For a better world

For a better world

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Updated on Dec 17, 2009 03:43 IST

A newspaper report on the suicide of a debt-ridden farmer in a Maharashtra village can shake up a jaded urban reader hundreds of miles away. An exposé on unethical medical trials in West Bengal involving anti-malarial drugs can cause a public uproar. A radio programme can wake villagers up to the need for educating their daughters or rejecting the dowry system.


Welcome to the brave world of development journalists — men and women who leave no stone unturned to bring to national attention the plight of hundreds of people suffering because of starvation, poor administration, political malpractices…


P Sainath, author of the best-selling Everybody Loves a Good Drought, in which he documented life in 10 of India’s poorest districts, does not like the tag of development journalist. However, he is one of India’s foremost chroniclers of development-focused issues, who has, on and off, trained the spotlight on farmers’ suicides in different parts of the country, on droughts, starvation cases, unemployment, the plight of the Dalits, and even corruption in the media.


The only rural affairs editor (at The Hindu) in India, Sainath is not too far from the truth when he says, “If tomorrow a bus hits me, (this species) is extinct.”


On the need for more of his kind, Sainath says, “The beats (in media organisations) exclude 70 per cent of the country’s population. There are no agriculture and labour correspondents today.” But therein lies the opportunity, he suggests. “There’s more than 70 per cent of the population to be covered.”


Things are changing now, say experts, with development-based stories visible in mainstream news platforms. Nalini Rajan, faculty member, Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, where all students have to take a course in ‘covering deprivation’, points to a programme on a popular news channel focusing on poverty and starvation.


Sunetra Sen Narayan, co-ordinator of a diploma course in development journalism, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, says she is seeing more coverage of development issues in newspapers.


“The 1990s were the years of liberalisation. The first decade of the 21st century has seen more wisdom. It is an improvement,” says Rajan, adding, “(Newspaper editors seem to realise the need as) we’re doing so poorly on human development indices… I feel hopeful.”


Shahid Jamal, who started a Ford Foundation-funded PG diploma programme in development communication at Jamia Millia Islamia, says every channel has some relevant programme, yet “there has to be more”.


“Since the liberalisation of the economy, lots of private players have come in. So, there’s a greater need to address social issues,” says Jamal.


Usha Bhasin, head of Doordarshan’s Development Communication Division, points out how development journalism can show results. As a result of Doordarshan’s award-winning health magazine, Kalyani, which creates awareness about prevention of malaria and HIV/AIDS, etc, “people in MP have begun to visit health centres, asking for Kalyani goli (pill), the (anti-malaria) chloroquine tablets,” she says.


Development journalists require creativity and that extra skill to convey their message — whether to different (or indifferent) audiences or to editors and intrusive marketers in media houses. Join this profession, says Bhasin, “if you are keen to make a difference to society.”

 

Author: Rahat Bano

Date: 16th Dec., 2009


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