Workshop on NREGA and Media Advocacy: 19-20 Dec 2009

This workshop was part of Pipal Tree’s efforts in developing a platform for journalists to interact with grassroot workers and activists. The central objective of this workshop was to establish media as a key element in information sourcing, support and intervention and to develop an effective media advocacy for the proper implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

NREGA has the potential to redefine the socio-economic and political situation of the rural villages by way of empowering women, adivasis and other marginalised sections of society, improving local governance, generating productive assets in the villages, preventing migration, etc. Unfortunately these potentials are not realised by the State or the people in many parts of the country.

A total of 15 journalists and 23 grassroot workers and activists from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu participated in this two-day workshop held at Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bangalore. The workshop involved critical appraisals of implementation of NREGA through presentation of case studies from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu and reflections on the role of media in supporting the movements for social and environmental justice.

The relevance of this workshop: The official figure of poverty says that 250 million people in this country are earning less than 12 rupees a day. This is of course contested by other researchers and one very significant research group says that the number probably is as high as 500 million. We all know how far 12 rupees can get us in these days of inflation and price rise. Just the thought of 500 million people are probably earning less than 12 rupees a day is a shattering thought for anybody who is sensitive. All we hear of is the other India which is the second fastest growing economy in the world after China. But a large number of people are struggling to keep their heads above water. Media has an important role to play since they create public opinion. We have to think about the possibility of creating a new media movement in the context of the serious problems we are facing today in the country.

Being a journalist today is not an easy proposition. Infotainment became the major driving force of the media. Every newspaper has different ideological clicks. There are a lot of contradictions in working in the media. And yet all is not lost. There is still some space available in the media. Whenever there is somebody who is determined to communicate s/he is able to communicate. So the challenge is despite the contradictions how we can do something which is still meaningful. Perhaps we can look at the idea of media becoming the kind of a new practical intellectual movement for issues of social justice and of environment.

The other contradiction we found as far as Pipal Tree’s work is concerned is that the relationship between the media and the world of social activists who are working on Dalit issues, tribal issues, environmental issues or fisher-folk struggles is not as strong as it should be. Not that the media has to believe everything that the social activist is saying. Nevertheless this relationship can be useful for both the media and the social activists.

The reason why the focus of this workshop was on NREGA is, here is a programme which has revolutionary potential in the sense that the state itself has legitimised it saying for 100 days of a year each rural family will get employment. If it is true that 500 million people are earning less than 12 rupees a day then this 100 days of employment is truly revolutionary. It can mean a life and death situation for lot of people particularly in the dry season. Yet, given the lethargy of the state bureaucracy and the political class a programme like this can just degenerate into something which has been legislated but full of corruption and apathy and nothing happens. NREGA can be a mindless Act where the panchayath can use the workers for digging a pit, or making a road, if we do not look at the planning process. Local planning is hence necessary to take up work which is meaningful and productive. Here is a possibility for both the media and civil society organisations to see whether this Act can give fresh life to our rural areas.

Understanding of issues for a journalist is very important. But where is the time for journalists to do the reading and the researching, to connect with the real issues in the country. So perhaps we should look at the possibilities of building solidarities with social activists and with intellectuals in the field.

Why we are emphasising the vernacular media is its closeness to the people. Barring an occasional article, by and large the English media is not living up to what it should be doing. Not that the vernacular media is. But perhaps the potential is there and if the journalists in the vernacular media become motivated, become more connected to real issues in a way we can create a new visionary media. Maybe the spaces still exist if we are able to strategise and intelligently use it.

The potentials of NREGS: The structure that we promote in India is not favourable to the poor. The majority of people in the country depend on the environment for their livelihood. When the environment degenerates they are forced to migrate to city in search of employment. They live in the slums and do odd jobs. The growing middle class and the upper middle class rule the world. They do not worry about the growing inequalities and impoverisation of rural and urban poor.

The NREGS has come in this background. The potential for revolution is there in NREGS. But the way it is implemented in most part of India is not satisfactory.

The Act clearly mentions that the goals of NREGS are alleviation of poverty, creation of rural productive permanent assets, supplementary employment when agricultural season gets over and ensuring food security. But the State is trying hard to make sure that these potentials are not realised by the people. Here is the role of media to proactively involve in changing the situation.

