The Pioneer, 30-6-2006

June 30, 2006: A 22-year-old Dalit youth, Basant Mallick of Dumatamathasahi under Kendrapara Police Station was allegedly killed by his employer with the help of a couple of workers when he demanded his arrear dues. He was working in a plywood factory in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu.
According to the deceased's father Sarat Mallick, Basant had gone to Tamil Nadu three years ago with the help of a fellow villager to earn his living as they were very poor. Moreover, he could earn some money and get his two sisters married. He got a job in Unique Plywood Industries of Selamparayanpalayam in Tamil Nadu. At the time of joining the owner of plywood unit had promised to pay him Rs 3,600 per month.
Despite working there for three years he was not paid a single penny by the owner. Basant asked the owner to give him his pending salaries on June 10. His father said when Basant demanded his money and protested, the owner with the help of some of his henchmen, who are also employees in the plywood industries assaulted him.
Basant succumbed to his injuries on June 13, alleged Sarat Mallick. He received a telephone call on last June 13 evening from one of the Oriya workers of the plywood industry who asked him to come soon as his son was serious. When he reached Coimbatore on June 14 he found his son dead.
Later, the factory owner and some of his henchmen forcefully took his signatures on couple of blank papers when he reached the factory to know the exact reason behind the death and to bring back his son's dead body. But, the body of Basant was allegedly cremated in an electric crematorium at Pappanaickenpalayam on June 15 without giving him an opportunity to see the dead body of his son, alleged Sarat.
Even the factory workers along with the owner did not allow him to perform the last rites of his son though he was present on that day in the factory. As per the electric crematorium record, the plywood factory owner TA Abdulla paid Rs 750 towards the cremation charges, said Sarat. On the other hand, the post-mortem report stated that Basant died due to snake bite. He alleged that the factory owner with the connivance of the private hospital in Coimbatore allegedly tampered the post-mortem report.
Later, he came to know from an employee, who was present during the creation of his son that his son's body was bandaged and his son was killed by the owner. Sarat on Thursday brought the matter before the Superintendent of Police, Kendrapara Suresh Palsania and lodged an FIR against the plywood industry owner and his henchmen. Palsania said that he would inform Coimbatore SP about the matter and would ask him to conduct an inquiry and take legal action against the factory owner and the henchman if they were found guilty.
Sarat on Thursday has also sent a letter to the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the State Labour Minister requesting them to help him in this regard.

NDTV.com, 23-6-2006

Dalit villager pays heavy price for water (by Sameer Khan/Poonam Agarwal)

Friday, June 23, 2006 (Khandwa):
Pradip, a young Dalit man from a remote village in Madhya Pradesh, decided to fight back when upper caste people in his village refused him water.
Instead, the 20-year-old was beaten up and as a result, 250 Dalit families from his Chotiche village have been denied access to water.
Kalabai is a Dalit, but never before has she been so acutely conscious of her status. Her son Pradip has been missing since the incident.
The village gets its water supply from a government tubewell, but upper caste families determine how much water the Dalit families have access to.
"Villagers were not allowing him to take water from the well. So he asked for a little more water and a fight broke out," said Kalabai.

Supply stopped
Following this confrontation, the upper castes have stopped supplying water to the Dalits who are now forced to walk more than five km to the nearest water source.
"The problem cropped up because the pipe of the tubewell was broken by the Dalits," said Jagdish Patel, an upper caste villager.
The local administration claims the issue is not caste clash but a mere dispute.
"The dispute is not between the upper castes and Dalits. Rather it's merely a case of water and we are going to arrest the culprits," said D C Sagar, SP, Khandwa District.
But as Dalits continue to be deprived of water, the only case registered so far is against them for instigating trouble.

The Tribune (Haryana), 22-6-2006

Safai karamcharis intensify agitation

Bhiwani, June 22
Intensifying their 10-day-old agitation, safai karamcharis of the Municipal Council held a demonstration and raised slogans against the administration and the chairman of the civic body here today.
The safai karamcharis have been observing strike for the past 10 days in support of their demands. They have met the local MLA and the Chief Minister.
They say those employees who retired several years ago have not received their provident fund and other arrears so far.
The safai karamcharis got agitated today over the news of allocating the sanitation work on contract. They staged a demonstration and raised slogans against municipal chief Nand Lal Chawla. They entered the office of Mr Chawla and created disturbance for about two hours.
Mr Chawla reportedly assured them that there was no such plan under consideration to allocate sanitation work to any private contractor.

