapers in India and

April-June 2015 VIDURA 23 ADVERTISEMENT MATERIAL VS NEWS CONTENT So, does the reader really matter? As Sakuntala Narasimhan picks up the day’s newspaper each morning, her thoughts, regardless of the day’s headlines, go along the same tracks with irritation – the first two pages are full-page ads, the actual news begins only on Page 3. Though the numbering begins there, the paper’s masthead is printed prominently on the ad pages, making it part of the paper. Where once we had inserts (without the masthead), it is now copious daily doses of full-page ads – for real estate, jewellery, fancy cars, malls, mobile phones or apps he Hindu, The Times of Part of the current movement society besides representatives of India and against the ecological-environ- the ad world. But do complaints T(newspapers that I read) mental damage to planet earth, regarding the devotion of full pages resort to this new trend. The media is about destruction of timber at the beginning come under any of houses are happy since these resources to make paper. the rules laid down? specially positioned, opening-page The issue of 17 January (of The The fully blank page gimmick ads bring in huge revenues; the Hindu again) had, apart from four mentioned earlier had (needless advertisers are happy because of full-page ads in the beginning, the to say) on the reverse, a chart the eye-catching placement that seventh sheet also as a full-page ad, (full page again) listing the make it look like part of the main which means that five full pages percentage wastage charged by paper. The ad market is estimated out of the first 11 sheets were given this particular jeweller (who had to be worth around Rs 30800 crore over to advertisements . This, in a paid for the two pages of ads). with print alone accounting for paper that enjoys allegiance from The list carried two columns, one Rs 12200 crore last year (for 2015, readers who prefer it for the amount showing the “wastage” charged the estimate is Rs 16900 crore) of editorial content compared to a by the jeweller, and the other That’s big money, really big. But competitor that is described as “full giving the percentage charged what about readers? of ads”. by “others” — which others? Was Without advertising revenue, There exists an Advertising it an independent, non-partisan media experts point out, news- Standards Council of India (ASCI) authority that checked? Were there papers cannot make ends meet and that has laid down guidelines for others that charged less but were survive. But why does one have to advertisers, according to which ads for that reason, excluded from the turn to Page 3 before one can access (copy or visuals) should not offend, ‘survey’? the day’s news? One issue of the denigrate, make tall claims, mislead The ad also says, in small print day’s paper (The Hindu dated 22 or promote harmful products. at the bottom, that the “wastage January 2015) even had a blank None of which lays down any rules indicated is the average and may page as the front page (with the regarding the proliferation of ads in vary from showroom to show- paper’s masthead) – a clever tactic the print media, taking over entire room” which means one cannot to rivet the attention of the curious pages, that too the first and second go by the figures given in the reader who examines the blank pages. The ads are not sexist, or chart – which is exactly the kind of page more closely, to understand otherwise offensive (except that loose claims spliced with ‘escape’ why it is blank, and thus has his/ they irritate readers who pick up clauses, that the ASCI discourages her attention drawn to the product the day’s paper to get the important (ads that say in tiny print at the (in this case, a jeweller). It says, at news, global and national, at first bottom, “conditions apply”, are the bottom of the fully blank page, glance –a random poll on readers’ examples of another kind of escape “Strangely, we are forced to waste reactions in Bengaluru found that clause that consumers are usually a full page to draw your attention seven out of ten readers found it warned to be wary about, because to the high wastage you pay for irritating, while two said they had it could mean anything, even jewels!” Forced, by whom, pray? no opinion). ASCI’s council that overruling the claims made in the And what about the “wastage” of looks into complaints filed by the main body of the ad; so is the other a full page of precious newsprint? public, includes members of civil ruse, of saying “Up to 50 per cent

24 VIDURA April-June 2015 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar off”, which could in reality mean not only on the size of the ad but For television ads, there anything from 2 per cent onwards). also its positioning and placement are guidelines specifying the The ad says buyers can visit (which garners extra attention and proportion of time that can be taken many jewellers and compare the therefore sales). up by commercials, especially wastage charged themselves, but When I was working for the print in sponsored programmes (the the psychological benefits of the media in Mumbai, I was instructed sponsor shells out money only chart are already in place -- how by the editor and the management for getting publicity on the many buyers actually go to a to have some “one page” editorial telly). TRAI (Telecom Regulatory dozen shops to compare wastage articles (chopping the text down Authority of India) decreed in 2013 percentages? The bottom line, to a single page even if the piece that only 12 minutes of ads would nonetheless, is that paying huge merited more space) that could be be permissible during an hour- (extra) amounts for taking out pulled out to make way for an ad long programme on TV channels. premium full-page ads (that too, on received at the last minute, after the But for print, there seems to be no the first two pages, with the paper’s page schedules were made up. Ads such restriction on how much of masthead and logo added) is seen mean revenue and take precedence the newsprint can be devoted to as profitable for the advertiser, over editorial content. Profits, after commercials. (Deccan Herald’s 14 otherwise would they shell out all, become the prime concern February edition had nearly half of that kind of extra money? Ad especially when corporate houses its first six pages devoted to non- rates charged by the media depend own the media. editorial matter.)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 25 Newsprint is imported and The media is happy raking in expensive, so if advertisers pay the revenue. This also ensures for full, front-page displays, who ‘favourable’ coverage for political Star India acquires complains? Not the media house functionaries (whoever pays the (which earns profits from ads) piper, calls the tune, right?). But Screen and certainly not the advertiser what about ethics, or readers’ Star India and the Indian who obviously thinks the expense reactions? Who cares, if we, the Express Group has announced is justified in terms of profits reading public, do not heed calls a deal under which Star India generated. So where does the for feeding suggestions to com- will acquire the Screen brand readers’ irritability fit in? mittees set up to improve matters? from Indian Express. Founded in Then there are ads that appear Sucheta also records that when she 1951, Screen manages a popular daily, carrying photos of political raised questions as a member of the periodical focused on the film leaders (from the prime minister Investor Education and Protection and entertainment industry and to chief ministers and various Fund (IEPF) about the use of a cor- also owns the most respected film netas) extolling the government’s pus of public funds for flaunting a awards franchise that is widely ‘achievements’ – writing in political party’s ‘ achievements’, she valued by the film fraternity for Moneylife (online), award-winning was eased out of the committee. its integrity and impartiality. journalist Sucheta Dalal pointed This aspect of the media’s As part of the transaction, Star out recently that the Supreme contents does not get discussed, will get exclusive ownership Court had issued a judgment much less monitored. As for radio, of the Screen brand franchise, in April 2014 about the (mis)use on 16 February 2015, Akashvani including all archival material of public funds for promoting Bengaluru broadcast during its and transfer of key employees. political parties, following which Vanita Vihara programme at Star has built one of India's the I & B Ministry had sought com- 12.30 pm, Modi’s pronouncement largest media and entertainment ments from the public regarding proclaiming his government’s organisations reaching over government advertisements. How dedication to its people, three times, 700 million viewers in India and many newspaper readers bothered repeatedly, at the beginning and across the globe every week to respond? twice at the end again, all within through nearly 40 channels The UPA Government spent, a duration of under 22 minutes. broadcast in seven languages. Sucheta points out, Rs 418.95 crore Akashvani is, of course, used as a Star has scaled its multi-screen on its Bharat Nirman ads in four government vehicle (the programme presence with hotstar emerging years, of which Rs 187 crore was was followed by a news bulletin as the most preferred destination in the year leading to the general which again was dominated by for sports and entertainment elections of 2014. Some of these reports of what the PM said at some online. made false claims too, or were event). Speakers invited to record “We are delighted to enter misleading. “Had these ads been talks for Akashvani are, however, into a transaction with Star India. issued by the private sector, they strictly barred from mentioning Screen is one of the most reputed would have fallen foul of ASCI’s brand names, politicians and film and entertainment properties code,” she says. Government ads political parties, etc. Why is it in the country. We have built do not fall under the code, so acceptable for politicians to use this business with lot of passion taxpayers’ money is merrily spent radio for promotional ads? Using and are confident that Star will on boosting the political image of broadcasts for creating awareness nurture it and take it to greater the party in power, marking some regarding citizens’ entitlement heights,” said Viveck Goenka, politician’s birthday or death is one thing, extolling a party’s chairman and managing director<

anniversary, ‘one hundred days of achievements is another. Or isn’t it? < the Indian Express Group. governance’, etc (The Hindu dated 18 May, 2014 had a full, front- (Courtesy: exchange4media) page ad dominated by a photo of politician Jayalalithaa, extolling her ‘achievements’, and issued by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, with the paper’s masthead on top. Which is exactly what the apex court was referring to, in inviting public feedback).

26 VIDURA April-June 2015 HEALTH AND THE MEDIA Coverage of public health not what it should be Rarely does public health get covered in the media. The media does not devote any sustained attention to matters relating to public health on a regional or national scale and how society suffers from a complete lack of attention to infrastructure. The media should concentrate on health matters in various localities, paying attention to regional and national issues, feels Prof J.V. Vil’anilam ealth usually gets media general administrative inefficiency. matters and the health of people in attention in a developing Governments in several deve- various localities, paying sufficient Hsociety only when ill- loping countries seem to be attention to regional and national health affects a very large number laying stress on curative rather health issues. of people all of a sudden. Health than preventive medicine. Many Probably, the media structure planners and experts across the developing countries can eliminate in poor countries has something country need to focus on chronic half their diseases if they have to do with this skewed coverage. factors contributing to the ill-health adequate facilities for drainage, Our media follows the practice of of millions on a non-epidemic sanitation and supply of potable imitating their counterparts in rich scale. water. Public health is not simply countries where there is already Rarely does public health get a medical matter; it is a matter of a framework for the treatment of covered in the media; but recently better roads, drainage facilities, diseases and the maintenance of there was a report in the local sanitation and waste management public health systems. However, edition of a national newspaper and disposal. It is about educating this is not an appropriate blueprint with the following headline: people from pre-school to maintain for developing countries. The ‘Capital has six more clean wards’. healthy and hygienic lifestyles. media in these countries has the What this meant was that out of Public health communication is responsibility of examining the 100 wards, 10 per cent are clean. generally confined to inaugurations adequacy and requirements of Perhaps after a year, there will be and dedications done by ministers medical facilities in each village another report of 10 more wards and other people in positions of and municipality. This requires being elevated to the status of power, and write-ups about what a decentralised media system, ‘clean’. But there will still be 80 is being done by government preferably operated by members unclean wards. What is our overall departments. Publicity is also of the public using interactive plan to dispose of the mess that is of given to health plans and events formats. our own making? such as pulse polio programmes, Providing information vital to Basic problems affecting the AIDS prevention campaigns, etc. the local people is more important quality of life in most economi- The media does not devote any than pushing circulation. The cally backward countries, or sustained attention to matters present practice is to augment the countries that have a huge seg- relating to public health on a reach of the print and electronic ment of poor people, are almost regional or national scale and how media in small communities by identical - malnutrition, scarcity society suffers from a complete lack advertising goods that are not of pure drinking water, illiteracy. of attention to infrastructure. essential, even if affordable, to ignorance, superstition, clogged This type of coverage of public people with very low incomes. drains, high maternal and infant health is not what is required in People in villages, municipalities mortality, poor public health developing countries with struc- and corporations do not have measures, inadequate public and tural deficiencies and absence of the facility to interact with one personal hygiene, inadequate the dynamic strategies for overall another or with organisations that housing, absence of toilet facilities, improvement of people’s health. Ad run their media as businesses for widespread corruption leading hoc coverage of health issues will profit. A new strategy is required to to the siphoning off of health not serve any purpose. Instead, the provide people with an avenue for allocations for other purposes and media should concentrate on health interactive communication.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 27 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar

Public health communication involves an examination of infrastructural facilities such as hospitals, medical colleges, clinics New marketing chief for and testing centres, primary health centres and medical personnel including doctors, nurses, researchers, biochemists R. Rajmohan has joined Malayala Manorama as chief marketing and field health workers such officer (North) & head - Special Projects. He will oversee the marketing as home visitors and sanitation function for verticals like Print, Radio, TV and Digital. The Special Projects workers. We need confidence- he is heading entail new initiatives in the English magazine space.

Rajmohan stepped down from position as publisher at weekly current building measures that ordinary < citizens can implement with affairs and features magazine Open in September last year. the support of government/

private agencies, public-private partnerships, etc. <

28 VIDURA April-June 2015 INDIAN PRINT AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA Now, who has the winning edge?

Today, neither newspaper owners nor media persons seem committed to any policy or even to society when it comes to content. The focus seems to be solely on making huge profits. Amid growing competition from online websites and other electronic media, the print media holds an edge because of the quality of its content, says Som Nath Sapru rint journa- adjust to new editorial policies with high-speed multi-colour web- Som Nath lism (news- and the overtones of news pre- offset machines configured with Sapru Ppapers/ news sentation. Earlier, the British were mailroom system machines. magazines) in punching bags for journalists Subsequently, there has been a India is about 236 years old. It and it was hard for them to change. Journalism was initially was in 1780 that an Irishman turn critical of the heroes of the a mission to disseminate correct started a weekly newsletter — we Independence movement who had information at the right time to the may call it a newspaper with a taken over the reins of governance. appropriate audience, together limited circulation. It was meant It became the responsibility of with independent comment or to cater to Kolkata (then Calcutta) the media to explain and drive opinion with relevance to society headquarters of the East India home to the citizens the rights at large. In the present day, neither Company, with British officials, and responsibilities enshrined in newspaper owners nor media traders and their families as the the newly drafted Constitution persons seem committed to any target audience. This publication of independent India. There were policy or even to society when it did not live for very long but was many problems to be resolved comes to content. The focus seems immediately followed by another – unemployment, communal to be solely on making huge - Hickey’s Bengal Gazette, which divide, illiteracy, shortage of food, profits. had a more respectable circulation. malnourishment, problems of The print media is one of the Gradually, Indians picked up the farmers and industries, and wars most flourishing industries in thread and enterprising locals with neighbouring countries. India today. It still has a strong started similar publications in All this gave a new direction to foothold amongst readers although English and regional languages editorial policies. the Internet and television are from major cities such as Delhi, During late 1960s, newspapers popular media. The manifold Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. became strong institutions. Their increase in circulation figures of Indians publicised their views circulations grew and the owners newspapers is attributed to new about social reforms and news, to thought of adding new publica- technology, used to cater to the arouse public opinion against the tions to their stables to cater to the varied interests of a variety of British. growing number of readers. The readers, including niche readers In 1857, the British took control parallel growth of literacy, albeit like women, children, farmers, of virtually the whole of India inch by inch, was also responsible motorists and academia. The con- and by that time newspapers were for the increased demand for tent and presentation of news- broadly divided into two: those newspapers and news magazines. based programmes of the electronic published by British owners, and Since then, newspapers and media serve as pointers to the print those by Indian freedom fighters. journalism have grown beyond media by bringing up updated For the Indian publishers and imagination, in terms of format, information, which the publica- editors, print journalism was a layout, news presentation, number tions use not only for news columns mission to free the country from of pages and multi-coloured pages but also for weekly supplements, the British. with visuals. There has been a news magazines etc. After Independence in 1947, total technological transformation Undoubtedly, the electronic newspapers took some time to in the production of a newspaper media has created a huge dent

April-June 2015 VIDURA 29 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar

in the circulation of print media newspapers. But most of these web electronic media is speeding up and has grabbed prominent editions continue to be economi- the superficiality of contemporary advertising revenues. There is cally unviable. culture. Amid growing com- a constant tug-of-war between The Internet, web and electronic petition from online websites and electronic media and print media revolution has led to a revival of other electronic media, analysts over the advertise-ment budgets the debate about print media's argue that the print media holds of the corporate sector. Newspaper relevance. In reality, both communi- an edge because of the quality owners have been compelled cation forms have advantages of its content. Newspapers have to start web editions of their and disadvantages. Print media emphasised this feature in their publications. The Hindu launched reporters may cover subjects with digital subscription offerings, its web edition in 1995, marking greater depth than those who write with a definite level of success. the beginning of online journalism for the electronic media. However, Content presentation has in India. Soon thereafter, other the electronic media's ability to created a battle of wits between major newspapers started web break news at lightning speeds is print and electronic media over editions too. The content of the cited as one of the key advantages advertisements. Web editions of web editions is usually identical to it holds over print. Yet, the quality newspapers do not get priority as the print editions of the respective often raises the question whether yet. Although some advertisers

30 VIDURA April-June 2015 are willing to consider inserting growing ‘corporatisation’ of the their copy on web editions of Indian media is manifest in the some leading newspapers as add- manner in which large industrial Kasturi & Sons ons to the main print editions (at conglomerates like the Tatas, Birlas a discounted price), web editions and, lately, the Ambanis are acqui- announces VRS do not as a whole earn sizeable ring direct and indirect interests Kasturi & Sons (KSL), publishers advertisement revenue to make in media groups. A growing of The Hindu and Group this electronic conversion cost- convergence has been observed publications, has announced a effective. in recent times between creators/ Voluntary Retirement Scheme There is an estimated base producers of media content and (VRS) for its employees, the first of 49.7 million Internet users in those who distribute/ disseminate in its 136-year history. India, which is almost 6.3 per the content. The scheme is part of an cent of world users, although The print media has responded ongoing organization-wide this base is far below the Internet to the new changes and challenges restructuring and efficiency users of USA (218583657), China with its modernisation. They have enhancement programme (162210000), Japan (86600000) or accepted Information Technology, focused on turning around the Germany (50826117). Publishers in which has resulted in better performance of the company. advanced countries such as USA coverage with great speed at cost- The scheme is open to all have been debating the adverse effective prices. The readership employees above 40 years of age impact of electronic media and of newspapers is growing. The and with over 10 years of service online publications on circulation statistics also show that people and has been designed consistent of newspapers. However, in prefer newspapers in their regional with KSL’s long tradition of India, there is no such depressing languages, and that is why the employee-centricity. impact. regional newspapers are bringing Employees opting to apply There has been an amazing out editions from other cities where to the scheme will receive a

growth in the circulation of there is sizeable population of the < generous compensation package leading newspapers published in respective linguistic groups. — possibly the most generous regional languages such as Hindi, of recently announced schemes Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu in industry — in addition to and Tamil. The vernacular dailies (The writer has a master’s degree in normal retirement benefits such have brought out editions not Print Technology & Management. He as provident fund, gratuity, only in multiple cities and towns served 33 years with the United States superannuation, encashment of in the same sate, but also in other Information Service at the American unavailed leave, unclaimed leave sates. Hindi newspapers like Embassy in New Delhi as chief of travel allowance and any eligible Dainik Jagaran, and Publications. During 2005-2011, he performance-linked incentives. Rajasthan Patrika bring out editions headed IPAMA as CEO and was editor “We are committed to ensuring from more than one state. What of the IPAMA Bulletin. He then that our transformation is led by is more, many of these dailies now moved on to Pramod Engineering, part our people initiatives. To that end, have a number of supplements of the Delhi Press Group, publishers of we are rolling out a voluntary for readers in several suburbs Caravan, Sarita, Woman’s Era and retirement scheme to support of a single city. The dailies are Alive as general manager.) our employees desiring to opt printed in colour and use good for the scheme with a compelling newsprint. An indication that retirement corpus. This initiative is vernacular newspapers have been consistent with our commitment to prospering. ensuring a performance-oriented

