Rural Reporting a Need of the Hour

“Rural India is not the priority of mainstream media by a thousand miles. So Gorakhpur is what happens when governments don't have any way to monitor poor governance by local functionaries, and when the mainstream media rarely covers public health — except when 23 children suddenly die”.

                                                                                            Nilesh Misra ( Times of India 20 Aug 2017)

        When other major hospitals in UP bought liquid oxygen directly from manufacturers like INOX or Lende Gas, why was an intermediary, Pushpa Sales, given the BRD contract for years? How was the hospital principal Rajiv Mishra's wife exercising control on his behalf? How were the doctors running a private service and even advertising it on the walls of the government hospital? Why were warnings of oxygen shortage ignored? These are the questions to which, the press needs to seek answers from the government functionaries rather than running after hyped political news that covers more than 50 percent of the print media.Imagine if this is the case from the city which is a Chief Ministers constituency, what could be condition in rural areas where there are no patrons.   This is what concerns us, the very basic sectors  Health, Education and Agriculture need to be given due importance by our press lest it wants to reach a stage of impotence. We need reporters in rural hinterland to compel agencies to  crystal gaze the impending problems of health and education  as a result of poor governance in rural areas through their stories. 

        Journalists are proving to be couch potatoes and reporters from the field are no longer finding satisfaction in their work. Indeed there is no rivalry between the field reporters & those on the desk just because the reporter earns his bread & stays free while reporting from urban beat. Reporters seldom spend nights  in the rural areas just because it isn’t sought for by the news agencies , until & unless it’s a report that leads to propaganda which further leads to increased circulation & TRP. Most of us do know where the city's waste goes, and how it is collected, but is waste collected in a village, and where does it go? Well, nowhere. A filth time bomb is ticking away in rural India because lifestyles are changing there and the same chips packets and water bottles and other urban non-biodegradable waste is choking the landscape. One visit to any rural Govt School or PHC (Primary Health Centre) will give so many stories that the reporter can publish for better governance in the hinterland.

         The issues prevailing in rural India and suggested measures to improve standards of living are never pondered by the journalist since they are focused on the cities and find easy controversies to be reported. Inclusive development to provide urban amenities in rural areas through prompt reporting will help maintain the social structure of the country and reduce migration of rural masses to urban areas in search of better lifestyle. Appropriate rural reporting will improve the standard of living amongst the poor rural population through voluntary campaigns such as community participation and entrepreneurship.

         Shadow reporting of any grant or aid from the Govt or any international NGO to various health agencies working in India has been a challenge & the journalists also don’t find it interesting enough. The press needs to rekindle the faith of all agencies and prove to be a cog in the wheel to success rather than a spoke in the wheel that puts a stop to the success. Isn't it time to shed the mainstream media bias and embrace  watchdog journalism that informs the public about goings-on in institutions and society, especially in circumstances where a significant portion of the public would demand changes in response.