The Times of India, 22-6-2006

Dalit sarpanch paraded naked in MP village (by Suchandana Gupta)

BHOPAL: A Dalit woman sarpanch of Mahoikala village in Chattarpur district of MP was beaten up, stripped and then paraded naked by upper caste men for not paying them Rs 50,000 from the village development fund.
The woman's plight does not end here as she had to knock the police door repeatedly for lodging an FIR. But when she did not succeed, she had to seek an SP MLA's help for registering the FIR four days after the incident.
National Women's Commission chairperson Girija Vyas on Thursday asked the Madhya Pradesh government to conduct a probe into the incident and submit a report within a week.
According to Indira Kushwah (45), the sarpanch, local goons Lakhan Shukla and Santosh Shukla had been harassing her for the last six months for money. Indira told mediapersons in Chhatarpur on Thursday, "Lakhan used to threaten me.
He used to say that I had been given money for the village development since I was the sarpanch. He also said the money should be given to him because I, being a Dalit, would not know how to spend it."
"On the evening of June 17, when I turned down their demand, the two, armed with rifles, came to my hutment, dragged me and my children out and Lakhan started beating me. He and his men then stripped me and paraded naked in the village," she alleged.

The Hindu, 14-6-2006

Dalit girls land in bonded labour net (by S. Annamalai )

They are lured by `mangalya thittam' offered by spinning mills

MADURAI: Seventeen-year-old C. Sita of Keezhakuyilkudi village in Madurai district has spent two years in a spinning mill as a bonded worker. She is on a five-day annual vacation, visiting her widowed mother and four sisters.
She left the village, lured by the mangalya thittam offered by spinning mills around Palani and Dharapuram through local brokers. She is not alone. Dalit girls in around 15 villages surrounding Nagamalai are following the pattern of dropping out of school and walking into the bonded labour net in the last two years.
They go to work in textile units for a daily wage, starting from Rs. 25 and progressing by Rs. two every four weeks.
The mangalya thittam, a euphemism for keeping adolescent girls as bonded workers, offers food and stay at a cost of Rs. 10 per day. The wages are paid at the end of the fourth week.
After three years of service, with an annual holiday of five days, the girls return home with Rs. 30,000, which is supposed to take care of their marriage expenses.
They leave home at around 14 years of age and return to get married, often subjecting themselves to all kinds of exploitation at the workplace. Sita says, "My mill is good but I cannot say anything about the other mills," before bursting into uncontrollable sobs.
Though poverty is the primary reason for these girls falling into a trap, there are other contributory factors like the absence of a high school and exorbitant fees charged by private schools.
Keezhakuyilkudi has a Government Kallar Middle School, started in 1925.
The nearest high school is about 20 km away. There are many private schools around this village but they charge Rs. 1600 for admissions to the ninth standard.
Children like Alagurani and Chitra want to complete high school but their parents, who are employed as sanitary workers in the local panchayat, do not have the wherewithal. With reluctance, parents send their teenage children to unknown places for work.
Brokers get Rs. 1000 for every girl brought for work. A seven-member group from the region left for a textile unit in Puliyampatti near Palani two days ago.
Littles Trust, a non-governmental organisation working for educating girl children in these villages, is worried at the alarming rate of dropouts.
T.R. Parvadavardini, managing trustee, is concerned at the poaching done by agents in Dalit colonies.

NDTV.com, 13-6-2006

Dalits face social boycott in Udaipur (by Harsha Kumari Singh)

Tuesday, June 13, 2006 (Udaipur):
Caste polarisation continued in Udaipur after a Dalit bridegroom was forced to dismount by upper castes because he dared to ride a horse to his wedding.
Two months after the incident, Dalits of Amarpura village are still facing a social boycott for daring to file an FIR on the issue.
The caste divide has deepened further as other Dalits from neighbouring villages have come out in support of the members of their community in Amarpura.
The supporters are also facing opposition and a boycott in their respective villages, but the administration says there is little they can do except to ask the communities to get together and resolve the issue through dialogue.