Promoters and controllers of culture within KSL,” the statement < English/ regional language media said. groups own radio stations and TV channels besides holding (Courtesy: The Hindu) interests in many other businesses and often use their media outlets/ contacts to further these other activities. The Times of India, India Today, Ananda Bazar Patrika and Malyalam Manorama are the major examples of such operations. The

April-June 2015 VIDURA 31 Radio programming for youth, by youth - please tune in

Kanchan K. Malik wishes to start this article by saying she is not a radio producer, practitioner, owner, celebrity RJ, or even a strategy and brand adviser to a radio channel. She writes this as an academic and researcher who is immensely passionate about radio, especially community radio. She looks upon radio as Marshall McLuhan’s1 “hot” medium or the “tribal drum” with a tremendous amount of untapped potential, both as an entertainment apparatus and as a tool for social change et me confess, I have been governments resisted in unleashing showing up fortunate to be doing empiri- radio – the oldest medium of any longer. Kanchan K. Malik Lcal research on community mass communication – especially Indeed, for radio for over a decade now, and its news transmission function? the revival to be able to meet and interact Maybe the answer lies in the unique of the senior citizen among radio, regularly with enthusiasts who advantages of this medium under that is, public service broadcasting, have radio playing incessantly on Indian conditions. Radio overcomes the ‘arrival’ of the adolescent their minds (and in their stations, the barriers of illiteracy and of commercial FM radio, and the kitchens, living rooms, courtyards, electricity supply in reception. It survival of the toddler community mobiles, cars, iPods, and terrace, is a relatively economical medium radio in India, let us look towards too). These include radio managers, and portable and has penetrated our youth to provide the right mix producers, advocates, activists, into regions where TV has not yet as well as the spot—on fix for the academics, owners, trainers, reached. Radio has the advantage of resurrection of all the three tiers technology experts, RJs, talents, adaptability for localised coverage of radio in India. Just let them writers, and regulators. Not one of news, events, and micro-niche do their thing and let us all play of them, have ever articulated that programming. along. This is not to say that the radio does not have a future in The 21st Century may not be the experienced radio staff, producers India. The pundits, who have been proverbial golden age of radio with and talent have no role. It only gladly pronouncing the medium’s channels mushrooming at every means that radio programming last rites, should probably meet 10 kilometres, or operators being will succeed if we go for an these radio buffs, or attend some allowed multiple frequencies and intergenerational mix: if the vision of the workshops on community increased FDI, but the industry/ and concepts of the young are radio, or the conferences about medium sure is breaking free from mixed with the sensibility and radio, to get a sense of the intrusive/bureaucratic controls, professionalism of the seasoned extraordinary resilience of the witnessing its boldest technological broadcasters to create a whole Indian radio ecology, and their changes, (FM never sounded so new approach and innovative predictions would involuntarily damn good!) and simultaneously programming2. take a U-turn. riding a new wave of access to the However, there is a word of Let us face it; notwithstanding marginalised. However, for radio’s caution for the adult mentors, and the competition from other media, next big growth story to happen, that can be best articulated in the radio is no longer on life support all we need to do is hand this words of Theodore Roosevelt: “The in India. Even though there has medium over to the youth. What best executive is the one who has been a steady question mark on its I am suggesting is – recruit young sense enough to pick good men popularity, but have not successive people – don’t just depend on them [women] to do what he wants done,

1. Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man (1964) has described radio as “the tribal drum”. Radio, for him, is an earthy medium with a native power to involve people and to resonate a web of kinship. It is a “hot” medium that intrinsically incurs more thinking for the user to cognitively process the conveyed messages. 2. Vivian Chavez and Elisabeth Soep in their article Youth Radio and the Pedagogy of Collegiality, Harvard Educational Review Vol. 75 No. 4 Winter 2005, have described the process of collaboration among youth and adult participants where participants transcend the conventional relationship between adult “teachers” and youth “learners” to co-produce media products as “pedagogy of collegiality.” Also see, Mixing Young and Old to Create a New Approach by Ellin O’Leary; Nieman Reports, Winter 2003.

32 VIDURA April-June 2015 and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Radio can be a thoroughly inspiring and entertaining medium with the ability to captivate listeners, especially the young audi- ences instantly. But to make the listener stick around; we certainly do need to put ‘on air’, some good radio. And what do we understand by good radio? Having young people as script writers, producers, reporters and RJs may not go a long way, unless they exhibit a refreshing approach and verve in radio formats and have something compelling and meaningful to

say. Otherwise, the disillusioned Photos: Bol Hyderabad 90.4 FM listeners will simply flee in droves. In the past decade or more, the Radio workshop for young professionals at Bol Hyderabad 90.4 FM. FM oligopoly is content-to-deliver formulaic, unproductive, cookie- There’s certainly no shortage of more appealing but also recapture cutter broadcast formats that are originality and ingenuity around the interest of all sectors among repeated ad infinitum: song set, us for construction and packaging audiences. liner, commercials, RJ repartee/ of thought-provoking programmes Radio is arguably the most chitchat, and back-to-song set. Any that are entertaining, and at the intoxicating medium for pro- break in the format is considered a same time cater to the intellectual, moting cultural expression – of mortal sin in commercial broadcast. creative, and professional growth popular and alternative traditions. No taking risks, no scope to of a diverse audiences. Where Music and talk have been agents specialise, experiment or innovate have the genres like quiz, radio of evolution of contemporary – all for the fear of losing audiences drama, documentary, talk shows, citizenship. ‘Radiocracy’4 is all about and consequently the advertisers. field-based direct coverage, in- combining entertainment with But then, this rigid approach is depth interviews and engrossing democracy and sound with public making all radio stations sound discussions disappeared? Even affairs. While state broadcasting similar except for the signature if we do want to play songs and reflects/ influences dominant public tune – a criminal waste of radio’s music, time has indeed come for a discourses on societal issues, and creative opportunity. What’s more, fresh radio format that completely commercial stations represent new/ anything resembling “information” restructures how music, vocals, and developing trends; niche services, is seen as causing pain to the young commercials are put together. often rooted in communities, present audiences. The radio industry has done minority/ marginal narratives, If there are strong signals that considerable damage to itself reinforce identity, empower the the radio industry in India must through consolidation of its disadvantaged and provide a forum brace itself for fiercer-than-ever- formats. By giving youth, the for self-expression. before competition, then, there is creative license, and having faith If radio is indeed such a a need to revamp this conformist in what they believe would be powerful and dynamic tool, then attitude, or watch radio fade away. successful, the experienced pro- it undoubtedly needs the support Why do we think our listeners, ducers can encourage them to and backing of all stakeholders especially young adults, want only identify radio genres/ formats that to attain/ realise its true/ latent empty entertainment? You see, ‘rock’ and produce programmes potential. One of the concrete aesthetic journalism3 is all about – in their cutting-edge youth style. strategies to accomplish this goal, how to inform without informing. This will not only make radio and to create a sound collage

3. See: Cramerotti, Alfredo (2009) Aesthetic Journalism – How to inform without informing, Bristol, UK Intellect, where he talks of aesthetic journalism as an “artistic practice [that] aims to counter today’s media news of flashy headlines and ‘parachuted’ journalists (those assigned to cover issues, on which they have no possibility of doing research); other times it complements (without contradicting) the media view, providing an extra gaze.”(p21) 4. Hartley, John (2000) Radiocracy – Sound and Citizenship, International Journal of Cultural Studies; Sage Volume 3(2): 153–159

April-June 2015 VIDURA 33 that may perhaps transform the members for creating local and aural world around us, is again, meaningful programming. through youth participation in Young people are motivated, radio administration and editorial energetic, and idealistic and process. community radio can provide Young producers can act as an enormous avenue for them the voice of their generation, and to express their views. They are simultaneously befriend diverse also best-adapted to navigate audience groups to become active the convergence and new media partners in civic engagement. All technologies. Young women and they need is to be able to open men have novel stories to share, a microphone switch and use and refreshing ideas that need to A student volunteer. the powerful audio platform to be given a platform for expression. showcase their unacknowledged Their collective potential must medium and thus, youth-created aptitude and competence to make be channelised constructively to programming, in order to be the much-needed difference. strengthen the effectiveness and successful, must ‘actively’ involve World Radio Day seeks to raise power of community radio and to the listeners. awareness about the importance break the media stereotype about This point is best expressed of radio as a medium that contemporary youth culture. by invoking Bertolt Brecht who reaches 95 per cent of the world’s In India, and in other countries of believed that radio should be peer- population and as an apparatus for South Asia, such as Bangladesh to-peer communication. In his social change, cultural exchange, and Nepal, community radio famous 1932 essay, The Radio as an and cohesion. Every year, on stations are endeavouring to give Apparatus of Communication’5 he February 13, UNESCO and the greater voice to young men and warned against radio being redu- numerous radio enthusiasts women by creating opportunities ced to only a distribution system or around the world, celebrate radio for civic engagement for youth, an “acoustical department store” as a medium vital to the “mission and providing them with a means and wrote: “[R]adio is one-sided of creating a more peaceful, more to represent their concerns through when it should be two-. It is purely sustainable and more inclusive radio. The capacity-building an apparatus for distribution, for future for all”. workshops for community radio mere sharing out. The theme of the fourth UN producers – whether they are So here is a positive suggestion: annual World Radio Day for 2015 through the Community Learning change this apparatus over from was Youth and Radio that stressed Programme approach or in the form distribution to communication. the need to empower youth voices of issue-based training institutes – The radio would be the finest for a sustainable future. This are bringing together youth to train possible communication apparatus occasion fore-grounded the need them with skills to spearhead social in public life, a vast network of for greater social inclusion in change, mobilise participation, and pipes. That is to say, it would be if radio, especially of the generation mediate public debates in their it knew how to receive as well as under 30 years old, which accounts respective communities. to transmit, how to let the listener for more than half of the world’s Let us all have a ear for speak as well as hear, how to bring population. well-informed RJs, intelligent him into a relationship instead of Many countries of South Asia conversation, quality entertainment, isolating him. On this principle are witnessing the slow, yet sure offbeat vocals, upcoming artists, the radio should step out of the growth of community radio as inspiring poetry, unsung local supply business and organize its a third tier of broadcasting. This bands, jingles that motivate, weird listeners as suppliers. Any attempt sector is specifically suited to facts of the world, pertinent life by the radio to give a truly public

encourage youth to get involved issues, and other novelties probably character to public occasions is a with radio not only as listeners not heard on radio for ages, of step in the right direction.” < but also as producers. Several course, along with the Bollywood initiatives are now beginning to songs and local music we all love. (The writer is associate professor make youth-oriented shows and One must tread with caution though and faculty fellow, UNESCO Chair to run workshops in community and youth as purveyors of radio on Community Media, Department radio production with a view to must understand – radio is not of Communication, University of involving young people as team meant to be a ‘me-speaking-to-you’ Hyderabad.)

5. From Brecht on Theatre. Translated and edited by Jon Willett. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964. [«Der Rundfunk als Kommunikationsapparat» in Blätter des Hessischen Landestheaters, Darmstadt, No. 16, July 1932]

34 VIDURA April-June 2015 VIEW FROM THE NORTHEAST Wanted: A law to safeguard journalists on duty

The physical assault on a woman reporter by police personnel in January has revived the debate on the need for a special law for the protection of media persons on duty. Nava Thakuria on that and more young reporter who works against the guilty police officers Commission for the Guwahati-based immediately. for Women Asatellite news channel Guwahati Police Commissioner (NCW) DY365 and the camera person Jyotirmoy Chakrabarty said a case demanding accompanying her were attacked had been registered in Latashil justice to the Nava Thakuria at Latashil Police Station in the Police Station on the basis of the victims, also heart of Guwahati city, provoking FIR filed by the woman reporter. called for a angry demonstrations by the media However, he said, two other FIRs special protection law for journalists fraternity for three days, deman- had been lodged in the same police on duty. In another memorandum ding action against the concerned station by the woman living in the to the Union Law and Justice police officials. concerned quarters, and the SI in Minister Sadananda Gowda, the The reporter had gone to the whose name the quarters stands media forum claimed that the station with due permission, to file though he had been transferred situation was the same across the a story on the pathetic condition of out. The Assam Police Association country and hence a special law for the quarters and barracks inside accused the reporter of violating working journalists is the need of the campus. There she discovered the privacy of the woman in the the hour. that one of the quarters had been quarters, saying she had been rented out by a police officer to breastfeeding her baby when the Lower death toll in 2014 someone outside the force. The reporter had interviewed her. Only two journalists lost their officer-in-charge of the police The EMFA ridiculed the lives in violence related to the station, Chidananda Bora, ordered allegations. Journalists across course of their work in India last her to withdraw the visuals that Assam supported the protests, and year, compared to 2013, when were taken and when she refused, the press fraternity of Arunachal more than 10 media personnel she and the camera person were Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, were killed during the course of assaulted by the police. The Nagaland and Tripura too their work. However, the media reporter called her colleagues, who expressed solidarity with the fraternity received a tremendous came to the police station along scribe. The North East Network amount of threats all through the with other members of the media (NEN), a woman’s organisation year. Of the two murders which fraternity, and staged a dharna (sit- based in Guwahati, said the took place last year, the first was in in) there. Protests continued into incident was “not an isolated act… Odisha, and the second in Andhra the following days, and many of the it threatens the personal and Pradesh. agitating journalists were detained professional integrity of a woman Tarun Kumar Acharya, the 35- by police. professional.” The Assam Human year-old journalist working for The Electronic Media Forum Rights Commission registered a Kanak Television, a regional news Assam (EMFA) and Journalists’ case on February 2 and asked the channel, in Ganjam District of Forum Assam (JFA) condemned authorities to institute a probe Odisha, and a regular contributor the incident and also the into the matter. Finally the State to an Oriya newspaper, was knifed detention of media persons. Both government issued a statement that to death after he wrote a series organisations urged Assam Chief the chief minister had ordered a of reports on the local cashew- Minister Tarun Gogoi and Assam probe into the incident. nut processing factories which Police Director-General Khagen The EMFA, which lodged a employed child labour. He had also Sarma to take appropriate action complaint with the National been vocal against the atrocities

April-June 2015 VIDURA 35 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar

committed by some powerful public distribution system, in the According to the Committee to locals. Two persons were arrested, black market. He had even lodged Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media one of them a cashew factory a complaint at the Guntur Police rights body, it was confirmed that owner, and the other a small-time Station asking for action against at least 59 journalists who died businessman. His murder was the corrupt dealers. Local journalist in 2014 were victims of violence condemned by various journalist bodies organised protest rallies because of their professional bodies. demanding that the perpetrators activities. In Syria, 17 journalists The other victim, M.V.N. Shankar of the crime be brought to book. were murdered, followed by five (53), was based at Chilakaluripet No arrests have been made as in each Ukraine and Iraq four in of Guntur District in Andhra yet. Palestine and Somalia, Paraguay Pradesh. A senior journalist India’s immediate neighbours (3), Mexico, Afghanistan and working with , a Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma Brazil (2 each), and one each in popular Telugu daily published also lost journalists to assailants, the Philippines South Africa Libya from Hyderabad, Shankar was but no journalists were killed in Yemen Central African Republic attacked by unidentified assailants Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the with iron rods and sticks in front and Maldives. In fact, a Nepal court Congo. of his residence. He succumbed recently convicted and sentenced to injuries next day. Shankar had five persons for the killing of Support for victims of militant written a number of reports on a reputed journalist from that activity the kerosene mafia, which sells country, Dekendra Raj Thapa, a Amidst allegations that Assam- the fuel, supplied through the decade back. based private news channels beam

36 VIDURA April-June 2015 only negative and inflammatory reports in times of crises, channel EMAIL TO THE EDITOR managements have taken up the noble mission of helping families Aim for human interest and readability which have fallen victims to militant activity in various remote Dear Editor, parts of the state. The channels in I wish to comment on some articles in the issue of Vidura, (January- north-eastern India appealed for March 2015. I am in complete agreement with your editorial 'A need, public support for such families and perhaps, for considerable restraint and dignity'. The media forget that later distributed relief materials to journalism comes under sociology and not business. Crying hoarse for inmates of nearly 80 relief camps. absolute freedom of speech reflects how anti-social the media can be. The inmates in the camps, all I also read with interest Harshini Raji's 'Please see me as a woman, not adivasis (tribals) from Central as a prey'. But I think her brutally frank comment about 'hungry eyes' is India, brought to Assam as counter-productive. Personally, I believe thinking and writing are feminine labour, were survivors of attacks acts. This is perhaps the reason that there are many women among the by militants, suspected to belong great writers I admire. But Raji's language sounds masculine. to a banned breakaway faction of J.V. Vil'anilam's article 'When the reader is king' sets up a useful reader- the National Democratic Front of centric orientation for journalists. Every section is fine except the last in Bodoland, The group is pressing which he sets up a conflict between readability and reader interest. He for a separate homeland for the says 'high-scoring reading material may be a bore; low-scoring material Bodos, and is against non-Bodo may be fascinating'. He is right of course, but he hasn't exhausted all settlers in the region. Around 75 the possibilities: 1. lacking human interest and unreadable; 2. lacking people, including women and human interest but readable; 3. human interest but unreadable; and 4. children, were killed when the human interest and readable. Let us not prefer an either/ or situation. militants opened indiscriminate Journalists should aim for a story that has human interest and is readable,

fire on unarmed people preparing too. Rudolph Flesch did create a complex formula for human interest, to celebrate Christmas in Sonitpur, which I simplified in the pages of Vidura (‘The conversational style’) a < Kokrajhar and Chirang Districts couple of years ago. of Assam. The miscreants also set Watson Solomon (aka Nirmaldasan) on fire over 450 houses and 50 market stalls. (The writer is a communication consultant based in Chennai.) Though the Assam Government announced financial support to the families of the victims, nearly one lakh people were rendered homeless. Most of the underprivileged families have been Printers in southern states join hands accommodated in makeshift camps which lack adequate supplies of Prin ter as so ci a tions from dif fer ent cities in Tamil Nadu and four other essential commodities like drinking neigh bour ing States have come together and formed a new outfit — Con- water, food and warm clothes. fed er a tion of South India Printers’ As so ci ation ( COSIPA) — to tap into Understanding the gravity of the Cen tral schemes, here on Sun day. Out of the 2.40 lakh print- ing units situation, private news channels in the country, over 50 per cent were op er ating in the southern States of in Assam like DY365, NewsLive, Tamil Nadu, Kar nataka, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Te lengana. NewsTimeAssam and PragNews How ever, many ben e fits to the print ing units an nounced by the Cen tre (in association with GLP Social or the MSME did not reach those in south ern States. The prime rea son Circle) took the initiative to collect was that print ing units were not or ganised. Therefore, it was de cided to various useful materials from the come to gether and es tab lish a larger out fit un der one um brella to en able public and distribute them at the the mem bers to strengthen the indus try, said C. R. Janard hana, a member camps. The names of the donors from Kar nataka.

