Budget 2014: Many nice words, some money, but no direction for real change

Sunita Narain

Lets look at the big budget announcements for sustainability and what they mean.

1. Enhanced clean energy cess on coal, increased from Rs 50 to Rs 100 per tonne. But the finance minister (FM) does not spell out what will be done with this money. Currently, roughly Rs 3,000-3,500 crore is collected in the National Clean Energy Fund, but not much is spent. The National Clean Energy Fund is important as it signals the need to make dirty coal more expensive to use. It is even more important as it is money that should be invested in renewable energy projects that meet the needs of the poorest. But this is not done. Instead, the money is frittered away in many small projects.

 2. Duty exemptions and other mentions of solar and renewable energy in Budget 2014 are welcome, but not enough. What the budget does not appreciate is the fact that the biggest future of solar energy in the country will be in decentralised and off-grid solutions – smaller power plants that provide clean energy to millions across India’s grid and remote villages that have electricity lines but no power. Instead, Budget 2014 falls back on the ‘big’ solar plants – announcing Rs 500 crore for ultra mega solar power plants.

 3. The annual fund allocation for cleaning Ganga enhanced to Rs 2,037 crore, but without recognition that the programme must be reinvented to succeed. The FM says nothing about the re-direction needed to clean the river. Even the previous UPA government had made funds available, even secured a loan of Rs 4,600 crore from the World Bank for Ganga cleaning. But all this money has not cleaned the Ganga because the approach is flawed. It focuses on building sewage treatment plants, which does not work in our poor and largely un-sewered cities.

 4. The recognition that climate change is real and the need to ‘adapt’ is urgent is a very important message of Budget 2014. The FM provides Rs 100 crore of national adaptation fund. While it can be argued that this is too little, it is also a fact that this is a first step to recognise the need to invest in building resilience of poor communities against climate change. The question we will have now is, what will this money be used for?

 5. Total sanitation is spoken about in big words, without any big idea on how to achieve this objective. The UPA II government, to its credit, had progressively increased the funding for drinking water and sanitation – going from Rs 8,000 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 15,000 crore in the February 2014 budget. But sanitation – the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan — still gets Rs 4,000 crore annually. This is miniscule given the scale of the challenge. So, are we to assume that NDA does not see the need for anything different in this budgetary allocation? And if so, then how does it aim to provide toilets to over 600 million people who still defecate in the open? How will it scale up this work, without additional money and effective delivery?

 6. Transportation is an important focus area, but Budget 2014 does not provide directions that will work. The FM sets aside Rs 100 crore for metro projects in Lucknow and Ahmedabad. But the fact is that metro systems cost anywhere between Rs 150 crore to Rs 300 crore per km to build. So, is this Rs 100 crore going to build one km or just go into feasibility studies?

 7. The Gujarat model is the flavor of the day in Budget 2014 but its most innovative and successful initiative to build bus rapid transit systems is ignored. There is no mention of buses – the affordable transport system for millions in cities still. Is it because it is too low-tech and old-fashioned?

 8. Budget 2014 puts tobacco and sugar into one category – excise duty on cigarettes, pan masala, gutkha and aerated drinks with sugar – have all been increased. It is clear that aerated drinks are the new tobacco. This is to be cheered.

9. The NDA Budget is not different from UPA II when it comes to polluting vehicles. In Budget 2013, the then FM P Chidambaram had increased the tax on SUVs saying that they were inefficient and polluting. But in February, he took away the tax. Budget 2014 also believes that it must help cars that are large, inefficient and dirty.

 Post script: Budget 2014 allocates Rs 200 crore for statue and Rs 50 crore for 50 million people who depend on the handloom sector. What does this say of priorities?

 

 

20 Reasons for Media Education

 Are you interested in studying media? Why? If you are really interested in studying media, you have your own answer for this query. We are living in a media driven society where media take part of a dominating role in our decisions. In such an environment, did you ever think about the relevance of analyzing media content? While we try to analyse critically, we will make a conclusion that these media content are consciously developed. It covers almost all aspects of day to day life. 

Why do you are interested in media education? If you pause this question to Chris M Worsnop the answer will be a list of 20 reasons:

1. Like history, because the media interpret the past to us to show us what has gone into making us the way we are.

2. Like geography, because the media define for us our own place in the world.

3. Like civics, because the media help us to understand the workings of our immediate world, and our individual roles in it.

4. Like literature, because the media are our major sources of stories and entertainment.

5. Like literature, because the media require us to learn and use critical thinking skills.

6. Like business, because the media are major industries and are inextricably involved in

commerce.

7. Like language, because the media help define how we communicate with each other.

8. Like science and technology, because the media always adopt the leading edge of

modern technological innovation.

9. Like family studies, because the media determine much of our cultural diet and weave part of the fabric of our lives.

10. Like environmental studies, because the media are as big a part of our everyday

environment as are trees, mountains, rivers, cities and oceans.

11. Like philosophy, because the media interpret our world, its values and ideas to us.

12. Like psychology, because the media help us (mis)understand ourselves and others.

13. Like science, because the media explain to us how things work.

14. Like industrial arts, because the media are carefully planned, designed and constructed products.

15. Like the arts, because the media bring us pleasure, and we experience all the arts

through the media as no other age has ever done.

