Four decades ago when women were not even
remotely considered a part of the print industry that was driven by men, a
young woman entered the field with a goal to achieve, a mission to complete and
her aim was to reduce the gender disparity in the society. Asha Jhabakh and
Dishya Sharma sit down with Kalpana
Sharma, a journalist, a columnist and the face of many newspapers such as
The Hindu, Times Of India and Himmat weekly to discuss the “Then and Now” of
the newspaper industry.
The thought of
journalism occurred to Kalpana Sharma when she was determined to change the state
of the country. She starts by sharing how the job works. “There is nothing that
is not tough in this kind of a job. But the first thing that comes to my mind
is that covering
communal riots is always a challenge.
How do you maintain a balance in your reporting? How do you double check all facts before you
report when you have tight deadlines?
Are you honest enough to look at your own personal biases when you
report? As a reporter, you are forced to
ask these questions because you know that there is never a time when reporting
is entirely unbiased. Yet, during
communal conflagrations, you have to try, as a reporter, to set your biases
aside and faithfully present the views of people who you personally oppose” she
shares views on what she had gone through in the past four decades.
As the
conversation begins, Kalpana Sharma took a step back through time and
remembered how the industry looked like when she joined in The Hindu in 1972. She said that every journalist in the industry
was committed to change and they knew that change was in their hands. “The aim
of every newspaper organization was to bring about a change” she says. Kalpana
Sharma gave an overview of how the industry was like in during the 1970’s. The newspaper companies invested
in the kind of newsgathering that ensured that stories about poverty, about
regions not in the media glare, were reported. “Newspapers have full-time
development correspondents, environment correspondents, and reporters covering
education, public health, and labour apart from other regular beats”.
Women
were not given many chances though. She had to fight her way to through to get
a chance in the industry. “Women journalists have had to fight to do many beats
denied to them earlier – politics, business, defense and sports to name a few.
Women have had to fight to do the night shift and insist that the management
provide them with transport or facilities in the office where they can rest
after the late shift” says Kalpana Sharma. She said that women have fought for
basic needs like to get women toilets in their newspaper organizations. Many of
these requirements were Much of this has been fulfilled in the larger media
establishments. But in the smaller ones,
and particularly in the regional languages, the situation is still dire for
women. Kalpana Sharma went on to speak
about the inequalities between English news writers and regional writers too. She
says that women journalists working in a regional print organization face more
problems than the women in the English medium. “Apart from the usual problems
of male female ratio in an organization, women in regional languages fail to
get recognized as compared to English.” She also says that women in regional
languages are seen to be more often suffering from sexual assaults as they do
not open out easily. “In the regional languages, the situation is still dire
for women. Many of them are afraid to
speak up for fear of being dismissed from their jobs. So they just sit back and tolerate” she said.
Changing
tracks from the 80’s, Kalpana Sharma relives the era of the 1990’s which brought
in the new face of the newspapers. She exclaims that there was a new definition
being drawn, a new way of reporting was being accepted and newspapers were
focusing on money than news value from then on. “As India moved towards a more
open and liberal economy, newspapers began to view themselves more as
commodities that needed to be sold and for greater profits to be made, rather
than serving a larger social purpose.
News was redefined as anything that sells the product that is the newspaper”.
Where crime,
business, education and feature the only beats in the field? Kalpana Sharma re introduced
the concept of labour correspondent. “With this new definition, many of the older beats were
gradually withdrawn. Today no paper has
a labour correspondent. While some still
cover environment, there is no one who follows developmental issues or even
public health. These issues are reported
only when there is a crisis, such an epidemic or a developmental scam. The processes that lead to these disasters
are never reported” she reveals
Talking
about the present scenario, Kalpana Sharma expressed her joy on seeing more and
more women journalists entering in the fields of sports, crime and finance. “Women
have worked hard than their male colleagues to get ahead” she objects. She
feels that open discrimination is much less today. But there are still mindsets that operate
that firmly believe that women journalists can only do certain kinds of stories
and not others. “I believe that as women we must set standards for ourselves
irrespective of the organization within which we work. Ultimately, if you work is of a higher
standard, you will be noticed. But at
the same time, it is pointless being naïve and believing that just good work
will defeat the sexist biases that continue to exist. So go into the profession with your eyes open
but don’t get defeated by attitudes that prevail in mainstream media” was her
advices aspiring women journalists as she signs off.
As told to Asha and Dishya
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