Poverty a non-issue for Indian media

30 October 2007

�43.7 Million People break Guinness World Record." This is surely the stuff of which headlines are made. Nearly 44 million is a lot of people. And both Indians in general and the media here in particular usually love Guinness records.

According to a recent Associated Press feature, The Hindustan Times has run over 50 stories this year about bids for Guinness records, and it is still not far ahead of the competition.

The latest to join the ranks of record-seekers - or, at least, to be reported in the press as considering the possibility - is the family of Raj Kapoor. Yet the record broken by 43.7 million people did not quite make it.

Perhaps the nature of the event was the spoiler. The 43,716,440 people who together (reportedly) broke the record were participating in approximately 6,540 events in about 127 countries, organised to enable people to �Stand Up and Speak Out� against poverty over 24 hours spanning 16 and 17 October.

But then again here was a relatively "happy" story - that so many millions are willing to express their concern about this serious problem is surely good news. Even though the media today have a preference for upbeat stories, this one obviously didn't have what it takes.

The fact is that poverty does not make much news in India these days. There was barely any acknowledgement in the English-language press in Bangalore of the 20th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October).

This year the day meant to focus attention on poverty more or less coincided with the midpoint in global efforts to fulfill the commitments made by world leaders in September 2000, which were subsequently condensed into eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be met by 2015.

The scant attention paid to poverty by the media even on such an occasion could be due to more pressing parallel preoccupations: the shenanigans of politicians after the collapse of the coalition government in Karnataka, the enduring tug-of-war over the Indo-US nuclear deal, investigations into the bomb blasts in Ajmer and Ludhiana, the bomb blasts in Karachi during Benazir Bhutto's home-coming parade, the ups and downs in the fortunes of the Indian cricket team and allegations of racism among cricket fans, religious festivals and, of course, the thrilling roller coaster ride offered by the Sensex, as well as the fascinating relationships between Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy, and the late Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

Is poverty passe?

The apparent disinterest in poverty could also be due to the widespread assumption that it is no longer an issue in rising, shining India. The government certainly seems confident about getting rid of this long-standing and somewhat embarrassing bugbear.

Media reports on the release of India's 2005 country report on the MDGs in February 2006 quoted G K Vasan, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, saying "We are already way ahead in poverty eradication" and assuring the audience that the goal of eradication of extreme poverty would, in fact, be met well ahead of schedule.

How journalists could let such statements pass without further probing is a real puzzle. If those claims seem rather incredible, a possible explanation for the extreme optimism may be found in the message from the Ministry's Secretary, PS Rana, in the document. According to him, some of the indicators specified under the MDGs were dropped due to "non-availability of sufficiently reliable data."

Seeing is believing

There were plenty of clues in the media in the days immediately preceding and following 17 October that clearly indicated the continuing prevalence and persistence of the problem and provided ideas for a variety of stories on different aspects of the subject. Unfortunately, none of them were picked up for further investigation.

For example, on 15 October, The Hindu had a report headlined "Climate change: poorest will be hit the hardest". It also reported that a delegation of social activists under the aegis of the Ekta Parishad were going to meet Sonia Gandhi to hand over a draft National Land Reform Policy, aiming to provide land to the landless, on the premise that the country will not be able to achieve a structural end to rural poverty without such reforms.

The Times of India (TOI) carried a report headlined "More Indians than Chinese remain hungry, says survey," quoting from the Global Hunger Index 2007 put together by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Typically, the story began with the paper's customary obeisance to economic growth: "India may be the second fastest growing economy in the world, but it still has a long way to go in eradicating hunger, where it is ranked at the 94th position, well behind neighbouring China and Pakistan�"

Deccan Herald (DH) also had a reasonably detailed report on the survey findings, whereas The Asian Age (AA) had just a tiny item in the briefs section on the front page, which that day featured a long, prominent piece on the London release of Dev Anand's autobiography.

On 16 October a report on the Global Education Digest 2007 in DH, headlined "UNESCO: Primary education burdens poor," stated that the fundamental right to basic education remained a distant dream for India's poor. The paper also carried an op-ed piece related to World Food Day (16 October) headlined "Instil confidence in nation's food producers."

The Hindu's report on corruption in the administration of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Orissa - despite the transparency safeguards mandated by the relatively new law - was the only reference in the Bangalore press that week to what is arguably one of the most important ongoing measures to combat rural poverty.