Protest march
After being denied rations from village shops and water from tubewells, the Dalits were forced to march to Udaipur against the social ostracism they have been facing.
"We continue to be threatened. They say they will attack us, this despite a police presence in the village," said Ramlal, a villager.
"They don't have any transactions with us. We can't buy rations from the kirana store, we can't even buy a bidi or a match-box," said Shyam Lal Meghwal, another villager.
The FIR identified 20 people who attacked the wedding procession and forced the groom to dismount in Amarpura.
But till now only three people have been arrested for atrocities under the SC/ST Act.
"If both sides adopt a confrontationist attitude, then nothing can be done. Elders in the community should come forward for a compromise," said Shikhar Agarwal, Collector, Udaipur.
But the growing caste polarisation in these villages has led to a simmering caste tension in the area.
And unless the administration rectifies the situation at the earliest, it could escalate into a law and order problem in future.

NDTV.com, 11-6-2006

DMK ends Brahmin dominance in TN temples (by Alaphia Zoyab)

Sunday, June 11, 2006 (Chennai):
Brahmin-bashing can never be politically wrong in Tamil Nadu.
One of the first things the DMK government did after coming to power was to ensure that priesthood in temples was no longer the preserve of Brahmins alone.
Now caste is no longer a barrier to become a priest leaving the orthodox in Tamil Nadu silently fuming once again.
From now onwards, anybody who undergoes training in the holy texts can become a priest.
"Only people trained in Agama rules and who know Vedas and Sanskrit, if at all the poojas are performed in Sanskrit, can go inside and do poojas. There is nothing wrong in it," said TKS Elangovan, organising secretary, DMK.
"We have got references and evidences from history that we are all children of God and anybody can become a priest and worship God if he knows the method," said an Amarnath historian.

Ancient texts
But it has outraged the purists. And at the centre of this debate on the caste barrier are ancient texts called the Agamas.
How a temple should be built, how it should be governed and who should perform the poojas all of that is supposed to be contained in these sacred texts called Agamas.
Now critics of the government believe that the government hasn't answered any long felt need by allowing non-Brahmins to perform the poojas.
They believe it has ended up rejecting these sacred texts, the very basis on which such temples are built.
"It is generally thought that only Brahmins are allowed inside the temple," said MA Venkatakrishnan, professor of Vaishnavism.
"I am also a Brahmin. I have also studied so many texts and all - Vedas, Agamas. Because I know Agamas I cannot go inside the sanctum sanctorum," he said.
"Most of the people now in the government are atheists and so they don't have any faith in the religious traditions and so they are doing all these things but ultimately the judiciary is the only last refuge for us," he said.

Anti-Brahmin movement
The Dravidian movement's success has its origins in the anti-Brahmin movement launched in the first part of the 20th century.
One century on, the DMK continues to stoke those feelings. But the move is well timed.
Thanks to reservation, social justice has returned to the centrestage of political debate.
But priesthood is not a very lucrative career and many are wallowing in poverty, so to neutral observers, this move is empty posturing.
"I cannot understand why the government is worried about this issue when there are issues like Dalits not being allowed to become Panchayat chairman, reserved categories are not fulfilled," said VR Anil Kumar, Sanskrit researcher.
There are already many non-Brahmin priests, but with this order, they can now perform poojas in any temple, big and small.
And irrespective of what any holy text might have prescribed, the DMK has written its own scriptures.

The Hindu, 9-6-2006

Dalit industrial policy on anvil

To promote entrepreneurial skills among them It will promote entrepreneurial skills among them

KADAPA: A 'Dalit industrial policy' will be introduced this year to promote entrepreneurial skills among Dalits in tune with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's commitment to ensure their upliftment, chairman of Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes Cooperative Finance Corporation R. D. Wilson said on Thursday.
The corporation set a target of granting loans to 1.70 lakh Dalits this year, he told newsmen at Proddatur.
Kadapa district topped by purchasing 243 acres of land for distribution among SCs in 2005-06, he said.

* Corporation targets grant of loans to 1.70 lakh Dalits * Micro-finance credit for Dalit women enhanced to Rs. 1 lakh * The corporation was weakened in the past due to poor loan recovery

Micro-finance credit for Dalit women was enhanced from Rs. 75,000 to Rs. 1 lakh, he said. The corporation was weakened in the past due to poor recovery of loans. The corporation was monitoring progress of schemes through online linkage of all district units, he said.