16. Like politics, because the media bring us political and ideological messages all the time – yes – all the time.

17. Like rhetoric, because the media use special codes and conventions of their own

languages that we need to understand and control—or we stand in danger of being

controlled by them.

18. Like drama, because the media help us understand life by presenting it as larger-than-

life, and compel us to think in terms of the audience.

19. Like Everest, because they are there.

20. BECAUSE THE MEDIA GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO STUDY US

  These reasons are an eye opener to media educators to understand the wast and wide scope of the subject.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSYSTEM SUPPLIES FUTURE POWER!

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Almost all counties and villages of India are thirsty and hunger for power along their township/city counterparts. Everybody needs power to energise day to day life with ample facilities. People are ambitious. If we get one, strive for hundred then shift to thousands. Ambitions and aspirations add more and more the need and demand of power. The current scene puts forth shocking data where we are. In India, 50 crore people have access to less than six hours of electricity every day.  Indian villages reel under immense energy poverty. Almost 50 per cent of households in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand are yet to be connected to the grid. Governments have to look forward for an energy revolution in these areas.  

Regarding cooking, 70 crore people do not have access to clean cooking fuel. Most of them depend bio-mass – fire woods and materials like cow dung- for cooking. Poor people living in villages are affected. Kitchen becomes killing places where mortality plays in its top position due to internal air pollution. This is the second biggest reason for mortality. The world Health Organisation statistics underline this pathetic situation. According to B K Chaturvedi, member, Planning Commission of India that the highest cause of premature deaths in India is due to asphyxiation because of household air pollution caused by cooking with bio-mass. Use of dirty cooking fuel has been responsible for killing 3.5 million women and children each year, according to a 2013 International Energy Agency report. India holds nearly 25 per cent of the global population without electricity and 31 per cent without clean cooking fuel.

Traditional power sectors and energy sources face critical decline due to multifaceted issues. It is sure that the traditional energy sources cannot meet the upcoming demands in power sector. Then what is the remedy? It was the big question before the speakers and listeners in the Fourth Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Energy Access and Renewable Energy, by Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi. Everybody agree with the view that we need to understand how to mainstream clean energy and energy access across the country.

 Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) put forward an idea of decentralised renewable energy systems could offer the key to solving this state of energy poverty, in her opening remarks of the dialogue.

Renewables: The agenda for change

The growth of renewable energy has changed the energy business in India. In the past 10 years, installation of renewable energy for electricity has grown at an annual rate of 25 per cent; as of January 2014, it had reached 30,000 megawatt (MW).

According to the Integrated Energy Policy, 2006, India is projected to have 30,000 MW of wind and 10,000 MW of solar power by 2031-32. The 12^th Five Year Plan (FYP) document has projected a four-fold increase in the installation of renewable power by 2021-22. The resource allocation in the 12^th FYP reflects the priority accorded by the government to renewable energy. Of the total plan outlay for the energy sector — Rs 10,94,938 crore — during 2012-2017, the outlay for MNRE is Rs 33,003 crore, or about three per cent of the total plan outlay. However, this is not enough. Due to policy paralysis and uncertainty, the period of 2011-12 saw a significant dip in investments in this sector – from US $13 billion in 2011 to US $6.5 billion in 2012.

For Dr. Farooque Abdulla, Union minister for new and renewable energy has no doubt that the Renewable Energy is the future not only in India, but the whole world. He pointed sharply that the forest should not be ruined in the name of renewable energy. To tackle the issue, he suggests roof top solar panels. Every house becomes power houses today or tomorrow. It  is a must to provide better education, health, and life. India has to stand over its own foot in energy scene, so renewable energy is a vital part of it. But the current scene is not so much positive, because big business tycoons in energy business import third rate products from china and other countries and imprinting the Indian organizations’ brand name over it. We have to develop indigenous technology and promote research and development projects to make available of renewable energy products cheap. We have to proactive in this sector. Dr. Abdulla became emotional when he joined with the aspirations of the environmental enthusiasts and commented: “I may not see it, or my children, but we have to work for clean energy and clean fuels. Insha alla, I hope I will see the lights shining over my tomb one day which is working by clean energy and connected to the grid.” Let’s have a shift of wind mills from land to coasts. The dream is to make an energy efficient nation without depending other nations, he added.

Renewable Energy is on the center stage of discussion among environmentalists and policy makers because it is the clean energy. All advocacies for Renewable Energy lay behind this single point. At policy level India is committed to reduce green house gas emissions through proclaiming the commitment through Kyoto Protocol and other related climate change mitigations. But large scale renewable energy projects can have major ecological impacts if they are installed without proper environmental assessment and management. Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general points out that “Renewable energy must benefit the local community — citizens must have the first right over electricity from renewables and they must benefit from the installation of renewable energy on their land.”