Ear lier, at a consul ta tion meet ing, the members said that the need of the were published in the Assamese < daily Amar Asom. hour was to start their own clus ters and es tablish common fa cility cen tres.

Many pointed out that a ma jor ity of the earn ings went to wards pay ing rent for the print ing units’ premises ow ing to the ab sence of in dus trial < (The writer is a senior journalist based es tates. in Assam. He is the secretary of the Guwahati Press Club.)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 37 THE NELLIE MASSACRE Thirty years on, the wounds are still fresh Thirty years after a calculated attack on unsuspecting villagers in the Nellie area of Assam, the survivors, mainly women, are reluctant to talk about the nightmare because the pain refuses to go away. These women have been waiting long years for justice. Will the government take notice, wonders Bonya Baruah emories of that fateful day her psyche, she still carries the yet another more than 30 years ago continuing pain of a leg which was survivor. Mstill have the power to damaged during the incident. “It Nellie is a reduce Moriyom Begum to tears. is not easy to live with such pain. small town Bonya Baruah She was then 20 years old and Sometimes I am so tired of this in Morigaon three months pregnant. “At that life, I want to die,” she says. Johra District time I was a rice seller. My Hindu lost her parents and five sisters in of Assam, about 70 km from customers, who were very close the massacre. “I was only 11 years Guwahati. The area was mostly with us, came with machetes in old at that time. The attackers shot occupied by Muslims of East their hands to kill us,” she recalls at me. CRPF constables found me Bengal origin who had migrated to in bewilderment. Moriyom lost and admitted me to the Guwahati Assam in the early 20th Century. her whole family in what came to Medical College,” she says. Even The genocide was carried out in be known as the ‘Nellie massacre’. though she was under treatment for cold blood simultaneously in 14 She herself found shelter with 11 months, Johra is not fit enough villages of the area. the help of local people across the to work and support herself. She The attacks started at 8.30 am at Kopili River, which she and others has to depend on the generosity of Borbori Village, to which Moriyom, managed to cross. After her son was her younger sister’s family. “I am Johra and Sahera belong, and born, she had to rely on the support aware of government facilities for continued for about six hours. of a paternal uncle. “Now, my the physically handicapped. But A total of 585 people were killed son is old enough to earn. I don’t though I have applied for these in the village which had a total discuss that horrible incident with facilities many times, I have not got population of 912. The attackers him for fear that it might make him any help,” she laments. came from the nearby Tiwa and revengeful,” she says. Sahera Khatun (70) lost a son Koch Villages. Forty-two-year-old Johra Khatun and three daughters to the Nellie According to government is another survivor of that terrible massacre. “I was 25 years old,” she records, 1800 Muslims lost night. Apart from the scars to remembers. “On February 18, in the their lives in the genocide but, morning, we saw a very large group of people with different types of arms coming towards us. They burnt our houses.” It was a Friday, and people of the Muslim village were gathered at the masjid to pray. But the attackers came to the masjid too, and hacked and killed indiscriminately. “Some 40 people were killed in front of our eyes. Along with some others, I jumped into the Kopili River. The

water turned red with the blood of Photos: BB/DJ those who were killed. My brother Johra Khatun, 42, who became physi- and father were among the victims,” Moriom Begum, 52, who lost her cally handicapped by the massacre. remembers Kodbhanu Begum, whole family.

38 VIDURA April-June 2015 already poor families. That apart, they all carry the burden of the psychological trauma of the attack. The memories are still fresh and raw. Even now, when talking of the attack, many of the women break down. These women have been waiting long years for justice. The meagre compensation of Rs 5000 that the government granted them cannot bring their loved ones back to life. The perpetrators of the crime Kodbhanu Begum, 57, whose brother at large, and go about their lives Sahera Khatun, 72, compares the and father were among the victims. quite freely. genocide with 'Karbala war'. The inhabitants of Borbori unofficially, the death toll was Village still hope that the criminals public to turn their attention on

around 3300. will one day be punished and their these suffering survivors of the Women are the most vulnerable loved ones, who were massacred, Nellie massacre, perhaps justice < in ethnic conflicts. Even those who will be recognised as martyrs. will be served. survive suffer, as they have to Government and non-government live without the support of their organisations should come forward husbands and other male relatives. to help these shattered people (The writer is a sub-editor with In Nellie, too, the worst affected by rebuild their lives and enable , a leading the 1983 massacre were women. them to raise their families in the daily based in Guwahati. She is also The widows struggled to raise their absence of the breadwinners who a research scholar focused on Woman families on their own. Those who were so cruelly cut down. If the and Ethnic Conflict, Department of were physically handicapped in the intelligentsia of Assam is able to Mass Communication & Journalism, violence remain burdens on their get the government and the general Gauhati University.)

K. Balaji elected chair, World Printers Forum Kasturi Balaji, director of Kasturi & Sons, publisher of The Hindu, has been elected the first chair of the newly founded World Printers Forum, which aims to encourage innovation and the continued development of printed news media. Rick Stunt, group paper director of the Daily Mail Group Media in the United Kingdom, was elected vice-chair of the forum, an organisation for newspaper printers and suppliers within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). "The World Printers Forum will focus sharply on how printed products, largely newspapers from news media organisations and companies, can be kept relevant and be sustained into the distant future," said Balaji. "The Forum seeks to achieve this by addressing all print-related questions and encouraging innovation, product development and productivity". The Printers Forum was created to address and promote the continuing importance of print in the news media ecosystem. The World Printers Forum Board has 12 members, half of them representing publishing and printing companies and half representing materials and equipment suppliers from around the world. Members of the Board are: Kasturi Balaji, director, Kasturi & Sons (The Hindu), Chennai, India; Dieter Betzmeier, member of the executive board, manroland Web Systems, Augsburg, Germany; Michael Hirthammer, general manager, Director Global Paste Technologies, Screen & Industrial, Sun Chemical, Karlstein am Main, Germany; Thomas Isaksen, CEO, DDPFF Den Danske Presses, Faellesindkøbs-Forening, København, Denmark; Herbert Kaiser, project manager and senior project manager Engineering Newspaper Presses, Koenig & Bauer, Würzburg, Germany; Jan Kasten, managing director, CTO, ppi Media GmbH, Hamburg, Germany; Graham Macfarlane, board member, Felix Böttcher, Cologne, Germany; Mohamed Hassan Mohamed Ali, senior GM, Technical Services, Star Publications, Member of Asian Newspaper Printers, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; Winfried Schaur, senior VP, Newspaper Publishing, UPM,

Augsburg, Germany; Josef Schießl, technical director, Süddeutscher Verlag Zeitungsdruck, Munich, Germany; Peder Schumacher, president V-TAB, Chairman Nordic Offset Printers Association, Gothenburg, Sweden; and Rick < Stunt, group paper director, Daily Mail Group Media, London, United Kingdom.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 39 The media in needs a helping hand

Students of the Department of Convergent Journalism, Central University of Kashmir, on a trip to Ladakh, found that in the Himalayan region the media is not exactly in paradise. The government should actively explore the possibility of starting community radio and even community television services to better integrate the people of the isolated region with the mainstream developmental processes, says John K. Babu

adakh is far away from tabloid is the leading newspaper published anywhere. It is regarded of the region and is full of by Ladakh Las Paradise on Earth, and attractive pictures and information. Buddhist John K. Babu offers a serene retreat from Tundup Dorjey, who founded the Association the pressures of modern life. publication in 1999, has kept it on a youth wing from Leh. Voice of Long caught between unfriendly steady course all these years. Editor Ladakh is a Kargil-based newspaper neighbours China and Pakistan, Rinchen Angmo Chumikchan’s owned by the Imam Khomeini Ladakh is a border region in the primary focus is the latest news and Memorial Trust. It consists of state of and Kashmir. It tourism-related information from eight pages and is a bilingual consists of two districts - Kargil and Ladakh. fortnightly tabloid. Daily updated Leh - with a total population of 2.74 Rangyul, previously called Kargil news of Ladakh can be accessed lakh (2011 Census). It is famous on Number, is a fortnightly bilingual on visitladakh.com. Stawa a the world tourist map because of (English and ) newspaper monthly English news magazine its rich cultural heritage. However, published from Srinagar covering is published from Leh and printed students of the Department of news of Ladakh. The 16-page, in Mumbai under the editorship of Convergent Journalism, Central black and white tabloid paper Sunetro Ghosal. University of Kashmir, on a trip to mostly circulated in Kargil started Interestingly, Ladakh has been the Himalayan region, found that its journey in August 2004. With pushed onto the digital media in Ladakh, the media is not exactly a mission to promote functional bandwagon without experiencing in paradise. literacy, Ladags Melong (Mirror the usual quota of daily print Newspapers and magazine are of Ladakh) was started by the publications. Ladakh Today, a multi- needed to serve as a window to Students Educational and Cultural edition newspaper is published Ladakh’s centuries-old cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). from Delhi, Leh and Jammu and heritage and values, apart from It is a bilingual (English and Kashmir, in electronic form. In daily happenings, for thousands of Ladakhi) magazine published from today’s digital age, electronic outsiders visiting the unique place, 1993 to 2005 and has a web portal journals provide publishers and besides Ladakh’s own scholars, providing news content besides readers an opportunity for wider students and academicians. video and pictorial information. dissemination of knowledge Despite considerable climatic con- Heritage Himalaya is a bi-annual than print publications. They straints, weekly, fortnightly and news magazine, launched on 21 can incorporate daily updates monthly periodicals have been August 2012, published by the along with features that improve registering growth over the last Himalayan Cultural Heritage on or go beyond those that have few years. Reputed national media Foundation (HCHF), a Leh-based traditionally been available in print professionals pool their efforts and Non-Government Organisation publications. contribute to the running of local devoted to cultural promotion and Apart from local periodicals, papers for the benefit of Ladakhi preservation. some daily newspapers such as people. Ladakh Sargyur (Ladakhi News) , Rising Kashmir, There are a handful of private a bi-monthly newspaper is perhaps State Times, The Daily Excelsior, news outfits. Reach Ladakh Bulletin, the only paper available exclusively and some monthly a fortnightly English newspaper is in the Ladakhi language. This magazines which cover the state published from Leh and printed in colourful, four-page newspaper is as a whole also include Ladakh in New Delhi. The colourful 12-page edited by Chhimet Namgyal and their scope. National dailies have

40 VIDURA April-June 2015 to reach Ladakh by air. At the best of times, they arrive a day late, and during winter, it could take up to a week or ten days. All India Radio (AIR) started its services in the tiny town of Leh on 25th June 1971. There are three transmissions in a day, together amounting to 12 hours and 30 minutes. Ladakhi, Urdu, Hindi, Balti and Tibetan are the languages in which programmes covering a population of about 200000 (including paramilitary forces and Tibetan refugees) are being broadcast in Ladakh’s two districts. Along with the faculty, students of the Department of Convergent Journalism, Doordarshan (DD) has a station in Central University of Kashmir pose at Pyang Yong Lake, situated between India Leh that broadcasts local content and China in high altitude of Himalayan mountains. and news for a few hours a day. The Ladakhis produce heritage of song and dance and (CSE), New Delhi and Ladakh Arts feature films that are screened television.” and Media Organisation (LAMO) - in auditoriums and community There are well established jointly conducted a two-day media halls. They are made on fairly religious, social and political workshop for journalists in Leh modest budgets. Rigzia Dolma, organisations in both districts that with special focus on reportage of an educated young woman in could easily run newspapers and local environmental issues. About a jewellery shop in Moti market thereby contribute to making this 30 reporters from Leh and Kargil in Leh, said, “People, especially backward society aware of the attended. elders in Ladakh, rely on the political and social developments The time is ripe to make radio for news and information. taking place in and around Ladakh. extensive use of alternative media For entertainment purpose, they In April 2013, two organisations - channels such as local newspapers, have local folk media with its rich Centre for Science and Environment community radio, and community television channels, apart from social media and online news magazines. Government support and cooperation is needed to help media organisations in Ladakh to bolster the efforts of the local people. The government should actively explore the possibility of starting community radio and even community television services to better integrate the people of this isolated Himalayan region with

the mainstream developmental processes. <

(The writer is assistant professor, Department of Convergent Journalism, Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar.) Photos: JB

Students learn the news reading process at the Doordarshan Station in Leh. The writer can be seen in the background, to the right.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 41 WATER AS A BASIC NEED There’s just no scope for complacency

Though evoking less attention in general compared to climate change or air pollution, the crisis brewing around water, its availability, denudation and the impact on society, should serve as a wake-up call, which environment experts have been warning for some time now. The think-tank in the UN took cognizance of the facts and dedicated the last decade to one of the basic needs for human beings. The UN declared 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action on Water with the nomenclature Water for Life. Ranjita Biswas looks back and also beyond the goals the international body had set for itself uring the decade 2005- developing countries; an estimated Old-timers would perhaps 15, issues like women 748 billion people do not have safe remember the 1972 Basu Chatter- Dand children’s access to drinking water; 2.5 billion people jee film Piya Ka Ghar with Jaya water, women’s vulnerability in lack access to improved sanitation; Bhaduri and Anil Dhawan as a countries where they are the that is, more than 35 per cent of the newly married couple trying to principal carriers of potable world’s population; two thirds of cope while living in a one-room water due unavailability at home, the world’s population will live in tenement in Mumbai. Having to also got included in the agenda’s water-stressed countries by 2025 if sleep in the kitchen does not let focus areas. In 2014, the UN the current pattern of consumption them have some privacy; they are Open Working Group proposed continues. Water shortage has been disturbed at dawn everyday as a Sustainable Development Goal identified by industry, government, women in the family rush to collect (SDG) to ensure availability and academia and civil society as one drinking water for the day from the sustainable management of water of the top three global risks tap in the kitchen because only at and sanitation for all. As the today. that hour is water supplied by the decade is now closed, it is time According to the UN World municipality; the predicament of to look beyond, to the goals. Water Development Report, by the young bride almost breaks the At the recently concluded UN- 2050, at least one in four people is marriage. Though a comedy, the Water Conference titled Water likely to live in a country affected film touches on a real problem – and Sustainable Development: by chronic or recurring shortages housing and water supply in the From Vision to Action held in of freshwater. Meanwhile, the cities. Things may have changed Zaragoza, Spain, more than three World Commission on Water has for the better for some but millions hundred participants comprising warned that more than half of in India still do not have adequate experts, academicians, researchers the world’s rivers are seriously supply of potable water. and policy makers as well as depleted. Regarding India, the Research shows that an average water administrators and NGO World Health Organisation women in rural India walks more representatives from different estimates that 97 million Indians than 15 km a day to bring home parts of the globe congregated lack access to safe water, second potable water. In rural parts, almost to exchange ideas and prepare only to China. According to the 88 million people still lack basic for the next era. The current Ministry of Water Resources, India water access. decade culminated in New Delhi has 18 per cent of the world's On the other hand, traditional commemorating World Water Day population but only 4 per cent of sources of water such as ponds, on 22 March. total usable water resources. It is tanks which dot (or used to) the The reason for worry about predicted that the urban population countryside lie neglected. This has water, in its present state and as in developing countries like India been the experience of many other predicted in the near future, is will grow dramatically, generating countries too. Water management backed by hard facts. Worldwide, demand well beyond the capacity was one of the focus areas under around 2.2 million people die of already inadequate water supply discussion at the Zaragoza each year from diarrhoea, mostly and sanitation infrastructure a nd Conference. Because women are children under the age of five in services. more affected by lack of water, in