Plea to parents
Parents must identify creativity among children and encourage them, he said while addressing pre-teacher trainees at YSR SETWIN Teacher Training Centre at Proddatur.
Some trainees should get recruited as teachers and some others should set up schools on their own, he said. SC Corporation imparted teacher training to Dalit women, he said. He gave away training certificates and Rs. 1,200 as stipend to 30 trainees.
Executive Director of District SC Welfare Cooperative Society B. Anil Kumar Reddy, college director Rajasekhara Reddy, Proddatur MPDO Ramachandra Reddy and SC United Front district general secretary A. Baladasu and society official Srinivasulu also spoke.

NDTV.com, 9-6-2006

Kota Dalits 'break' temple tradition (by Rajan Mahan)

Thursday, June 8, 2006 (Kota):
Reservation quotas may have sparked off caste bitterness but there are also signs of positive change.
People from backward communities in Rajasthan, till a few years ago, were forbidden from entering some temples.
But now in the state's Kota district a group of Dalits have been trained to become temple priests.
They are already performing full Vedic rituals that were till now the sole preserve of upper caste Brahmins.

Vedic rituals
The new breed of Dalit Pandits have learnt Sanskrit to ensure that Dalit weddings are performed with Vedic rituals.
"When we had weddings in our community earlier, pandits never used to come. Their refusal to come made us feel that they do not see us as human beings. So some people in our community decided that if they do not come, why don't some of us train to become pandits and learn all Vedic shastras," said a Dalit pandit.
Over the past year nearly 60 Dalits have been trained in various disciplines of Hindu priesthood by Sanskritam, an NGO in Kota.
They can now perform all traditional rituals related to birth, marriage and death. And in a sign of changing times, Dalit pandits say even other castes are now accepting them.
"We are getting a lot of respect from our Harijan community. Some people from other castes like Raigars and Bairwas have also started calling us for their functions. We pray to God that soon some higher caste people will also start using our services," said another Dalit pandit.
By performing private pujas, the Dalit pandits have clearly broken an upper caste bastion.
But though they have been fully trained to become temple priests, so far none of them have actually been appointed in a temple.

PTINews.com, 9-6-2006

IT industry to oppose reservation in pvt sector: NASSCOM

Bangalore, Jun 8 - NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik today said the IT industry body would oppose any move to introduce reservation in the private sector as it would affect the performance of the businesses.
"In industry, it is not productive and also not a wise move. Industries are competing globally and we want best people for the job. We cannot introduce reservation as it will affect the performance of the industry," he said.
"If at all reservation is imposed on industries, NASSCOM will oppose it totally," he told reporters here.
Karnik also said the proposed 27 reservation for OBCs would have "historical disadvantage" and lead to permanent division in the society.
"Many of us hesitate to caste-based reservation as it will lead to a permanent division in the society." He, however, said "It does not mean that we should not do something for the disadvantaged. Why cannot we use some other measures -- it may either be economic measure or gender measure. There has been historical discrimination against women." Karnik stressed the need to take measures at the school level itself to uplift the downtrodden sections.
"If it's thought that it will be a long process, then short-term measures like providing special training can be introduced to improve the standard."

The Pioneer, 9-6-2006

MLA's sons, relative sent to jail under Harijan Act

Bhopal - Two sons of BJP MLA from Khandwa Hukum Chandra Yadav along with their cousin have been sent to jail under Harijan Act. The youth had allegedly thrashed a man belonging to a scheduled caste community and had also used derogatory language against him.
The MLA's sons and his nephew had applied for bail in the local court but the bail application was turned down.
Special sessions judge TK Kousal while hearing the case rejected the bail plea and sent Trilok, Mangal and Yogesh Yadav to judicial custody.
DSP in-charge of the Anusuchit Jati Kalyan police station BS Parmar said that cases were registered against the two sons of the MLA Trilok and Mangal Yadav and his nephew under the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act.
On March 19 a conductor of private bus complained to the police station that the three youth beat up him and mouthed racial abuses against him.
"Even witnesses confirmed that the complainant was abused by the trio. This is an insult on the minority community in the country. It should be dealt with strictly. The police will do all the necessary and the court has done its duty," said a senior police officer, unwilling to be quoted. He stressed that law would take its own course and we would enforce the law.

ZeeNews.com, 9-6-2006

Panel seeks public opinion on SC converts

New Delhi, June 08: The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM) has sought public opinion on requests to designate Scheduled Caste Hindu converts to Islam and Christianity as SCs.
The NCRLM is also holding discussions with different private and non-government agencies over the matter, the Minority Affairs Ministry said today.
"NGOs and members of the public are requested to inform the commission of their views within a period of three weeks," it said in a statement here.
Last year, the Centre directed the NCRLM to deal with demands to specify Scheduled Caste converts to Islam and Christianity as SCs as part of its larger terms of reference.
Headed by former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Misra, the commission is entrusted with the responsibility to recommend welfare measures for disadvantaged sections among religious and linguistic minorities.