 It is not only a question of power generation but should be question of uplifting of the poor. Whenever discussions start up, people will go behind subsidies. Does it help us? Subsidy should be there but limit it to the poor ones. Governments should not go for subsidy for middle class and elite those who are capable to pay for energy consumption. Big business players are now being focused in clean energy business. Oil giants and others are entering to the field. Government policies also support the same partnership in coming years. Then there will be a scope for big scam in the sector. It is the environmentalists’ duty and right to be the watch dogs in this regard and assure renewable energy for the support to the poor in making a better life. This is a big challenge before the governments, industrialists and the watch dogs.

MEDIAVISM IN FIFTH ESTATE PLATFORM

MEDIAVISM IN FIFTH ESTATE PLATFORM

  Ratheesh Kaliyadan, Research Scholar, Assam University, Silchar

Prof. (Dr.) K.V. Nagaraj, Pro Vice Chancellor, Assam University, Silchar

 Abstract

Information Communication technology programmes revolutionized almost all walks of human life including the education sector. To address the political and cultural challenges, a new strategy is needed. The fifth estate provides a platform for innovative style of learning. The Mediavist approach will help to tackle the cultural impacts. This approach is an intervention of media in education sector with a critical outlook. To assure learner autonomy in learning in a highly sophisticated mobile application environment, Learner Responsive Pedagogy is needed. This pedagogy is a practical implication of mediavism. The Mediavist approach and Learner Responsive Pedagogy enhances to meet the challenges of edupolises, the public private partnership model promoted by capitalists.

Key words: Mediavism, Learner Responsive Pedagogy, Mobile learning applications, Edupolis

 Introduction

 Information Communication Technology (ICT) scrawled on the ground of education in its first phase with a purely negative potential for teaching-learning. The curriculum has been limited to basic computer literacy that focusing on operating system and office suite which have little pedagogical relevance and transacted by ‘computer teachers’.  Thus the first generation of Information Communication Technology bypassed the regular teaching staff in the school. The second generation has a wide acceptance in almost all sectors including education.

Educationists have been involved in designing second generation Information Communication Technology programmes. Now Information Communication Technology programmes serve to achieve larger educational goals, rather than being an end in them, curriculum pertains to regular mainstream subjects, transacted by regular school teachers and teacher educators. During the first generation operations, there was a fog of fear that this technology may expel the teachers from class rooms and appoint some technical operators. The fear vaporized in the second generation developments which exposed its strength in class room interventions. The Information Communication Technology trainers did not undermine the chalk-talk method used in classrooms, but rather encouraged the use of Information Communication Technology programmes as an additional tool for teaching-learning. Politically the popularization of Information Communication Technology developments has its own agendas. Critical media and adult education scholars have argued that the media, through the ways they portray characters and issues, both reproduce and challenge hegemonic relationships of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and ableness (Tisdell and Thompson 2007).

Towards the Fifth Estate

The second generation developments in Information Communication Technology opened up a new avenue of linkages. Network is the major characteristics of this generation. The networked individuals play crucial role in the invisible net. It gave way for the ‘fifth estate’ as William H. Dutton named. ‘Networked individuals’ can move across, undermine and go beyond the boundaries of existing institutions. This provides the basis for the pro-social networks that compose what I am calling the ‘Fifth Estate’. These self-selected, Internet-enabled, networked individuals often break from existing organizational and institutional networks that are themselves being transformed in Internet space( William H. Dutton, 2007).

Transformation in all sectors is the major contribution of the fifth estate. It challenged the autocratic and authentic boasts of the fourth estate. Citizen journalists, bloggers, researchers, politicians, government agencies, Non Government Organisations, Right To Information activists and more are putting information online. This information provides a novel source of news as a competing alternative to the Fourth Estate. There are several examples as of Salam Pax, the now famous ‘Baghdad Blogger’ that challenged the authenticity of mainstream media. The blog reports helped to change the media agenda in Iraq war by casting net of a local Iraqi perspective. These kinds of interventions are relevant in education which I may call as mediavism.

Mediavism on the Road

Mass media content is not an innocent revelation. It is a consciously manufactured cultural product. This product plays a key role in creating public opinion and power substitutes. To educators it is a means to equip learners to read their surroundings and cultural notions.  Henry A Giroux (2004) observes cultural studies becomes available as a resource to educators Cultural studies, pedagogy, and responsibility who can then teach students how to look at the media (industry and texts), analyze audience reception, challenge rigid disciplinary boundaries, critically engage popular culture, produce critical knowledge, or use cultural studies to reform the curricula and challenge disciplinary formations within public schools and higher education.

The third party reading or observation will not help learners properly to address the issues. The learners should be equipped to be part and parcel of the media interventions by using the same tools. Here a critical approach is necessary in finding subjects, choosing information, stating the problem and present it in a platform. This ‘news making’ process will not be an impartial attempt. Instead it is a conscious immersion in media world through education. It is an alternate way for expression. In an interview, Henry A Giroux claimed that “The educational force of the wider culture is now the primary site where education takes place, what I have called public pedagogy—modes of education largely produced, mediated, and circulated through a range of educational spheres extending from the new media and old broadcast media to films, newspapers, television programs, cable TV, cell phones, the Internet, and other commercial sites. Ideologically, the knowledge, values, identities, and social relations produced and legitimated in these sites are driven by the imperatives of commodification, privatization, consuming, and deregulation. At stake here is the creation of a human being that views him or herself as a commodity, shopper, autonomous, and largely free from any social obligations. This is a human being without ethics, a concern for others, and indifferent to human suffering. And the pedagogy that promotes these values and produces this subject is authoritarian and ruthless in its production of savage economic relations, a culture of cruelty, and its deformation of democratic social bonds. One could say that capitalist culture has produced a predatory culture of control and cruelty that promotes vast forms of suffering and repression and it does this increasingly through cultural apparatuses that promote widespread symbolic violence”.