42 VIDURA April-June 2015 many places in the world, they have formed their own groups to take up water management projects using their traditional skill and sagacity. Non-profit organisations such as Women for Water Partnership, Netherlands, select such initiatives and give seed money for their projects. “We have seen women are much better at working as a group. We should help them with technology support and money so that they can be self-sufficient and also set an example for others,” says Alice M. Bouman- Photo: RR/WFS Dentener, its founding president. Women of Barwa-Gopalwadi line up at their newly constructed beri (recharge The experience has also shown well). This picture shows how scarce water is, and how precious. that becoming water self-sufficient leads to empowerment too as and Hygiene). In this area too, households. This way they have women have much more time at India shows up poorly. Almost been able to provide quality water disposal. In India, NGOs working 600 million still have to defecate in to people in less developed areas with women in various fields can the open for lack of toilets. Some in cities and suburbs. This is not extend the scope to include water communities, however, prefer this an unfamiliar situation in India too management in their agenda. form of ablution citing ‘tradition’; as municipality authorities in most For water-use efficiency, this needs another kind of places face resistance to water tax at combining technology with awareness creation strategy. the rate prescribed. “But there must traditional methods of water pre- One predicament while tackling be a commitment, and participation servation was widely discussed. water problem is that it has an by all in the community in this; Increasing the capacity of local emotional attachment, unlike air it’s also more democratic,” feels storage and recharge through pollution or global warming. Simus. watershed development are crucial Human civilizations have Water availability, which is for water availability, particularly developed around great rivers likely to increase as population in India with a large section of whether the Ganga, the Nile or increases and there is pressure on farmers it is bound to result in elsewhere. At the same time, water resources can even lead to political more water requirement and over- is taken or granted. “People under- disputes. In India, water-sharing extraction of groundwater. stand food security or energy disagreements have frequently led A good step recently has been security, but water security is more recurring conflict between some to relook at age-old storage abstract. It’s regarded as God-given, neighbouring states. Tackling the methods and revived for use like and so free,” observed Joakim water problem in all its dimensions the baoris, traditional step wells in Harlin, senior water advisor, United needs involvement of all sections Gujarat as also in Rajasthan. There Nations Development Programme of the society – the scientific are also some ‘water-crusaders’ in (UNDP) during the Zaragoza community, civil society, academia, the country now whose work is Conference. This is also a reason policy makers at domestic and inspiring. Sharing stories of out-of- why people object to paying water international arena. This aspect the–box thinking have their own tax though it could lead to more came through forcefully in the UN benefit in a problem which is not equitable distribution of quality conference. That there is no scope confined to one region. water in urban areas. for complacency even though the Besides availability of fresh Luis Simas, head of the Drinking International Decade for Action

drinking water, sanitation and Water Quality Department of on Water draws to a close was also hygiene also falls under UN Water the Water and Waste Services empahasised. < Decade. Open defecation, mainly Regulation Authority, Portugal, in rural areas, which leads to health revealed that the issue has been (The writer is a Kolkata-based risks of various kinds, particularly tackled ’through prolonged and journalist. She is also a short story affecting young children, has difficult negotiations’ ensuring and children’s fiction writer and prize- been a target of UN’s worldwide that people would pay the tax winning translator of fiction. She has campaign WASH (Water, Sanitation keeping with the income of the six published books.)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 43 Enriching edutainment with positive stories

Mein Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon is capturing the attention of Doordarshan viewers. It is a prime example of a whole new approach to ‘educative entertainment’ – the propagation of positive deviant behaviour to reinforce constructive, life-changing decisions say Sarita Anand and Sunaina Batra r Sneha works in the small behaviour of ordinary people, because most town of Pratappur. She’s particularly with regard to adoption of the women Da young woman, torn bet- of contraceptive methods and were from ween professional aspirations and countering the preference for a male a religious Sarita Anand personal commitments. Like many child, with the aim of propagating minority and Indian women, her life is a struggle and popularising such behaviour belonged to to meet the demands of family through interpersonal or mass a low socio- and society. And like many Indian mediated methods. The exercise economic class women of today, she thrives on was based on the belief that the representing challenges. She is convinced that actions of likeable characters are one of the she can do anything. In fact, that is likely to resonate with people facing toughest the title (Mein Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti similar situations and are likely to groups for ad- Hoon) of the tele-series featuring be emulated. option of any the fictional life and experiences Research was conducted in rural form of birth of Dr Sneha that has viewers of and semi-urban areas of Madhya control. Sunaina Batra Doordarshan riveted. Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and The research Dr Sneha may be a fictional Delhi with the objective of cap- identified a character, but the truth is, her turing positive deviant behaviour few individuals who had been experiences are not entirely (PDB) related to family planning, able to persuade their spouses imaginary. They are based on the spacing, use of contraceptives and or elders in the family to accept real-life stories that health workers counselling of young couples. alternate viewpoints about the and ordinary men and women Focussed group discussions with number and sex of children they have to tell. Mein Kuch Bhi Kar the local communities and in-depth desired. Deviant behaviour such Sakti Hoon is an experiment to interviews with frontline health as delaying first pregnancy after use positive deviant behaviour to workers helped in identifying the marriage, adoption of reliable sensitise people into making better micro behaviour of both healthcare contraception and terminal personal choices in life through providers such as medical officers methods of sterilisation after one mass media. and health workers, and the seekers or two children in communities The non-pedantic messaging — women, men and members of where having three to four system used for entertainment their families. children was a norm, were education has proved to be very In city hospitals, respondents brought to light. effective in communication were asked what enabled certain For instance, the research team regarding health. Such pro- health service providers to convince met an illiterate woman who grammes strategically employ their clients to adopt temporary took the initiative to undergo a media role models to promote or permanent methods of con- tubectomy after giving birth to sociallydesirable behaviour. In traception more effectively than t her second child. She lived in a order to identify such behaviour heir peers. This line of enquiry led not-so-well-connected village in related to planning families, to one staff nurse among several the Bundelkhand Region. She the comparatively new Positive working in the same unit, who was was convinced that she would Deviance Approach was used in far more effective in convincing not be able to provide more than formative research for the tele- patients to adopt an intra-uterine two children the upbringing she serial. The research was designed device (IUD). Her accomplish- dreamed of giving them. Her to identify uncommon but effective ment was even more significant husband, who has completed high-

44 VIDURA April-June 2015 (Sarita Anand is associate professor, Department of Development Communication & Extension, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi. Sunaina Batra is a doctoral scholar and former assistant professor in the same department.)

Kushabhau Univ signs MoU with Network 18 Kushabhau Thakre Patra- karita Avam Jansanchar Photo: http://www.mkbksh.com/resources.html Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur signed a memorandum of understanding Yes, a woman can achieve anything. This eye-catching poster for the DD serial with Network 18 under the Media shows the actor, a young woman, brimming with confidence. Institute Initiative (MII) with the objective to deepen the industry- school, was sceptical about taking own families, and also take care academia engagement in the such a decision. She said, “I knew of him and his wife in old age if media space through seminars, very well that he will not use, or let needed. He opted for vasectomy. internships, guest lectures and me use any contraceptive, so I went These are a few of the many other interventions for sectoral to the camp with my neighbour stories which were documented capability enhancement. and got a tubectomy done.” She thorough a systematic distillation The MoU was signed in the showed courage in going against of PDB formative research. The presence of Chief Minister of the will of her husband to plan identified behaviour and the social Chhattisgarh Raman Singh, by the family, against the norm of a dynamics in which they were Umesh Upadhyay, president patriarchal set-up. “I was sure that I being practiced formed the warp News, Network18 and would be able to convince him and and weft of the stories of change Sachchidanand Joshi, vice- elders in the family afterwards,” she which were then scripted into chancellor of the university on maintained. And she did succeed. episodes for the tele-series aired on January 30 in Raipur. Sumit She now lives happily with her national television. Awasthi, deputy managing editor, husband and two children. Mein Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon IBN 7, was a special invitee. In Haryana, a young man, the is an example of edutainment Joshi said the MII endeavor principal of a private middle that has used a prime-time slot was a great opportunity for the school, shared how he resisted to spread awareness and sensitise students and faculty to showcase pressure from his mother and wife people ab-out personal choices. their talent and expertise. The to have one more child after two Directed by Feroz Abbas Khan initiative aims to write a new daughters. He finally sat down and endorsed by Sharmila Tagore, chapter in the relationship

with his mother to explain that at the series focuses on prevention of between the academia and< his school, he always talked about sex selection, early marriage and media girls and boys being equal. He domestic violence, on women’s considered himself to be an example reproductive health and on for his students and, therefore, sensitising men about the ‘alternate he could not try for another child masculinity’, of being a responsible in the hope that it would be a husband and father. It has garnered boy, he explained. He assured his overwhelming response as reflected mother that he would bring up his in the TRP of 2.0 within four weeks daughters like sons, making them of its launch, making it the

independent so that they would be forerunner among the new shows able to look after the needs of their on Doordarshan. <

April-June 2015 VIDURA 45 BOOK PUBLISHING IN INDIA Finding innovative ways to deliver content Som Nath Sapru believes that we are in the midst of a watershed moment for the publishing industry. Digital is firmly a part of the offering, but the landscape within which publishers work in India is about to alter considerably. Trade publishers should brace for change, but not be fearful of it. Rather than trying to predict the future, publishers need to focus on getting their houses in order, he says aperbacks, school, college It was Hind Pocket Books who a significant change in the core and other educational guide developed the paperback market in business model of the publishing Pbooks besides regional India for Hindi and other regional industry. The change in technology language dictionaries is a very language books in late 1950s and and consumer behaviour has big segment of the publishing 1960s. With the help and cooperation given rise to new opportunities industry. In the northern part of some like-minded Delhi-based and challenges for traditional of India, Hind Pocket Books publishers, it was D.N. Malhotra publishers. Digital media has established by D.N. Malhotra in who brought the publishing-trade targeted the publishing industry's late 1950s has done wonders in from Bombay to Delhi, shifting core sources of revenue. The rapid the paperback book segment of the focus away from importers of expansion of digital media has publishing in the country. In the foreign books to domestic/local driven publishers to reduce costs southern part of India, Dominic publishers. Hind Pocket Books and streamline operations. Also, Chacko (now no more) set up DC was also instrumental in setting the pressure on publishers has Books 40 years ago. DC Books’ con- up the first voluntary all-India increased as a growing number of tribution in is worth body of publishers, the Federation consumers prefer access to online mentioning. The brand grew and of Publishers and Booksellers of content. Consumers seek content flourished in the lifetime of Chacko India, and Malhotra served as its that can be accessed through a wide and he was very successful in president during 1967-69 and was range of devices such as personal publishing works of the best talents later president emeritus, Federation digital assistants, mobile phones in Malayalam. DC publishers now of Indian Publishers. and pocket PCs. publish 2.5 million copies of the The emergence of digital and In an industry that was long Malayalam-English Dictionary. online media has brought about under the influence of the print medium, publishers are now finding innovative ways to deliver content to users. Some of the emerging trends in the publishing industry include electronic books (e-books), podcasts, blogs, mobile publishing, and self-publishing. Few publishers have also taken a different route to reach out to readers, such as e-books and digital content. The number, though small, is growing, say experts, who place the current e-book market at about two to three per cent. Experts say digital content cuts Photo: WoodWing through the distribution problems and physical manufacturing and Yes, digital publishing is here to stay Tablets might still be a niche market in finishing of the published work. To India, but they are a rapidly growing and promising new media channel for understand the Indian e-reader, a newspaper publishers. Toronto-based company launched

46 VIDURA April-June 2015 its e-book reader in October 2013 electronic form are challenges that should brace for change, but not and also partnered with the book- publishers grapple with, with no be fearful of it. Perhaps, rather chain, Crosswords. clear answer from technologists. As than trying to predict the future, e-reading in India hasn’t reached publishers need to focus on getting Online retail, social media an appreciable volume and there is their houses in order, as strong and In recent times, e-retailers tend hardly any data available on how efficient systems are an ever-more to have an edge over conventional much consumption is on the go, necessary foundation for secure stores as compared to online technologists only suggest trying and successful working within an retailers such as Amazon and out the market, which baffles the unpredictable future globalised Flipkart, for business-centric books publisher. With no clear indication market place. as well as expensive coffee-table of the returns on the investment In its 2013 report, the and reference books. E-retailers are already pumped in. International Publishers Asso- in a comfortable position to offer Another genre of books which ciation (IPA) has pronounced that higher discounts on such titles. This is fast gaining steam is graphic global publishing productivity is has immensely impacted bookstore novels, specifically on the lines up, but growth is down, looking owners as they are unable to offer of mythical fantasy. Such books at the relative performance of the such heavy discounts. However, were probably not bought 10 years world’s major publishing markets. leisure content and content for ago. It's driven by the youth that According to IPA’s annual report, children has not been impacted is exposed to so much happening UK publishers published 184000 for bookstore owners. In fact, it is around the world right now that titles in 2013. This despite the IPA the bookstores’ highest growing they're expecting not just the best ranking the British publishing category. Wider connectivity in terms of quality but something industry only the fifth most and publicity by e-retailers has that speaks to them as a local valuable in the world. While the not impacted the children book audience too -- if you can provide US publishing industry was the business whereas it has only something unique, you have a largest by value, it was not the broadened and brought in a much great opportunity. largest by volume. That ranking wider audience for reading as you Publishing is becoming a more went to China. connect better. globalised industry. Mergers, During 2012-14, China was the Information technologists are acquisitions, joint ventures, shared only country which saw the value enthusiastic and active in setting media platforms and technological of its publishing industry increase up new ventures that convert a advances have made the world ahead of output. Its total market p-book (printed book) into an a much smaller place. The recent value rose by 9 per cent, while eBook (electronic book) and an merger of Penguin and Random output rose by 7 per cent. China was m-book (mobile phone book). created quite a stir in the industry. one of only seven territories (Brazil, Such entrepreneurs also help you Trade publishers should continue Mexico, Colombia, New Zealand, reach the market by social media to exploit the opportunities within Norway, the Czech Republic campaigns. You can simply take the world’s fastest-growing and Indonesia) that experienced your p-book and tell the technology markets. In 2013, the United positive growth in 2013. Of these guy to convert it into an e-book. The States continued to reign supreme only one (Indonesia) experienced challenges begins right there. maintaining the sustainability double-digit growth at 16 per cent. What has become evident is that of its current readership rates Overall, the publishing industry the publishers and technologists and openness to new models of in India is in a good place. It’s have difficulties in arriving at a publishing. China continues to thinking new, fast and clever. This common vision that may drive remain a lucrative market with is the year when publishers will put them to a workable platform. In the heavy investment the Chinese into place the systems, methods general, publishers have very little government has pumped into the and models that will define the knowledge of technology. Not publishing industry, but lucrative next decade of readers for p-books, many technologists understand mainly to local publishers for the e-books and m-books. And I publishing programmes and

time being. believe there is a good chance it publisher visions. If publishers will define the people who will< balance vision with technology Watershed moment lead the charge. and if technologists offer what It’s my belief that we really are the publisher expects by under- amidst a watershed moment for (This is the second of a two-part series. standing publishing, the resultant the publishing industry. Digital is The first appeared in the January- factor could evolve in a workable firmly a part of the offering, but the March issue.) and profitable environ. landscape within which publishers Complex font problems, design work in India is about to alter issues, the feel of the book in the considerably. Trade publishers

April-June 2015 VIDURA 47 Fascinating insights into diplomacy and foreign policy

ndia’s external relations attention that was being given to responses, the seminar aimed are set to undergo a sea foreign policy via the seminar, he at equipping journalists with “Ichange. The first half of the regretted that the general tendency knowledge and skills to report on 21st Century will be a soft period, was to be inward looking, so much foreign policy and national security but as time progresses, things will so that larger issues were lost sight issues in ways that have relevance not be so smooth,” cautioned M.K. of. to a variety of audiences. Narayanan, former India National Apart from Narayanan, a galaxy This was the third in a series Security Advisor and former West of officials who have held important of national security workshops Bengal Governor. “We have had positions in India and abroad in being organised by PII and ICSB. a steadfast partnership for six the service of the Government of Foreign Policy is an important decades with Russia. But we’re now India, and senior journalists who component of national security seeking new partners, and India is have carved out niches of expertise, and a wide-ranging grasp of how warming up to the US and the West. shared fascinating insights into it functions, what its role and The consequences of this need to diplomacy and foreign policy – contemporary form are, and how be carefully considered,” he said, constraints, compulsions, contours, India is positioning itself today adding, “closeness between Russia ramifications and portends – with on the world stage is necessary and China could prove problematic young and middle-level journalists to report accurately, reliably and for India, as a new Sino-Russian at the seminar on February 23rd and with context on events and issues axis could impact India’s attempts 24th. related to India’s national security to counter low-cost practices.” Organised by PII, the Institute of interests and objectives. Delivering the keynote address Contemporary Studies Bangalore Speaking on Foreign Policy at a two-day seminar on India’s (ICSB), a multi-expertise think-tank in the 21st Century, Narayanan Foreign Policy and the Media held specialising in national security took the audience on a quick tour in January at the Press Institute of and foreign policy affairs, and the of the various dimensions of the India (PII), Chennai, Narayanan Observer Research Foundation subject, including the contours of explained that it was through the (ORF), Chennai, a not-for-profit India’s foreign policy, its current country’s foreign policy that the organisation that examines the direction, likely dimensions and issues must be handled deftly to critical problems facing India and the question of a make-over. He felt prevent crises. Appreciating the helps develop coherent policy nationalism would become more intense, straining relations with other countries, particularly with immediate neighbours. This would be one challenge that the foreign policy in India will have to face, he said. Referring to popular expec- tations of a makeover in India’s foreign policy, he was of the view that reports of a recalibration of the foreign policy after the NDA Government came to power were overstated. Many cardinal points remain unchanged. Non-alignment, for instance, still has a positive impact. There’s still caution on Photos: PII/ PTI border violations. India’s objectives remained unchanged – a peaceful, M.K. Narayanan has (from right) M. Ganapathi, R. Seshadri Vasan and R.K. stable, economically interlinked Radhakrishnan (deputy editor, Frontline) engrossed. neighbourhood, he stressed.

