Ersama, Orissa State,
That super cyclone, three years ago, devastated much of the rural state of Orissa, killing at least 10,000 people, and wiping out many villages. But three years down the line little has changed. The floods of last year took many lives and rendered thousands homeless. Reports of starvation deaths took the country and ruling governments by storm.
All the natural disasters in Orissa have had immense media coverage.
The media is partly responsible for arousing adequate response from society, or for the lack of it. Also, to a certain extent, for ensuring an adequate response from government. It has two roles. One, as as a chronicler of events, systematically documenting what is actually happening and what is the situation on the ground. It also verifies if what the government is saying is true or not. Is relief reaching? How high is the water level? Where are people seeking refuge? These are the reports the government often does not have or are distorted, and it`s the media`s job to probe and find out the facts.
The second role of media is the role of a watchdog monitoring government agencies doggedly even after the big news is over. Here it tends to fail. It reported what was happening in the first few days, but then it allowed the story to go inside to the back pages, and then it disappeared altogether. Even on a day when there were an estimated 10,000 bodies lying and floating in one block of Ganjam district in coastal Orissa - the bulk of national dailies just did not bother. They did not have the kind of stories that are commensurate with the gravity of the situation. But in a more caring society, Orissa would have made headlines for several months until adequate relief was provided. It should be there on the front pages every day.
Despite the scale of the disaster, the super cyclone did not make the front of any
Therefore it is imperative to explore what media’s role could be as against what it presently is.
History:
Development statistics paint a numbing picture of life in Orissa:
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· Two-thirds of the rural population living in abject poverty
· Lowest number of doctors per capita
· One of the worst records in the country for providing electricity and water to its people
· Less than 20% of rural homes hooked up to the power grid
· Three-quarters have to draw their water from wells rather than a pressure-driven pipe system
· Less than 5% of the population has access to subsidies for food and fuel aimed at poverty-alleviation.
Thus, grinding poverty and pronounced under-development in Orissa have made its people immeasurably more vulnerable to the cyclone, flood, and their aftermath.
The way it was:
While Andhra Pradesh has roughly 1,000 cyclone shelters, and Tamil Nadu 700, Orissa has just 23 shelters. These are not expensive structures. It is not lack of funds that is a problem; it is the complete indifference and callousness on part of the administration.
Meanwhile, a lot of money made available by the UNDP for disaster forecasting has been lying unspent with the governments both at the Centre and state. There is a disaster management cell in the ministry, which is a story of mismanagement. These are unforgivable lapses. The Orissa administration is probably one of the worst in the country--it is ridden with casteism, corrupt and inefficient.
The Centre has, to this day, refused to declare the super cyclone a national calamity. How many people have to die before you declare it a national calamity? In Ersama itself, there were 10,000 bodies, unidentified and rotting. Secondly, if it were declared a national calamity, then under the norms of the 10th Finance Commission, the central government would have to write off various kinds of loans given to the state government.
Role of Media:
Natural disasters pick on the weak. With a callous and unresponsive government, natural disasters can be more devastating than they need to be. It is here that the media needs to intervene on behalf of the helpless victims. Has the Indian media highlighted the lapses of both governments? Have they endlessly pursued the government agencies and questioned their activities? Has the media played an active role in lobbying for policies in favour of the victims?
Sadly, the media takes up an issue only for so long as there are dead bodies to report. The common man is not news until he becomes part of the spectacular - super cyclones, starvation deaths and massive floods! The death of many due to starvation does make the news, not the process leading to the denouement.
The role of media is to hammer away at the raw facts and figures, to continuously remind the government to perform. Especially the national media, which reaches every nook and corner of the country, has the power to sensitize the country towards the plight of the inhabitants of Orissa.
Comparing the coverage of Kargil and Orissa in the media, both in the press and on TV, many questions arise. Kargil was given a great deal of coverage--editorials and special issues, but there was not enough coverage of Orissa. Whatever coverage there was, was more political - what happened to the Congress, and not what happened to the people.
Another remarkable change was that the papers collected crores of rupees in the case of Kargil. Janmabhumi, a newspaper from Mumbai, collected Rs 8.5 crore for Kargil, but not even Rs 25 lakh for Orissa.
A lot of coverage, photos have been there in the media about the devastation in Orissa. Yet, there was a sense that what happened in Orissa was almost like something that happened in
The Hindustan Times had a very arresting photograph of a young man tied to a post. Someone was pulling his hair, and there was a crowd of about 40 men and the caption read: Man being punished for stealing food to feed his hungry family. The people in the photograph were not looking at the man; they were looking at the camera.
For a sensitive journalist this one single image carries multiple stories that you can do at so many different levels. However, this has become the norm with the media. It does not have an analysis of images.
The English language press also has a role - especially in places where local newspapers are less powerful. When in 1985 the English language daily The Indian Express reported on starvation deaths in Kalahandi district in the eastern province of Orissa - a state with "low newspaper circulation, electoral turnout and literacy" - it prompted visits by the prime minister, state ministers, and release of state funds to a remote area that had been suffering from regular spells of drought and food crisis for over two decades.
Nobel Prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen first highlighted the importance of the Indian press in preventing famines. Delivering a lecture in
The media questions the administration and criticizes. But only as long as it is news, as long as it sells. In the context of the criminal neglect that Orissa lives with, the media’s indifference and lack of sustained follow up makes it as culpable as the administration. It is failing in its job. Its persistence could have made an enormous difference to this benighted state, if it would only choose to persist.
Swaha Sahoo is a sociology graduate from