  I hereby coin the term Mediavism to explain the educational interventions in media scene by combining two words viz. media and activism. The activist mode and mood of content generation is the prime probability of this approach. The Mediavist approach enables students to post logical queries and familiarise them with private debates as precursors to public engagement as critical questioning skills are mastered. More so, this user-friendly ambience renders informing possible through presentation of queries, which would not otherwise be raised in educators due to perceived psycho-social, cognitive, and semiotic fragilities like feelings of alienation, limited self-confidence, and constrained linguistic competence.

 The politics of education become active here. “Politicizing education cannot decipher the distinction between critical teaching and pedagogical terrorism because its advocates have no sense of the difference between encouraging human agency and social responsibility and molding students according to the imperatives of an unquestioned ideological position. Politicizing education is more religious than secular and more about training than educating; it harbors a great dislike for complicating issues, promoting critical dialogue, and generating a culture of questioning” (Henry a Giroux).

The Fifth Estate paves a platform for such an intervention for educators to create and share critical thoughts. John Dewey, one of the founders of The New School,emphasized that education does not only take place in schools and that it ought to prepare learners for democratic citizenship. Institutional learning should not foster individualism but rather emphasize community development, which is the basis for the improvement of society. Ivan illich also observed that we have all learned most of what we know outside school. For Freire, pedagogy was deeply connected to social change.  Informal social networks are crucial in that process, connecting students with their peers and with teachers.

 Mediavism is the way for sharing the critical perspectives in a mediated environment. Mediavism never neglect or undermine the traditional strategies like chalk and board, lectures, hand written assignments, group discussions or group works. All these attempts are complementary to this approach. The advent of the World Wide Web brought about an information revolution (Web 1.0). The Web 2.0 is characterized by social collaboration and user-customization with the social networking sites. The canvas of collaborative and cooperative learning is expanded from a small group inside the class to a global network.  Even a highly introvert student get a chance to express feelings and share views through the fifth estate platforms. The mediavism style will shift from desk tops to mobile applications very fast. Jackson (2012) argues that there will never be a Web 3.0 because the next paradigm shift of the Internet is mobile rather than desktop browser-based.

Learner Responsive Pedagogy

To practice the mediavist approach in class rooms through mobile applications, a pedagogical stand is a necessity. Assurance of learner autonomy and freedom is the heart of this approach. Learners are responsible for all sharing where they get an authenticity. It also enhances every learner to make responses. “Pedagogy is not simply about the social construction of knowledge, values, and experiences; it is also a performative practice embodied in the lived interactions among educators, audiences, texts, and institutional formations. Pedagogy, at its best, implies that learning takes place across a spectrum of social practices and settings” (Henry A Giroux).

Learner Response Pedagogy is the strategy to safe guard the learner autonomy in a more personalized educational environment. Mobile applications enhance the learner to gather information and share them constantly with an intimate feeling. Just as the post-modern society emerged out of modernism, we are experiencing a transformation of Web 2.0 into post Web 2.0 mobile social media. This “brings the potential to appropriate new pedagogies that harness the potential of mobile social media to create powerful situated, authentic, and informal learning experiences and bridge these into formal learning” (Vavoula, 2007).

Jessica Irish in the essay, Learning on Mobile Platforms argue: While I do ask my students to turn off their phones in class, many of my favorite ways to use technology in teaching embrace the ubiquity of the con­temporary cell phone. Learning happens equally, if not more, outside the classroom, and finding a way to have students begin to use their phones towards their broader learning seems a worthwhile effort.

Smart phones through mobile applications have relevance in education sector. This tool could be utilized fruitfully in media education and in other disciplines. The Learning and Teaching Development Fellows (LTDF)  Journalism Communities of Practice (COP)  led to reinventing the case study approach to modeling the use of mobile social media in class. The intention was  to get students to collate, curate, and critique actual source content around a mobile social media incident in Journalism.

Students chose a breaking incident of mobile social media and used Storify.com either on their iPads or laptops to collate and comment upon Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and other mobile social media, creating an annotated rich media story of the event or incident. The assignment question became: “How if at all have social media altered the way journalists and public relations practitioners interact?  Use real examples from at least three social media platforms as well as academic sources to back up your arguments” (Assessment schedule 2012). This was then either published to their own blog, or their own Storify.com site for their lecturer to mark.

 Students interacted directly with rich mobile social media, developing creative rich-media stories that required metacognitive critiques. There was a considerably higher level of critique and creativity evidenced in the Storify.com project in comparison to that evidenced in previous essay versions of the assessment. Students used Storify to express and create very personalized critiques of the impact of social media on Journalism. The best essays made the most of the platform and the freedom to include multimedia examples.