The following are the major potentials of NREGS:

1. Cash flows to rural areas
2. Potential to form a union: Unless you organise and struggle you will not get your rights. Many groups failed miserably trying to organise agricultural workers into unions. There were many reasons; the main reason is the agricultural labourers do not work under one employer. In Nrega the State is the employer. This gives an opportunity to organise the agricultural workers to demand for their rights as labourers.
3. Women getting equal wage: Both men and women were avert to the idea of getting equal wages for same work. This social situation is changing with Nrega though with much reluctance.
4. General wages rising: Wherever the activists have organised people to demand for Nrega work one could see an increase of 10 to 15 rupees in the general wages.
5. Solidarity between labourers and marginal farmers: Here since the State is the employer and the marginal farmers have to continue work after the agriculture season is over there is a friendship emerging between the agricultural labourers and marginal farmers.
6. Social security. If you work for 50 days under Nrega you are entitled for health insurance and life insurance. Unfortunately, the workers are not aware of this provision and the state does not want them to know.
7. Rights based approach: On contrary to the earlier government schemes, Nrega is demand driven. In a right based approach you have to assert your rights. If 10 people as a group demand work, on 16^th day they have to be provided employment and if not the state has to give them unemployment allowance. For the first time the state commits itself to the rights based approach.
8. Permanent productive rural assets: The Act clearly says that only those kinds of works to be undertaken which creates rural productive assets. If you build a tank that means you can irrigate your field, plant trees, do fishing and so on. So over a period of time it helps to eradicate poverty. So the emphasis is given to activities like creation of new tanks and ponds, de-silting of lakes, tanks, watershed development, development of SC/ST farm lands, afforestation, making land productive, planting of fruit trees and medicinal plants, etc

   It is the journalists’ responsibility to do investigative journalism and bring to the fore the reality in the field against the visions.

9. Participation in decision making: Nrega gives us an opportunity to participate in the decision making process and to exercise our democratic rights. The potential of Nrega to make the local self governance transparent and accountable is enormous.
10. Environmental regeneration: If planned well, Nrega can contribute to the regeneration of the natural resources.

This Act is a tool to change the unjust social structure. The Hukeri gramapanchayath in Belgaum, where women from Nayaka tribal community made the panchayaths to operate in a transparent way, is an example of the change NREGA has brought in the system.

But it is unfortunate that no newspaper writes on these things. The media has an important role in informing the civil society not only what is happening but also what should be happening.

Challenges in social and environmental reporting: The following are the main points emerged from the interactive session on the challenges in doing investigative reporting on social and environmental issues:   

–          The space available for social and environmental reporting is very limited. Both the vernacular and English newspapers give little representation even for larger issues like farmers’ suicide, rural distress, etc.

–          The daily routine of the journalists are such that it does not allow them to go looking for special stories on important social and environmental concerns like the Nregs.

–          The political orientation of the newspapers is another concern in doing objective reporting.

–          News is getting more and more entertainment oriented and journalism is losing its focus and direction. It is fast losing its ethics and the journalists are easily being diverted from real issues to issues that are trivial, something far from the real concepts of journalism. There are journalists who will publish articles only if they get money or gifts. Political parties are commissioning newspapers. Recently there are reports from Maharashtra that paid advertisements are appearing as news items in news papers.

–         Newspapers do not see the readers as readers; they see them as their customers. So issues are not getting focused in the media.

Suggestions to develop a more effective media advocacy for social and environmental issues: It is true that there is little space available for important social and environmental issues. But, even if the media is giving something flimsy or something trivial, if the journalists are serious, there is a space for serious journalism even in the crazy commercial journals. We must occupy that space.

We must positively influence the decision makers (proprietors and editors) in the magazines and newspapers as to what are the things one must look into. If they are ready to spare at least one person once in a month to look into the activities in the rural areas then the situation could gradually change. This kind of intervention at the level of the decision makers in the newspapers and also the voluntary efforts of the reporters can make a positive change in the media.