48 VIDURA April-June 2015 Narayanan noted that there had been a lot of uninformed criticism of India’s foreign policy, and the media has had a major role in creating an adverse impression about it. He regretted that successes had not been highlighted, not even highly significant ones like the one- of-a-kind Indo-US nuclear deal. “Don’t seek to solely highlight mistakes of India’s foreign policy, but also educate the public on policy contours,” he advised participants at the seminar. The media should pay heed to global developments. What happens in one place has special correspondent K. Johny has a question for Narayanan. repercussions in others, he stressed. Answering various questions from (retired) R. Seshadri Vasan, head, Sathiya Moorthy said the seminar the participants, Narayanan said, Strategy and Security Studies, Cen- had provided a rare opportunity among other things, that economic tre for Asia Studies, and director, to journalists in this part of India diplomacy was the centrepiece of Chennai Centre for China Studies; to learn about foreign policy. He foreign policy. “We have moved R. Srinivasan, senior associate urged them to take greater interest from strategic to economic matters. editor, , New Delhi; in learning and understanding the But whatever happens, a country A.K. Arni, former special secretary, nuances relating to subjects such like India, big, geo-strategically Government of India, who served as foreign policy and advised them important, can’t avoid looking at RAW (Research & Analysis to eschew the habit of contacting strategic aspects,” he stated. Wing) for 37 years; L.V. Krishnan, bureaucrats just for stop-gap Earlier, welcoming the gathering, former director, Safety Research stories or superficial comments Sashi Nair, director, PII, said that and Health Physics Group, and, instead, to cultivate long-term despite negative winds blowing Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic relationships with them which across the media landscape for Research, Kalpakkam; D.S. Rajan, would lead to better communication various reasons, there were former director, Chennai Centre between the two sides. journalists who were bold and for China Studies, and member, The information-packed event passionate, who wanted to do well, Board of Studies, Department of was well-attended by young and all of which was an encouraging Politics and Public Administration, middle-level newspaper, magazine

sign. He said that elements such University of Madras; Sridhar and agency journalists from Tamil as accuracy, fairness and balance Krishnaswami, former foreign Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, and < were important, and maturity and correspondent, The Hindu, and also by civil service aspirants. dignity, too. Such seminars helped currently HoD, Journalism, Mass journalists use knowledge wisely, Communication and International he added. Relations, SRM University, Chennai; (PII assistant editor Susan Philip Said P.M. Heblikar, managing M.R. Sivaraman, former revenue contributed to this report.) trustee, ICSB, and former special secretary, Government of India, secretary, Government of India: and former executive director, “We need cogent, impartial, IMF; and Somi Hazari, managing effective communication, and director, Shosova Group. reporting without bias. The target is The final session saw N. Sathiya to make people aware of both their Moorthy, director, ORF, Chennai rights and their responsibilities. To chairing a Q&A session. There were Subscribe to this end, efforts are being taken to S.R. Madhu, former information make college students and media officer, UNO, and former deputy Grassroots personnel aware of the nuances of managing editor, SPAN Magazine, national security.” and B. Chengappa, associate Only Rs 180 for Speakers included M. Ganapathi, professor (International Relations former secretary (West), Ministry and Strategic Studies), Christ 12 issues of External Affairs; Commodore University, Bangalore.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 49 MEDIA & ADVERTISING IN CHENNAI Tough times, but opportunities galore

Once considered an overgrown village that went to sleep by 9 pm, Chennai over the past decade has acquired a 24x7 reputation. The city has drawn people from all parts of India. Be it the choice of food, products, services or even entertainment, the city offers almost anything. Old, tradition-rich conservative Madras is today vibrant, cosmopolitan Chennai. The young are willing to try out anything new. What better challenge than that for the advertising professional, asks veteran adman R.V. Rajan adras was well known for everything — posters, banners, 19 TV channels the huge, larger-than-life kiosks, bus shelters, wall sites, in all major R.V. Rajan Mhoardings on Mount Road hoardings, mobile vans, all vehicles South Indian promoting new and old feature that move, dynamic display units in languages, films. The idea was first con- and outside the mega malls. the group owns FM radio stations ceived by legendary film director It was in mid 1990s that in over 10 cities and some Tamil S.S. Vasan for the block-buster advertisements through cable magazines and newspapers. SCV movie Chandralekha in the early TV started penetrating homes in is a major cable TV service 1950s. The idea caught on and over Madras, as the city was then known. provider of the group. the years not only films but also The government’s decision to Sun TV was also a pioneer in products and services of all types allow private channels to enter the promoting regional and retail started featuring their messages on TV space dominated till then by advertising, which not only hoardings occupying every vantage government-owned Doordarshan contributed to its own business point on the roads of Madras, (DD), led to the proliferation of TV success but also helped the leading to mindless growth of the channels. From just one TV channel explosive growth of the business media. Many accidents later, the in the early 1980s, today nationally of regional brands advertised on state government passed a law in there are nearly 700 channels its channel. Sun TV continues to 2008 barring hoardings in public covering almost every language of be way ahead of its competition. places. the country. Direct-to-home (DTH) is available For over four decades, thousands In Tamil alone, there are scores in Chennai via DD Direct Plus, of talented artists made a living of channels offering a wide Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct DTH, out of manually painting the variety of programmes catering to BIG TV, Airtel Digital TV and big hoardings using miniature different audience tastes. Almost Videocon d2h. Chennai is the first drawings as reference. The advent every political party has its own city in India to have implemented of the easy-to-assemble flexi TV channel – Jaya (AIADMK), the conditional access system for sheets printed with the hoarding Kalaignar (DMK), Makkal (PMK) cable television. messages, threw those talented and Captain (DMDK), to mention people out of job. The banning of a few. Leading them all is Sun TV, Rural marketing the medium completely in Chennai one of the most successful and Rural marketing, a buzz word has left many people dependent profitable channels operating out for several decades now, has on this medium literally on the of Chennai. It has now become become a necessity for many streets. a big multimedia conglomerate. brands of FMCG and consumer Technology has opened up new The Sun Network, a Rs 5000 crore durable products. It has seen some avenues for outdoor display of public firm, is the country's second- pioneering initiatives emanating advertising. The ubiquitous giant- largest broadcasting company, in from Madras. Though promoting size hoardings have been replaced terms of viewership share. Some products in villages through road by a slew of other outdoor media, of its TV shows have generated the shows using vans was in vogue popularly known as OOH (out-of- highest television rating points in right from the early 1950s, it was home) advertising. These include the country. In addition to owning Thomas Maliakkal, a well-known

50 VIDURA April-June 2015 Madras-based adman who started running a one-year PG diploma India. Result: This metropolis can ORA (Outdoor Rural Advertising) course in Advertising for the past offer anything that anyone wants. to offer a well-planned audio 20 years without a break. The Be it the choice of food, products, visual van operation to reach the seminars, workshops, national and services or even entertainment. Old, villages of Tamil Nadu. The idea of international conferences con- tradition-rich conservative Madras featuring multiple brands in every ducted by the Club have brought is today vibrant, cosmopolitan operation so that the cost of such to the city veterans in the field from Chennai. The young are willing an effort is shared by advertisers across the world and provided an to try out anything new. What

was a pioneering effort of the opportunity for members to learn better challenge than that for the time. After Maliakkal's demise, R. from this vast storehouse of advertising professional? < Parthasarathy of Kripa Outdoor experience. has been an important player in The past decade has seen a this field for the past 30 years. steady decline of traditional (The writer was chairman, Anugrah Grant Advertising and later advertising spend in Chennai by Madison Advertising; past president, Anugrah Marketing headed by FMCG companies (like Cavincare) Rural Marketing Association of India; this writer pioneered several rural and consumer durable companies and former managing director, WAN- communication programmes for (like Hyundai and Ford) many of IFRA India. He is based in Chennai. their agri-input clients and later for whom have moved their marketing This is the concluding part of a three- all types of products, leading to more departments to Mumbai or Delhi, part series.) and more clients understanding the leading to a major setback for importance of rural marketing. The the Chennai branches of the Rural Marketing Association of established multinational agencies. India (RMAI) was an initiative of Though there has been tremendous US publishers join Anugrah Madison. RMAI, started growth in the advertising business in 2005, continues to be actively from the retail, realty and Congress involved in disseminating new education sectors, it has not helped knowledge on rural marketing to professional agencies because many Larry Kramer, president and the industry. of the new generation advertisers publisher of USA Today, and Though corporates in Chennai representing these groups are not Terry J. Kroeger, president and have begun to use social media, it is professional in their approach and CEO of Warren Buffet's BH yet to get the attention it deserves. go for media agencies who are able Media Group, and publisher There are a few social media to offer them lowest rates. Many of of the Omaha World-Herald, specialists such as Unmetric and a them even negotiate directly with have joined the programme few individuals who are advising the media for rates based on bulk of the upcoming World News clients on this facet. The best booking, affecting the survival Media Congress, to be held in known name of course is Kiruba of many traditional agencies Washington, DC from 1 to 3 Shankar. Referred to as the czar of depending solely on commission June. They will participate in a social media by the The Hindu, he is income. Besides, technology has panel discussion that will bring based in Chennai. made it so easy for ‘hole-in-the- together leading US publishers wall’ design outfits offering creative to share the lessons learned in a Advertising Club, Madras services to clients at low costs, that decade of dramatic change in the The Advertising Club, Madras, the big agencies find themselves in world's leading media market. which celebrated its golden jubilee a bind. Many of the multinational The panel will be moderated in 2006, is the third oldest ad club agencies have either closed shop by Tom Silvestri, president and in the country after advertising in Chennai or drastically cut publisher of The Richmond Times- clubs in Calcutta and Bombay. The down their operations. Dispatch. Club has been closely associated However, for an adman who is Gannett Corp.'s USA Today with the evolution of advertising in willing to adapt to the changing in the largest circulating daily Chennai through its members who scene in Chennai, the profession newspaper in the United States. are a cross-section of professionals still provides enough opportunities. Kramer was appointed publisher from the advertising agencies, As is evident from the success of in 2012, bringing more than 40 advertisers and the media. With many local agencies. years of media experience to the a permanent secretariat located Once considered an overgrown job. BH Media Group is the 9th in its own premises in T. Nagar, village that went to sleep by 9 pm, largest newspaper group in the Advertising Club, Madras is the Chennai during the past decade has United States. Kroeger is also

publisher of the group's flagship, only such institution in the coun- acquired a 24x7 reputation. The city < try which has been successfully has drawn people from all parts of The Omaha World-Herald.

April-June 2015 VIDURA 51 BENGALI CINEMA What exactly is right and wrong

Most single-screen theatres screening Bengali films are monopolised by a few powerful production-distribution- exhibition networks which control, manipulate and throw out films within a week even if they draw reasonably good footfalls. A report on the status of Bengali cinema, based on a first-of-its-kind market survey, pinpoints various pitfalls in the industry. Equally, it leaves several questions unanswered. Shoma A. Chatterji analyses espite having gained the The report points out how the immense in terms of both quality status of an ‘industry’, numbers of the cinema-going public and quantity. First, Bengali is the Dcinema in India is not taken are falling, and why, and also offers 7th most widely spoken language with the seriousness it deserves. viable solution models. IMRB in the world. Secondly, 170 This is more so in the case of Bengali collaborated with CII to conduct the million people in Bangladesh and cinema because the industry in first survey of this kind across eight 100 million people in India have Bengal is loosely structured and districts in West Bengal in order to Bengali as their native tongue. not properly organised. Bengal understand the changing nature Thirdly, Bengali cinema produces Bioscope: A Big Picture Outlook of film viewership and the general around 100 feature films every for Sustainable Growth, a report perception of Bengali films among year, capable of drawing a massive based on market surveys and in— the target audience. This was backed audience. Bengali cinema can take depth interactions with industry by a series of exploratory, in-depth pride in the international stature of stakeholders, released recently interactions with producers, actors, filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal by the Confederation of Indian directors, distributors and exhibitors Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen, Industry and IMRB International, of Bengali cinema. It was felt that Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Gautam seeks to remove the lacuna. The key the explorations would provide Ghose and Rituparno Ghosh. theme of the report is a sustainable (a) deeper insights into the current However, the returns don’t reflect growth strategy for the Bengali state of affairs and (b) generate the potential. film industry. The principal suggestions/recommendations The total investment ranged objective is to woo more film for a roadmap for the Bengali film between Rs150 and Rs180 crore in viewers into theatres more often, industry. 2014, with Shree Venkatesh Films because the data shows dwindling The report points out that the contributing the largest share. But film audiences. potential of the is according to industry estimates, not more than 10 per cent of the films every year break even and only five or six of these generate enough surplus to be termed box office hits. The survey revealed that around 54 per cent of Bengali moviegoers in Kolkata have not watched a Bengali film in a theatre in one year. In the eight districts covered by the survey, around a third of the total Bengali population watched a Bengali film, but the average visit/ person was not even three films in one year. This brings us to a very significant question the survey does not answer. How does one Photos: provided by SC define a Bengali film? Is it onein which the characters speak Bengali, Dev and Mimi in Yoddha, a Bengali copyrighted photocopy of Telugu blockbuster or is it one in which the cast, crew, Magadheera, another flop. and producer are Bengalis? Is it

52 VIDURA April-June 2015 in an ‘instant filmmaker’ and churned out in a matter of 30 days. In fact, many directors talk proudly of being able to finish shooting a film in 20 days. The final product disappears from the theatres in one week flat more often than not. How can a film qualify as Bengali cinema rooted in the Bengali iden- tity if the hero and heroine, dressed in ‘modern’ outfits, sing and dance away somewhere in Locarno in Srabonti in Buno Haansh, from original biting cold? The idea sold till a few years ago but the audience is bored Bengali literature – a good film but a Koel and Parambrato in Highway, a flop. and such films are falling by the flop. wayside for want of viewers. one shot within the state of West Also, why would someone want entire state is involved and if more Bengal? Bengal Bioscope does not to watch a remake of a South Indian single-screen theatres in Kolkata provide any answers because in film in Bengali if they can watch a are covered. A young and talented the present scenario it is a tough lavishly mounted Bollywood movie director whose film was taken off question. Industry insiders, at a multiplex? Agreed, the Bengali the theatres within a week though including producers, directors identity today is in a state of flux, it was drawing footfalls refers to and actors are unable to provide a influenced and impacted by the the exhibition and distribution precise answer. plethora of media and entertainment network in Bengal as a veritable Contemporary Bengali cinema channels, the Internet, television, mafia. The survey is silent about is a hybrid mixture of remakes of YouTube, mobile phones, tablets this aspect too. South Indian films, old Bengali and so on. But that does not negate Currently, West Bengal has classics reinvented (rehashed) and the roots of one’s culture and 400 single-screen theatres with films that pretend to be the avante- language. digital projection facilities. But the garde where characters speak more The survey talks about ‘engaging’ estimated number of active halls English than Bengali. Stories are content with good storylines. There is not more than 200. This too is written almost on the spot, placed are millions of stories waiting to dwindling by the day because real be picked from Bengali literature – estate sharks want to turn them classic, modern and contemporary. into shopping malls whereas richer Why doesn’t the report question the business enterprises wish to change selection of wrong content for the them into multiplexes. wrong reasons, which fails to pull Most single-screen theatres in the right audience? The primary screening Bengali films are survey of 35 single-screen theatres monopolised by a few powerful across Kolkata and West Bengal production-distribution-exhibition revealed 30 per cent occupancy on networks which control, manipulate weekends and around 20 per cent and throw out films within a week on weekdays. The experience of even if they draw reasonably good watching films in a multiplex that footfalls. They are producers too attracts the younger age-groups and keep their own films running has had a positive rub-off when even when they are flops. But no compared with the footfall in single- small-time producer or director screen theatres. is willing to come out in public However, one is sceptical about on the matter for fear of being this because Bengali films have a ousted out of the exhibition circuit very limited release span in theatres, permanently. Multiplex screenings both single-screen and multiplexes. must compete with Bollywood, Eight urban districts out of a total of Hollywood and even some regional

20 or a survey of 35 theatres across releases; so, here too, opportunities Kolkata is poor random sampling are dwindling. < Koel in Arundhati, a Bengali version of statistics. The picture could turn out the southern original, another flop. to be dramatically different if the

April-June 2015 VIDURA 53 Controversy over a Naga editor’s book A journalist-writer stands firm against pressure from Ao Senden, a Naga tribe welfare group, which has banned a book she has written. Nava Thakuria explains

stand by what I wrote,” The Chameli Devi Award winner said the outspoken journalist. She says Monalisa Changkija. attended the hearing at the Ao also stated that she makes no claim “ITiamerenla Monalisa Senden’s office at Mokochung, to expertise on the issues raised in Changkija’s book Cogitating for where she was told by the leaders the book. “I have merely stated my a Better Deal has evoked the ire of the body that they had received views and opinions, perceptions of Ao Senden (Ao Hoho), which a lot of complaints from the general and perspectives, and, as the title projects itself as the statutory apex public about the book. One of the of the book suggests, I am merely body of the Ao Tribe of Nagaland. main issues they had with the book cogitating on the issues…” she Ao Senden has declared a ban on was that Monalisa had portrayed said. the book, despite the journalist- the organisation, which holds itself As a conciliatory gesture, the writer offering to include the responsible for the Ao Tribe, as author agreed to publish Ao organisation’s clarifications on an NGO having “no mandate to Senden’s refutations and rebuttals what she had written. arbitrate over any intra-village or on whatever they found incorrect/ Cogitating for a Better Deal, inter-village disputes”. The hearing disagreeable/objectionable, and published by Heritage Publishing closed without the matter being insert footnotes in the book itself. House, Dimapur, was released at resolved, and, on November 17 Ao However, Ao Senden is firm the commercial capital of Nagaland Senden announced a ban on the on the ban. In a statement, the on October 24 by noted peace book. Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA), a activist Niketu Iralu. In his speech, A press statement, signed by the media forum of Northeast India, he noted that the book “throws organisation’s president, Sangyu has expressed concern over the light on some of the things we are Yaden, and general secretary, ban, and urged Ao Senden to doing to our society, rendering it Tsupong Longchar, alleged that withdraw it as the author has unmanageable.” On November 9, Monalisa’s book made “false expressed willingness to publish Monalisa received a letter from Ao allegations against the sanctity the organisation’s clarifications. Senden, accusing her of propagating of the statutory apex body of Born at Jorhat, Assam, in 1960, wrong information about the the Ao community”. “The Ao Monalisa completed her education organisation and summoning her Senden honours the Constitutional from Delhi University and started for a hearing. provision and status of freedom of her career as a columnist with press and expression. However, the Nagaland Times in 1985. A creative Ao Senden asserts that the provision writer, she became the executive cannot be misused and no one is editor of the weekly newspaper permitted to write anything without when it was transformed into evidence,” the statement said. a daily. She launched her own Monalisa, who belongs to the Ao newspaper, Nagaland Page, from Tribe, asserted that she stood by Dimapur in 1999. Just as her what she had written in the book. column generated significant public She, however, clarified that it was debate, Monalisa’s editorial in the not her intention to hurt anyone’s newspaper also drew a great deal sentiments through her writings, and of attention. The promoter of a free apologised if she had inadvertently and fearless society once published done so. “I have the greatest respect an anonymous opinion piece titled for the Ao Senden, as much as for ‘State is a reality and sovereignty the Naga Hoho and other tribal is a myth’, which evoked a sharp