These students also altered their style and the way they wrote into the examples to make their essays fit the medium. Further, by using a mixture of books, journal articles and discussions on social media, these students were able to explore the question far more deeply than most of those who stuck to the more traditional format. Initial feedback from students suggests they enjoyed the opportunity to explore social media in a way other that for social purposes. Most also realize the need to be confident using social media for their future role as professional communicators.  (Cochrane, T., Antonczak, L., Gordon, A., Sissons, H. & Withell, A. 2012).

Learner  Responsive Pedagogy has two tier implications. First, the learner can share feelings and findings through mobile applications as the above quoted experience narrates. Second, the educators can create a data bank to transfer specific information or curriculum needs. Teaching notes and texts could be transferred. Edusanchar designed by Dr. Mangesh Karandikar is an example for transferring media education content through mobile application. Redefining mobile learning is their motto. The mobile application provides the concepts, key terms for media and communication related studies.

Mediavism through Learner Responsive Pedagogy is a threat to edupolises which are the power house of capitalistic education in a public private partnership flagship. “As I have stressed repeatedly, academics, teachers, students, parents, community activists, and other socially concerned groups must provide the first line of defense in protecting public and higher education as a resource vital to the moral life of the nation, and open to people and communities whose resources, knowledge, and skills have often been viewed as marginal” (Giroux, 2004).

Implementing mobile technology tools into curricula is more diffi­cult than desktop web-based tools because the industry enforces individual ownership of devices, complicating the purchase of devices and service plans. Educators need the community to donate labor to open-source tools. Governments could design public-interest profit incentives (e.g., tax breaks, community access funds, discount subsidies) so carriers and manufacturers donate plenty of bandwidth and devices to non-profit learning institutions (David Carroll). The next education will be focused upon mobile applications with the advent support of the users and designers

Bibliography

Coharane Thomas, A. L. (2012). Hentagogy and mobile social media: post web 2.0 pedagogy. ascilite, (pp. 204-214).

Dotton, W. H. (2007). Through the Network ( of Networks)- the Fifth Estate. Examine schools, University of Oxford .

Giroux, H. A. (2004). Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy and the Responsibilities of Intellectuals. Communication and critical/Cultural studies , 59-79.

Kaliyadan, R. (2012). Principles of Mass Communication. Koyilandy, Kozhikode, Kerala: Media Analysis & Research Center.

Trebor, S. R. Learning through digital media . In S. R. Trebor. Newyork 10011: The Institution for Distributed Creativity.

Wright, R. R. (2009). Wright, Robin Redmon and ‘Popular culture, public pedagogy and perspective transformation: The Avengers and adult learning in living rooms’,. Wright, Robin Redmon and Sandlin, Jennifer A.(2009)’Popular culture, public pedagogy and perspective transformation: The AvenInternational Journal of Lifelong Education,28:4 , 533-551.

 

JAIL SHINES UNDER SOLAR PANELS

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Jails are normally considered to be the Everest of evils. Though the inmates are culprits before law, there are a lot of hearts and minds work hard for some social change. The activities motivate in mates and lead to transformation. Environment is one of the major areas of greening the wounded minds. Kerala jails are shifting their attitude towards the surroundings by producing electric power in a different way. The jails are equipping t shine under solar panels. By the transformative move, jail officials are making history and provide room for mother earth in the minds of both in mates and the general public.

Kerala people depend Kerala State Electricity Board to meet electricity. Apart from other states, Kerala villages and townships use plenty of electricity for various purposes. In another words, the life style of Keralites are redesigned by this power. Jails also use the same energy for their daily activities. A paradigm shift had happened when the authorities decided to utilize the solar energy to convert as electricity. Thus The Central Prison in Thiruvananthapuram has become the first one in the country to depend entirely on clean and renewable solar energy.  The solar energy project at the central prison at Poojappura in Thiruvananthapuram has been set up at a cost of Rs. 7.9 crore.  Street lighting and fans for the block, steam cooking, chappathi making unit and water pumping will be powered by solar energy.  Nearly 229 KW of power is generated by the project.

What are the positives of this change? At first solar power ensures round clock supply of electricity which is a must as far as a jail is concerned. Moreover, it assures twelve hour back up. Secondly it reduced electricity bill at a large extent. The Kerala State Electricity Board has charged Rs. 1.27 crores just before commissioning the solar panel in central prison for electricity.

Is it a unique specialty of poojappura Central Jail? The paradigm shift will be the face value of all the 51   jails. Hope fully, Rs.25.56 crore has en earmarked for this, Alexander Jacob, ADGP (Prisons), said. The Centre had sanctioned Rs.24 crore to mount solar panels on roofs of select prisons to generate electricity The jail department has roped in the services of Keltron and the Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) to execute the projects. The effort is to make jails ‘modern’ and eco-friendly’.