It is true that the state and national newspapers have difficulty for space. Whereas there is a lot of scope for such issues in regional papers because the readers of regional papers are the people who are affected by these social issues. Therefore they are open to write about these issues. The national newspapers have to cater for the needs of the corporate world. So there is little space for rural reporting. The first newspaper to write on Nregs in Karnataka was Andolan newspaper, the regional newspaper of Mysore. If the regional papers are given orientation to social issues they will definitely play a supportive role. So we need to associate them well. The cable TV channels are another alternative to get the news to people. But there is a need for a network to share news to the regional newspapers and channels.

We have to identify individual journalists from the newspapers whether it is good or bad and motivate them.  The activists can support them with statistics and field experience. It may not be then difficult in the age of internet and right to information to build a story based on this information.

Discussion on the possibilities of building an Activists-Media partnership: In a context where infotainment is the word of the day, there is a lot of pressure on the journalists, who are seriously committed to social causes. But playing the blame game will not solve the problem. We have to identify what media can do to highlight important social issues and to do this better what kind of support they need from the activists.

There is very little creative relationship between the journalists and the NGOs. Part of the problem is also to find an NGO which is creatively thinking. NGOs have also been corrupted. What many do is self aggrandizement. Most NGOs do not have the ability to sit together, assess what they have done, to say that this issue is important, to produce a press report, etc. There are a few people who have the ability to do so. So maybe we can identify in each state say six NGOs who would be interested to be part of this process and be willing to work with the media in providing information, in proposing that these issues be taken up.

Issue of adivasis or farmers are not important for the newspapers. They may send reporters to write a story on the fashion weeks, but are not ready to send one for a good story to the countryside. But if you are ready to give a good story without sacrificing your daily routine then they would be happy. If there is a media-activist partnership this can happen.

There is a competition between the news papers. So bringing the proprietors of newspapers together for an open session is difficult. But individuals can try to build up relationship with the proprietors and editors of newspapers and magazines. So if 30 of us in the 3 southern states do it, it means 30 editors we are building up a relationship. They are also in a difficult position. So if they can build a trust with a number of people and are aware that will help.  So with a degree of strategizing the situation can be improved at least by 25%.

Infochange India and India Together are doing an alternate kind of journalism in English. We can look into the possibility of having similar web-based journalism in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. So the local papers can also get resources from this site.

Many state level newspapers also have a district edition which provides a lot of scope for district level news. If you make it a point to make the story interesting then maybe it will be covered by the other district level papers and it becomes state news. So at this level we need to have a workshop for the rural journalists and the freelance journalists on how to write a story, how to project it; not just copying the statistics given to them by an NGO.

Workshops with Journalists from South India on developing a Socially Responsible Media

13 – 14 December 2008

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

In December 2008 Pipal Tree conducted a two-day workshop for south Indian journalist to consider the role of the Media in creating a deeper understanding of social and environmental issues that pervade detrimentally the lives of everyone, but more accurately, those of the poor.  The objectives of this workshop were to examine government and institutional policies in regard to the media and enthuse journalists to take up an in-depth posture on social and environmental reporting.

Twenty journalists from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu participated and their diversity created a immense scope in which to address the following objectives:

• Exploring the possibility of enhancing our social and ecological reporting.
• Understanding the impact of the global economic meltdown on the poor and the marginalized.
• Beginning a south Indian and national debate on “Vision, Ethics, Democracy and Participation” in media institutions.
• Challenges of creating a south Indian journalists’ network.

There were panel discussions on:

• Social challenges and the media
• Environmental challenges and the media
• Vision, ethics, democracy and the media

A commonality in terms of observation among journalists of all the three states surfaced early in the workshop that the characteristics of mainstream media were:

• The media as a sensational product with the obvious objective of revenue generation and promoting a captive market
• Vested interests between the media, business houses and corporates for mutual gratification and financial succor, and establishment stability
• The media as a manipulative tool and readership exploitation by political blocks
• The media’s social context with overtones of religious and communal bias

Devi Bharathi and Muralidharan, journalists from Tamil Nadu, gave an in-depth picture of the alternative media which focused on social issues and how mainstream media was populist in nature and focused mainly on the film industry of the state.

