Exactly a year back Pioneer had a lead article -"In search of a Dalit Journalist" by Mr BN Unyial (16 Nov 1996, Pioneer). His article was an eye opener even for dalits.
When a foreign news correspondent expressed his desire to meet a Dalit journalist to Mr Uniyal, the latter embarked on a casual enquiry to locate one. But his 'looking around' for a dalit journalist turned into a 'search', a futile one at that.
Interestingly, it was the slapping of a TV team member by Kanshi Ram, the President of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a Dalit led political party, and assault on the other members of the team by his supporters that led the alien to request Mr Uniyal to locate a dalit journalist.
It must have been clear as day to the foreign scribe that BSP did not have a single media organisation sympathetic to it, something which even Mr Uniyal missed.
"Suddenly I realised that in all the 30 years I had worked as a journalist, I had never met a fellow journalist who was a Dalit. No. Not one! And worse still was the thought that during all those years it had never occurred to me that there was something so seriously amiss in the profe- ssion, some thing that I should have noticed as a scribe. All these years I have travelled through almost every district of the country and yet I didnot remember having met any Dalit journalist." he confesses in his article.
But then, Mr Uniyal has not heard that there are hardly any blacks at the executive level in banking or media in USA. He failed to locate a Dalit journalist in any of the English or Hindi dailies. Some Editors were displeased with him for undertaking such an exercise. His enquiries at the Press Club of India, New Delhi, also proved futile.
Finally he examined the Accredition Index 1996 of the Press Information
Bureau of the Government of India. Out of the registered 686 scribes, 455 used
their caste names as suffix. The break up of these 455 showed the
following...
| Caste | No. of journalists |
|---|---|
| Brahmins | 240 |
| Khatri | 79 |
| Kayastha | 44 |
| Vaishya | 26 |
| Christians | 26 |
| Baidya | 9 |
| Muslims | 26 |
| Jains | 12 |
| Dalits | nil |
| Total | 455 |
Of those who did not use their caste names, 47 were checked out at random. None of them were Dalits. Why he did not check all the 232 journalists, who did not use caste names, is typical to the Indian news gatherers.
The lack of dalits in journalism does make its impact felt in the quantum of stories about dalits, a significant segment of our population, 24.56% of Indians.
Here I quote from a memorandum submitted to the Editors Guild of India and The Press Council of India by Mr Chandra Bhan Prasad of The Dalit Shiksha Andolan, Lucknow, and Dr Sheoraj Singh Bechain of Dalit Writers forum:
"To measure The concern of media towards Dalit issues, we have taken the centre page articles of two national dailies and the content of two highly rated journals. The choice of the centre page has been based on the fact that articles on this page debate major issues facing the country. Our findings are as follows:Nation Dailies.
National Journals.
- Times of India, New Delhi edition, 1st Jan, '86 to 30th Sept, '96.
- Total no. of articles
717 100.00% - Articles related to Dalits
4 (a) 0.55% - Hindu, New Delhi Edition, 1st Jan, '86 to 30th Sept, '96.
In conclusion, There is not a single journalist from among 20.59 crore dalits working in any of the major media setups."
- Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay, 1st Jan to 31st Dec, '96.
- Total no of articles
864 100.00% - Articles related to Dalits
17 (b) 1.97% - Seminar, New Delhi Edition, 1 Jan 96 to 31 Dec 96.
There was not a single article on Dalit issue in the whole year 1996.
The result of not having any representative from the dalits in the fourth estate is there for all to see. Dalit issues do not get coverage, Dalit problems needing immediate relief do not get highlighted, but, falsehoods about dalits having low IQ and low artistic capabilities, get publicised.
The prime example is the classifying of the President of India in terms of his intellectual achievements and moral standards only. There is no mention of the elevation of a dalit to the President's post as another step towards a more egalitarian society. Nor does any one talk of the appointment as a blow to caste system.
Another recent example is the highligting of 'excessive' refreshment expense of Railway Minister Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, a dalit, without comparing it with his predecessors' expenses. This is throwing objectivity to the winds. We also witnessed the strange sight of newspapers complaining against the expansion of railways to new and inaccessible areas.
Dalit led Bahujan Samaj Party holding a rally in Delhi gets reported as it 'blocks the roads' and prevents 'patients from reaching hospitals', 'examinees from reaching examination centres', 'travellers from reaching their destinations', 'employees and workers from reaching home'. Not surprisingly, political rallies of upper caste parties like Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, etc., get reported more for their 'disciplined' behaviour than for the economic and social disruption of common citizens' lives.
Another person with resources to launch a 'Dalit Weekly' is Kanshi Ram.
Truth is. Truth can create. Truth can destroy.
Is it any wonder that the dalit leaders would not want a free dalit press to break the already tenuous bonds that they have with their restless constituency?