Anil Gulati in Bhopal
Interesting blogs are catching up in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A new one on the block is www.safemotherhood.blogspot.com. This blog is being managed by campaign to raise concern on maternal deaths in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It not only reflects what is being written on the issue in media in the state but also adds its own comments.
To raise concern and bring visibility to the issue of maternal deaths and factors impacting the same, it bring out stories published at the district level edition or local newspapers which many a times do not figure in the state level media which is read by people who make policies. This blog makes the effort to translate the Hindi news items into English or adapt it from Hindi edition and reproduces on its weblog, and says where it is taken from. Many a times these news stories from district editions can form a story for the state editions or alternatively can be a pitch for the big story - which probably adds to the purpose this blog. Some examples in this regard: the story of how lack of blood in the Bhind district hospital killed two during delivery on the same day, and a story on how state schemes face implementation glitches at ground level made it to the state news. This means that blog is getting noticed. The blog also features in Google blog searches on the issue, and its updates are very fast on search - proof of the fact that blogs updates get on fast on search engines as compared to website updates.
The other blog from the state is www.newswhichmatter.blogspots.com. To this one I also contribute. It was started in the year 2005 and is still on and has people logging in. The last one which may be worth a mention is www.mpchildinfo.blogspot.com. It will take time to develop, but is on media stories on children`s issues.
With facilities like Google alerts possibilities are getting expanded for blogs like these and for the people who contribute on these blogs, as one gets noticed if one is searching for information which happens to be on these blogs, even not on the websites.
In addition to this blog it may be pertinent to mention a new website from the state, www.mynews.in. It is giving place to developmental news and writers, many of whom are new. Whenever one writes about the sites from Madhya Pradesh one needs to mention a Hindi news portal www.webdunia.com from Madhya Pradesh. Though a news site, it does give place to issues which impact women and children.
Everyday hundreds and thousands of blogs get created on various sites like blogger.com, wordpress.com, and rediff.com. Some take up issues which would have remained invisible otherwise. They are helping to bring the plight of people of the `other India` into focus.
Contact- anilgulati5@gmail.com
(All views expressed in this piece are writer¿s personal opinion)