Photo: NT Hohos, and believe that these tribal response from a Naga insurgent bodies are good for Naga society…. group. < The cover page of the book. However I stand by what I wrote,”

54 VIDURA April-June 2015 Book Review

A focus on the basics with an emphasis on the practical

book), Prof Vil’anilam carefully defi nes terms and concepts, lists their att ributes, and poses questions for discussion. His approach is all-inclusive, dealing with the above topics universally (mainly from a Western perspective) and relative to India. The latt er is particularly insightful as Prof Vil’anilam implores Indian soon-to-be journalists and researchers to investigate and interpret their country's many social and political issues.” The book is divided into 13 chapters, starting with Communication and Mass Communications -- its fundamentals, characteristics, processes, and going on to cover functions of the media, history of the media, important theories of communications, media ethics, mass communication research, public relations, science communication, literature and journalism, news anchors and news presenters and miscellaneous matt ers of moment in media studies. It ends with an exhaustive bibliography. The Kerala Press Academy needs to be credited for publishing such a comprehensive book on issues relating to Mass Communication, what I would say MASS COMMUNICATION BASICS is a must-read for all students, teachers, practitioners and policy-makers. - A Reader for Students and Practitioners One issue connected with mass media teaching Author: J.V. Vil’anilam and practice that needs to be highlighted in Publisher: Kerala Press Academy, Kochi context is the modus operandi of selection of Pages: 380 teachers in departments/ schools of journalism Price: Rs 400 and communication in universities and institutes, media houses and so on. The entry level position is assistant professor. The qualifi cations required are a Having spent a lifetime in Mass Communication, post-graduate degree in a media-related subject and largely in the fi eld of Public Relations, now christened a national eligibility test certifi cate. Even though Corporate Communication, I take pride in calling Media is an applied discipline, practical experience myself a student of Mass Communication even today is not essential, merely 'desirable'. This needs to be though I att ained superannuation a few years ago. As corrected. a student, I keep learning the latest developments. As How can a person really teach media-related I went through this book, I initially wondered how courses unless he or she has actually worked in the an entire 380-page volume could be devoted to the fi eld? Employer organisations should make practical 'basics' of a subject which, essentially, is 'applied' and experience of at least 2-3 years a must for such positions. not theoretical. But as I read page after page, I realised Also, those who decide about the media syllabus for that the book is not just about the basics, but covers Mass Communication should take cognizance of the the entire gamut of Mass Communication, with a growing importance of social media. Major events

decided emphasis on its practical side. across the globe, including in India, have been covered < Vil’anilam has done yeoman service to all those by social or new media. associated with Mass Communication -- not just students and practitioners but media teachers, policy- (C.K. Sardana, who has reviewed the book, was makers and the like. The book is nothing short of an professor and head, Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of encyclopedia on the subject. As Prof John A. Lent of Journalism and Communication. He is now a member of Temple University, USA, says in his foreword: “To the Kushabhau Thakre University of Journalism and Mass ease the readers into these topics (covered in the Communication, Raipur.)

April-June 2015 VIDURA 55 Interesting to the layman as well as the professional

In our day-to-day lives, almost all our activities are related to science. We just don’t realise what an important role science plays in our life. We think or read about science and technology when it is news, when some disaster has struck or some innovation has taken place. The purpose of science communication is to acquaint the masses with scientific knowledge to inculcate a scientific temper. Assam is the most populous state in the Northeast. The book talks about how communication of scientific knowledge via mass media in Assam first occurred via Orunodoi, an eight-page monthly paper devoted to religion, science and general intelligence, published in Sivasagar District from 1846. The paper did not carry any news on science in its first issue, but the second one had two news features, namely, Grahar Bibaran and Prithibir Akarar Bishai. Science in Sayings of Daka is an interesting part of the book that looks at various sayings or proverbs which have played an important role in the lives of people of Assam. They are about farming, weather, health, food, childbirth and whole lot of issues of daily life. The authors have also written about how folk media can be used as a platform for science communication. Around 80 per cent of Assam’s population lives in the rural sector where new and emerging trends of media cannot reach out due to geographical limitations. Hence, the use of folk media in this case acts as an effective tool of communication. Various ways of SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IN ASSAM disseminating scientific news through folk media Authors: Ankuran Dutta/ Anamika Ray have been discussed in the book. Publisher: DVS Publishers, Guwahati Another interesting chapter is Cartoon for Price: Rs 695 Communicating Science: An Emerging Trend. ‘Scientoons’ is a term coined by Pradeep Srivastava, combining science and cartoons. The scientist and Science itself is communication. The book, Science artist from the Central Drug Research Institute used Communication in Assam, is an extension that depicts various such scientoons to explain and highlight the role and importance of how science has shaped environmental issues, concepts and problems. In Assam. The book by Ankuran Dutta and Anamika Assam, publications such as Bijnan Jeuti, Prantik used Ray talks about science communication in a simplified scientoons widely too. The scopes of employment in way. Science Communication in Assam is a compilation cartooning have also been talked about. On whole, of a few research papers presented at various science the book is an amalgamation of news, science fiction, communication seminars and conferences held in folk media and cartoons and it is an indispensable different parts of the country and articles published guide to science communication which will interest < in different media. scientists, educators and the general public alike. In 15 chapters, the authors have covered a wide area of science communication – concept, science and technology communication, science fiction in (Sukarna Mondol, who has reviewed the book, is a Assamese literature, the cartoon as an emerging trend, journalist-turned-media academician now working as organisational initiatives, science communication academic assistant in IIMC, Dhenkanal.) through distance education and a lot more.

56 VIDURA April-June 2015 REMEMBERING B.G. VERGHESE (1927-2014) ONCE AGAIN A lodestar and an inspiration

In February 1970, V.C. Bhaskaran joined the in New Delhi as an apprentice sub-editor, on trial for a month. His editor was the redoubtable Boobli George Verghese. Bhaskaran recollects some fond memories of those years and later, memories that play out vividly here eing a green horn in the were good. Apprenticeship entailed BGV pioneered what came to be vocation, I was at the news shift duties; morning, afternoon called ‘development journalism’. Bdesk morning shift which and night. And that gave me an A reporter and a photographer beings at 8:30. It was a pleasant opportunity to know our editor a would accompany the leader. He brisk walk from my shared bit more closely. encouraged young colleagues to accommodation in the government One evening, he sent a request to contribute to regular columns on colony near Gole Market, to the old the news editor to include an item in the editorial pages. One was Jantar HT Office on Connaught Circus. the engagements column to appear Mantar which appeared on the edit The only intermittent noise in the next day. It was a temple festival page and the other, Diversities – the sprawling newsroom was the in his neighborhood. My chief sub- which appeared on Sundays. clatter of tele-printers of the PTI and editor showed me the letter. The Often, I used to send in a UNI tickers that got submerged in message was clear; here was an suggestion slip mentioning a the chatter among colleagues and editor who did not breathe down particular topic or person of instructions to the peons. anyone’s neck. He respected each eminence passing through the The door to the editor’s chamber person’s domain and would not capital, be it a painter, poet or would at times open and out came cross the lakshman rekha (line). Here an academic. On getting his Mr Verghese on his way to the was a senior colleague discretely approval I would write the piece washroom at the far end of the guiding budding professionals on and to my great excitement and hall. His pace was brisk – and he the right path. joy, my contribution would find would cast an occasional glance at Once one of BGV’s personal place on the edit page. As a sub- the news desk. He was normally in assistants, A.V. Sethu Madhavan, editor on probation, after a year the office much before the others showed me a letter from the editor’s of apprenticeship, my confidence and placed the day’s instruction out-tray. It was an invitation from and enthusiasm grew manifold – sheets in the reporters hall or at the the embassy of a Western country and the first opportunity to show- sub-editors desk himself, because for cocktails and dinner. BGV had case the same came when the often our peons, very subdued and just penned one single word: Regret. Editor asked for someone from the pleasant natured, would arrive It was the PA’s job to intimate the news desk to cover a challenging late from their far-flung residential embassy accordingly. This was an assignment – report on the de- colonies. example of BGV’s strict adherence silting of the upper Ganga Canal Mr Verghese did not expect the to professional norms, which did that was the life line of farmers in peons to wait for him to pick up his not permit any kind of favours from western the Uttar Pradesh. When I bag from the car which he drove any quarter. expressed willingness, he sent for from his residence a few kilometers Come Sundays, BGV would me. That was my first meeting with away. The quiet, low-profile boss be on an outreach programme, my editor. Mr Verghese asked me would climb the stairway with his Our Village Chhatera. It was a to be seated, briefed me for a few bag and enter his chamber on the regular feature which appeared minutes and gave the usual signal first floor. The ambience was one of on Mondays. Mr Verghese had, to leave – a friendly but a bit of a dignity, discipline and propriety. after consultations, chosen a firm glance. The next morning, the After a month, I was put on remote village in Haryana well office staff car with veteran photo- regular basis as an apprentice beyond the urban influences of the grapher Babu Lal halted near my sub-editor. Chief sub-editors L.B. national capital, to focus attention house on Rama Krishna Ashram Gokhale, A.C. Bhandari, S.C. Kala, of urban readers on lack of rural Marg close to Gole Market. I was on A.K. Pandey and R.N. Verma development and motivate the my first reporting assignment. reported to the news editor that my villagers in self-help. It was ‘green Every morning, the editor would copy reading and language skills revolution’ of a unique kind and place his red-and-blue penciled

April-June 2015 VIDURA 57 cherished dream trauma that he went through. with the fading BGV had a brief stint with tribe of old-time electoral politics when he fought in journalists. the 1977 Lok Sabha Election from Prime Minister the Mavelikkara Constituency in Indira Gandhi had Kerala. The Burma-born, Doon by then regretted School-, St Stephens College- and prompting HT Trinity College- and Cambridge chairman Mr K.K. University-educated Malayali was Birla to appoint solely an object of curiosity for the BGV as editor. The Malayali voters who were used to last straw on the the Front politics of Kerala. BGV camel’s back was contested as an independent and his earthshaking HT lost by 50000 votes to the Congress editorial ‘Kanchen- candidate, a trade union leader. junga, here we My last meeting with BGV come’, assailing was in September 2014. When I Prime Mini-ster telephoned to invite him to my Indira Gandhi’s sister’s home in Noida, he wanted swift absorption to know if there was any particular of protectorate reason, as he was planning to go Sikkim in 1975 into out in the afternoon. When I said the Indian Union I just wanted to see him, he said I as another state. must reach his home by 12 noon. The editorial was a By the time I got to his apartment telling commentary on Feroz Shah Road, it was 12:30 on the putrefying pm. As I reached the apartment, he

Photo: VV situation in India came out in his dhoti; he was set to under Congress rule, go for a shower. I sent the driver to The legendary B.G. Verghese. and the mounting fetch a bouquet and some sweets. copy of the day’s Hindustan Times public anger that In no time BGV brought tea and on the sub-editors’ desk after found widespread expression in the biscuits with his wife Jamila by recording his observations. This was ever increasing pan-India reach of his side. She was all smiles. A very a regular routine which served as a Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan’s picture of grace and warmth. guideline. In December 1971, I had Sarvodaya Movement. The driver brought the bouquet prepared copy with a screaming BGV did not last (at HT) after and kaju burfi from the nearby headline on the outbreak of the imposition of the Emergency. Bengali market, famous for fruits, war between Pakistan and India. I On a fateful late evening as he flowers and sweets. Jamila Madam became part of the war desk. The was leaving for home down the accepted the bouquet and as I workaholic BGV would attend the stairway to the entrance lobby, a presented BGV the box of sweets, late night war briefings arranged management peon held out a letter he was reluctant. When I took leave by the Press Information Bureau at for him. BGV took the envelope, of him after touching his feet, he Shastri Bhavan. It might sound odd opened it, signed a receipt and said, “you embarrass me”. After a that the editor chose to attend the quietly went to his car. He had pause, he added, “Do not repeat military briefings, usually covered been told that his services were no this, when you come next time. No by special correspondents of the longer required. BGV did not make gifts.” He came up to the door to news bureau. any fuss; he must have sensed it bid me good bye. It was the final

The BGV saga will be incomplete was coming. One could attempt to farewell. RIP, B.G. Verghese Sahib, without a brief reference to what fathom the agony he must have felt. you will ever remain a lode-star < came to be known as a pro-George But that is the price one pays when and inspiration. Verghese staff stir in the mid one is faultlessly above aboard in 1970s. The driving force behind every way. (The writer is a former Hindustan the movement was resistance to I met him much later when Times correspondent based in increasing pressure on editorial he was with the Gandhi Peace Bangalore. He had sent this piece for freedom and to fall in line. After Foundation. He was the usual Vidura through another former HT a brief crescendo it crashed – simple, straightforward person with hand, parliamentary reporter Samir and editorial freedom remains a no sign of the travails and resultant Pal.)

58 VIDURA April-June 2015 REMEMBERING R.K. LAXMAN (1921-2015) All subtle humour and restrained criticism There was a time when readers of The Times of India looked at what R.K. Laxman’s common man had to say for the day even before glancing at the headlines on the front page, says K.R.A. Narasiah rof Swaminathan who wears who borrowed them met with an the same to be exhibited in his several hats, such as running accident. office. Pthe Tamil Heritage Trust and While serving at IIT Delhi in 1986, Like his illustrious brother, R.K. building up a young brigade of the professor set up an exhibition Narayan, who had carved a niche heritage enthusiasts by conducting of collected cartoons and had the for himself in the literary field site seminars in places as far legendary R.K. Laxman declare it with the inimitable Swami and removed from each other as in their open. This was possible as 1986 was the imaginary town of Malgudi, unique contents, Ajanta at one end the silver jubilee year of IIT Delhi Laxman’s common man found a and Sittannavasal on the other and and Laxman had agreed to visit place in the hearts of Indians. It was spearheading an annual December the campus in January that year. all subtle humour and restrained movement in Chennai to remember That was also possibly the time criticism. the past of glorious India in all its when Laxman was at his humorous Recalls Prof Swaminathan: “I vibrant art and letters, had earlier best, his common man reducing to requested him to come for breakfast served as a professor of mechanical a few fine strokes situations in the and he readily agreed. My wife engineering department of the IIT, country that needed volumes to (Uma) would want to know what New Delhi. be written. Readers of The Times of he liked for breakfast and without One passion of Prof Swami- India then would first set their eyes hesitation Laxman says ‘of course nathan was to systematically collect, on Laxman’s front-page cartoon uppuma!’. Uma asked how he would record and tabulate clippings of (You Said It) leaving the headlines like to have the uppuma prepared, important news items, stories for later. pat came the reply – ‘Without onions and cartoons from newspapers No other cartoonist in India had and other flourishes, for only those and journals. Thus, he was able to fans like Laxman had. His common who cannot prepare good uppuma collect thousands of cartoons of man was seen as a symbol of the resort to gimmicks’. When the his favourites, like Abu, Vijayan harassed, overworked, underpaid steaming upuma was kept in front and, of course, Laxman. He had and tired man in the street. Laxman of him, Laxman says, ‘Wonderful. even collected original volumes never spared anyone, no matter How nice it is!’ Uma asks how he of Shankar’s Weekly, though the howsoever mighty he or she was. could say that even without tasting same was lost when someone He had a fine sense of humour that the same. ‘I know by the look of it. I

never hurt. The common man’s do not have to taste it. After all am I reasoning was simple, recognisable not an expert.’ replies Laxman.” < and appreciated by all – he echoed the thoughts of millions, most of them topical and relevant. Even (The writer is a marine engineer with Jawaharlal Nehru was not spared more than half a century of experience by Laxman. relating to ships and the sea. He is also It is said that during 1962 when a historian and a writer.) the Sino-Indian war was on, Laxman made a caricature of Nehru that was published in The Photo: from PS's collection Times of India. Soon, there was a Different faces of the Common Man call from the PMO. Apparently, — part of Prof Swaminathan's Nehru enjoyed the cartoon so much, collection. he wanted an enlarged copy of

April-June 2015 VIDURA 59 ‘A genius with a fantastic memory’

R.V. Rajan’s mind races back in time to 1978 when he had the privilege of spending three memorable days with R.K. Laxman in Chennai was the secretary of the Tamil was puzzled and wondered why Nadu Chapter of Public he did that. A week later, I had the IRelations Society of India (PRSI) answer in the form of a birthday gift in 1977-78. Using my connection I received by registered post – just with his (Laxman’s) family I was two days before my 36th birthday, instrumental in organising a on 30th August. It was a caricature lecture-cum-demonstration by of me with an amazing resemblance Laxman at the Connemara Hotel. to his ever popular common man. It was a joint meeting between Though I was not as plumpy then, PRSI and ISTD (Indian Society for Laxman visualised what I would be Training & Development) held in like in future. The cartoon showed the third week of August1978. me dressed in my favourite striped In his typical tongue-in-cheek safari suit. It also captured the small style, Lakshman gave a talk and line on my forehead, a reminder of also demonstrated on a drawing an accident I had when I was six Photo: The Hindu board how he visualises politicians. years old. Truly, he was a genius R.K. Laxman. In his mind, every politician is with a fantastic memory and powers symbolised by an object which he of observation. cover of my autobiography titled draws out first and then converts It was a great honour to have a Courage My Companion, sometimes into a cartoon, adding a few strokes received a priceless gift from an all- described as an ‘uncommon

from his creative pen. To draw the time great cartoonist The cartoon not autobiography of a common man’ < cartoon of Morarji Desai, he first only occupies a pride of place in my drew a flower pot and within a drawing room but also adorns the few seconds transformed it into a cartoon of Morarjibhai. A water jug became Indira Gandhi. It was Register for World Young Reader prizes amazing and yet it looked so simple. The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN- During the visit, Laxman also IFRA) has opened registration for the 2015 World Young Reader Prizes, participated in other meetings and which annually honour news media that develop strategies and projects media interviews all of which I to effectively engage children, teenagers and young adults. Deadline for coordinated. He was kind enough to entries in 5 May. Attacks on press freedom figure strongly in this year's visit my humble home one evening awards: a special category for Teaching Freedom will honour projects that for dinner. During the informal get- make sure new generations understand the importance and fragility of together I found him very conscious freedom of expression and the role of journalists who have worked and of his celebrity status and was as died in its service. sarcastic and humorous as he was The World Young Reader Prizes will also feature a second special in his cartoons. He talked about category on Digital First, for news publishers that most creatively engage the the difference between being funny young solely through mobile telephone, tablets or other digital devices. The and humorous. He asserted that his category is supported by CCI Europe. The other categories include brand cartoons were not funny but tried (marketing initiatives), editorial (for innovative content strategies), enduring to be humorous. excellence, news in education (supported by sites ALIVE), public service,