There is a byproduct for this shift in Poojappura central jail. The solar system exhausts smoke from the jail campus. Smoke from kitchen was a big issue there. The high walls and closed nature of prison buildings often prevented the quick escape of smoke to the atmosphere. It generated health issues. Respiratory problems were common among prisoners and staff. The solar panels now prevent prisoners and staffs from smoke. The commercial bread and chappathi making unit is rejuvenated by solar power. The speed of production increased. Smoke free kitchen provides new energy also.

Kerala jails point out to an innovative sector in energy production and protection. Various commercial and non commercial activities and educational initiatives lead to a transformation among prisoners. Thanks to educational ventures including Indira Gandhi National Open University, the jails produced highly qualified persons among the inmates who attain Master in Business Administration and PhD. This torch light will have to enlighten other organizations to meet the increasing demand of electric power by tuning the mindset to the solar power.

( This article is supported by the media fellowship instituted by Center for Science and Environment, New Delhi)

 

 

 

 

KILLER BABY TALCUM POWDER AND COSMETICS

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration took a brave decision by cancelling Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J) license for manufacturing cosmetics. The decision is followed by following complaints of carcinogenic substances residue in its talcum powder for infants.

K.B. Shende, Joint Commissioner (Drug), Maharashtra FDA revealed that the J&J company used ethylene oxide in its skin powder for infants. The sterilisation process using the chemical is completely wrong, for it remains as a residue. With usage, the talcum powder could turn carcinogenic and cause irreparable damage’.

Unknowingly, our mothers become happy only if the infants and children are covered with the J&J talcum powders. Though there are small wounds, they use the powder as a protective cover! The result is direct entry of the carcinogens into the blood.

“We have not suspended the licence, we have cancelled it. The company cannot manufacture the Johnson baby powder at this stage,” confirmed K.B. Shende, Joint Commissioner (Drug), Maharashtra FDA.

What is the saddest point of this decision? The complaint relates to 15 batches of talcum powder, comprising 160,000 containers, manufactured in 2007, by the company at its facility in Mulund, a Mumbai suburb. The J&J baby powder has a three-year shelf-life. A J&J official said to the Businessline: “ the FDA raised concerns about ethylene oxide treatment, which is not part of the manufacturing process as submitted to the FDA. The shelf-life of the concerned batch ended July 2010”. The J&J official’s words clearly mention that the decision is over a sold out product which will not help those who used the product. Still it will help to open our parents’ eyes and ears on using cosmetics.

A DAY FOR PRESS FREEDOM

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Around the world we are not hearing happy news regarding the media world. Though the profession is glamorous and challenging, the mediavists are being targeted by various groups. They are murdered and attacked pathetically only for doing their “duty” sincerely. In 2012 alone, UNESCO’s Director-General condemned the killings of 121 journalists, almost double the annual figures of 2011 and 2010. The annual figures show shocking realities of the journalists’ works to guard the estates.

Considering the role and importance of journalists’ jobs, twenty years back, UNESCO declared May 3 as the World    Press Freedom Day (WPFD). World Press Freedom Day was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1993 as an outgrowth of the Seminar on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press. This seminar took place in Windhoek, Namibia from 29 April to 3 May 1991 and led to the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration on Promoting Independent and Pluralistic Media.

The declaration stated: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” This document calls for free, independent, pluralistic media worldwide, characterizing free press as essential to democracy and as a fundamental human right.

It has its root from the United Nations’ Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights that states that everyone “has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

Theme for World Press Freedom Day 2013 is  “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media” and puts the spotlight in particular on the issues of safety of journalists, combating impunity for crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet as the precondition for safety online.

UNESCO established a prize to honour the work of an individual or an organization which has made a notable contribution to the defense and /or promotion of freedom of expression anywhere in the world. The prize is known as The UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. It was created in 1997 by UNESCO’s Executive Board. It is awarded annually during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. This year the award is won by Imprisoned Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu.

Greetings to the Public Relations fraternity on the National PR Day!

Dr Ajit Pathak

National President

Public Relations Society of India

Every year, led by Public Relations Society of India, Public Relations practitioners across the country observe April 21st as National PR Day. The Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) was established in 1958 to formulate and interpret the objectives and potentialities of Public Relations as a profession and also to undertake professional development programmes.

National PR Day Message-2013  A decade later,the PR professionals from all over the country met for the first time in New Delhi at the 1 st All India Public Relations Conference on April 21, 1968. This was a very significant public relations meet in our country, when a professional approach was given to public relations besides adopting the IPRA Code of Ethics for PR profession. This milestone event marked the beginning of professional public relations in India. To commemorate this and mark event, 21st April is celebrated as National PR Day We have witnessed during the last two decades that Change in organizations is happening tremendously ever since we learned about globalization and open economy in India. Business visions, objectives and strategies are also changing with changing times.More and more organizations are pushed to reduce costs, improve the quality and products, scale greater levels of productivity, mark greater standards of customer satisfaction and exploring new avenues.

Corporate Communicators have to be the change agents in this transformation and biggest task for them is to create and communicate visions and strategies. While the rules of the game are changing, changes are coming in the media and technologies as well. Digital media used for corporate communications is quickly becoming a key business tool for any size of company, due to the availability and effectiveness of the technology. Digital media is cost effective to keep their entire workforce informed, focused, and aligned with key business initiatives. In the Digital Media era, organisations can leverage the Internet and theirintranet investmentsto more effectively communicate with theirstake‐holders with faster pace, without national boundaries.

