By Ranjona Banerji
For a few years now, I have been privileged and honoured to be on the jury for the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity. Population First, the parent organization, was started in 2002 by the visionary advertising guru SV “Bobby” Sista. The first intent was to use the media to check our skewed male-female demographics. Over the year, it was realized that gender sensitivity in the media was vital for spread the message of female empowerment. The vision of Bobby Sista, the dynamism of the redoubtable AL Sharada and the persuasive powers of Dolly Thakore have made Laadli a resounding success.
Journalists from across India send in their many, remarkable articles on gender issues. And here, even as a journalist, you learn how much great work is being done and how much of this great work is buried under the non-stop barrage of government propaganda and social divisiveness that is fed to readers and viewers – consumers of the media.
This year alone, entries had looked at social occurrences which are unknown or ignored. Safina Nabi’s article on the “half-widows” of Kashmir, for instance, wives of men who have just disappeared. Whether picked up by Indian security forces or militant groups, their wives and families are left in the lurch. Emotionally and financially.
It is another matter that Nabi’s great award-winning work was denied an award at the last minute by the Maharashtra Institute of Technology. This act of denial underlines once more how tough it is for women journalists in India as well as how underlying biases have become legimitised.
https://thewire.in/media/pune-institute-cancels-award-for-kashmiri-journalist-jury-refuses-to-attend-event-in-protest
Divya Goyal’s award-winning story was about two young girls who live in a remote village near the Pakistan border and make a lonely raft journey across the Sutlej river and another 4 km trek to ensure that they attend school. This is the inspirational side of female grit and determination to break out of old patriarchal molds.
I only mention two important stories here, but it is heartening to find how many articles about important social issues are written and published. And disheartening to see how the sensationalist media ignores or buries them.
A big thanks due to Laadli for giving such sterling work prominence. And a big salute to all of those amongst us who still produce journalistic excellence under dismal conditions.
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Dismal, desperate and despicable is where we remain when it comes to our mainstream stars. Some are still pretending to cover a “war” between Israel and Palestine. Ignoring the constant bombardment of Palestine by the Israel Defence Forces and massive human cost. The issue has fallen into the anti-Muslim line of the current dispensation – regardless, interestingly, of the Indian government’s official position.
Apart from a few powerful western democratic nations and the Indian mainstream media, the rest of the world has woken up to the genocide that is being carried out in Palestine.
The lack of mainstream media outrage over Manipur’s troubles continues. And even recent horror stories – like Qatar sentencing eight Indian Naval personnel to death – does not the sort of traction it normally would because it puts the Modi government in bad light.
And then there’s this. The strange incident of an Election Commission turning down a BJP government propaganda scheme.
https://thewire.in/government/pushback-forces-modi-govt-to-climb-down-on-calling-ias-officers-rath-prabharis
If there are any tantrums on television channels, do let me know.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.