At the airport, when I had the Natasa Prize for printing plants and the World Young Reader News gone to see him off, he asked me Publisher of the Year. Entries are being accepted through 5 May. Full details< to look at him and framed my can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/worldyoungreaderprize. figure within his four fingers. I

60 VIDURA April-June 2015 R.K. Laxman and the birth of BusinessLine The cartoonist visited the offices of The Hindu Group on Jan 27, 1994, and sketched Manmohan Singhas BusinessLine was readying for launch wenty-one years ago, when idea as it could get Laxman in portrait of Singh with a marker pen the first edition of The Hindu trouble with his employers Bennett, for the first edition of The Hindu TBusinessLine was being Coleman & Co, which publishes BusinessLine. readied for publication, R.K. The Economic Times, a competing The cartoonist, who set the Laxman visited the newspaper’s business newspaper. But the great highest standards for himself, was editorial headquarters in Chennai. cartoonist was unfazed; “They can’t displeased with the first draft. He K. Venugopal, then executive editor fire me,” he said. turned to Ram and said that over of the newspaper, asked whether Ravikanth Nandula, Business- the years, he found drawing the he would churn out a sketch of Line’s cartoonist, who is now based daily pocket cartoon took more Manmohan Singh, who was finance in Hyderabad, vividly remembers effort than doing the larger ones minister, for the launch issue. N that day when Laxman walked (that spread across three or four Ram, chairman of Kasturi & Sons, into the conference room and drew columns) and that were carried who was then editor of BusinessLine, Manmohan Singh. As finance in the op-ed pages. To the horror believed it might not be a good minister, Singh was in the limelight of those around, he disapproved at that time, as he was readying to of what he had drawn, tore it up give shape to the Budget, under the and threw it in the bin. He drew watchful eye of Prime Minister P.V. a second one, and inked it after Narasimha Rao. seeming more satisfied. Laxman had a penchant for The cartoon ran alongside an identifying the most telling traits article published on the back page of politicians. He immortalised ‘Budget cannot provide free lunches’, Indira Gandhi’s imperious nose written by S. Venkitaramanan, and he revelled in Singh’s bushy former governor of the Reserve eyebrows and his balding pate. He Bank of India. Nandula, then a 24- had lampooned the New Economic year-old cartoonist, hoped to get his Policy of Singh and Rao in 1991 hands on the original that would be as he saw it as capitulation to the published. But no such luck. It went World Bank and the International to a more senior person. So, he Monetary Fund. With his inherent rummaged in the dustbin, extracted empathy for the underdog, he drew the bits of the one Laxman had cartoons of Singh and Rao as looters torn up and pieced it together. For who bullied the common man. His many years, Laxman’s discarded cartoons were never strident in their Singh hung above his work desk.

commentary, but they revealed “It was an amusing reminder that where he stood. even geniuses find their work< Those were the days when inadequate,” he recalls. cartooning was done the ‘old-

Illustration: courtesy BL fashioned way’: drawing by hand, scanning it, taking a bromide print (Courtesy: BusinessLine.) and then pasting it on the page. Laxman interacted with some The cartoonist visited our offices of the editorial staff in a large on Jan 27, 1994, and sketched conference room packed with Manmohan Singh as the newspaper people. Later, he moved to a smaller was readying for launch. room, where he sat down to do a

April-June 2015 VIDURA 61 He immortalised the hapless common man he son of a school teacher, University of Mysore even as he and the Magsaysay Award in Rasipuram Krishnaswamy continued with freelancing and 1984 for Journalism, Literature TLaxman, who rose to become contributed cartoons to Blitz, Swarajya and Creative Communication India’s best known political and an animated film based on the Arts. Laxman, married to author cartoonist, was born in Mysore on mythological character Narada. Kamala, later settled down at his October 24, 1921. He was one of While at the Maharaja’s College of Pune residence from where he the seven siblings that included Mysore, Laxman started illustrating continued his work. his elder brother eminent novelist RK Narayan’s short stories inThe In 1985, Laxman became the R.K Narayan. With a penchant Hindu. But his legendary spell first Indian cartoonist to exhibit for drawing since his school days, on the Indian newspaper reader in London, where he also had the Laxman was engrossed by the was cast after joining The Times Of opportunity to meet the idols of illustrations in magazines such India. The comic strip ‘You said it’ his childhood, David Low and as Punch, Tit-Bits, Strand and started in 1951, unleashed his iconic Illingworth. A television show, RK Bystander and came under an ‘common man’, a silent witness to Laxman Ki Duniya, was based on early influence of world renowned the shenanigans of politicians who Laxman’s cartoons. Describing the British cartoonist Sir David Low. were supposed to realise his dreams, beloved Common Man, Laxman A creative genius, Laxman was hopes and aspirations but betrayed had said in an interview: “My known to have started doodling him on most occasions. common man is omnipresent. His even before he could read, using A versatile artist, Laxman also simple dhoti and checked coat floors, walls and doors of his wrote novels, Hotel Riviera and could be anybody’s. His bald head house. The Messenger, and contributed could belong anywhere... his dhoti His artistic bent of mind was distinctive illustrations to many could be the Malayali mundu too.

appreciated by a school teacher works including the Malgudi Days He’s been silent all these 50 years. who noticed a drawing by him on stories penned by his brother R.K. He simply listens.” < a peepal leaf. In his autobiography Narayan. Among the honours The Tunnel of Time, the legendary bestowed on the cartoonist are (Courtesy: PTI/ BusinessLine.) cartoonist recalls, “I drew objects Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan that caught my eye outside the window of my room, the dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant 108-yr-old magazine closes due chopping firewood and of course, the number of crows in various to fund crunch postures on the rooftops of the A century-old Kannada magazine that incubated many young writers buildings opposite?” and fashioned a new literary path for decades has wound up for want of The crow was also a common funds. figure in his cartoons later on. Sadbodha Chandrike was launched by Venkatesh Trivikrambhat Kulkarni, Overcoming the setback in the death popularly called Galaganatha, in Haveri district's Anandavana, Agadi, in of his father, the young Laxman 1908. Some of the writers who were first published through the magazine completed high school education include Jnanpith laureates Masti Venkatesh Iyengar and V K Gokak, reputed and sought admission to Mumbai’s authors Betageri Krishna Sharma, Shriranga, Ta Su Shamrao, N K Kulkarni, JJ School of Arts. Ironically his B P Kale and K Shamrao. application was rejected by the The magazine came out every month with a new theme and literary dean who remarked that his motif — and without a break — for 108 years. At its peak, it had 20,000 drawings “lacked the kind of talent

subscribers. Jnapith laureate D R Bendre was an avid reader of the required to qualify for enrolment in magazine. The subscription dwindled to 5,500 with the advent of electronic < our institution as a student.” media that reduced the reading habit among people. Laxman subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from

62 VIDURA April-June 2015 REMEMBERING RAJINDER PURI (1934-2015) The combative cartoonist Chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express E.P. Unny says Rajinder Puri had a fiercely independent mind and his own way of figuring things out n a matter of weeks, we have lost personal note, he once said that our second master cartoonist. “brother Rakshat was the artist in IR.K.Laxman and Rajinder Puri the family”; he himself was keener had about as much in common as on tennis and wrestling. The last Pedder Road and Parliament Street. is eminently believable and was But, between them, they represent a in evidence in his cartoons, and range of cartooning that would do no less in the daily debate over any democracy proud. the morning coffee, a ritual that Puri was the last of the trio that travelled over the decades from made Indian cartooning a robust Embassy and Standard restaurants editorial art. He was completely in Connaught Place to the India self-taught, unlike the other two, International Centre. Abu Abraham and O.V. Vijayan, No one could have taught this who were mentored by Shankar. fiercely independent mind anything. On a rare and rapidly reversed Puri had his own way of figuring Rajinder Puri. in his later days.

Ace cartoonist, fierce critic things out. Last decade, when Photoshop became the flavour of the Veteran cartoonist, columnist and political activist Rajinder Puri died on newsroom, he mastered the graphic Sunday night after a brief illness. His friends and family said Puri had died software in his own unorthodox peacefully in his sleep. Born in 1934 in modern-day Karachi, Puri was way, which would have made a known for his incisive and critical political cartooning. A close friend said, trained professional squirm. But “He belonged to the great tradition of political cartooning that critiqued and he chipped and chopped with “the assessed political events through amazing perception.” Apart from working blessed mouse” to tone, colour and with the Hindustan Times and The Statesman, Puri had also drawn cartoons texture his drawings as passion- briefly forThe Guardian in London and The Glasgow Herald. ately as a cub cartoonist. “He was possibly the most powerful political cartoonist of the time,” a Over the years he had seamlessly close friend said. His friends and former colleagues described him as a transited from brush to dip-pen journalist who was not only incorruptible, but also always willing to lend an to throwaway markers through ear to young journalists. colour pencils and screen tints, all “One would find him sitting regularly at his table at the Indian International along retaining his trademark style. Centre. Earlier, he’d sit at the Embassy Restaurant surrounded by young He insisted that impact mattered journalists. He would always be willing to listen to young journalists and more than aesthetics. Through help them in whatever way he could,” a former colleague said. such adventurist fits of retooling, A fierce critic of the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, Puri was the a lesser practitioner would have founding general secretary of the Janata Party. Later, he became the founder gone astray. But the power-packed general secretary of the Lok Dal, but hadn’t been attached to a political staccato style stayed, and no less party since 1988. “He felt that to change the political reality, he needed to the combative tone.

be within the system to a certain extent. But later, he became disillusioned This mix in its original form and realised that he did not fit in the world of politics,” Ravindra Kumar,< earned him his first big break editor and managing director of The Statesman, said. in 1959, as staff cartoonist with the Hindustan Times, edited by S. (Courtesy: The Indian Express.) Mulgaonkar. The 25-year-old had returned after a stint at The Glasgow

April-June 2015 VIDURA 63 Herald and The Guardian in London. He’d later recall “the Fleet Street of Vicky and Searle” where postwar Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr joins cartooning was beginning to grow out of the gentlemanly David Low World News Media Congress mode. Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr, the chairman of The New York Times Company The India Puri came back to and publisher of The New York Times, has joined the programme for the was shedding the gentlemanly World News Media Congress, to be held in Washington, DC, from 1 to 3 Nehruvian phase. To begin with, June. Sulzberger will discuss how The Times is implementing its Innovation he was no Nehruvian, more of a Report, which identified major issues and challenges facing the newspaper Lohia-ite who never pardoned in the digital world and provided recommendations to address them. The the Congress for partitioning the presentation comes one year after publication of the report, which drew country. But when Panditji died, widespread industry attention and led newspaper publishers around the he came out with a fitting tribute: world to reassess their own digital strategies. the cartoon grid filled with human Sulzberger will be joined by Alexandra MacCallum, who last year forms that framed a void in the took on the masthead role of assistant editor for audience development, middle shaped like Nehru’s face. charged with overseeing audience growth and engagement at The Times. It was not blind fury all the way; "The Innovation Report has made the newsroom unbelievably open to the man loved Hollywood and trying new things," she recently told Mashable. Under her leadership, The Omkarnath Thakur and betrayed a Times brought managers of social media into the newsroom, launched an certain slant for Sufism. Of course, Instagram account, and has taken other steps to invigorate the audience with cartooning eyes wide open. development process and increase traffic. "It's raising our profile with a Little wonder then that Puri different set of people than we're used to reaching, and I think that's a was among the few editorial really important thing for the Times going forward," she said. commentators to foresee the Other sessions include: Emergency of 1975. He had — An Evolving Profession: Global Perspectives, a conversation between steadily antagonised PM Indira Martin Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, and Maria Gandhi through a series of cartoons Ressa, CEO and executive editor of the Philippine social news network that suggested a constitutional Rappler, and former Manila and Jakarta bureau chief for CNN breakdown. The lady complained — Can Mainstream Media Buy Its Way To Growth? featuring Raju about a particularly unsparing one Narisetti, senior VP & deputy head of Strategy for News Corp, Perrine to J.R.D. Tata, the chairman of The Albrieux, director of Marketing & Digital Development at Groupe Statesman Trust. Tata merely told Télégramme in France, and Christian Hendricks, corporate VP, Interactive editor Kuldip Nayar to ask the Media, for The McClatchy Company in the United States cartoonist “to be a little less vicious — A New Strategy for News, a proposal for the future of news media in the future”. by Jeff Jarvis, author, digital visionary, professor and director of the Tow- Puri knew censors would have no Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City Universiry of New such finesse under the Emergency, York's Graduate School of Journalism. which came soon enough. He quit — Who Runs the News Agenda in a Tech Hungry World, with Emily Bell, cartooning and became an activist director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University's who flirted with the Janata Party Graduate School of Journalism, Marcelo Rech, executive director of and BJP to mercifully return to his Journalism at RBS Group in Brazil, Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the core mission: to critique the nation. American Press Institute, and Vivian Schiller, a former President and CEO In fact, beyond the nation. His work of National Public Radio and former global chair of news at Twitter. had appeared across the length and — The Global Report on Innovation in Newspapers, the annual breadth of the country — from The presentation of the Innovation in Newspapers World Report from the Indian Express to The Hindu and The Innovation International Media Consulting Group for WAN-IFRA. Free Press Journal to The Statesman; — Digesting Programmatic and the Impact on Sales Teams, a look at that wasn’t enough. His book, automated approaches to online advertising with Alanna Gombert, CEO Recovery of India, is dedicated to the of Gombert Consulting and the former head of digital sales and strategy “young people of India, Pakistan at Condé Nast, Marcel Udo, director of Automated Trading at Telegraaf

and Bangladesh”. Barbed wire is Media Groep in the Netherlands, and Robert Johansson, head of RTB and <

a recurring motif in his work. He Programmatic at Schibsted in Sweden. wanted to cut across — to Karachi, < where he was born.

(Courtesy: The Indian Express.)

64 VIDURA April-June 2015 REMEMBERING VINOD MEHTA (1941-2015) The editor of editors He taught journalists to be self-deprecating but not necessarily frivolous, to be intellectually honest and open but not necessarily objective, to be brave but not fool-hardy, and to be enterprising but aware of one’s limitations. And perhaps in each of these values lies the pathway to more ethical journalism, much needed in these times of our shrinking credibility, says Prashant Jha hree years ago, Vinod Mehta was important to take one’s work and I were in conversation seriously, but not oneself seriously. Tin Kathmandu at the Nepal Not only did he name his dog Literature Festival. We discussed Editor to puncture precisely journalism, politics, the rise of these egos, he candidly wrote of Narendra Modi, India’s ‘big his weaknesses. He spoke, often brother’ attitude to its smaller mockingly, of his limited academic neighbours in front of a packed background, of being an editor of audience, which included Nepal’s Debonair, of failed publications, leading editors. The question that of his difficult relationships with drew the most interest was what proprietors, of a failed marriage. Mehta had often written about. In his autobiography Lucknow Boy, “Can politicians and journalists be he went so far as to confess about friends?” His unequivocal answer his affair with a Swiss lady who was a no. For a Delhi editor, this got pregnant, refused to have an was surprising. Was it possible to abortion, and went on to have a remain immune to the charms of baby. Mehta never met his only

netas he would meet regularly as daughter – and wrote of his failed Photo: Lucknow Boy a part of his professional duties? efforts to trace her in his more And in that lies the answer to the recent book, Editor Unplugged. Mehta with Editor (his dog) at his great riddle that is Vinod Mehta’s In an era when editors cannot get residence in Delhi in 2010. journalism, for he was a man who over their self-righteousness, when became synonymous launching – the projection of infallibility is seen of Lucknow, he had an innate and walking away from – some of as a way to boost TRPs, it speaks a lot faith in India’s pluralism. His India’s biggest media platforms. of Mehta that he was willing to put publications exposed communal He taught journalists to be self- all his foibles on the table. In his last politics, reported extensively on deprecating but not necessarily interview to Shivam Vij for Scroll. riots and who engineered it, and frivolous, to be intellectually in, he attributed his ‘self mockery’ backed campaigns for justice. This honest and open but not necessarily to Lucknow, the city where he was did not mean he was radical left objective, to be brave but not fool- born. Mehta’s willingness to laugh either. He believed that the 1991 hardy, and to be enterprising but at one-self, to introspect about economic reforms unleashed aware of one’s limitations. And where one went wrong, about one’s India’s entrepreneurial energies. perhaps in each of these values own personality traits, and acute But the higher revenues at the lies the pathway to more ethical self-awareness did give him an disposal of the Indian state had journalism, much needed in these extra cover against Delhi’s many to be used for the welfare of the times of our shrinking credibility. temptations. marginalised and the poor. Mehta was wellaware that the But this did not mean he was It was this combination – of being greatest danger to which Delhi’s objective. Mehta wore his politics a secular democrat, with a slight top journalists often succumbed on his sleeve. He was a great skepticism of the private sector, and was the seduction to power. representative of the Nehruvian an advocate of state welfare – that Proximity to power, he believed, liberal tradition. Mehta despised put him closer to the broad Congress made journalists think they were the Hindu right and was a ‘card umbrella. He was a self proclaimed the ones exercising power and carrying pseudo secularist’, as chamcha of Sonia Gandhi, defending could influence decisions. And he mockingly described himself. her against ‘foreign origin’ charges, this is precisely why he felt it Brought up in the composite culture seeing her as a crusader of Indian