Journalists from Kerala contended that their mainstream media did not preoccupy their publications with sensationalism and the film world, and that little magazines although abundant in Kerala, did not feature as bitingly as those of Tamil Nadu but did acknowledge problems the Kerala media faced with the issues of vision, ethics, democracy and participation.

K. Mujeeb Rahman presented a paper at this point which delineated the characteristics of the typical broadsheet publications in Kerala. According to him fascist communalism is a threat to Indian society played down by mainstream media due to bias or lack of moral perspective.

The Karnataka journalists, Srinivas, Sathyanarayana Karur and Yogesh Bhat from Sagar district, agreed to the need of establishing a viable journalists’ network between states to facilitate information exchange and flow to effectively grapple key issues and develop a sensitized readership on a large scale.

Ramakrishna, editor of ‘Mid Day’, a Bangalore broad sheet, provided an insight into the commercial aspect of running a news paper. The production of the paper cost more than its retail price, market competitiveness being a major consideration, resulting in complete dependence on revenues generated from advertisements. This is the case with most news papers with some variation; in some cases prominently advertisement oriented and in some cases less advertisement driven. The usual 60% news coverage and 40% advertisement ratio (e.g. The Hindu) is not observed by many papers (e.g. The Times of India). Nagesh Hegde, visiting professor of the Indian Institute of journalism was in accord with Ramakrishna’s observation.

Nagesh Hegde next spoke on the challenges related to training journalists on environmental reporting. He stressed on the importance of recognizing the extent of the imminent disaster to befall mankind precipitated by global warming and climate change and that the media had a huge responsibility to sensitize the public and authorities on efforts that will have to be made to mitigate, let alone avert, such extraneous conditions that will impact on our society and with more assured ferocity on the poor.

The proceedings of 13^th Dec culminated with Arun Subramanium’s (visiting professor of the Indian Institute of Journalism) talk on understanding the impact of the global economic meltdown on the poor and the marginalized sections of our society.

The proceedings of 14^th Dec commenced with Arun Subramanium’s presentation on ‘Vision, Ethics, Democracy and Participation’. He defined norms of regulations and preferred regulatory standards adopted by the media to avoid libel and government censorship under extreme cases of a national state of emergency.

This was followed by discussions on key issues drawn from the preceding sessions and defining the challenges facing journalists to develop a media network on social and environmental issues and triggering the blossom of a process of media reforms and ethical reporting in south India. As a finale to the proceedings of the two day workshop, the participants were in accord with Siddhartha that:

• there was a need to deepen the values, ethics, morals and vision within the media
• There was a need to enhance writing and reporting skills
• There was a need to continue working with journalists and journalism students.
• There was a need to develop a network for information exchange on issues and collaboration among journalists.

In conclusion, the workshop demonstrated that the print media lacked a unified agenda on social issues and the environment and that a stimulus was required to change the current trend and sharpen its focus on the principles of vision, ethics, democracy and participation. The workshop also demonstrated that the media has likeminded conscientious journalists who are indeed interested in working towards establishing the media as socially responsible, sensitive and a conscious mirror to society. The participants resolved that for a start, a monthly article should appear in three of the south Indian languages, factual and truthful sensitizing the readership with issues of relevance without bias.

Media Workshop with Journalists from Kerala

8–9 December 2007

Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Report:

As a constituent of the International Alliance of Journalists, Pipal Tree held a journalists workshop at Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre in Bangalore. This two days’ workshop held on the 8^th and 9^th of December 2007 were attended by 20 journalists from the major daily newspapers of Kerala, cutting across their ideological stance. The combined readership of these newspapers would be about 12 million readers.

The objective of the workshop has been in consonance with that of the Alliance in that it tried to explore the possibilities of expanding the space for social reporting in mainstream media, and to encourage journalists to give greater attention to social and environmental issues. Over the years, the Fourth Estate fraternity has often expressed a sense of isolation, ennui and low morale when working on these issues. The publications they work for seem to be less concerned with socially meaningful writing than with political and infotainment writing. In such a context, it is imperative to informally network with journalists to see if we can raise a support group: a community of concerned and socially-aware journalists, all over India, who could interact with one another through small group meetings, e-mail and a blog (devoted to reflections on the experience of development writing – the frustrations and rewards). The larger objective is to explore the possibility of journalists and social activists forming informal networks that may lobby politicians and bureaucrats to implement social programmes.