The Pioneer, 9-6-2006

Discrimination against Dalits at Marine Export Authority (by Smitha Namboothiri)

Employees belonging to the Backward Classes at the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) have complained that they are being discriminated against by the authorities at the Kochi office.
This development at an institute under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry clearly indicates that discrimination against employees belonging to Backward Classes and Dalits is not confined only to the unorganised sector, say observers.
The Dalit employees of the MPEDA have strongly objected to the discriminatory attitude of the management and a section of the employees at the Kochi office. "We are facing clear discrimination and prejudice in all official matters, right from appointments to promotions. There is a strong move on the part of the MPEDA management to cleanse the unit of all SC/ST staff and officers," alleged a highly placed source at the authority, who is also a member of the MPEDA unit of the Federation of SC/ST Employees.
The Dalit employees are forced to seek judicial intervention in order to obtain their legitimate rights such as promotion. " A majority of the SC/ST employees in this office have to approach the court to get their due promotion. Even after they spend huge amounts of money as court expenses, many of the court directions are not obeyed by the MPEDA management," the source alleged.
The Dalit employees allege that the model roster for promotion, which is approved by the Union Government, is not followed by the MPEDA management and most of the posts reserved for SC/ST persons are occupied by persons under the unreserved category.
"Whenever a Dalit employees promotion is due, a change in recruitment rules (either in qualification or experience) are proposed with the sole purpose of ensuring that the SC/ST personnel are disqualified for such posts.
"Apart from this, in several cases the management used to fabricate charge sheets to deny due promotion to Dalit staff and employees from general category are promoted," said an employee, who had to approach the court for getting promoted. However, 12 years later, she has not yet been given the promotion.
The SC/ST Federation has drafted a petition to be submitted to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh, who is scheduled to visit Kochi on Thursday and to MPEDA chairman G Mohan Kumar. In the petition, the federation has pointed out some cases of clear discrimination.
"The Dalit staff and officers are also facing disciplinary action like demotion for untenable reasons and also frequent transfers," says a highly placed source. Whenever officials from the Ministry come for an inspection, the management would present falsified reports to cover up the matter, alleges a Dalit officer.
Meanwhile, the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) has decided to take up the issue of discrimination at the MPEDA. "It is a clear human rights violation and such discrimination exists in many of the institutions under the Union Government.
"But because of organisational and other pressures, nobody is ready to speak out. In this case, we will take up the issue and bring it before the Supreme Court, SC/ST Commission and other concerned agencies," said R Prakash, State convenor of the NCDHR.

The Hindu, 5-6-2006

Upper castes dominate national media, says survey in Delhi

"No Dalit or Adivasi among top 300 journalists"

New Delhi: In the first-ever statistical analysis of its kind, a survey of the social profile of more than 300 senior journalists in 37 Hindi and English newspapers and television channels in the capital has found that "Hindu upper caste men" — who form eight per cent of the country's population — hold 71 per cent of the top jobs in the national media. Women, non-upper castes, and Muslims are grossly under-represented in relation to their share in the population.
The survey notes that Dalits and Adivasis "are conspicuous by their absence among the decision-makers. Not even one of the 315 key decision-makers belonged to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes."
The survey was designed and executed by Anil Chamaria, freelance journalist, Jitendra Kumar from the Media Study Group and Yogendra Yadav, senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).

* Hindu upper caste men hold 71 per cent of top jobs * Muslims account for only three per cent among key decision-makers

If men and women are taken together, the share of upper caste Hindus or `dwijas' in the upper echelons of the media is 85 per cent. These castes account for 16 per cent of the national population.
Brahmins alone, the survey found, hold 49 per cent of the top jobs in national journalism. If non-`dwija' forward castes like Marathas, Patels, Jats and Reddys are added, the total forward caste share stands at 88 per cent.
In contrast, OBCs, who are estimated to constitute around 40 per cent of the population, account for an "abysmally low" four per cent of top media jobs. In the English print media, OBCs account for just one per cent of top jobs and in the Hindi print media eight per cent. Muslims too, the survey noted, are "severely under-represented in the national media": they account for only three per cent among the key decision makers in the national media, compared with 13.4 per cent in the country's population.
Muslims do better in the Hindi electronic media, forming six per cent of key decision-makers. In the English electronic media, the survey found there were no Muslims at the senior-most levels in Delhi. Christians, however, are proportionately represented in the media (mainly in the English media). Their share is about four per cent compared with their population share of 2.3 per cent.
Doubly disadvantaged sections of the population, such as women Other Backward Classes or backward caste Muslims and Christians, are nearly absent among the key decision-makers. The survey, for example, found that there was not a single OBC woman among the 315 journalists enumerated.

