A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA ISSN 0042-5303 April-June 2019 Volume 11 Issue 2 Rs 60 In the time of partisan views, can news be reported better? ‘Caution: Consumption of this product can cause anger and rage, frustration, hypertension or depression.’ You would have seen warnings of this kind on medical products, but perhaps CONTENTS they should be also carried now at the top of the daily newspaper • Poll surveys vitiate democratic that we read. Sakuntala Narasimhan explains why fundamentals / N. Bhaskara Rao • Are politicians the only ones he headlines and reports tend to be such that one’s morning gets to blame in a democracy? / spoilt just going through the details of the happenings around the N.S. Venkataraman country, especially the political shenanigans, politicians’ pronounce- • A remote village shows how T good sanitation can be a reality / ments and tactics driven by the obsessive craving for power and pelf. Here is a recent sampling of headlines from mainstream English papers: Bharat Dogra • Children of the marginalised • Congress MLA quits, set to join BJP suffer inequality in education / • BJD MP Panda joins BJP Rakhi Ghosh • No doctor at ESI hospital, pregnant woman dies • Citizenship Amendment Bill, militancy and the media / • BSNL staff not paid for months Nava Thakuria • BSNL cuts 54,000 jobs • A fearless editor who walked • 17 killed in Delhi hotel fire the talk / Mrinal Chatterjee • Rajya Sabha proceedings washed out • It’s time we focused on the • Karnataka Legislative Assembly speaker gets notice from High Court abilities of the disabled / Aditi Panda • Diploma certificates stolen from college • A slice of the irresistible world of • IT employee kidnapped, assaulted storytelling / Ranjita Biswas • 15 lakhs stolen from politician Shobha’s SBI account • Death penalty – does it not • RTI activist murdered destroy something in each • Farmer tries to end life at VidhanSoudha of us? / Shoma A. Chatterji • 15 per cent increase in viral infections in city • It’s an open field for the Cricket World Cup / Partab Ramchand • Money for NREGA runs out – but crores for statues sanctioned • About Hinglish, Tanglish and • Daily wager dies while cleaning manhole Muthiah’s Words in Indian • Teen goons held for threatening residents for votes English / S.R. Madhu • ABVP activists force lecturer to kneel • Remembering Shamshad Begum / • Police officer Rupa transferred for exposing special treatment to Maggie Amritraj / S. Muthiah / Chinmoy Roy / L.V. Sarada / Sasikala in jail Darryl D’Monte (Continued on page 3) April-June 2019 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR Forget media support, people and community can make a difference ith the general elections to various places in the Indian heart- organisation has made a difference on in India, newspaper land to ferret around such stories. to the sanitation scene in a remote Wpages and stories that The first is located in a village district. Its grassroots activities have appear on online news sites are called Kotda which lies in Mangrol convinced the people about health mostly about the rough and tumble Block in Gujarat’s Junagadh District. hazards of open defecation and of politics. The sad part is, there is Here, open defecation was being the benefits of making the village hardly any decency left in the polit- practised by all households with the open defecation free. Training pro- ical firmament and the less said wastewater flowing out from kitch- grammes are organised for sanita- about it the better. This journal, of ens and bathing places. Dogra refers tion resource persons who play an course, is happy staying away from to the Aga Khan Rural Support Pro- important role in motivating people, politics and politicians; it is happy gramme that has provided vital sup- and for masons who make the toi- carrying stories and comments port in changing the picture. Four lets. What has been most satisfying about issues that matter to the com- self-help groups comprising women is that the majority of people have mon person – issues that surely got rooftop rainwater structures con- not only constructed toilets but are must attract mainstream media structed which helped people store actually using them. The women attention but, rather unfortunately, enough water so that they did not must be thanking their stars. doesn’t all that much. have to fetch drinking water from Many of our stories (in Vidura and distant places. Community efforts ************************* Grassroots) are about the urgent con- have led to open defecation being cerns of people in India, and the tri- checked almost entirely in Kotda, We have lost two outstanding als and tribulations they go through bringing visible health benefits – the editor-journalists. They were almost on a daily basis. While many incidence of diarrhoea, vomiting, chroniclers and storytellers but, are inspiring stories, others cause typhoid and fever