Media completing ignoring issues of rural India, says Sainath

coastaldigest.com news network
August 21, 2017

Udupi, Aug 21: Veteran journalist P Sainath has expressed frustration over Indian media’s reluctance to cover rural issues.

The Magsaysay award winner was delivering a special lecture on the topic — “The story of rural India in digital age”— here on Sunday. The lecture was organised as part of the endowment lecture series “Talluru Nudimale – 2017” by the Tallur Family Trust.

Mr. Sainath said that the front page of average national dailies dedicated space of just 0.67% to stories of rural India. This was an average of five years. This meant that 69% of the population was marginalised in the media. This also meant that there was an ill-informed society.

Rural India is incredibly complex having 833 million people speaking over 718 different languages, he said and added that six of those languages were being spoken by 50 million people and three languages were spoken by over 80 million people, while one language was spoken by 500 million people. Inequalities in India had grown faster in the last 20 years than in any other country in the world. Some of the finest skills in the country were dying.

The Skills Development Project was taking the weavers of Kanjeevaram, one of the greatest traditions in Indian history, and was making them autorickshaw drivers. The Tamil weavers had given up. Now, it was Padmashalis from Telangana who are doing the work of weaving. A giant de-skilling was taking place in rural India.

Millions of children were entering schools, where they could not own textbooks. But the newspapers, magazines and television channels were silent on it. Even the education sector was getting commercialised and privatised. The high-rung IIMs were charging Rs. 22 lakh as fees. The low-rung IIMs were charging Rs. 10 lakh and above. Though there were only a few freedom fighters living now, the media had not bothered to take their opinion on the freedom movement during the 70th Independence Day. Instead, one of the newspapers had taken the views of CEOs of big companies and Bollywood celebrities on it, he said. Mr. Sainath released “Nunnanabetta”, a collection of articles written by Rajaram Tallur.

G.N. Mohan and Nagesh Hegde, journalists, M.S. Sriram, writer and economist, Narayana A., Professor, Azim Premji University, gave their responses to Mr. Sainath’s lecture.
 

Comments

Vinod Acharya
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

The solo warrier... well said sir. Real face of media..

AR Shetty
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

I'm a big fan of you sir. 

Hari
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

Sir, Including you only few people doing true journalism

Danish
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

Smooth running of media, needed capital. so media cant neglect corperators and MNCs. without them media wont get capital and advts..

Kumar
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

I remember sir, you told once in a workshop regarding media neglected farmer issues and went for fashion show coverage

Ganesh
 - 
Monday, 21 Aug 2017

Sir, Media and media people (except you) needed more publicity, so they will do unwanted controversy issues. 

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News Network
January 9,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 9: Some BJP workers created a ruckus on Wednesday at a college here while seeking support for the amended Citizenship Act by raising slogans like 'Go back to Pakistan' outside the campus on Wednesday, as girl students opposed a pro-CAA banner on the wall of their institution.

A video of the incident went viral on social media.

A group of BJP workers, supporters of local party leader M M Govindaraj, had put up a poster "India Supports CAA" on the wall of Jyothi Nivas College near Koramangala.

This was opposed by girl students, who said they would not allow any such poster to be put up on the college property.

The BJP workers then tried to shout down the students.

"You are not concerned about citizenship, you are concerned about yourself. You should be concerned about India first. You are not an Indian then," a BJP worker is heard screaming at the girls in the video.

They also questioned the students if they had valid reasons to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act and sought to know whether they wanted an argument or a debate.

The BJP workers purportedly told the girls that they were only the students of the college and not the owner.

"What's your problem madam with the CAA? Are you the owner of the college?" they asked.

Amid the heated argument, the BJP workers resorted to sloganeering like 'We want CAA' and "Go back to Pakistan', as seen in another video shot by the students.

BTM Layout Congress MLA Ramalinga Reddy visited the college on Thursday after learning about the incident and spoke to its management.

Later, he told reporters that the campus should not be allowed for any political activities.

"Any signature campaign whether in favor or against it (CAA) should be done outside the campus," Reddy said.

He cautioned the pro-CAA protesters he will not let any violent incidents like the one at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi happen at the city college.

Reddy's daughter Sowmya Reddy, who is the Jayanagar MLA, tweeted, "A few videos & photos of outside #JyotiNivascollege are being circulated on social media."

"MLA Ramalinga Reddy & I have spoken to cops and the Prinicipal about this incident. Spoke to DCP South East Bengaluru and she said that Koramangala cops went there immediately & they are picketing even now," she added.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 8,2020

Hubballi, June 8: If everything goes as expected, the railway station in Hubballi, the commercial capital of the state and also the headquarters of South Western Railway (SWR), will have the world’s longest railway platform next year.

E Vijaya, chief public relation officer of SWR, said the work is being done as part of doubling between Hubballi and Bengaluru. 

“At present, Hubballi has five platforms, and the number will be increased to eight. Inspection carriage line is getting converted to full platform. 

Platform No. 1 will be extended from 550m to 1,400m with 10m width. At present, Gorakhpur’s 1,366m platform is the world’s longest facility,” the officer said.

She added that one more entry point is coming up at Gadag Road. “Rs 90 crore is being spent on the works related to full yard, signalling, electrical and building. 

The works, started in November 2019, will be completed in the next one year,” said Vijaya.

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News Network
March 24,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 24: Seven people were arrested on Tuesday for violating prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 of CrPC in Mangaluru during the lockdown in Karnataka, Commissioner of Police PS Harsha said.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday had announced a complete lockdown in the state till April 1.
"In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the entire state will be locked down from 12 am of March 23 to April 1. People are requested to strictly follow it to contain the coronavirus spread," he said.
Earlier, the state government had ordered the suspending of all public and private transport services.
According to the data compiled by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of the infection-related death toll in the country rose to nine on Tuesday, while the total number of active cases reached 482.

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