Gender balance
When it comes to gender balance, the English electronic media does best, with women accounting for 32 per cent of the top jobs. Women account for 16 per cent of top editorial positions in the English print media and 14 per cent and 11 per cent in the Hindi print media and electronic media. Explaining the survey methodology, Yogendra Yadav said details of designation, age, religion, caste, gender, mother tongue, and domicile of up to a maximum of 10 key decision-makers from 37 `national' media organisations were collected on a standard pro-forma between May 30 and June 3, 2006. In most cases, the data were generated by journalists from within each newspaper or television channel being surveyed. But he cautioned that the data might still contain some errors.

The Hindu, 3-6-2006

Caste matters in the Indian media (by Siddharth Varadarajan)

If television and newspaper coverage of the anti-reservation agitation was indulgent and one-sided, the lack of diversity in the newsroom is surely a major culprit.

My first brush with caste prejudice in higher education came in 1999, when a group of Dalit students from the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) came to see me at my office in another English newspaper where I worked at the time as an editorial writer.
The students were residents of the hostel and had silently borne the brunt of casteist abuse and discrimination for some time. Whether by happenstance or design, the Scheduled Caste students were confined to two floors and not assigned rooms elsewhere in the building. In the dining hall, they were forced by the forward caste majority to sit together at one end. If a Dalit student sat somewhere else, he would be abused. "Bloody shaddu," one of them was told when he sat amidst others by mistake, "you cannot eat with us."
The Dalits put up with this harassment and humiliation because, as one of their parents told them, "you have to become a doctor at any cost." But the abuse eventually turned to violence and when one of the students was badly beaten and another had his room ransacked, they decided to go on a dharna. This is also when they ended up in my office.
After hearing them out, I requested the head of the Metro section to send someone to UCMS to cover the story. I was promised a reporter would be sent soon. Several days went by but nothing appeared. It turned out no reporter was assigned. I tried again, this time going one notch higher in the editorial chain-of-command. Again there was no response. Eventually, I decided to do the story myself. I spent half-a-day at the college, interviewed the college authorities, the students on dharna as well as the general category students. One of them admitted reluctantly to using the slur `shaddu' for the Scheduled Caste students but only as a `pet name'.
I filed the story but it did not appear the next day or the day after. Nobody ever said the story was not interesting or not up to scratch but for some reason space could never be found. The story finally appeared, in a cut and mutilated form, a full month after the Dalit students began their dharna. Needless to say, the travails of the Dalit students at UCMS were not considered newsworthy enough by other newspapers or by any of the news channels.
I narrate this story because of how it contrasts with the extraordinary indulgence the national media showed the nearly month-long anti-reservation agitation of doctors and medical students at AIIMS and other colleges. Despite the 24x7 presence of TV cameras, the daily protests in favour of reservation by AIIMS doctors and staff under the banner of `Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities' were virtually blacked out. One channel showed the counter-protest last Sunday only when a `citizen journalist' presented it with footage he had shot. Often, it was impossible to separate the breathless TV reporters from the anti-reservation doctors they were reporting about. The insensitive and casteist forms of protest some of them adopted — the `symbolic' sweeping of streets, the shining of shoes, the singing of songs warning OBCs and others to `remember their place' (`apni aukat mein rahio') — were put on air without comment by the channels. Nobody asked what kind of doctors these `meritorious' students were likely to become if they had such contempt towards more than half the population of India. And in a media discourse which routinely reports the protests of the underprivileged only as "traffic jams" and other disruptions to the "normal" life of the city, the suffering of poor patients as a result of the AIIMS strike figured largely as a footnote to the "heroic" struggle the medical students and junior doctors were waging.
Amidst the hysteria induced by the media coverage, no one cared to point out how indulgent the AIIMS authorities themselves were being towards the anti-reservation strike. Earlier this year, when a section of doctors concerned about higher user fees being imposed on poor patients sought to protest, they were warned of dire consequences. Under the terms of a High Court order, no protest or demonstration is permitted within the AIIMS campus. Yet nobody demurred when the anti-reservation students occupied the lawns, put up shamianas and coolers and received the "solidarity" of traders, event managers, and IT employees (whose employers usually ban their own staff from ever striking work.)