The media can, to a large extent, play a significant role in creating a vibrant civil society where local groups and organisations play a major part in tackling local issues in a participatory and democratic spirit. It can become, as it functioned sporadically, the face of a humanising and culturally energising entity that can instill hope and initiative among a large number of people and as the monitor of the process of globalisation in the interests of the poor and the marginalised peoples.

The immediate agenda of the workshop, however, was to discuss the following points.

1. Exploring and using the available space for cultural, social and ecological reporting.

2. Creating a network of socially engaged journalists in Kerala.

3. Looking at the short and long term possibility of strengthening institutions like the press council, ombudsman etc.

4. Exploring the possibility to create an interface between journalists, proprietors and the reading public.

Media Conference with Journalists in the Kannada Media

Date: 9-10 August 2008

Venue: Fireflies Inter-cultural Centre, Bangalore

Organized by: Pipal Tree & the International Journalists Alliance

Report:

The Journalists Alliance organized an intensive two-day conference of journalists working in the Kannada language media. Twenty journalists participated in the conference held on 9^th and 10^th August 2008. The meeting was extremely vibrant and interactive, prompting several of them to state that this was the first meeting of its kind to be held for Kannada journalists.

Siddhartha’s welcome speech outlined the objectives of the International Journalists Alliance and stressed the goal of getting journalists to do in-depth social and environmental reporting.

The following are the problems the journalists felt they faced in reaching that goal:

• The media establishment and the reading public are going through a kind of ‘poverty fatigue’. Apart from the more dramatic issues related to farmers’ suicides, other matters related to rural and urban poverty, and human right-abuses are not seen as sufficiently newsworthy.
• Sometimes the issues are reported rather emotionally, for example the suicides of farmers. The emotional nature of the reporting excludes the analysis needed to understand the issues related to the collapse of agriculture in many areas.
• Ten years ago some of the media institutions had unions which defended the interests of journalists and other staff. But today all these unions have broken up, and the journalists are largely defenseless. A favourite way of harassing journalists is to shift them from one district to another, creating enormous hardship to them and their families.
• A part of the responsibility of journalists is the insistence by the management to report events and stories that have no social relevance whatever. The majority of journalists have resigned themselves to spend a part of their precious time reporting gossip on film actors, other sensational events, etc., which can increase circulation.
• The growing importance of TV journalism has made the competition for the print media very difficult.  Many people who watch television expect the newspapers to be exciting, with reports of scandals and juicy stories. News analysis and reporting on the problems of poverty are almost considered boring.
• When reporting on technical subjects like coal-based power plants, or genetically modified cultivation, like growing B.T.cotton, rural journalists find it difficult to understand many of the issues. If this meeting led to a network of journalists in the region, perhaps a way could be found to providing the technical information needed.
• Sometimes the issues have two sides to them, making it difficult to take a stand for or against. Again the difficulty to take a stand is because the journalists lack information and political understanding.

K.P. Suresha talked about the media becoming a commercial venture and the pressure of financial profitability that caters to the demands of the newly created consumerist class.

Nagesh Hegde talked about the need for more environmental consciousness among journalists.

Parusharam Kalal said that in the context of globalization, powerful economic forces were at work that prevented the media from reporting fearlessly and objectively.

B.L. Sridar had a different problem with the situation of farmers committing suicide in North Karnataka.  The media was able to offer criticism about the situation, but not a single journalist was able to offer concrete solutions.

The journalists also reflected on their role in dealing with inter-religious conflict and violence.  Many journalists are themselves confused and influenced by narrow religious views rather than secular ones Also, the rise of religious extremism and identity politics would distract the nation from the real issues of poverty, social justice and climate change.

Mujafer Assadi spoke about the new economy and displacement.  While this is a major problem both in the state and the country, very few well-writing articles are available that investigated the topic.

The concluding session led to the formation of the Kannada Journalists Alliance where each participant volunteered to work on a specific issue with reference to his or her local district.