April-June 2015 VIDURA 65 secularism, and hailing her sacrifice He would stand by a reporter; never visited a restaurant or stayed of 2004 as an act of great virtue. But he would show courage and go in a hotel or travelled in an airline this emanated from conviction, not after the powerful, be it the Prime without paying the full bill.” He any patronage that Congress may Minister’s Office during Atal Bihari was despairing of the current trends have bestowed on him. And it did Vajpayee’s term or Reliance and in the media, and had even begun not blind him to the party’s ills. Tatas by publishing the Radia advocating regulation to curb the In the 2014 elections, Mehta wrote tapes. He would walk away when ills. Mehta was a complex man, about how he could not and did not the owner’s interference crossed a but not a man of extremes. And it vote for the Congress for the mess certain line, which is why he would was precisely this skill to navigate it had made in the preceding five often jokingly describe himself as the the normative and the empirical,

years. He even became an ardent man who started the most number what is and what should be, that champion of the Aam Aadmi Party of failed publications. made him one of India’s legendary < briefly, turning disillusioned after On a debate that has contemporary editors. Kejriwal’s first stint in power and resonance, Mehta had written resignation. that journalists should never take But being politically opinionated freebies. “Pay your way. For the (This article was published in never made him an intolerant four decades I have been an editor, I Hindustan Times.) editor. He gave more space to can claim, hand on heart, that I have criticism than praise in the letters column. He actively sought out right-wing commentators for opinion pieces. He allotted dozens The impact of programmatic advertising of pages for essay length pieces by Arundhati Roy and, occasionally, Programmatic buying — or automated advertising sales — is accelerating Ramchandra Guha. He could see within news publishing and is redefining the way advertising is bought and Narendra Modi would win the 2014 sold, according to a new report published by the World Association of elections much before most of the Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). The new report examines political pundits, and did not allow a complex topic, breaking it down so publishers can glean practical his own opinion of the man to come advice and insights about how programmatic can positively impact their in the way. Mehta never imposed businesses. a uniform style of writing on his “As an industry, we are pretty guilty of using way too much jargon,” reports. He wanted his publication says Janneke Niessen, co-founder and chief information officer for Improve to be the home of all contestations Digital and a board member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe. and conversations happening in the “But don’t be confused – in the end, programmatic is really about automation outside world. Mehta showed that and making things more efficient and effective. It is a good way to attract being honest was a greater virtue easy money. If you keep that in mind, it’s not that complicated.” The than being objective. report, supported by technology partner RadiumOne, delves into the major But perhaps in these times, what challenges, trends and opportunities around programmatic, including: the Mehta’s life can offer to those of power of premium inventory, how to structure sales efforts, how to address us in the media is how to balance the threat of fraud, the potential of mobile and video, and programmatic principle and pragmatism. Mehta sales of native advertising. knew who was paying the bills, “I believe in the future everything we will do will somehow be connected and respected owners. He got to programmatic, and it really doesn’t matter if it is pure real-time bidding to know who were the owner’s or programmatic direct. Programmatic will be a part of our DNA,” says friends, and covered them well; Robert Johansson, RTB and Programmatic manager for Schibsted in Sweden. he took care of the idiosyncrasies Johansson and Schibsted are one of several featured news publishers in and whims of owners and their the new report, entitled “The impact of programmatic advertising on news family members; and he said there publishers,” which can be downloaded at: http://www.wan-ifra.org/ was no space for mavericks and programmatic (free to WAN-IFRA members, 250 Euros for non-members). rebels in the mainstream media. Programmatic advertising will be featured prominently at upcoming WAN- He would publish sex surveys and IFRA events, including sessions at Digital Media Europe in London from

cover stories on the life and times 20-22 April, and the World Advertising Forum in Washington DC from of entertainers to satisfy the market 1-3 June. < and advertisers. This did not mean he would compromise on the fundamentals.

66 VIDURA April-June 2015 The man who had editorial chemistry

Mehta was known to be outspoken and had an unerring instinct for what would be read, says Anjali Puri hat Vinod Mehta had, While his first assignment, the the tapes) to withdraw advertising in two words, was relaunch of the girlie magazine, from Outlook, and strained his Weditorial chemistry. Dina Debonair, contributes great colour relationship with the magazine’s Vakil, a Mumbai editor who had to the legend of Vinod Mehta, his owners. Eventually, Mehta had worked with him at the Indian Post reputation was built on his second to step away from the editorship, newspaper, coined the phrase, one, Sunday Observer. Launched in and the newsroom, and become and captured what it meant, in Mumbai in 1981, on a shoestring editorial chairman. an email she sent me soon after budget, and with the kind of small, As an editor, Vinod Mehta had a I began working for Mehta at overworked, underpaid team style inimitably his. A complex man Outlook magazine. “Still remember Mehta revelled in spurring on, – he makes the startling admission him wearing his trademark papaya- with a string of expletives and yet, in Editor Unplugged that he has yellow shirt, slumping in his remarkable accessibility, this was a never known what is to fall in love editorial chair and looking utterly newspaper Indian readers had never – he exuded, at once, self-contained disconsolate until someone would seen before. It was as different from aloofness and deep engagement come up with an idea that caught the largely staid newspapers of the with his passions. It was sometimes his fancy--the whackier the better-- day as the unorthodox and open- said of him that he infinitely and then he would sit bolt upright minded Mehta himself was from, preferred creatures with four legs and try to formulate the idea into say, Girilal Jain, the then editor of than with two. There were daily a story that would somehow catch The Times of India – an “ivory tower” reminders that this sad hypothesis fire on its way into print.” editor with strong political leanings, might well be true, and not just in No wonder, then, that for rarely to be seen in the newsroom. besotted references in his columns every newspaper proprietor Sunday Observer was sharply to his dog, Editor. who dispensed with Mehta’s designed, and bursting with lively As you left the office in the independent-minded, lively editor- political stories and columns, evenings, you invariably saw stray ship, after finding it politically sometimes by little-known writers dogs milling around the front expensive, there was always a new that Mehta had decided to take entrance, waiting for numerous one coming along, sooner or later, a bet on. Featuring the first op- packets of milk to be opened, all asking him to launch or resuscitate ed page in the Indian media, first courtesy Mehta. But, then, there something. These firings and rate coverage of the arts, and a was the equally curious sight of hirings, which Mehta came to wear feisty letters page, it was the sort of young shoe-shine boys and beggars as badges of honour in his later irresistible mix that Mehta would crowding around him when he years, when the tumult became a whip up, time and again, when he emerged from the office. Not the distant memory, are narrated with was given enough rope. most expansive paymaster, and a relish in the two books that contain At Outlook, Mehta had a 17 year great believer in no-frills offices (one his memoirs, Lucknow Boy and run, a luxury he had never enjoyed memorably, even lacked a proper Editor Unplugged. before. Frequently appearing on TV, loo), Mehta was yet a generous His own errors of judgment and becoming a fixture on Delhi’s tipper. are not omitted, including a social circuit, he could have turned When encountered in office colossal one that forced him to into an establishment figure. But corridors, Mehta studiously resign from the editorship of the he remained refreshingly free of avoided eye-contact, but if you Independent newspaper in 1989, pomposity and self-regard, and he ran into him at a party later in the 29 days after launching it. A story did not lose his appetite for risk. As evening, he was loquacious and based on a dubious RAW report, Editor Unplugged reveals, his bold genial, especially if he had had a calling Maharashtra strongman decision to publish the infamous drink or two. When you met him Y.B. Chavan a spy, which Mehta Radia tapes, which most of the after you had stopped working for ran with an eight-column banner media knew about but did not want him, he greeted you like a long-lost headline, blew up in his face. to touch, led the Tatas (featured in friend. Perhaps the hardest thing

April-June 2015 VIDURA 67 to forget about Vinod Mehta is the At editorial meetings, his eyes never too weighed down by political air of childlike excitement about lit up at the hint of scandal and correctness. Once, in his Mumbai him when he thought a story was controversy, and he was deeply days, he famously gave a serious worth chasing. He not just gave a suspicious of what he saw as piece by a feminist writer on the reporter untrammelled freedom to preachiness or pretentiousness in a pressures on women to conform to run with a good story, he actually writer, though sometimes respectful depilation and conventional norms ran alongside. A ferociously of genuine erudition and originality. of femininity, the headline: ‘I love engaged editor, at his peak, he The worst thing he could say about my hairy legs’. took afternoon naps with his feet a prospective columnist or a book While, as editor in chief, Mehta up on his desk, but by evening was reviewer was “boring as hell”. towered over his Outlook team in age pacing up and down, sneaking up Stories are legion about Mehta’s and reputation, it was remarkable behind reporters to read over their knack of packaging a story more that he never presented himself as shoulders, and even reworking boldly than a nervous reporter had an omniscient figure. He seemed layouts with split-second speed. intended, especially since he was to know exactly who he was: not a lofty intellectual but an editor with a strong instinct for what would be read, and one with a great talent for managing a diverse, and somet- imes disorderly, crew. Editorial Leaders programme launched in It was his insatiable curiosity India to help young editors develop skills for any kind of story, weighty or frivolous, that helped this elderly The World Editors Forum, the editors’ network within the World man, who was so computer illiterate Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has that handwrote his columns to the launched a new Editorial Leaders programme in India to help develop the end, establish a rapport with the skills and leadership ability of young editors. The programme, a first of its youngest members of the team. It kind, encompasses six modules over six months, starting in April in Delhi. was striking how open Mehta was The programme will take the participants through a series of topics to help to being contradicted, and even them enhance their professional expertise and develop them into future- being overruled, at noisy editorial ready editorial leaders. meetings. But of course, the tough The programme fuses the print and digital skills needed to address the decisions, like the one to run with changing media environment. The modules, which will run for two days the Radia story and annoy some each, are: very important people, were always - Writing for the web, 14-15 May his. Unlike some of his peers, he - Data Journalism, 11-12 June took them for the purest, most - Long-form writing, 9-10 July uncomplicated, of reasons — that

- Harnessing social media, 12-13 August these were "bloody good stories" - Leading the newsroom, 1-2 September and he had a magazine to sell. < Six news publishers have joined the programme - The Times of India, Malayala Manorama, Dainik Bhaskar, , Mathrubhumi and Sakaal. (This article was published in The first module, ‘Creating engaging stories’ was held in April. “The .) programme offers a fantastic platform for young editors to share their experience and collectively learn from one another," says Cherilyn Ireton, executive director of the World Editors Forum. "We are thrilled to be launching this programme in India, a growth market for both newspapers and digital media. We hope the programme will help develop tomorrow’s newsroom leaders and create a talent pool for the news publishers”. Adds Magdoom Mohamed, managing director of WAN-IFRA South Asia: “The programme is the result of more than six months of discussions with many editors and closely researching the needs of news publishers in the region. While print is growing, there is steady growth of digital news

consumption. We hope this programme will bridge the skill gap of editors and prepare them to lead the newsroom in an efficient way”. <

68 VIDURA April-June 2015 OTHER NEWS

Hanumantha Rao is no more His novels Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal, Oru Nadigai Nadagam Paarkiral, Yaarukkaga Azhudhaan Pragati Offset Printers’ founder Paruchuri and Cinemavukku Pona Chithalu were adapted as Hanumantha Rao has passed away. He started as films. Jayakanthan himself experimented with film- a novice in printing technology. He was from an making and directed Yarukkaka Azhudhaan, Unnai agricultural family, was a communist party worker, a Pol Oruvan and Paathai Theiryuthu Paar. His novels journalist at Visalandhra newspaper and whatever he and short stories published in literary magazines and learnt about printing was from the workers at the press popular journals made him a household name in and learning through experience. Pragati has been in Tamil society. the print industry for 50 years, and has earned the And in a state where Brahmins are at a receiving end, loyalty and trust of customers spread across various Jayakanthan viewed the community sympathetically fields and geographies with our quality, timeliness and his works bear testimony to his views. He took and customer service. Some of its clients include big enormous pride in his skills as a writer and fiery names such as ITC, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy’s, Diageo, orator. He spoke his mind candidly, undaunted by Infosys, Dulux, HUL, Ranbaxy, Dabur, Boeing, HP anyone or anything. He shared the passion of many and TVS. CPI leaders for Nehruvian socialism and had great (Courtesy: exchange4media) respect for Indira Gandhi. He later joined the Tamil Desiya Katchi launched by E.V.K. Sampath and both D. Sadasivan passes away of them, along with poet Kannadasan, went over to the Congress subsequently. He also edited a pro- D. Sadasivan, former head of the Department Congress daily, Navasakthi, for a while. of Journalism and Communication, University of Madras, died following a brief illness. He was (Courtesy: The Hindu) 82. Sadasivan was instrumental in starting the department at the University in the 1980s. In a career spanning three decades, he served as the head of the Journalists killed in line of duty Department of Mass Communication for a decade, honoured until his retirement in 1992. He had earlier served as a History professor at Pachaiyappa’s College, and was The 2015 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual also a member of the Censor Board of India. He has press freedom award of the World Association of authored several articles on mass communication. Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), His M. Litt thesis, titled Growth of Public Opinion in has been awarded to Journalists Killed in the Line of Madras Presidency, published by the University of Duty, an exceptional announcement that highlights Madras, made significant contribution to the field of the on-going tragedy of those who make the ultimate public opinion studies. Sadasivan is survived by his sacrifice for the right to freedom of expression. At wife Lakshmi, two sons and two daughters. the time of the announcement, it is estimated that nearly 1200 journalists have been killed since 1992. Sixteen journalists have so far lost their lives in 2015, Jayakanthan is dead including eight in a single attack on 7 January Tamil novelist, short-story writer and essayist at the offices of the French satirical publication, Jayakanthan, considered a colossus in Tamil literature, Charlie Hebdo. died in Chennai after a prolonged illness. He was 81 "In honour of fallen colleagues, and to focus the and is survived by wife, two daughters and a son. international spotlight on the issue of safety and He won both the Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi impunity for journalists worldwide, awarding the Awards. Jayakanthan significantly enriched modern Golden Pen of Freedom to Journalists Killed in the Line Tamil literature by portraying the lives of those on the of Duty sends a powerful message to the perpetrators fringes society. And he shocked the same society with of crimes against the media, as well as to legislators his nonconformist views, often questioning long-held and those with the power to enact better laws and views on women and chastity. enforce stronger protections for newsgatherers around Born in 1934 in Cuddalore, Jayakanthan ran away the world," said the WAN-IFRA Board in making the from home to Madras and became a member of award. the Communist party at a very young age. His first “With this award, the world’s press is sending a short story appeared in a little known magazine, resounding signal of resistance to those who believe Sowbakiyavathi. He went on to become a prolific that silencing journalists will curtail freedom of writer, authoring over 35 novels and novellas, expression,” the Board said. “While we honour the innumerable short stories and two autobiographies— lives and work of some of our bravest colleagues who Oru Ilakkiyavathiyin Arasiyal Anubavangal and Oru have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us informed, Arasiyalvathiyin Ilakkiya Anubavangal—besides writing we pledge to continue their commitment to shine articles and composing poems. light into the darkest corners of the world to expose

April-June 2015 VIDURA 69 OTHER NEWS

wrongdoing, defy the abuses of the powerful, and in the print industry once again. After one week of ensure the public’s right to know.” the release of IRS 2014, leading print publishers have “If the same deadly statistics existed in relation reacted with their opinion on the front pages of their to any other profession that had such an impact publications. The Hindu calls the latest survey as a on how we defi ne and understand our world, we stale wine served in new bott le. Dainik Jagran also would reasonably expect the outcry to be emphatic, shares the same view. While feels IRS the investigations relentless, and the commitment to 2014 is misleading. reversing the trend universally forthcoming. That it In their report, Rajiv Lochan, CEO and MD, Kasturi is not so for the lives of journalists killed in the line Sons (The Hindu) said, “The recently released Indian of duty is a global tragedy that must be addressed Readership Survey 2014 has left many publications with urgency if our belief in open, free societies is to dissatisfi ed, some with the methodology, others endure.” with the execution.” In the statement, he pointed out The Golden Pen of Freedom is an annual award, that it was imperative to ensure that the underlying made by WAN-IFRA since 1961, to recognise problems with the survey are addressed even though the outstanding action, in writing or deed, of an it showed that many publications have grown in individual, a group or an institution in the cause readership, making it convenient to use these fi gures of press freedom. The award is traditionally given to commercial advantage. He recalled that IRS 2013 during the opening ceremony of the World News was condemned by 18 leading newspaper groups of Media Congress, the World Editors Forum, and the the country, which had called it ‘badly fl awed’. In a World Advertising Forum, which this year takes place statement issued in public interest, the newspapers in Washington, DC, from 1 to 3 June. Of the estimated had said: “The survey is riddled with shocking 1200 journalists killed since 1992, statistics from anomalies, which defy logic and common sense. They the Committ ee to Protect Journalists reveal that some also grossly contradict audited circulation fi gures 742 were murdered outright. In 90 per cent of these (ABC) of long standing.” IRS 2013 was rejected by cases, no perpetrator has been brought to justice. several media companies, including Dainik Bhaskar, A climate of self-censorship is the inevitable the Jagran Group, Kasturi & Sons, Bennett , Coleman result of these appalling fi gures, a situation that & Co (publishers of The Times of India ) and Amar severely undermines the independence of the press Ujala. and the ability of journalists to investigate issues of Many of the results of the 2013 survey were accountability, transparency and wrongdoing. The inexplicable, he said, adding that it showed that impact of this spiralling situation, common in so The Hindu BusinessLine had three times as many many parts of the world, means the public loses its readers in Manipur than in Chennai. Other anomalies best defence against corrupt governance. included, Hitavada , the leading English newspaper of By awarding the Golden Pen of Freedom to Nagpur with a certifi ed circulation of over 60,000, as Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty, WAN-IFRA not having a single reader. Several media houses have aims to mobilise the international news publishing subsequently withdrawn from the IRS membership community to call for an end to the violence that with Kasturi & Sons Limited being the fi rst to do so targets the profession. It calls on the industry to engage in September 2014. with the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, as well as other safety mechanisms, to bett er protect newsrooms and the lives of journalists. It calls for a serious and pragmatic discussion as to the implications on media companies of the fi nancial costs and technical limitations that may prevent stronger safety measures from being implemented. At the same time, the award is an urgent call to governments worldwide to demonstrate the political will required to end impunity for the killers Our of journalists, and for them to recognise the work of independent journalism as a positive aid to the Journals economic, political and social progress demanded of them by their societies. Publishers speak up against IRS 2014 fi ndings The latest IRS fi ndings are the bone of contention

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