While there were honourable exceptions — Outlook, The Hindu, and Frontline among them, as well as individual reporters in some newspapers and channels — would the media's coverage have been more balanced had there been a greater degree of caste diversity in the newsroom and editorial boards of our newspapers and channels? Put another way, in egging the forward caste students on to oppose any extension of reservation, were forward caste editors and reporters reflecting their own personal impatience with the idea of affirmative action? Was the media coverage, then, a display of trade unionism by the privileged?
There are no official or industry statistics but every journalist is aware of the extent to which forward castes dominate the media. When B.N. Uniyal surveyed the scene in 1996, he found not a single Dalit accredited journalist in Delhi. Today, the position is unlikely to be much better. At a recent meeting of Journalists for Democracy, it was reported that an informal survey had found that the number of accredited North Indian OBC journalists in Delhi was under 10. I myself have counted the number of Muslims with accreditation to the Press Information Bureau and they barely cross the three per cent mark. In Chhattisgarh, a recent attempt to send Tribal journalists on a training programme had to be dropped because there was none.
One is not saying the absence of Dalit or OBC journalists is the product of conscious discrimination though that factor cannot be ruled out. But the reality of their absence is something the media must have the courage to acknowledge.
In an ideal world where professionalism is paramount, the caste or religious affiliation of a journalist should not matter. But journalism that has little or no space for the majority of citizens is bound to end up missing out on the complexity of the society it seeks to cover. Story ideas will not be taken up, or if taken up then covered only from a particular perspective. To be sure, many of the negative trends so evident in Indian journalism — the shrinkage of space, the lack of coverage of rural India or of the problems of poor Indians, the episodic, frenetic nature of news, the cult of the Sensex, the preoccupation with trivia and sensationalism — will not be cured by newspapers and TV channels hiring more Dalit, OBC, and Muslim journalists. But greater workplace diversity will certainly infuse a greater degree of vitality in the newsroom as wider varieties of lived experience intrude upon and clash with the largely urban, rich, forward caste Hindu certitudes of the overwhelming majority of journalists.
Far from seeing affirmative action as a threat, India's media houses should look upon the entry of Dalit, Tribal, OBC, and Muslim journalists as an opportunity to broadbase their journalism and make it more professional and authentic. Last year, Ankur and Sarai-CSDS provided teenagers in the now-demolished slum cluster of Nangla Machi with computers. The daily diaries and fly-sheets they produced even as their homes were being brought down by bulldozers is journalism of as high a quality as anyone can find in India today (Interested readers should visit http://www.sarai.net/nm.htm). Certainly their writings tell us more about the reality of "slum clearance" than any of our TV channels, and in prose that is better than what one normally gets to read in our newspapers.
As the OBC and SC-ST youths who want to become doctors and engineers are saying, merit is not simply a score that can be bought by parents who have the money to invest in the most expensive education for their children. It is also about the talent that all children have within them regardless of their caste or socio-economic background. A society — or an industry like the media — which does not find a way to tap that talent will only end up impoverishing itself. Specifically, media houses must seriously think about starting internships and training programmes for Dalit, Tribal, Muslim, and OBC students interested in becoming journalists.
Reservation, affirmative action, targeted expenditure, and investment are all means of society helping people unlock their inherent talent. As pro-reservation scholars such as Yogendra Yadav, Satish Deshpande, Purshottam Aggarwal, and others have argued, the United Progressive Alliance Government's current approach is not necessarily the best one. But by conducting a shrill campaign and encouraging forward caste students to launch an ill-conceived agitation, the media themselves foreclosed the possibility of a rational debate on what the best way of building an inclusive education system really is. When the dust settles, the media should introspect and ask what they can do to make society as a whole more inclusive. Encouraging conversation and not hectoring is one way. But another is surely to diversify the newsroom by consciously bringing in those sections of society who have hitherto been excluded. There are a million stories out there waiting to be told. If only we allow the storytellers to do the telling.