has come down. more significantly, mentors to us to pause and think. I often wish All plastic waste is segregated; the many journalists and others as well. that our journals reached far more waste is not burnt, instead it is given We may never find a S. Muthiah people than what they presently do. to a plastic waste dealer. Many or a Darryl D’ Monte again. It was I would have loved it if these jour- women have started composting not just what they had achieved in nals could have been translated in kitchen waste, using pitchers, bins terms of their body of work, but Hindi or in other languages, but that and an organic catalyst. And at least the manner in which they inspired is easier said than done. Strapped for once a month, the women take the people who came into contact with funds, we do not score on advertis- lead to launch a sanitation drive so them. They were simple and hum- ing or marketing either. However, that any litter that has accumulated ble, and they were happy to let their what is heartening is, readers do in the village is cleared. work do the talking. They brought send emails saying how they have The second is about Balrampur rare dedication and commitment to been moved after reading some of District in Eastern Uttar Pradesh work. Always calm and silent and the articles and encourage us to keep where good development indica- steady work, no newspaper hum- our work going. tors hardly existed in the past, but bug or name-making were what they In the midst of all the hurly-burly in recent months the district’s sanita- believed in and practised. The best of political debates and what have tion efforts have produced significant tribute to them would be to stead- you, I’d like to focus on a couple results, thanks to the close coopera- fastly follow some of the principles of feel-good stories featured in this tion the administration has devel- they espoused. issue. Both stories have been sent by oped with voluntary organisations – veteran journalist Bharat Dogra who the Aga Khan Foundation stands out Sashi Nair is based in Delhi but keeps travelling again. Supported by UNICEF, the [email protected] 2 VIDURA April-June 2019 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: (Continued from page 1) ing gas (again, grossly inflated, as ting the details sink in, because he activists have confirmed after field “needs to pass the time somehow”. And so it goes. The first few pages are checks in the rural areas.) Whatever Youngsters, especially students, said invariably full page advertisements — for the party, the expenses on ads runs they don’t subscribe to the printed jewellery, real estate, festival sales of fash- to hundreds of crores of rupees, newspaper; they access headlines ionwear, all targeted at the affluent, the money that should have gone for quickly via the Internet before get- upper one per cent. social betterment. ting on with the day’s work. Advertisements inserted by political These are the ingredients of our Is this a healthy and viable sce- parties (full page) in the run up to the daily staple news. A small, random nario for the media to function as elections – claiming “achievements in survey some of us carried out among the fourth pillar of democracy? health care, infrastructure, drinking water, readers brought some interesting Sure, wrong-doing and undesirable/ electrification”; “all 198 wards of Bengal- responses — the elderly, retired and unethical trends in the community uru declared open defecation free” – were housebound, who turn to newspa- (rising violence and intolerance, inflated and false. Ads by the state govern- pers to pass the morning hours, said, lack of accountability, scams) need ment (coalition) with photos of the chief “Yes, it is all depressing, it spoils the to be exposed, but are we seeing minister and deputy chief minister, facing day’s morning hours, but what con- a trend where ‘shock value’ sells? ads released by the Union Government trol do we have on the content of the And sales are the deciding factor – (BJP) with the photo of the prime min- papers?” One said, he merely runs no newspaper that makes a loss can ister, claimed free distribution of cook- his eyes over the print, without let- survive; and ads proliferate for the April-June 2019 VIDURA 3 same reason, because ads mean rev- installed in the wake of the infa- with gold-brushed pages; it weighs enue for the owner. mous Nirbhaya rape case is being so much that I need both hands to ‘Good news’ (a rickshaw puller’s disbanded and facilities for the staff lift it. It is a prized possession that daughter clears the entrance exam manning the helpline withdrawn. I refer to often for my writings, but for engineering; an IT professional This ought to have been big news, each time I heft it, I wonder: how takes up social work to help the but I did not see it reported in any do we translate this into ground handicapped) does get into the news of the mainstream media.