In order to underline the role of digital media, the theme of this year’s National PR Day has been chosen to be “DIGITAL MEDIA INCORPORATE COMMUNICATION“. While the Digital world has revolutionized the communication opportunities with its reach and speed it has also attracted many crooked minds who make life of others difficult. Crimes have also increased by exploiting the power, user friendliness and availability of digital equipment as well as by unethically taking advantage of the easy accessibility to information. We also need to be alert on this front to draw full advantage of the digital development.

 

‘I’M NOT RUNNING A PROSTITUTION RACKET”: NEW FACE OF INDIAN JOURNALISM

Sunit Mukherjee

To hell with media ethics!! Sharing the sad,bad experience of actress Deepti Naval.
Deepti Naval
I’ve been pretty upset the last few days over something that the print media has been distorting hugely . . . each one of you on Facebook has been totally silent about it – no comment whatsoever – and I appreciate that – and since I know you people care, I’d like to, to explain what has really happened –

Just before the release of ‘Listen Amaya’ me and Farooque Shaikh were doing an interview for Rajiv Masand in my Versova terrace flat. I had been keeping unwell those days and had requested Rajiv’s camera team to come over to my house instead of me having to go to his studio. Rajiv came over with his three camera setup and we were in the middle of this interview, when three members from the Society barged into the flat and demanded that we stop ‘this activity’ – they thought we were making a movie – I explained to them that they can sit here and watch – we are not making a movie, we are doing an interview – but they threatened to call the police on me. Rajiv, Farooq, my director Avinash Singh and his wife Geeta were all very embarrassed hearing this sort of conversation. We tried to wind up fast. Then one neighbor Mr Rajan Khurana was sent up to convey to me that the Society has threatened to call the police if we don’t stop ‘this activity’ right away. I explained again, but to no avail. After that I got a call from the Secretary of the Society who was very irked and repeated that ‘We’ll have to call the police on you’. We cancelled all other interviews after that.
I was hugely embarrassed; I apologized to my colleagues and they quietly left.

I felt so humiliated and felt my rights as a resident were violated. I decided to pack my stuff from the Oceanic residence and come and stay at my Madh Island house.

I am an artist and have always given interviews in my own home – artists do that all the time – there is nothing illegal about it – it is their right.

Never mind, now this is what follows the incident.

A week / eight days ago a journalist friend asked me what I was doing sitting in Madh – and I gave vent to my frustration. I told him over the phone that –

‘The Society treated me so badly and kept threatening me with “WE’LL CALL THE POLICE, WE’LL CALL THE POLICE”, as if I’m running a RACKET here!’

Next day it was out in print – in Mumbai Mirror – the sensational headline –
‘I’M NOT RUNNING A PROSTITUTION RACKET” – and the story about the society fiasco, stating how badly me and Farooq Shaikh were insulted by the members of my building.Except for the scandalous headline, nothing wrong with the contents of the article. It was in my favour – But this is what follows . . .

Other papers have picked up the SENSATIONAL HEADLINE and implied that the Society has ACCUSED me of running a prostitution racket. I’ve been appalled! I will post those articles so you all can see how the press distorts everything to make eye-catching news! One of the tabloids has said –

DEEPTI NAVAL OUSTED OUT OF HER ‘PROSTITUTION DEN’

A dear friend, shell shocked at reading the contents in a Calcutta tabloid, called me frantically – ‘What is all this? Who has been accusing you of running a racket?’
I explained to her that no one is ACCUSING me of running anything like that – it is the PRESS that is IMPLYING . . .

Of course I’ve been back at Oceanic in the last days and have conducted my meeting there as well – I’m a little confused – should I take action against the print media or should I let it go. If I let this go, then there are people who’ve said –
‘KUCH TO HOGA NA . . . AISE HIS TO NAHIN SOCIETY ITNA OBJECT KAR RAHI’ – Imagine?
Friends from the industry feel, ‘Let the dogs bark . . . you move on!’

I was sitting there at my terrace flat yesterday evening – after Farooque and I had spent a whole day going to various radio stations giving fresh round of interviews before the re-release of the old Chashmebaddoore on April 5th – and I was looking around at my beautiful spacious home where I sit and dream, do all my writing work, invite friends, spend quality time with myself – and I was in tears . . . this sanctuary of mine to be called a ‘PROSTITUTION DEN’ –
In my heart, I apologized to my father who is no more in this world, and quietly prayed –
‘I’m sorry, Piti, see what all this has catapulted into? Please help me learn to ignore it and move on – but I will not disappoint you – I will fight for my right!’

Thank you for bearing with me – I can’t go around explaining to the whole world, but I can, to a few of you who I know, care . . .