The TOI did, however, have an editorial related to poverty. Titled "Disturbing diagnosis: India falls short of meeting welfare goals," it referred to a report by the UN and the Asian Development Bank pointing out that India is a laggard in meeting some of the MDGs.

"For a country that is growing at 9% there is no reason why India's social indicators should be embarrassingly poor even when compared to other middle income countries," the edit said. "India's poverty levels may have fallen from 37% to 22% over the last 15 years but progress in non-income aspects of poverty leaves a lot to be desired� High growth is now generating the resources needed to enable India to address these problems on a war footing� social sector outlays must be seen as an integral aspect of our push for prosperity� The health of the economy must contribute to the health of everyone. Growth alone cannot create well-being, if it is not accompanied by better health."

Rise and fall

On D-Day (17 October) the front pages of most English newspapers in Bangalore featured the concert of the hip-hop band, Black Eyed Peas, the previous evening. The New Indian Express' report on the Stand Up and Speak Out campaign was buried on page eight. The others did not refer to the global campaign at all.

TOI was the only paper that had an edit, which at least mentioned poverty. Headlined "Problems of Equality: Poverty is declining but inequality is on the rise, says IMF," it was pegged on the World Economic Outlook brought out by the International Monetary Fund.

The edit made a distinction between equality of opportunities and equality of outcomes, pointing out that India is nowhere near ensuring the former for all its citizens. The edit deemed the "free play of market forces" essential but it did at least highlight the need for fair "starting conditions."

AA had more items relating to World Food Day than to poverty (although it devoted considerable space to an article from the Spectator on "the second richest Russian").

The Hindu marked the day with an editorial page article by agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan headlined "From killing fields to smiling fields," suggesting that the focus in dealing with the agrarian crisis should shift from suicide relief to suicide prevention.

Although there was no direct reference in the piece or elsewhere in the paper to poverty or the MDGs, two days later it published another edit page article by two IAS officers and a member of Tamil Nadu's State Planning Commission headlined, "Dimensions of rural poverty in Tamil Nadu." Pointing out that the state's rural poor are marginal and small farmers as well as landless labourers, the authors suggested that a comprehensive agricultural strategy should include the conferment of land ownership along with increased public investment in agriculture.

The only editorial in the paper during this period that referred to poverty-related issues was one that appeared on 20 October. The focus of that was primarily on the problems caused by rising world food prices, including the prohibitive rise in the cost of food aid meant to save millions from starvation in the least developed countries.

Scams and scandals

The TOI did publish an edit page piece on another poverty-related matter. Headlined "Stop the robbery," the article by Medha Patkar and Simpreet Singh referred to a report of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution that had exposed "what is nothing less than the robbing of foodgrains meant for the poorest of the poor."

The report revealed that Rs. 31,585 crores worth of wheat and rice meant for the poor had been siphoned off from the public distribution system and delivered into the black market. Of course, this only confirmed with actual, official figures what poor people have been alleging for a long time.

On 17 and 18 October respectively, the TOI and The Hindu carried small reports on an apparently local issue that clearly called for more scrutiny. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (the new municipal authority for Greater Bangalore) has been collecting a "beggars' cess," amounting to three per cent of the annual tax on property, ostensibly for the "rehabilitation and maintenance of beggars."

According to the report, as on 31 March 2007, the collection amounted to Rs. 31 crores. Yet from April to October 2007 only eight crores had been disbursed. Where are the rest of the funds, and what is being done with even the amount (a little less than a quarter of the total) that has been handed over to the Central Beggar Relief Committee?

The priorities of the media were also evident in the coverage given to labour issues during this period. On 15 October, while The Hindu carried a fairly detailed report, along with a photograph, on a rally by women workers in the garment industry demanding higher wages, the TOI's single column report was just nine lines long. Two days later the paper published a detailed story headlined "Garment units lay off workers," revealing that 15,000 people in Tirupur and nearly 30,000 people - mainly women - in Bangalore had already lost jobs and that lay-offs were expected to go up to one lakh if the negative trends in the industry persisted.

The story was entirely based on interviews with executive director level managers and one labour leader; none of the affected workers were tapped for their experiences or views.

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Source: India Together

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