How caste plays out in India’s newsrooms
This story was first published in News Laundry, and is a transcript of a video report posted by News Laundry refering to their project report on how caste system plays out in the Indian newsrooms. You can watch the full video report (source of this story) by News Laundry by clicking here.
Did you know that three out of four anchors of flagship TV news debates are upper caste? That not one is Dalit, Adivasi, or OBC?
That merely 10 out of the 972 articles featured on the covers of a dozen magazines that we studied are about issues related to caste?
That no more than five percent of all articles published in the country’s six largest English newspapers are written by Dalits and Adivasis?
These are some of the shocking findings contained in the report Who Tells Our Stories Matters: Representation of Marginalised Caste Groups in Indian Newsrooms, which was published last year by The Media Rumble in association with Oxfam India.
Sometime in 1996 a foreign correspondent called up journalist BN Uniyal to ask him if he knew any Dalit journalist, after spending days talking to friends and colleagues Mr. Uniyal was unable to find anyone like zero literally. In 2017, after having conducted a similar search across the country for more than 10 years journalists Sudipta Mondal said he was only able to find eight Dalit journalists in English media and only two of them risked coming out to him.
Between October 2018 and March 2019 News laundry and Oxfam together conducted a research project to find out more about the representation of marginalized caste groups in Indian media, the results were shocking to say the least, three out of every four anchors in flagship debates on TV news were upper caste not one Dalit or Adivasi or OBC. Only ten out of the 972 articles featured on the cover pages of the 12 magazines that we looked at were about caste related issues and no more than 5% of all articles in English newspapers were written by Dalits or Adivasis. The research suggests that Indian media is still dominated by upper castes, scheduled tribes are almost entirely absent while scheduled castes are represented mostly by social activists and politicians not by journalists OBCs are similarly underrepresented even though they are estimated to constitute over half of India's population. The fact that me a ‘Suvarna’ is sitting here telling you all this in a video is testimony to the findings of this report.
The report is basically aimed at opening and informing a public debate on discrimination and social exclusion in media. Let's go back to the basics first, caste is an ancient system of discriminatory segregation that is determined by birth. It is based on notions of purity and pollution and is rooted in the Hindu doctrine, the caste system divides Hindus into four varnas or categories these are, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, those who fall outside these endogamous groups each with a preordained social function are known as Dalits or Scheduled Castes and Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes the still pervasive caste system unsurprisingly raise its ugly head in our newsrooms - there are vast sections of India's marginalized caste groups who lack access to media platforms and discourses that shape public opinion. This leads to certain voices not being represented in our news ecosystem.
Take for instance leadership positions in newsrooms, of the 121 newsrooms that the report looked at a whopping 106 were occupied by journalists from upper castes and none by those belonging to Schedule Caste or Scheduled Tribes. Let's take a peek at the panelists on English TV news channels, a mere 5.6 percent of panelists across the survey channels belong to Scheduled Castes and shockingly not even 1% of them belong to Scheduled Tribes, what's even more bizarre is that during the discussions on caste issues 62% of the panelists across news channels were from the general category, 89% of leadership positions in English TV news channels belong to the general category along with a 76% of anchors who hosted flagship shows the results got even more skewed when we looked at Hindi news channels where hundred percent of the leadership positions belong to the general category and so did 80 percent of the anchors on prime time shows.
Let's take a look at newspapers, according to the report media professionals from marginalized caste groups do not occupy any leadership positions in the six English newspapers and seven Hindi newspapers that we looked at. In the 16,000 articles that we poured over in English newspapers over 60% of the articles were written by upper caste writers in Hindi newspapers nearly 56 percent of writers belong to the general category the only silver lining was Amar Ujala where hundred percent of the articles published on caste issues were written by contributors belonging to the marginalized caste groups.
Now let's look at digital media 84% of all leadership positions belong to the general category just like newspapers and TV news channels there is no representation from scheduled tribes and scheduled castes in the digital media space, in fact the study found that 56 percent of writers belong to the general category and yes news laundry was also one of the organizations that was surveyed. Now coming to magazines the study chose 12 magazines covering a range of interests
among them 63.5% percent of the total output came from the writers belonging to general category and only 11.2% from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes combined while OBC writers contributed to a meager 1.1%.
Talking about giving space to caste issues only India Today, India Today Hindi, The Caravan and Sarita gave space to caste issues on their covers. However, a majority of the caste stories published in these magazines were penned by general category writers. At India today Hindi this percentage stood at an overwhelming 99.5 percent the report clearly signifies the dire need for the inclusion of marginalized groups in India newsrooms for an equitable and developed society the representation of all is a must and more than anywhere else this applies to our newsrooms.
This story was first published in News Laundry, and is a transcript of a video report posted by News Laundry refering to their project report on how caste system plays out in the Indian newsrooms. You can watch the full video report (source of this story) by News Laundry by clicking here.
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Siddaramaiah, Yatnal trade barbs in Assembly over remarks on ‘skull cap-wearing voters’
Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal engaged in a heated exchange in the Karnataka Assembly after Yatnal admitted his controversial remark that he did not seek votes from people wearing skull caps.
Siddaramaiah strongly countered Yatnal’s statement, warning that such comments would politically isolate him. “If you say so, you can never become Chief Minister, nor will you come to power. In the next election, you will be completely defeated. Our votes will never go with you because you are against Scheduled Castes, against backward classes, and against minorities,” the Chief Minister said.
The verbal duel continued as Yatnal taunted Siddaramaiah, reminding him that he was once expelled from the JD(S). “Whoever gets expelled, does he become Chief Minister?” Yatnal asked.
Siddaramaiah shot back, “It will be very happy if you become a Chief Minister, but from which party will you become the CM? You have been expelled from the BJP, you build your own party if you want to become Chief Minister.”
Yatnal responded that he was ready to launch a “non-adjustment political party,” claiming it would not harm the BJP but instead benefit it. Siddaramaiah quipped that he should indeed form such a party if Congress were to gain from it.
The argument escalated further with Yatnal declaring that this would be Siddaramaiah’s last term as Chief Minister. Siddaramaiah, however, dismissed his claims and retorted, “I will not become the Chief Minister. You should not become the next Chief Minister either. For that, form a new party.”
Yatnal insisted that if Siddaramaiah steps aside, Congress votes would shift to his side. To this, Siddaramaiah firmly said, “For no reason will our votes go with them because they are opponents of Scheduled Castes, opponents of backward classes, opponents of minorities.”
At one point, Yatnal told Speaker U.T. Khader that he, would float a party. Yatnal maintained, “We are only the opponents of the traitors of the country, not the opponents of SCs.”
Seizing the moment, Siddaramaiah pressed Yatnal again: “Who openly said that we don’t want the votes of those who wear skull caps?” Yatnal admitted without hesitation, “Yes, I was the one who said I don’t want votes. What is it? I have no fear.”
Siddaramaiah then warned that such politics would only ensure Yatnal never came to power. “You will not become the Chief Minister for any reason, you will not come to power next year, you will completely lose in the next election,” he said.
Yatnal countered, claiming that the BJP would win 130 seats and replace Congress. Siddaramaiah, however, asserted that the Congress would return to power in 2028. “It is 100% true. For whatever reason, whether it is BJP or JD(S), nobody else can come to power. Yatnal is now an expelled member of the BJP, an independent. He cannot come to power.”
During the debate, Siddaramaiah also spoke about instability within the JD(S). He recalled that when he was party president, the JD(S) had won 59 seats, but that number later fell drastically to just 18. He remarked that alliances, including with the BJP, might be the only way for the JD(S) to remain politically relevant.
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