Deepti

 

DALITS DEPRIVED OFF FROM MEDIA HOUSES

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Santosh Kumar Gautam hails from a poor family in Swaroop Bhanwan Dei and Mr.  (Late) Chandradas. All his family members are illiterate except Santosh. He got opportunity to complete matriculation in the Janatha Inter College, Alambag. He became a graduate in Zoology, Botany and Chemistry in 2002 second class from Lucknow University. During that period his father Chandradas who was an agriculture laborer passed away. Struggling with financial crisis, he postponed his dream to be a post graduate in mass communication and entered into the fields to earn money. He became an electric bill collector who visits houses which have electric connection, read the meter and collect the bill. The visits opened his eyes which provided firsthand experience to observe how people live around him.  He had seen the difference in life styles and big guys insulting mind set towards the downtrodden and the atrocities against the Dalits. The inquiring mind strived to become a journalist to fight against the social evils and the social apartheid.

The Dalit youth joined to his masters at Baba Saheb Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He became a post graduate in mass communication in 2011. He qualified National Eligibility Test, the test for Assistant Professorship conducted by University Grants Commission. The dream satisfied but he could not attain the goal. He began his career as a journalist as an intern of Nivik Kesari weekly newspaper. Then he joined in Speed News, a local cable television to be practiced the studies. During these periods he worked without payment. Then joined in Inqulabi-Nazar, vernacular newspaper and sister concern of Dainik Aag, the Urdu newspaper. He is a sub-editor in the Hindi newspaper from Lucknow since 2012. He earns 6000 RS per month. Every day he joins the desk by five o’ clock and returns to home by 1.30 AM. His work includes editing, layout and all other jobs to create a page. Also contribute reports and features. He had several byline stories.

To be an intern of a national daily, especially in English is a dream to him. He was trying for a more appreciating job. Then he is being realized that the intensity of media houses’ apartheid against the Dalits, especially in North India. Paradoxically the north Indian politics is an example for success in generating Dalit / caste politics. Let him reveal the stories. “I approached many news houses for a job. But all refused. I do not know why. I am well versed in my job. I do reporting, feature writing, editing and page designs. Also I’m a tech savvy. Still I’m out of the court of ‘good’ publishers. Only reason I can assume is I am a Dalit”.

 Well we have certain popular figures from Dalit community in Big media houses. The number will be counted in a hand. They are the icons. On the expense of these icons, media houses counter attack the Dalit arguments that they are deprived off from media scene. Mr. Santosh applied for a post in E-TV. He appeared written test. After that appeared for interview. At last hopefully he was selected for the job. The human Resource department informed to bring a government officer to introduce him. He sends all documents which they needed. But the HR department yet not sends the appointment letter. He contacted the channel several times. The reply was” our boss didn’t sign your appointment letter.” The question is if Santosh is not eligible for the job why the media manager did collected his documents after completing all other procedures? He believes only after examining the documents, they identified that he is a Dalit.

He reveals another story. One of his best friends, Mr. Shukla who is a copy editor invited him to join in their media organization. It is an English newspaper; One among the widely circulated newspapers in North India. There were vacancies.  Most probably such vacancies are filled with the experienced hands through their relationships as happened here. Shukla recommended Santosh for the post to the recruitment officer. Santosh went for an interview. After examining the resume and certificates, he replied: “Ok. I have filed your documents. At present there is no vacancy here. I will call you when vacancy opens.”  He met his friend Shukla and informed that the recruitment officer’s response was not positive. After two or three days the friend revealed the top secret to Santosh only because of the close relationship “if you suggested a Brahmin boy, I might be considered. I cannot bear a Dalit here.”

What we heard from Santosh is true, it is a pathetic condition. The fourth estate is not guarding the majority of the under privileged sections of life. They are with the minority. The minority have everything like money, education and power. The powerless common people who are always marked as the real essence of democracy away from democratic interventions.

Mediavists rape the rape victims!

Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Rape reporting becomes a universal phenomena among Indian media. Everyday you have multiples of rape reports! What happens is whenever such reports appear in media, the amount of rape reporting is increasing. Unfortunately our mediavists forget to keep ethical notions regarding the victims and their life.

Privacy is the paramount issue in reporting rape cases. The controversy ranges from whether to name the victim to how to handle the accused one’s right to be presumed innocent. The media coverage on  a sex crime, whether as the victim or as the accused, is to be opened up to merciless exposure of one’s past, one’s personality, and particularly one’s sex life. That is the way things stand today. “Why should the media treat the victim in the same way as the accused? Why should the media scrutinize her private life and personality? The victim committed no crime: it is not a crime to walk into one’s home, to jog in a park, to walk with a man on a beach, to go on a date, to pick up someone in a bar, nor is it even a crime to go to bed with someone other people might consider dangerous”.

Unfortunately this is what happens even today while our scribes try to expose the crime. The mediavist’s eagerness and competition leads to such a phase of reporting. Remember the slogan: “rape is not sex, it is violence.”  The phrase coined from the first rape speak-outs of the early 1970s. The ethical question should be raised in the narrow paths of media houses. It’s the duty of mediavists to rectify the ongoing unethical practices in reporting sex crimes. Stop immediately focusing on the private lives and personalities of survivors and victims’ in sex crimes. Raise the real questions: why rape, incest, sexual assault, and harassment happen at all to find out the reasons.